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up all the sleepers with numerous blows on his horn. Everyone recognizes the unique, ghastly sound of the fire horn. Everyone who is able to jump up jumps up, throws some clothes on, rubs his eyes, pulls himself together, takes to his feet, and rushes through the streets, which by now are full of people, to the site of the fire. It is to be found on the main street and is one of the most important buildings in the community. The fire is spreading wildly. It is as though it had a hundred slippery, volatile arms reaching out in all directions. The fire department has not yet arrived. Fire departments are slow everywhere, but especially in our city. But now it would really be better if it came, the situation is getting scary. This fire, which, like all savage elements, has no rational mind, is acting totally crazy. Why are the human hands to rein it in not yet near? Must people be at their laziest on just such a terrible night as this? There are a lot of people standing on the square. It’s true, I’m there and the teacher is there and everyone in our class. Everyone gawks in amazement.— Now, finally, the firemen, looking half asleep, arrive and start performing their duties. These consist for the time being of running back and forth and shouting back and forth in a totally useless way. Why all that screaming? A firm command and silent obedience—that would really be much better. The fire has turned into a raging fire. Why did they have to give it enough time to become a raging fire? It devours, it tears, it hisses, it rages, it is like a glowing red-colored drunkard smashing and destroying everything it can get its hands on. The house is ruined in any case. All the beautiful valuable things lying piled up inside it burn: just as long as no people perish. But it almost looks like the most terrible thing has come to pass. A girl’s voice cries out from the smoke and fiery blaze. You poor girl! Her mother, down in the street, faints. A traveling salesman catches her. Oh, if only I were big and strong! How I’d like to defy the flames and leap as a heroic savior to the aid of the girl! Are there no heroes anywhere in sight? Now would be the chance to reveal what a brave and courageous person you are. But wait, what’s that? A thin young man in shabby clothing has already mounted the rungs of a tall ladder and is climbing ever higher, into the smoke, into the blaze, now he’s terrifyingly visible again for a moment and now he disappears again and then he turns—oh, the sight!—with the girl in one arm and he comes back down the ladder carefully holding on with the other arm and he gives the mother, who has meanwhile recovered somewhat, back her daughter, who is practically smothered with hugs and kisses. What a moment! Oh, if only I could have been that good brave man! Oh, to be such a man, to become such a man! The house burns down to the ground. On the street, mother and daughter hold each other in their arms, and the man who saved her has vanished without a trace.The authorized biography of Ministry mastermind Al Jourgensen was released on July 9 and the book features perhaps the most insane rockstar stories ever compiled. Jourgensen is in the same league as Ozzy Osbourne when it comes to wild experiences, and during our recent chat with Tool / Volto! drummer Danny Carey, we asked the percussionist to verify one of our personal favorite tales from the book.
Danny Carey shared a ton of details on his new band Volto! along with when fans can expect a new Tool album during our exclusive interview with the drumming master. When we brought up the Jourgensen story to Carey, not only did the drummer get a huge kick out of it, but he offered his own insane experience with the Ministry leader involving a drink, a chain of straws and the pierced naughty parts of a male associate.
I'm reading Ministry mastermind Al Jourgensen's new biography and in the book there are a lot of crazy stories. There's one he tells where before Tool became well-known, some members were outside his bus going, "That Ministry set was amazing!" and as a thank you he tossed a bottle of Bushmills out to them, but it ended up being a bottle he laced with LSD.
[Danny laughs]
So, he accidentally got someone to trip their balls off. Later, when Tool were starting to get big, Al said that he was delivered a bunch of LSD from the band, but was told that the acid wasn't very good. So he decides to take a ton of hits and it turned out to be some of the most potent stuff he ever had, so he was basically flying through space because of the prank. Is that anything that you were a part of or that you recall?
God, that's funny, man. That's like '91 or '92, probably. I think maybe that was Paul, our old bass player. I know it wasn't Adam and I know it wasn't Maynard and I don't remember it. Maybe it was me, that's why I don't remember. [Laughs] That does sound familiar to me, man. I think I remember Paul thinking about it as a payback or something. [Laughs] That does kind of ring a bell. That's a lot of water under the bridge.
My most memorable thing about being backstage with those guys [Ministry]; I think we were sitting at a bar the first time I saw Al. He had a straw running through someone's d--k [Prince Albert piercing]. He was taking a drink out of the straw as it was going through this other guy's d--k while he was kneeling on the bar. I was like, "What the f--- is this guy doing? It was quite a spectacle." [Laughs]
Everyone just has a great Al Jourgensen story, don't they?
Yeah, pretty amazing. [Laughs]Buy Photo The Three Moons Festival begins with a round dance, a dance traditionally performed when different tribes come together, where everyone shakes hands and creates a space of unity and peace. (Photo: Freddie Herpin, Daily World)Buy Photo
Dressed in the traditional beaded and tassled Native American regalia, dozens of members of local tribes filled the Wilbert Guillory Memorial Farmer’s Market in Opelousas in celebration of the Attakapas Opelousas Prairie Tribe and their shared culture together.
The smell of burning sage and the low beating of drums helped set the mood for the Third Annual Three Moons Festival, where tribe members from all over the country gathered, according to the Attakapas Opelousas Prairie Tribe Chief Nolan Gobert.
Festivals such as the annual Three Moons Festival help bring people closer together as friends and is an opportunity to dress in traditional regalia from people’s own tribe, as well as dance tribal dances, said Harvey Whiteford, also known as Many Night Man, a visitor from the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Montana.
"It's really important because without that (the Native American culture) would go away,” said Whiteford. “This is how we pass on our culture. It's how we pass on our traditions to our children and our grandchildren."
Whiteford’s wife is a member of the Attakapas Opelousas Prairie Tribe, which can be traced to the 1700s and is currently more than 2,500 members strong.
Although the Attakapas used to call themselves the Ishak, meaning “the people,” the Attakapan name comes from the Choctaw Indian language for “man eater,” referring to the cannibalistic ritual practices adopted by the tribe after the Spanish began settling in North America in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The tribe welcomed two new members on Saturday as Gobert’s great-granddaughter received her Attakapas name “Prairie Dawn” and Joan Guillory Williams, 70, was adopted into the tribe.
Buy Photo Joan Guillory Williams, 70, was adopted into the Attakapas tribe during the event. Williams said she had always been interested in the Native American culture and after meeting the chief and his wife at a Native American gathering at the Vermilionville Living History and Folk Life Park, she traced her family lineage to sharing an ancestor with the chief of the tribe. (Photo: F. Herpin/Daily World)
Williams said she had always been interested in the Native American culture and after meeting the chief and his wife at a Native American gathering at the Vermilionville Living History and Folk Life Park, she traced her family lineage to sharing an ancestor with the chief of the tribe.
“Today I receive my Attakapas name,” Williams said dressed in baby blue and gold regalia that was designed by the chief’s wife, Shadow Dancer. “I’ve been excited all week.”
"If we don't have gatherings, the culture is gonna disappear,” said Whiteford. “Then we won't be Indians anymore, we'll just be regular people. And we want to be Indians all our days."
Buy Photo A ceremonial dance begins the festivities of the third annual Attakapas Opelousas Prairie Tribe Festival held Saturday at the Farmers Market in Opelousas. See more photos at dailyworld.com and on Facebook. (Photo: Freddie Herpin, Daily World)
Read or Share this story: https://www.dailyworld.com/story/news/2016/07/30/local-festival-helps-keep-native-american-tradition-alive-opelousas/87782852/In 2014, the US Supreme Court dealt a major blow to software patents. In their 9-0 ruling in Alice Corp v. CLS Bank, the justices made it clear that just adding fancy-sounding computer language to otherwise ordinary aspects of business and technology isn't enough to deserve a patent.
Since then, district court judges have invalidated hundreds of patents under Section 101 of the US patent laws, finding they're nothing more than abstract ideas that didn't deserve a patent in the first place. The great majority of software patents were unable to pass the basic test outlined by the Supreme Court. At the beginning of 2016, the nation's top patent court had heard dozens of appeals on computer-related patents that were challenged under the Alice precedent. DDR Holdings v. Hotels.com was the only case in which a Federal Circuit panel ruled in favor of a software patent-holder. The Alice ruling certainly didn't mean all software patents were dead on arrival—but it was unclear what a software patent would need to survive. Even DDR Holdings left a teeny-tiny target for patent owners to shoot at.
That all changed in 2016. Judges on the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found three more cases in which they believe that software patents were wrongly invalidated. What once looked like a small exception to the rule now looks like three big ones. The results of those cases could portend a coming year that will be friendlier to patent owners than the past few have been. As 2016 winds down, let's take a closer look at the details of these three software patent battles and how patent-holders kept their patents alive through the appeals court.
Enfish LLC v. Microsoft
Decided: May 12, 2016
Panel: Circuit Judges Kimberly Moore, Richard Taranto, Todd Hughes.
In 1993, Enfish Corporation was founded in Pasadena, California, by a former Gemstar executive who wanted to find a better way to track and sort e-mail, files, and other data. By 2000, when Enfish founder Louise Wannier was profiled in the Los Angeles Times, the company had 45 employees and had raised $20 million in capital. But Enfish still wasn't profitable. The "Enfish Find" desktop search tool, and other company products, got positive write-ups in PC World and were downloaded by more than 200,000 users. In the end, though, it wasn't enough. By 2005, Enfish was out of business.
The Enfish patents, though, lived on. By 2012, Wannier had formed Enfish LLC and decided to sue several huge software companies: Microsoft, Inuit, Sage Software, and financial tech heavyweights Fiserv and Jack Henry & Associates. The Enfish lawsuit (PDF) claimed that Microsoft's.NET Framework infringed two patents, numbered 6,151,604 and 6,163,775. Enfish claimed to have built a new type of "self-referential" database, with a priority date stretching back to 1995. The district court judge disagreed, though. He said a table is just a table. Emphasizing terms like "non-contiguous memory" (a ubiquitous method for computer storage) and "indexing" wasn't going to save the Enfish patents.
In his 2014 order, US District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer wrote:
For millennia, humans have used tables to store information. Tables continue to be elementary tools used by everyone from school children to scientists and programmers.... the fact that the patents claim a "logical table" demonstrates abstractness... Humans engaged in this sort of indexing long before this patent.
In May 2016, a Federal Circuit panel reversed Judge Pfaelzer. Software improvements are not "inherently abstract," the judges ruled (PDF). The Bilski and Alice cases were directed at processes "for which computers are merely invoked as a tool." Those cases didn't rule out a patent on a "specific asserted improvement in computer capabilities." The Enfish patent claims were "directed to a specific improvement to the way computers operate, embodied in the self-referential table." The self-referential table "is a specific type of data structure designed to improve the way a computer stores and retrieves memory," and thus deserves a patent.
The panel also shot down Pfaelzer's finding that the Enfish invention was rendered doubly invalid by Microsoft Excel 5.0, a database product that was in public use more than a year earlier than the Enfish patent was filed. With all five of the patent claims now patent-eligible again, the case was sent back to the lower court. Discovery is underway and a trial is scheduled for 2018.
For patent lawyers, the Enfish breakthrough was "like a ray of light at the end of a long dark tunnel," wrote one attorney at Fish & Richardson, the nation's biggest IP law firm, who analyzed the decision in a blog post. "Reaction by the patent bar was swift. Notices of additional authority and requests for reconsideration were submitted to district courts around the country."
McRO v. Bandai Namco Games America
Decided: September 13, 2016
Panel: Circuit Judges Jimmie Reyna, Richard Taranto, Kara Stoll.
For patent system defenders, the next case was clearly a hill to die upon. In its opening Federal Circuit brief, patent-holder McRO Inc., which does business under the name Planet Blue, told the judges that the district court's ruling against it "violates supreme court precedent and threatens all software patents."
Planet Blue was founded in 1988 by Maury Rosenfeld, a computer graphics and visual effects designer who worked for shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation, Max Headroom, and Pee Wee's Playhouse, according to his Federal Circuit brief (PDF). Rosenfeld's firm was hired by several video game companies "to work on animation and lip-synchronization projects." But, at some point, they clearly had a falling out.
Beginning in 2012, Planet Blue sued more than a dozen big video game companies, including Namco Bandai (PDF), Sega, Electronic Arts, Activision, Square Enix, Disney, Sony, Blizzard, and LucasArts. Several of those big players had been Rosenfeld clients before the lawsuits. The complaints said the companies infringed two Rosenfeld patents, US Patents No. 6,307,576 and 6,611,278, which describe a method of lip-synching animated characters. Earlier methods of animating lip synchronization and facial expressions, said Planet Blue lawyers, were too laborious and expensive.
US District Judge George Wu ruled against Planet Blue in September 2014. He acknowledged that Rosenfeld may have been an innovator, but his patents were nonetheless invalid because they claimed an abstract idea. The patents would have preempted any lip synchronization that used a "rules-based morph target approach."
On appeal, the case was immediately seen as one to watch, in part because Rosenfeld was seen as a real innovator in his field. "The patents utilize complex and seemingly specific computer-implemented techniques," wrote Patently-O blogger Prof. Dennis Crouch. "An initial read of the claims in the Planet Blue patents seems to be a far cry from basic method claims."
BSA—aka the Software Alliance, a trade group that includes Microsoft and other big software companies—weighed in on the case by filing an amicus brief (PDF) in favor of Planet Blue. The asserted claims weren't abstract, BSA argued. The district court judge, BSA said, had "imported" questions about obviousness into his analysis when he should have only considered a strict Section 101 analysis about abstraction. In BSA's view, the big swath of patents being thrown out in the post-Alice era should "not include claims directed to technological problems specific to the digital environment."
The battle was joined on the other side, too. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge jointly submitting a brief (PDF) arguing in favor of the video-game defendants. "The claims embody nothing more than the concept of applying numerical rules—that is, equations—to numerical inputs to obtain numerical outputs," wrote Public Knowledge attorney Charles Duan. "Since the law rejects Appellant’s theories of patentability, Appellant resorts to whitewashing its broad claims by extensively discussing the specification and implementing software. This is totally irrelevant," as it is the claims that are important.
When the Federal Circuit found in Planet Blue's favor in September, it was the biggest win yet for software patentees in the post-Alice era. The three-judge panel held that the claims were "limited to rules with specific characteristics." Quoting the specification, they held that "the claimed improvement here is allowing computers to produce 'accurate and realistic lip synchronization and facial expressions in animated characters,' which could previously only have been produced by human animators."
The judges didn't buy the defense argument that there was nothing new in having computer-based rules for animation. "Defendants concede an animator's process was driven by subjective determination rather than specific, limited mathematical rules."
BSA was jubilant about Planet Blue's win. BSA President Victoria Espinel wrote:
The Federal Circuit’s opinion reaffirms that software is worthy of patent protection just as any other field of technology. Software is a major component of today’s greatest innovations, and it is imperative that our patent system continues to encourage innovators in all fields of technology. Today’s Federal Circuit’s decision is a step in the right direction.
McRO v. Namco Bandai is now back in Wu's Los Angeles courtroom, awaiting a scheduling conference for the litigation to go forward.
Amdocs v. Openet Telecom
Decided: November 1, 2016.
Panel: Circuit Judges S. Jay Plager, Pauline Newman, Jimmie Reyna (dissenting).
Israel-based Amdocs went to US courts to sue (PDF) an Irish company, Openet Telecom, in 2010. Amdocs asserted that four patents related to online accounting and billing methods were all derived from the same original application: Nos. 7,631,065; 7,412,510; 6,947,984; and 6,836,797. The patents all describe the same system, which allows network operators to account and bill for internet protocol (IP) traffic. Claim 1 of the '065 patent claims computer code for "receiving... a network accounting record," then correlating the record with other accounting information, then computer code that uses that information to "enhance the first network accounting record."
The district court found that Amdocs' claim wasn't much more than the abstract idea of correlating two networks. The court tossed the patent. And the Federal Circuit majority recognized that, in other cases, "somewhat... similar claims" had been thrown out under § 101—but then the Circuit majority went on to say that, despite that, the patent should have been allowed.
"[T]his claim entails an unconventional technological solution (enhancing data in a distributed fashion) to a technological problem (massive record flows that previously required massive databases)," wrote US Circuit Judge S. Jay Plager. "The components needed were "arguably generic" but had been used in such an "unconventional manner" that they led to "an improvement in computer functionality."
The Amdocs saga isn't back in the lower courts quite yet. Defendant Openet has filed a petition for rehearing by the whole court. However it turns out, these three decisions mean that anyone seeking to enforce a software patent will come into 2017 in a far better position than they were a year ago.
The Federal Circuit is continuing to debate the patent-eligibility of software. The random draw of judges on a Federal Circuit panel is increasingly looking like the most important factor on whether a patent prevails or dies at the appeals court. As Crouch notes in his analysis, two of the three judges that made up the majority in the Amdocs case can be seen as being in the minority of the court as a whole, since they pushed against the Alice patent.
How such a split will be reconciled isn't clear. Crouch points out there may be two or three vacancies on the Federal Circuit during Trump's first term, and the Supreme Court has shown a continued interest in taking up patent cases. But looking back at the key decisions of 2016, anyone wanting to enforce software patents is in a far better position than they were a year ago, thanks to the three decisions above. 2016 may go down in history as the year that saved software patents.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the district court Enfish v. Microsoft opinion was written by US District Judge George Wu. In fact, the Enfish opinion was written by the late US District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer. Judge Pfaelzer passed away in May 2015. Now that the Enfish case is back in district court, it is being overseen by Judge Wu.Of all the hype and advertisement lingo generated by bass fishing tackle, perhaps some of the most misunderstood relates to fluorocarbon line. We're going to take a look at some of the claims, and set the record straight on much of what you hear or read, "Big Indiana Bass" style. That means they'll be lots of science and/or math involved, or actual experiments used to make the points. We wouldn't have it any other way on this site.
INVISIBILITY
To start, let's tackle one of the two worst abused properties of fluorocarbon, that being the claims of "invisible", "nearly invisible" or "virtually invisible". This is widely touted based upon a term called refractive index. You can read about it at the link above, but the numbers you hear thrown about are the following:
Water has a refractive index of 1.3330
fluorocarbon has an index of 1.42
and nylon monofilaments tend to range from 1.53-1.62
All this means is that fluorocarbon's number is closer to that of waters, but it doesn't necessarily translate into any form of "invisibility" because of it, simply because there are so many other variables involved. Back in 2001, Jeff Thomson posted a great piece that refuted scientifically any claims as to whether fluorocarbon line was "invisible". That piece has since disappeared from the Net, but being the science junkie I am, I immediately saved a copy when I first came across it. I've tried to contact Jeff to get permission to use the piece on this site, so far unsuccessfully, so this may or may not stay up depending, as my intent isn't to in any way risk copyright infringement. It has been 5 or 6 years since I've seen Jeff post on any of the message forums, but I've added his presentation to the reports section of this site, just because such nice pieces of fishing related science shouldn't be lost to the world :)
So, to once and for all crush this idea of fluorocarbon invisibility, see Jeff's piece entitled "Mathematical Theory of Fishing Line Visibility" at this link, or in the reports section of the site, lower left sidebar.
STRETCH
Next, we'll look at another of the egregious claims bestowed upon fluorocarbon line by anglers and manufacturers alike, and that is one of less stretch or low stretch. First though, we need to learn a little more about just what stretch is, and to do that means we need to know stress-strain curves. Keep in mind I'm not a materials engineer, but I'll try and do justice to the terminology as best I can while still getting the point across.
Many of you have probably heard the term tensile strength when talking about fishing line. Advertisers frequently reference it when trying to convince you how tough their fishing line is, often in relation to it's breaking strenth. Tensile strength is actually a measurement of ultimate breaking strength (a strain) divided by the cross-sectional area of the line in question. But material testers also use what is termed a tensile test, also commonly called a stress-strain test. Basically, a material has a strain placed upon it and a measure of that material's stretch or elongation relative to its original length for that given strain is documented. When plotted out you end up with what is known as a stress-strain curve like in the above pictures. A typical curve generated for monofilament is on the left, while on the right, a similar type curve representative of what you might see for a thermoplastic such as polyethylene or polycarbonate. You'll notice the differences (forget the specific units for now), and that brings us to another needed explanation.
Stretch actually involves two different components; elasticity and plasticity. Elasticity is typically at the intial loading of the curve and encompasses the ability of a material to immediately return to it's original state (length when referring to stretching a fishing line) upon release of that load or strain. Elasticity is usually a linear relationship whereby as strain increases, % elongation increases proportionately. But many materials after reaching a certain level of strain start to deform to the point of not being able to return to original length once the load or strain is released. That part of the stretch equation is referred to as the plastic phase.
In the thermoplastic curve above, that is represented by the curve flattening out across the graph after the initial peak. At this point, a small increase in strain creates a disproportionate increase in elongation. With brittle materials, little or no plastic deformation occurs and the material fractures near the end of the linear-elastic portion of the curve. But with various thermoplastics, there is a gradual transition from elastic to plastic behavior, and the exact point at which plastic deformation begins to occur is hard to determine.
All that brings us around to what is starting to finally be disseminated to the angling public, and that is that fluorocarbon has as much total stretch as a percentage of starting length (elongation) as monofilament when tested off the shelf. It's just that after all the stretching is done, fluorocarbon will typically be left at a longer length than original due to permanent deformation, while most monofilaments will be close to their original length as measured prior to testing. And since most bulk spools of fluorocarbon have some type of "trade formulation" to achieve specific attributes such as suppleness or decreased memory, it becomes very difficult to translate the strain curves in "real life".
Rick's test was probably the first I saw that documented this permanent deformation of fluorocarbon after stretching using as little as 3 to 5 pounds of stress, and more recently TackleTour's published study documented this phenomenon at only 3 pounds of stress. Which made me wonder about even lighter amounts of pressure, and whether a simple stretch test could capture this limit where the elastic turns to plastic in fluorocarbon. Could this difference in the stress-strain curves account for the supposed increase in sensitivity people claim fluorocarbon has?
So I carried out my own little stretch test using two different pound tests of line, and comparing fluorocarbon to monofilament. To try and help detect this lower stress curve, I increased the length of my test lines to approximately 15' from the typical shorter lengths used by others. The thought being that during the elastic phase with fluorocarbon, it might stretch less than monofilament as theorized by anglers based upon sensitivity and the like. My results are below.
In the first diagram are the results for the 6 pound test. As you can see the mono stretched further at all load levels, though they were all within 2-4% of each other all the way up to the 14-16% range under the 4 pound load. They probably would have stretched more before breaking, but that wasn't the point of the test. The loads started at just 0.5 pound, but there is no difference in the overall stretch pattern of the two.
In the second diagram was a test between.016" fluorocarbon and.015" monofilament. In this case, the same patterns emerged at all levels again, with the exception of the fluorocarbon stretching slightly more than the mono. The reason for the two fluorocarbon results was due to a slip in the knot at the 4.5 pound load range on the first test. I retied and ran again successfully up to the 5 pound load using the same piece of line that had already been stretched once. The same overall pattern emerged, but it is interesting to note that the second time around the line stretched slightly more initially before being identical at the 2 pound load, and then being a little less elongated after that at the higher levels. Might just be an anomaly, but is interesting none the less.
The final test, which I don't have data to show, was at just a single load of less than 2 ounces (50g) on the two 6 pound lines. The thought was that perhaps only under very light loads would the difference be apparent, but again, the fluoro and the mono stretched almost identical distances (1" over a 120" length).
So the take home message is that fluorocarbon is not low stretch, at least not under typical testing loads and conditions, and appears to be no better than regular monofilament in this category, though there is still the potential for shock loading differences, which isn't exactly'stretch' but more rate of stretch. Also, the differences might only be discernible with very sensitive hi-tech instruments like computerized stress-strain devices. So what are it's positive attributes, its correct claims, and why does it seem to be more sensitive?
So you're probably beginning to wonder what in the heck fluorocarbon is actually good for. I wanted to get the two biggest misconceptions out of the way first, so that we can now focus on the other attributes. So let's jump right into it, taking the easy ones out next.
UV DEGRADATION
One of the weaknesses of nylon monofilament is it's unstability when exposed to sunlight, in particular ultraviolet radiation which is the primary cause of the degradation. Tests show that the loss can be as great as 20% of its strength in the first 100 hours of exposure. After that, mono can lose another 20% over the next 100-200 hours. This degradation is usually in the form of oxidation.
But you haven't changed your line all season and you don't really notice a difference in its strength. There are several reasons for this. One is that 100-300 hours of exposure is a long time, especially with the usage of rod lockers now days on modern bass boats. Additionally, most of the outfits are being fished with throughout the day thereby limiting further exposure. Another is that only the line on the surface of your reels and strung through your guides is directly exposed to the UV and subsequently getting the exposure, and you're constantly cutting off end sections and retying, thereby always getting rid of the old and exposing the new.
Fluorocarbon on the other hand is largely transparent to UV radiation and therefor suffers much lower UV absorption. As such, the material will not be degraded by sunlight. So score one positive for the PVDF.
DENSITY(as relates to sink rate):
Everyone has probably heard the numbers relating to density for the two materials, as well as the claims of faster sinking for fluorocarbon. While this is true, what you rarely read are the actual rates and their subsequent practicality. It is easy to think in terms of faster sinking and relate to worm weights, or jigs, or 1' per second and all that other stuff. In reality, life is much slower. If you take two pieces of line, one nylon monofilament and one fluorocarbon, sink them in a column of water and time their drop rate, what you'll find is that it takes the nylon monofilament about 40 seconds to drop one foot in the water column. This is because monofilament has a density of about 1.1 relative to water at 1.0, not much denser.
Fluorocarbon on the other hand has a density of about 1.78. So how does this translate under the same test conditions? A similar piece of fluorocarbon will make that same 12" journey in about 15 seconds, still 3 times faster than mono but not overly fast in the big scheme of things. If you think of your average cast and retrieve taking somewhere between 30-60 seconds, under its own accord the fluoro will have only had the chance to move 2'-4' down into the water column in that time period.
Now you still have the fact of the lure and any tension caused by that lure to help pull down the line quicker, but you also still end up with a sort of arc down to your bait instead of this really direct, straight line that people invision. So for things like shallow running crankbaits, jerkbaits and spinnerbaits, fluorocarbon would work well. For topwaters, it pretty much sucks as it wants to slowly pull your bait down into the water which is not what you want with a floating topwater. For all other baits like worms, jigs or other things typically fished deep or on the bottom, it probably helps a little.
WATER ABSORPTION (Tensile Strength):
Another potential benefit comes in the form of resistance to water absorption. Depending on the exact makeup of a particular monofilament, it would not be unusual to have between 3-10% absorption of water (by weight) with nylon. That leads to both good properties and bad. On the good side, a nylon mono that absorbs water swells slightly, becomes easier to handle, becomes more limp, makes knot tying easier and will even cast better. On the negative side though is that water absorption weakens the line, increases stretch and decreases strength. So depending on your perspective this might be good or it might be bad.
If you look at the numbers for fluorocarbon though, it is practically impervious to water. Water absorption rates are typically <0.04% for pure fluorocarbon. What this means is that none of its physical properties change after a good soaking. Line strength stays the same, stretch stays the same, but so too does any stiffness or unruliness. Again, a mixed bag depending upon how you look at it.
But this brings up a larger question in my mind that I've never seen anyone address. With monofilaments, line conditioners that you spray onto your reel are pretty popular. Some work by penetrating into the nylon and performing this softening I mentioned via absorption, while others work by attaching themselves to the exterior of the line and giving a slick coating. I've seen many people recommend using these same conditioners on all lines including fluorocarbon like they're some type of magic formula, but I have to wonder if the improvement isn't just a psychological one. You're not instantly changing the physical properties of fluorocarbon by spraying this stuff, so the imperviousness to moisture still exists. Nothing is getting absorbed, so are they really working? Some suggest it acts more like a slick coating instead, so you'll have to try them for yourselves and make that call.
Odds and Ends: A couple other observations I've come across in the research.
Knot strength - Mono wins out here. Tests with just some simple doubled loop knots, lubricated before cinching and applied to dry line show mono to retain as much as 97% of its breaking strain, while fluorocarbon retains about 77%. After soaking the lines and accounting for the previously mentioned absorption by nylons, mono weakens to 83% of original dry, unknotted breaking strain while fluoro maintains its 77% rate. Your mileage may vary depending upon the knot, the fluoro and the care used when tying. Once wetting of nylon is taken into account, the differences aren't quite as wide as some would have you believe.
- Mono wins out here. Tests with just some simple doubled loop knots, lubricated before cinching and applied to dry line show mono to retain as much as 97% of its breaking strain, while fluorocarbon retains about 77%. After soaking the lines and accounting for the previously mentioned absorption by nylons, mono weakens to 83% of original dry, unknotted breaking strain while fluoro maintains its 77% rate. Your mileage may vary depending upon the knot, the fluoro and the care used when tying. Once wetting of nylon is taken into account, the differences aren't quite as wide as some would have you believe. Weight on Spool - If you weigh an empty spool from your reel, and then load that spool to capacity with similar diameter lines and then reweigh, you'll find that a spool of fluorocarbon weighs about 23% more than a spool of mono (but just 4-5 grams total weight). If you subtract the spool weight and weigh only the line, that increase becomes 75%. What this typically translates to is decreased casting distance. If you actually throw braids into the mix, they come out best...and they tend to cast further as expected. This is largely due to the density difference and ties in with the effort required to start the spool rotating as well as with keeping that heavier line "up in the air" during the cast.
- If you weigh an empty spool from your reel, and then load that spool to capacity with similar diameter lines and then reweigh, you'll find that a spool of fluorocarbon weighs about 23% more than a spool of mono (but just 4-5 grams total weight). If you subtract the spool weight and weigh only the |
Blender magazine's list of the "50 Worst Songs Ever".[7]
Video [ edit ]
The video starred the actress Holly Lynch. The video was directed by Jim Gable, and edited by Scott C. Wilson.
Appearances in the media [ edit ]
In 2006, the song was used in an episode of U.S. version of The Office, entitled "A Benihana Christmas". Characters Michael Scott and Andy Bernard sing the song as a karaoke duet. Mayer agreed to let the show use the song, in exchange for a Dundie,[8] which was for "Tallest Music Dude".
In the episode of Family Guy titled "Stew-Roids", Stewie sings a song in which he pronounces the word "body" like "bah-dy", which he then explains "That's how John Mayer would say it"; a reference to the pronunciation of the word in "Your Body Is a Wonderland".
Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer performed a rhumba to the song on Season 7 of Dancing with the Stars.
Chart performance [ edit ]
Certifications [ edit ]
Region Certification Certified units/Sales Australia (ARIA)[18] Gold 35,000^ Denmark (IFPI Denmark)[19] Gold 4,000^ United States (RIAA)[20] Platinum 1,000,000^ *sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification aloneZhou Qiang, chief justice of the country’s Supreme Court, at the third plenary meeting of the National People's Congress in Beijing last year. Zhou recently told provincial judges to resist “erroneous” Western ideals of judicial independence, constitutional democracy and the separation of powers. (China Daily via Reuters)
For 500 days, Li Chunfu, once a lively and tough human rights lawyer, was kept in secret detention by China’s Communist Party. When he was finally released on Jan. 12, his wife was so shocked she could hardly believe her eyes.
Her 44-year-old husband was a thin, pale and sick man, Bi Liping said, a fearful and paranoid person who seemed to have been broken by the system.
A Beijing hospital soon gave him a tentative diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Li was one of 300 lawyers and advocates who were rounded up in a crackdown in July 2015. Most were soon released, but two have been sentenced and four remain in detention.
In statements to the China Change website, relatives and fellow lawyers said Li had been severely tortured and drugged during detention.
But his story is not the only one to have cast a shadow over the rule of law in China this month.
In a remarkable speech two days after Li’s release, the chief justice of the country’s Supreme Court told provincial judges to resist “erroneous” Western ideals of judicial independence, constitutional democracy and the separation of powers.
“One needs to have a clear-cut stand and dare to show the sword against them, to struggle against any erroneous words and actions that deny the leadership of the Communist Party, or slander the rule of law and the judicial system of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” Zhou Qiang said.
While the idea that the Communist Party is in firm control of the legal system is hardly new, to see the idea of judicial independence so explicitly condemned by the country’s top judge, a man once seen as a reformer keen on limiting officials’ power over local courts, came as a shock to many people.
Two open letters expressing outrage at Zhou’s remarks are circulating, one signed by 23 lawyers and another signed by 155 leading liberal intellectuals.
“In the past few years, the legal community has been working hard toward establishing an independent judicial system,” said Lin Liguo, a former lawyer based in Shanghai who wrote the lawyers’ letter.
Lin said Zhou’s remarks had burst reformers’ optimism. “What Zhou said is basically that we don’t need judicial independence at all,” he said. “That’s why people are so upset.”
[China’s Communist leaders promise legal reforms — under party authority]
At a key meeting in October 2014, the party’s top leaders promised to give judges more independence from interference by local officials, and President Xi Jinping has often pledged to strengthen the rule of law — while at the same time underlining that the Communist Party remains firmly in control and effectively above the law.
Yet such was the controversy stirred by Zhou’s remarks that the Supreme Court issued five separate social media posts last week, each hundreds of words long, explaining and amplifying his remarks. At first, they attracted hundreds of comments from ordinary people, until censors shut down the comment function.
In a blog post, Jerome Cohen, an expert in Chinese law at New York University School of Law, called it “the most enormous ideological setback for decades of halting, uneven progress toward the creation of a professional, impartial judiciary.”
He said there was “enormous dissatisfaction among many judges at the restrictive, anti-Western legal values being imposed by President Xi Jinping, with many younger officials leaving the courts and procuracy for work in law firms, business and teaching.”
Eva Pils, an expert in transnational law at King’s College London, said Zhou’s speech came as a “real shock” to people in the legal system who had been educated to believe that China was striving for better rule of law and who found it unacceptable that their country was “departing so completely and so rapidly from the reform path.”
It is, in other words, one more nail in the coffin of the idea that China’s legal and political system would ultimately move in a more liberal direction, experts said.
“I think that lots of people are still in denial about this departure from the reform path, and the turn to rule by fear, and that they are unwilling to consider the full implications of the new rhetoric,” Pils said.
Experts said Zhou may have come under pressure to publicly declare his loyalty to the party, especially as a team from the Communist Party’s anti-corruption arm had been reportedly carrying out an inspection of the Supreme Court since mid-November. Ensuring his appointment was renewed at a major party Congress in October may have played a part, they said.
But Zhou’s words still came across as particularly strident, as he insisted on the importance of “ideological work” and recommended judges “severely strike” at people who use the Internet to endanger national security — code for undermining the Communist Party.
He also recommended judges protect the images of leaders, heroes and historical figures, “to resolutely safeguard the glorious history of the Party and the People’s Army.”
Zhou’s warning echoes Xi’s campaign against “historical nihilism” — questioning the Communist Party’s heroic account of its own history. In the past few weeks alone, a Chinese professor and a government official were both sacked, and a TV producer was suspended, for criticizing Mao Zedong, who is officially revered as the founder of modern China even though he presided over the deaths of tens of millions of people in a famine during the Great Leap Forward and unimaginable cruelty during the Cultural Revolution.
The case of the lawyer Li has underlined what happens to people who dare to challenge the party.
Li grew up poor in China’s central Henan province. He dropped out of school at 14 to work in factories but spent six grueling years studying in his spare time to follow in his brother’s footsteps and become a lawyer.
Maya Wang at Human Rights Watch said it was unclear what he was supposed to have done wrong — perhaps demonstrating outside a police bureau in Heilongjiang in 2014 to demand access to his client, perhaps being the brother of Li Heping, a well-known civil rights lawyer who was also detained in July 2015, or perhaps simply being tarred as an agent of a hostile foreign government.
But what broke him is no mystery, she said in a statement, citing how suspects are frequently beaten, hung by their wrists and deprived of sleep, as well as subjected to indefinite isolation and threats to their families.
Chen Jiangang, also a lawyer, said Li had lost about 30 pounds in detention. He described his close friend’s mental health as worrying.
“He is constantly in doubt and fear after his release,” Chen said. “He is always fearful of police showing up to take him away. He is always fearful of leaving the house. Even when he is surrounded by family and friends, he still keeps asking, ‘Are they coming to get me?’ ”
Human Rights Watch’s Wang said China will have “zero credibility on rule of law” as long as individuals are tortured with impunity. “Li will likely never be the same after this horrific experience — and neither should Beijing,” she said.
Luna Lin and Congcong Zhang contributed to this report.
Read more:
China sentences activist lawyer to 12 years as relentless crackdown continues
A young man died in police custody, and middle-class Chinese are outraged
China’s president takes campaign for ideological purity into universities, schools
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign newsTheir findings demonstrate that previous claims showing the preservation of keratin protein in dinosaur fossils are likely to be false.
Similarly, widely publicised claims of dinosaur blood in fossil bones were shown to likely represent an artefact of degraded organic matter rather than actual blood cells.
The researchers undertook experimental treatments that either used microbes to decay tissues or subjected tissues to intense heat and pressure — a process known as maturation — in order to mimic the conditions a fossil experiences deep underground.
Evan Saitta from the University of Bristol’s School of Earth Science, led the research which has been published in the journal Palaios.
He said: “Decay and mild maturation resulted in some intriguing textural differences in degradation patterns based on the type of keratin such as curling versus crimping of filaments when matured.
“These results may show promise for identifying relatively recent archaeological keratin remains but when maturation conditions are increased to simulate conditions present during burial and fossilisation, the keratin degrades into a foul-smelling, water-soluble fluid that can dissolve or leach away from the fossil.”
In another experiment the vacuum conditions of an electron microscope appear to have produced folds, pits and blebs in a sample of degraded turkey skin, similar to those features previously suggested to represent dinosaur blood cells.
The range of sizes and shapes of these experimental and fossil structures is evidence that they form through a non-biological process, as opposed to a biological process like the formation of cells.
Thus, the purported blood cells in these dinosaur bones are likely to be degraded organics, most likely from microbes that invaded the cavities in the bone rather than exceptionally preserved, easily-degradable blood cells.
Saitta added: “We’ve shown that different keratin types show intriguing differences in degradation patterns that might help identify keratinous remains in archaeological material.
“However, when the processes of fossilisation and burial over deep time are simulated, keratin protein fully degrades into a fluid that can be lost from fossils, meaning little utility for studying paleontological remains despite contrary claims.”
Reference:
Jakob Vinther et al. Experimental taphonomy of keratin: A structural analysis of early taphonomic changes. Palaios, October 2017 DOI: 10.2110/palo.2017.051
Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Bristol.FUKUOKA, Japan — In Japan, just a few clicks separate you from one of the world’s most restricted substances.
That substance is ivory, the trade in which is almost entirely banned in the United States.
Not so in Japan. Though the country is party to the same treaty that has outlawed commercial imports and exports of ivory throughout most of the world for the past 26 years, here dead elephant tusk is arguably easier to buy than ever.
Head to Japan’s widely used Yahoo Auctions site, for instance, and you’ll find ivory bangles and necklaces listed at starting prices of just 1 yen — less than 1 US cent. Other pieces of jewelry can be bought outright for a little under $9. And there are takers: According to an estimate by UK-based conservationists, more than 12 metric tons of ivory were sold on Yahoo Auctions Japan from 2012-14.
Those numbers are proving embarrassing for Yahoo’s American bosses, who — for the record — do not accept ads for ivory on their US site. Wildlife activists recently targeted the company with an online petition that calls for ivory products to be banned from its Japanese marketplace.
The campaign has collected more than 1.2 million signatures and obliged Yahoo’s American operation to clarify that it does not own Yahoo Japan and cannot decide its policies. (As a minority shareholder, though, Yahoo says it has asked the Japanese venture to “reexamine” its stance on ivory.)
An ivory carving for sale on Yahoo Auctions Japan. At the time of writing, it had 31 bids.
Yahoo Japan isn’t the only site facilitating the ivory trade. A search for “real ivory” on Rakuten Ichiba — Japan’s biggest e-commerce site — likewise returns thousands of results, from "hanko" (the personal stamps used to "sign" documents in Japan) to jewelry, chopsticks, sculptures, pipes and decorative toggles. In 2014 the Environmental Investigative Agency, a British-American conservation NGO, named Rakuten the largest online trader in ivory in the world.
Selling ivory online doesn’t necessarily break any laws. In Japan, as in many US states, it remains legal to sell African elephant ivory that you can prove was imported before a ban on the international ivory trade came into effect in January 1990.
Japan also has an extra stash of “legal” ivory after regulators twice allowed it to buy up stockpiles of African ivory post-ban, in exchange for guarantees that it wouldn’t be re-exported. More than 100 metric tons of ivory have entered the country in this way since 1990.
More from GlobalPost: Time to ban ivory for good?
Legal and illegal ivory can look awfully similar, however, which is why several of the biggest online shopping sites in the US — including Yahoo, Amazon, Google and eBay — have opted to ban the advertising and sale of ivory altogether.
Their Japanese equivalents haven’t taken the same precaution. Nor do they seem to have an effective system for verifying that ivory sales meet the legal requirements. In a 2014 survey of Rakuten, Yahoo Auctions and other websites found using the Yahoo Japan search engine, wildlife trade monitors Traffic found more than 50 businesses selling ivory without having notified the relevant authorities, a mandatory condition of selling ivory in Japan.
Other traders were either ignoring or unaware of restrictions on exporting ivory from Japan, which is illegal without a government permit. According to Traffic, more than 10 percent of sellers on Rakuten and Yahoo Auctions explicitly offered to ship ivory items abroad.
An ivory netsuke (toggle) for sale on Rakuten.
Since then, the Japanese government has asked those two websites and others to better monitor online sales of ivory and ensure that they comply with national regulations. But those regulations are easy to flout, claims the Environmental Investigative Agency.
Its undercover investigation of the ivory trade in Japan, conducted last summer, found that 30 out of 37 sellers it approached offered to break laws restricting the sale of whole elephant tusks. The EIA states that Japanese authorities allowed over 5,500 tusks to be registered as legal — and therefore sellable — between 2011 and 2014 without requiring proper proof of where they came from, as mandated under international law.
“Japan is awash with ivory of dubious origin,” according to the EIA, which says that the country’s thriving market helps fuel the poaching that is decimating Africa’s elephant populations.
In other words, the problem doesn’t begin or end with websites selling ivory online. If conservationists’ reports are to be believed, the ease with which ivory can be traded over the internet is one of several loopholes in Japan’s policy — which is not to say, of course, that it wouldn't be better closed.
Will this latest petition do anything to narrow it? Previous attempts by foreign conservationists to dissuade Japan from consuming cute animals have typically met with defiance from Japanese authorities. However, disapproval from overseas shoppers is said to have been a factor in Rakuten’s decision to stop allowing sales of whale and dolphin meat in 2014.
Yahoo Japan has so far said only that it is “strengthening its policies” on ivory, promising to monitor sales 24 hours a day and cancel any found to be illegal. Beyond that, a spokeswoman told the Associated Press, “You can't say there's absolutely no intention to change.”
More from GlobalPost: Islamic clerics declare fatwa on poachers in Indonesia and MalaysiaThe Fix breaks down the 10 Republicans who have been most vocally opposed to Trump's nomination. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)
Republicans inexorably opposed to Donald Trump are on a roll. Trump’s racist comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel, followed by his reaction to the Orlando massacre and self-absorbed response to Brexit, are not sitting well with voters. While he is struggling to keep Republicans in line, Hillary Clinton, faults and all, is pulling together Democrats while appearing mature on national security. Trump’s fundraising numbers and lack of professional staff give the appearance that he is not trying all that hard — or is overwhelmed with the requirements of a general election. Polls showing him trailing Clinton in national and battlefield states complete the picture: Keep Trump and get crushed in November, or find someone else.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll suggests that more Republicans are trending toward the Dump Trump effort:
Just 45 percent of Republican voters say they are satisfied with Donald Trump as their party’s presumptive presidential nominee, while 52 percent say they would have preferred someone else.... Indeed, 55 percent of all registered voters in the poll said that what they had seen, read and heard about Trump over the last couple of weeks had given them a less favorable view of the real-estate mogul, while 20 percent had a more favorable view.
Tim Miller, former spokesman for the anti-Trump Our Principals PAC, observes, “Its clear the ‘will of the people’ is anti-Trump. The party still has 3 weeks to do the right thing, dump Donald, and put in place a conservative who can win.”
Delegates to the Republican presidential convention can be assured of several things. First, if they do nothing but rubber-stamp the delegate totals, they are sealing the fate of the GOP; replacing Trump opens up the potential to win the White House. Second, Trump is not unifying the party. To the contrary: The longer that voters, including Republicans, see him, the less they like him. After winning only 44 percent of primary voters — a lower share than in past GOP primaries — he cannot rightly claim a “mandate” from a majority of Republicans. Finally, the Free the Delegates movement is at least as well organized as Trump:
The grassroots movement aimed at ousting Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention is planning for a convention floor fight, hiring staff, establishing a command center in Cleveland and rolling out ads in key states over the next week.... Former Bogota, New Jersey, Mayor Steve Lonegan, a Ted Cruz supporter and spokesman for a super PAC backing the effort, said he plans to hire East, West and Central regional field directors to begin building a “comprehensive list of every single delegate” to get to know their interests and issues. The group is also planning to hire a full-time executive director, because the current staff is working on a volunteer basis, Lonegan said. An advance team is heading to Cleveland this week to build a command center outside the convention center.
In other words, they could pull off a revolt, although it is certainly an uphill fight.
Republican candidates — both 2016 contenders and the big-name Republicans who could step up to rescue the party — need to do their part. That entails two moves.
First, they should openly support a “conscience” clause provision and/or requirement that Trump release his tax returns, pony up enough money to ensure a well-funded campaign and immediately separate himself from his business ventures. If he won’t release his taxes, step away from business and use his billions — that’s what he says he is worth — to pay for his race, delegates should conclude that Trump is not trying to win. If he values his business over the party and country, the delegates should accommodate him and allow him to return to his business full time.
“It is now obvious that Donald Trump would be as much an electoral disaster as he already is a moral disaster, with his bigotry, dodgy business record as a con man, and sheer viciousness,” argues veteran conservative columnist and anti-Trump activist Quin Hillyer. “The time has come for the RNC to stop its disgusting strong-arm tactics on Trump’s behalf and instead accede to a simple ‘conscience clause’ allowing delegates at the convention to abstain rather than vote for Trump, if they have a personal, moral objection to his candidacy.”
Second, those who would in the event of a revolt agree to be considered for the nomination should say so. They surely would accept the nomination if offered; they just don’t want to say so. That has been fine until now, but before the convention is gaveled to order, they should assure the delegates that the party will have a qualified candidate. Better yet, a couple of them (Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich?) should signal they’d run as a team, thereby reducing the uncertainty and conflict at the convention.
Demand is there for an alternative to Trump. Delegates have both the power and responsibility to act as stewards of the party. If they refuse to do so and Trump goes on to a devastating defeat, they will be among those held accountable. If, however, they act based on both conscience and steely-eyed political judgment, they should be applauded — and assisted. Leading anti-Trump advocate Bill Kristol remarks, “[Trump] continues to be the favorite of a minority of Republican voters. All we need is for Republican leaders to show some courage and cut the thread by which his nomination hangs.”
Republicans who want to win in November should join the #NeverTrump movement or wave goodbye to the White House — and maybe the GOP itself.In a lengthy, somewhat intimate retrospective piece posted today to Samsung Tomorrow, the electronics giant revisits the launch of the Galaxy SIII. Readers likely remember a launch that almost came off without a hitch, but which was tarnished by a "shortage" of Pebble Blue colored units. Following the international delay, Samsung said there'd be no delay for the Pebble Blue SIII's in the States, and all seemed to be well. Still, the manufacturer was awfully quiet about the real reason behind the initial delay.
For customers and techies interested in the real story, Samsung's post tells all. According to Samsung, the pebble blue SIII's were packed and ready to go, but a "tough decision" was made to stop shipment, because "the SIII's fundamental design concept had not been perfectly reproduced on the battery cover, creating an aesthetic that was inconsistent with the planned product." In other words, something in manufacturing the blue SIII had caused uneven, unreliable finish.
Image: Mobile Bulgaria
The post goes on to explain the flurry of stress and confusion that swept over the company's various departments. It's easy to see why delaying such a huge swath of product could cause worry – the SIII's launch was built around the concept of a single device launching in as many markets as possible all at once. Any delay would essentially kill the entire effort.
According to Samsung, however, the confusion didn't last long, and those responsible for the product's design and planning resolved to stick to the pebble blue idea, introducing vapor deposition and a "Nano-Ceramic Coating Technique" to the manufacturing process, which enhanced the top coating, protecting the phone's color and finish.
Samsung's retrospective at times gets downright poetic, even explaining the nebulous emotional impetus behind the pebble blue concept:
Pebble Blue was the color chosen to represent GALAXY S III, inspired by the ideals of human dreams pursuing nature. Like pebbles along a riverbed glistening in an array of colors reflecting variations in sunlight, GALAXY S III portrays every shade of blue, and was dubbed “Pebble Blue.”
Samsung promises that, as much information as this post conveys, it is only part one. Yes, Samsung evidently has even more to say about keeping its promise to customers. For the full post, just hit the link below.
Source: Samsung TomorrowMuma sheds light on new Gale Force roster
After a week of Twitter teasing that begin with the news that wgb would be standing in for Immortals for the Overwatch Open, finally Gale Force eSports have confirmed their new Overwatch roster. Combining players and partnerships from the pieces of Colorado Clutch, 20bOink… and whaz, the team looks more than capable of competing for a spot on in the North American top ten.
A plan was hatched by team captain wgb and the then prospective sponsor, Gale Force eSports, to build a team after the collapse of Colorado Clutch was confirmed in early September.
Enlisting the services of whaz, the former No Fast Guns player and generally ruthless gun for hire, the three former Clutchers - wgb, Calvin and coach Dart - set about quickly assembling a roster around their star quality DPSes. The other half of the team has come in a package deal from 20bOink, with bl4nk, Muma and D1sasta all impressing the selectors.
Gale Force eSports has a proven track record of nurturing young teams. Their last foray in Overwatch ended when they parted ways with their current compLexity roster after a two month stint in which they took 2nd at the Agents Rising LAN and rose to crack North America's top five.
Keen to hear more, I hopped on Discord with former ESEA Invite TF2 champion turned Overwatch professional, Austin "Muma" Wilmot, to discuss how the team had come about and what future may hold in store. Here's how it went down:
Tell us a bit about your recent Overwatch history, leading in to how you came to be involved in this new Gale Force project?
"My first real team I joined was with indust. He approached me asking me to try to dps on his team and while on it I bounced between main tank and dps with rr. When indust left to play for LG, rr also stepped down so nmly and I decided to make a new team, 20b0ink. That team featured kapoww, boink, d1sasta, bl4nk and ninjanick. kapoww stepping down to coach and ninjanick leaving for splyce left two big holes we were never really able to fix despite trying for 2 weeks. We decided we'd start to entertain offers from other potential teams... bl4nk was approached by whaz to tryout for this new team and after scrimming with them once, he convinced them to try out a merge including me and d1sasta. After playing once together, they figured they'd give it another try and we've been playing together since."
How is that you have ended up in the tank spot despite a veteran like wgb being on the roster? Did you experiment with roles at all in the new team?
"The roles we are playing currently have been our roles since day one. After my first tryout, wgb asked for my POV and said that the potential was there and that he's confident that I'd be a better tank while he'd also be able to learn and adapt to support just as quickly."
What has the approach to practise been like up to this point? How much are you guys scrimming and how much did wgb going to Atlanta impact that? What is the intended commitment level with this new roster? Are you all fulltime Overwatch players now?
"wgb, calvin and dart are in some suboptimal situations so scrimming has been less than what we plan to do. We've been playing for about 6 hours a day, 5 days a week but plan to move to 8. wgb going to Atlanta stopped scrims entirely but we decided as a team it would be a good opportunity for both wgb and Gale Force. Everybody on this roster is going to be full time. bl4nk has already put in his 2 weeks and will be free in a few days."
What are your plans with the GFe organisation? It appeared that their last team almost became too successful for them to support - are you hoping to build something more sustainable? What kind of support did your team require from the org and what are they expecting from you?
"The plan is to put in the time and effort in the hopes of becoming a top team in the scene while representing GFe. GFe has been very accommodating so far and are doing what they can to help us achieve that. They are providing monetary and potentially housing support which definitely are huge in terms of hoping to go far. I would say having some financial backing is definitely great from an org as it justifies the amount of time you can invest into the game. I know they don't expect us to be at the top instantly, but they do expect us to put in the time and grind in the hopes that we can do well in representing them in events."
Muma interviewed by eXtine at Insomnia 58's TF2 world championships. (Credit: teamfortress.tv)
What are your immediate team goals? MSI Qualifiers? When can we hope to see GFe in competition?
"As a new team, we're abstaining from partaking in events for a little bit to grind out and become a stronger team first. We'd like a little bit of time to scrim with each other before representing ourselves in a serious tournament. I'm sure we'll start competing within a few weeks... a week or two would be closer than a few weeks probably"
Who have you practise partners been? Are the top teams give you any games yet? What do you think of the current state of NA OW post-Overwatch Open?
"We've been scrimming with compLexity pretty frequently but that's about it in terms of top top teams. EnVyUs asked us to scrim today but we weren't going to cancel on compLexity. I think the coming roster shakeups should be really exciting to see unfold considering top level Overwatch is already really back and forth."
How are you enjoying the current tank heavy meta? Has it presented any particular challenges to this roster? How well is your team equipped to deal with ongoing meta shifts?
"I don't enjoy the current meta at all. Reaper is almost a must pick and there is nothing more infuriating than your team being wiped by an Ana boosted Reaper ult. The only challenges our roster has faced during this time is trying to decide rather whaz or Calvin are going to be our Reaper player."
Starting out as a professional player you are obviously invested in the success of Overwatch as an esport, but what hurdles do you see for the future of the game?
"Looking at the longevity of other Blizzard games, I definitely see Overwatch going far, especially considering the amount of advertising and work they've already put into it. I think the biggest hurdle Overwatch will face is making the game more spectator friendly. I'm not entirely sure how to go about this but honestly at times, the game is just a pain to watch."
Thanks for taking the time chat. We'll be watching your progress closely on over.gg - good luck!
"No problem. We hope to impress."
The new Gale Force eSports roster is:Already Under Pressure, Ivanka Trump's Brand Faces A New Challenge
Enlarge this image toggle caption Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images
When a Bangladeshi factory building collapsed in 2013, killing more than 1,100 people, big-name retailers from Europe and North America suddenly found themselves facing a crisis that threatened their carefully tended public images.
It was a problem not unlike that faced by Ivanka Trump this week, when a trio of activists disappeared while investigating working conditions at a Chinese factory where her company manufactures shoes.
Both incidents underscore the fact that in a global economy, problems that companies create in far-off places have a tendency to find their way back home.
Enlarge this image toggle caption AP AP
The activists who disappeared worked for China Labor Watch, a nongovernmental organization that has been monitoring labor conditions in the country for years. Hua Haifeng was arrested by the Chinese government; no word has been received about the fate of the others, but the head of the organization says he assumes they also are being held by security officials.
Trump's brand is only one of the retailers that sell products made in the plant, but her unique position as the daughter of the U.S. president has raised questions about the motivations of Chinese officials.
The disappearances also add to the pressure on Trump's brand, which has been subject to a lengthy consumer boycott. Several major retailers, including Nordstrom, have dropped her products from their shelves.
Embarrassing revelations about working conditions in factories in the developing world are nothing new, retail consultant Jan Rogers Kniffen notes. Nike, Apple and Walmart have endured shocking headlines about long hours, dangerous environments and abusive situations at their factories in the developing world.
But, Kniffen adds, "we've... never had anybody who was that high-profile and that close to an extraordinarily controversial figure trying to build a brand."
Such scandals have usually blown over pretty quickly, with no discernible impact on the company's sales, Kniffen says. Consumers may not love the idea of sweatshop conditions, but they love cheap products.
But consumer behavior could be changing, in part because social media create a platform to publicize the worst abuses, says Allen Adamson, founder of BrandSimple Consulting.
"There's a growing and large group of consumers that want to vote with their pocketbook or their wallet, and if the company is not behaving in a way that they consider fair or right, they're very quick to switch their purchase behavior," he says.
Not everybody shares that view, Adamson notes, "but it's a growing group — particularly younger, millennial consumers, people who are very passionate about the issues."
Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, says there is no question that scandals over workplace conditions matter to companies.
"The brands certainly believe that it can damage the company's image. That's why they have elaborate social responsibility programs designed to insulate them from reputational damage related to the working conditions in the factories they use," Nova says.
"Unfortunately, brands and retailers have been much better at the public relations aspect of this issue — creating the impression that they're making an effort to address labor rights issues in their supply chain, thus burnishing their own reputation, but making very little in the way of practical changes in wages and conditions in the factories," he says.
After the Bangladeshi disaster, many European retailers signed on to an accord on factory and building safety. Major American companies formed a separate agreement that worker safety advocates criticized as less effective.
Still, the fact that retailers felt compelled to do something in the wake of the tragedy underscores how much is at stake for Ivanka Trump, he says.
"With Ivanka Trump's brand, as with any brand, when consumers hear reports that the products are made in factories with abusive conditions, that hurts the brand," Nova says. "If consumers are reading credible reports that investigators [who are] simply trying to find out what kinds of conditions exist in those factories are being persecuted by the Chinese authorities, that has to hurt the brand."Dick Portillo is ready to slow down a bit after 51 years in the hot dog business and thinks his namesake restaurant chain can continue to thrive in the right hands.
The Portillo Restaurant Group is looking for a potential buyer for the Portillo's chain, which would give the private company a chance to cash in on its success as so-called fast casual restaurants increase in popularity.
It is the right time to look at options for the brand as "the hottest market for fast casual in the history of the restaurant business is right now," President, CEO and Founder Dick Portillo said by phone Thursday.
"I've worked hard all these years and I think it's time to take life easy a little bit, but at the same time, I would love to see the name carried on. And in order to do that you'd need a large influx of money," said Portillo, 74.
The company announced Wednesday that it is exploring financial alternatives, including a possible sale of its fast casual division. That division includes all 38 Portillo's restaurants, nine of which also house Barnelli's Pasta Bowl locations. The Oak Brook-based company said it has hired Piper Jaffray & Co. as its financial adviser as it evaluates alternatives.
The Portillo Restaurant Group traces its start back to 1963, when Chicago-born Dick Portillo began selling hot dogs from "The Dog House," a small trailer in Villa Park that didn't have running water or a bathroom.
Today, The Portillo Restaurant Group calls itself the Midwest’s largest privately-held restaurant company. It has roughly 4,400 employees across four states: Illinois, Indiana, California and Arizona. Its 38 Portillo’s locations serve such fare as hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches. In 2013, sales at the Portillo’s chain topped $300 million. Beyond Portillo’s, the company’s other brands include Honey-Jam Cafe and Luigi’s House.
Portillo's has a loyal following. Last year, more than 500 people waited in line when a location opened in Scottsdale, Arizona, according to the company. The company has made deliveries to each of the 50 states.
Portillo's stands out in the restaurant industry with sales of more than $8 million per location. To put that into perspective, average annual sales per location at Chipotle Mexican Grill and Panera Bread are roughly $2.3 million to $2.5 million.
"They are in a category all their own," said Darren Tristano, executive vice president at Technomic, a food industry research and consultancy in Chicago. He said the average sales at a Portillo’s restaurant are roughly three times as high as sales at an Applebee’s restaurant.
Dick Portillo said he has no investors other than a landlord at one of the locations who "gets a small part of the action." Otherwise, he is the sole owner of the company, he said.
Portillo said that he owns about 25 to 30 percent of the Portillo's locations. He said that he owns about 60 percent of all of the property his businesses are on "free and clear, there’s no debt."
After a small amount of expansion beyond the Chicago area, there is an opportunity for a brand like Portillo's to really grow on a national basis, Tristano said.
"It’s going to take a lot of effort but there’s a big upside so evaluating a sale of the company, probably at this point, would be a good opportunity for management," he said.
Portillo's potential sale comes as investor interest in the so-called fast casual restaurant segment has taken off. Fast casual chains sell food at slightly higher prices than fast food chains and typically make food to order. Chicago-based Potbelly went public in 2013. Other chains, such as Noodles & Co. and Zoe's Kitchen, are also now public. And Chipotle, which priced its 2006 IPO at $22 a share, now trades above $500 per share.
Portillo expects any sale would be to a private equity |
using marijuana for a variety of therapeutic, medicinal treatments.”
The move is a major policy turnaround for Colombia, one of the staunchest backers of the US-led war on drugs.
Aided by billions of dollars from the US, officials in the Andean country have fiercely battled drug cartels for more than a decade. But more recently, the government is focusing on less punitive measures, such as a crop-substitution program to replace coca plants with legal farm products. Earlier this year, Colombia stopped aerial spraying of coca plantations because of concerns that the pesticide it used causes cancer.
As marijuana becomes legal in more countries, leaders in other Latin American countries have also been softening their approach on drugs. In 2013, Uruguay became the first country in the world to legalize marijuana for recreational use. In Mexico, the Supreme Court earlier this month ruled that smoking pot is a personal freedom protected by the constitution.
These shifts have encouraged a budding international trade in medicinal marijuana products. Mexico and Brazil (link in Portuguese) have started to allow the import of cannabidiol, an active chemical compound in marijuana used to treat children with epilepsy. Canada, where the use of medical marijuana is legal nationwide, allows its export and import for limited purposes, such as bringing in starter plants for a new grow, or shipping a unique strain to a research lab abroad.
Colombian officials are betting that legal marijuana exports could become a big business.
“There’s a global market that is going to grow and Colombia can participate in through big companies,” said Colombia health minister Alejandro Gaviria during a press conference on Nov. 13.
But some are skeptical, saying the economics are not in place for meaningful international flows of pot-related goods. In Canada, local producers provide enough marijuana to supply the local market, according to Health Canada, the agency that oversees pot production.
And growing the plant locally is cheaper and less bureaucratic than importing it, Marc Wayne, chief executive of Bedrocan Canada, told Quartz. The medicinal cannabis company imported marijuana from the Netherlands to get started, but has since switched to local production.
“Its strikes me as highly unlikely,” said Wayne about mass marijuana exports and imports.In general, processes take longer to start than threads. This makes sense if you think about it – a thread lives within the memory space of its parent process, so it takes less work to set one up. (This is a gross oversimplification, but to be honest I find the details of process management incredibly uninteresting in 2008.) I assumed that this difference would hold for the Python processing module. Apparently it doesn't, at least on Mac OS X. Surprise!
Spawning 100 children with Thread took 1.04 s Spawning 100 children with Process took 0.60 s
The above result is for starting and joining the children serially. I get the same results in all of these variations:
Starting them all at once, then joining them all at once.
Using 10 children or 1,000 children.
Having each child sleep for one second (to ensure that they're all actually alive at the same time).
I don't know whether this is due to goodness in OS X, or processing, or fork(), or just Unix in general. In any case, it's very good news. I'd dismissed processing for use on the client side of BitBacker because "process management is hard and they're too heavyweight." Clearly at least one of those complaints is invalid; maybe the other is as well. It would be a wonderful relief if I could use processes. I'm going to need parallelization of one form or another soon, and I'm definitely not going to start sprinkling threads around. Only madness lies down that path.
Here's the code that generated those results, in case you're interested:PHOENIX—Just as there has to be chemistry between teammates to make a roster work, there has to be chemistry and cohesion between members of an NBA coaching staff. But there can be only one voice.
Brooklyn Nets head coach Jason Kidd rubs his head during the fourth quarter of an NBA basketball game against the Sacramento Kings in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. The Kings won 107-86. ( Rich Pedroncelli / AP FILE PHOTO )
The odd goings-on in Brooklyn this week, where head coach Jason Kidd banished assistant Lawrence Frank from the bench for apparent “philosophical differences,” underscores the need for one message delivered from the staff. Head coaches can take advice and suggestions from the members of their staff but there needs to be only one “philosophy,” a point hammered home earlier this week by Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson. “When I look at that situation, I don’t know what happened. I do see the reports of a ‘difference in philosophies,’” Jackson said before the Raptors played the Warriors on Tuesday.
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“If that’s true, that’s trash to me. Because there’s one philosophy and that’s the head coach. I think we’re giving too much to an assistant or a staff. You win, it’s Jason Kidd. You lose, it’s Jason Kidd.” The Brooklyn situation was odd for how quickly it broke down because Frank, Kidd’s former head coach in New Jersey, was highly recruited by Kidd in the off-season. It was thought that Frank’s experience would help Kidd’s rapid transformation from player to head coach — a huge leap taken with Kidd not having served even a game as an NBA assistant before being given the reins of a veteran team under a lot of “win now” pressure from ownership. And the quick breakup of the relationship — stories in the aftermath suggest the move has been coming for weeks — does put all the pressure on Kidd’s shoulders now. If he wasn’t strong enough in the coach’s office to quell insubordination before having to fire one of his top lieutenants, is there a question how he’ll handle the first big blowup with one of his players?
It’s obvious that Frank and Kidd were nowhere near on the same page but that Kidd couldn’t bring one of his employees around before such drastic measures were necessary has to make ownership sit up and take notice. And now that he’s made it abundantly clear that it’s his way or the highway, Kidd had better produce more than he has with the struggling Nets.
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It was always a huge gamble simply hiring him with his decided lack of experience, now that he’s ostensibly fired his top advisor, he’s out there pretty much on his own in a job that demands success. Some were never sure he was going to make a smooth transition, this incident underscores those concerns. - Who’s hot? The Portland Trail Blazers. They have to be seen as the biggest, and most pleasant, surprise in the league with their torrid start. All they’ve done is win nine of their last 10, beat a tough Oklahoma City team on Wednesday night and have ascended to first place overall in the highly-competitive Western Conference. Who’s not? The Minnesota Timberwolves It was long thought that this might be the year Minnesota at least mounted a strong challenge for a Western Conference playoff berth. They still may but going 3-7 in their last 10 and dropping to 13th in the conference standings might be getting them too far buried too early to get back in the race. - The week ahead for the Raptors It doesn’t get any easier, that’s for sure. In Phoenix on Friday, in Los Angeles for the Lakers on Sunday and home to face San Antonio on Tuesday. The Suns are one of the big surprises in the league, 10-9 after a road win in Houston on Wednesday, and they are not an easy touch at all. The Lakers could very well have Kobe Bryant back for Sunday and you can imagine what an emotional boost that’ll be. The Spurs? They’re the Spurs, they’ve won eight of their last 10 and are in a virtual tie with Portland for first overall in the West. No, not any easier at all and if the Raptors can steal one of the next three, that’s about all that can be legitimately be asked. That’ll put them at 7-13 a quarter of the way through the regular season and it’ll be getting closer to decision time for general manager Masai Ujiri. -- MORE TO COME Nothing But Net is a weekly look at issues across the NBA, posted every Thursday by noon.Ty Montgomery Fantasy 2017
We’ve all heard it before; the NFL has become a passing league. The NFL average for rushing attempts has decreased every season since 2011. In fact, 14 different Quarterbacks threw the ball more than 550 times in 2016, yet only six QB’s threw that many times in 2010. Only three QB’s reached the 550 passing attempt milestone in 2005.
The league isn’t built for grinders like Michael Turner anymore (even though he was a phenomenal fantasy football asset). Running backs who can contribute in the passing game are more valuable than ever. Ben Gretch, @YardsPerGretch on Twitter, displayed this very fact.
Rush atts for top 30 PPR RBs by year. A lot fewer 300-carry backs over past few seasons. A lot more sub-100. Get you a back that does both. pic.twitter.com/GmEvJVa8Q0 — Ben Gretch (@YardsPerGretch) July 22, 2017
Again, this is information you already knew. However, it doesn’t seem like the fantasy community as a whole has caught up with the times. We love big, sexy RB-WR hybrids like David Johnson and Le’Veon Bell, but they are inspiring a new crop of RB’s molded in their images. Players who are not only capable of contributing but excelling in the passing game. In standard leagues, we are dismissing some of these versatile and dynamic playmakers because we assume they can’t hold up to between-the-tackles workloads or produce TD’s. 2017 is the right time to change that mentality, and we have the perfect prophet of passing game proficiency to lead us to the promised land: Ty Montgomery. I backed up my Montgomery love by selecting him in the 4th round of our recent Gridiron Experts Staff Mock Draft.
The Case for RB1 Status
Ty Montgomery will finish as an RB1 in 2017 in both standard and PPR formats. Those who are more apprehensive lay out the following argument. Montgomery has limited experience at the RB position, playing WR all the way through college and his first year in the NFL. His ability to run inside of the tackles is often called into question, merely because we haven’t seen a large sample of carries yet. He is viewed as an upright runner who takes too many hits and has difficulty breaking tackles, often going down on first contact. This lack of experience was most evident in his struggles with pass protection, which could prevent him from becoming a true every-down player. Additionally, the Packers drafted not one, not two, but three RBs in the 2016 NFL Draft. If only the story ended there for his critics.
Montgomery was shown to be an evasive and dynamic player on the ground and through the air in 2016, regularly evading tackles, generating yards after contact, and breaking off long gains. Montgomery carries NFL feature-back size at 6’0” and 215 lbs and above-average athleticism in nearly every category. Each of the rookies mentioned above was drafted in 4th round or later and possess significant flaws, including the same pass-protection concerns surrounding Montgomery. In other words, none of them are superior talents to Montgomery, nor do their skill sets, or body types separate themselves from each other or Montgomery. As if all of that isn’t enough, Montgomery is attached to the most prolific QB of our generation, Aaron Rodgers.
Montgomery is Attached to a Prolific Offense
I’m sure you don’t need a hard sell on the productivity of the Green Bay Packers offense or the boost it provides for its individual fantasy pieces, but I’ll give you a brief overview. The table below shows the Packers yearly finishes in a variety of offensive statistics, as well as their 5-year average finishes.
Year Scoring % Total Yards Total Points OFF DVOA Rush DVOA Pts/ Drive 2016 4 8 4 4 5 3 2015 21 23 15 11 10 15 2014 1 6 1 1 6 1 2013 3 3 8 9 3 7 2012 9 13 5 3 13 8 5-Year AVG 7.6 10.6 6.6 5.6 7.4 6.8
Over the past five seasons, Green Bay has averaged a top-10 finish in a variety of offensive statistics. The Packers yearly finish in Football Outsiders Rushing DVOA might come as a surprise to many NFL fans. Despite their pass-first reputation, they are nearly as efficient running the ball as they are passing. TD’s generally have high year-to-year variance, but Green Bay never fails to produce them in bunches. Clearly, if Montgomery can possess a significant opportunity share in the Packers offense, he will have ample opportunities to score oodles of fantasy points.
Based on the talent and productivity that Montgomery displayed in his first season at the RB position, the job should be his. Albeit in a somewhat limited sample of 121 touches (77 carries and 44 receptions), Montgomery was an efficient, explosive, and evasive player with the ball in his hands. The table below illustrates some of Montgomery’s particular strengths. For those unfamiliar, Juke Rate is the number of evaded tackles divided by the number of touches, and Breakaway Run Rate is the percentage of a player’s carries that went for 15 or more yards.
Stat Yards After Contact/Touch Juke Rate Breakaway Run Rate Ranking #1 #3 #2
Above stats provided via PlayerProfiler.com
Due to his WR background, Montgomery has the reputation of being easy to tackle and going down on first contact. However, the numbers indicate the exact opposite. Montgomery generated more yards after contact per touch than any other RB in the NFL last season. Yes, this number would regress with increased volume, but he has already demonstrated the required skills to create tough yards. Montgomery also displayed elusiveness and big-play ability to complement his talent for creating yards after contact. So, in summary, Montgomery can break tackles, elude tackles, and produce explosive plays. What else are we looking for in an NFL RB exactly? If Montgomery can display these same talents with increased rushing volume, he will challenge for a place among the elite rushers in the NFL alongside his receiving pedigree. The impeccable Graham Barfield demonstrated just how rare Montgomery’s skill set is.
In his Yards Created sample, Ty Montgomery averaged 23 routes run per game. For reference, Theo Riddick averaged 26 routes/game in 2016. pic.twitter.com/PvVqJxcCfc — Graham Barfield (@GrahamBarfield) July 19, 2017
The Rookie Hype is Overblown
Jamaal Williams and Aaron Jones are key cogs in the anti-Montgomery argument. Why would the Packers draft these rookies if they had faith that Montgomery could be their feature back? First, Green Bay did not invest high draft capital in either Williams or Jones, selecting them in the 4th and 5th rounds, as the 13th and 19th RB off the board respectively. They passed on opportunities to draft superior talents to fill positions of greater need, indicating that both picks were made as depth or insurance policies as opposed to Montgomery replacements. In addition to mediocre draft capital, neither Williams nor Jones is a superior athletic prospect. In fact, Williams boasts a below-average 36th percentile SPARQ score. While Jones does possess an impressive athletic profile (similar to Montgomery), he is a small-school prospect out of UTEP with significant pass-blocking concerns, ranking 37th in the 2017 RB class in Blocking Grade according to Pro Football Focus.
Furthermore, because Montgomery is a converted WR, fantasy owners assume that he has the diminutive physical stature of a typical 3rd-down back. However, Montgomery weighs in at 6’0” 220 lbs, which is slightly bigger than Jamaal Williams (6’0”, 212 lbs) who is falsely viewed as the larger, more powerful RB. Aaron Jones is not any larger at 5’9”, 208 lbs. Not only does Montgomery have the clear receiving advantage over Williams and Jones due to his WR background, but he also possesses equivalent or better feature-back size. Sprinkle in the advantage of Montgomery’s year of dynamic and efficient NFL production, and it becomes apparent that neither Williams nor Jones are a realistic threat to unseat Montgomery as the Packers’ feature back.
Ty Montgomery displayed true rushing talent in 2016, a season in which he started the year as a WR. An offseason spent completing the transition to RB only serves to help Montgomery develop and improve as a between-the-tackles runner and a pass-blocker. He possesses feature-back size, explosiveness, elusiveness, and, most importantly, versatility. If Montgomery can demonstrate adequate or above-average blocking, he will dominate the lion’s share of the work in a prolific and explosive offense helmed by the magician Aaron Rodgers. The hype is beginning to pick up on Montgomery (he was even featured on a recent episode of The Empire podcast), so it’s time to join in or get left behind. The NFL is ripe for the Ty Montgomery’s of the world to take over and dominate, across all fantasy league formats. Pulling from a Chinese proverb, “When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.” Don’t get left behind building your walls brick-by-brick. Instead, draft future first-rounder Ty Montgomery while he is still a value.Today, delegates from most of the United Nations member states are gathering in New York to negotiate a nuclear weapons ban. More than 2,500 scientists from 70 countries have signed an open letter in support of the nuclear disarmament negotiations. If successful, their words could urge the UN to stigmatize nuclear weapons like biological and chemical weapons, with the ultimate goal being to create a “world free of these weapons of mass destruction.” Neuroscience professor and Nobel Laureate, Edvard Moser, believes nuclear weapons represent one of the biggest threats to our civilization: “ With the unpredictability of the current world situation, it is more important than ever to get negotiations about a ban on nuclear weapons on track, and to make these negotiations a truly global effort.” Other notable scientists in support of the ban are not lacking. The list includes 28 Nobel Laureates—such as Peter Ware Higgs and Leon N. Cooper; former U.S. Secretary of Defense, William J. Perry; and CERN physicists, such as Jack Steinberger. The letter will be delivered in the UN General Assembly Hall to Her Excellency Ms. Elayne Whyte Gómez from Costa Rica, who will preside over the negotiations. The letter, presented by the Future of Life Institute, acknowledges that scientists may have been the ones who invented nuclear weapons, but that it is up to the people living today to dictate how this technology should be used—or rather, should never be used. For example, nuclear-induced winter could trigger a global mini ice age, which could lead to a complete collapse of the global food system and kill most of the people on Earth.
And that’s just one potential outcome. Ultimately, such a result would occur even if the nuclear war involved only a small fraction of the roughly 14,000 nuclear weapons that today’s nuclear powers control. In total, nine countries (that we know of) possess nuclear weapons: The U.S., Russia, the U.K., France, China, Israel, India, North Korea, and Pakistan. The first five are the only countries allowed to have these weapons, according to the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty, an agreement that nations signed saying they would not release nuclear weapons, or in any way help others acquire or build them. Furthermore, the countries promised, “to move toward a gradual reduction of their arsenals of nuclear weapons with the ultimate goal of complete nuclear disarmament.” The latter four nations (Israel, India, North Korea, and Pakistan) haven’t yet signed the treaty.
Unfortunately, the United States and a number of other nations that actually have nuclear weapons boycotted the talks, saying that “the time was not right and that a ban would be ineffective.” Ambassador Nikki R. Haley, from the United States, told reporters outside the General Assembly that the ideals are currently just a utopian dream: “There is nothing I want more for my family than a world with no nuclear weapons, but we have to be realistic. Is there anyone who thinks that North Korea would ban nuclear weapons?” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the state supported nuclear talks, in general, “We are ready to discuss the possible further gradual reduction of nuclear capabilities.” However, he said that Russia was not in support of talks of this severity or gravity. “We are ready to discuss this issue proceeding from the growing urgency of making this process multilateral,” he noted, adding the criticism that the discussion was too far-reaching: “Efforts to coerce nuclear powers to abandon nuclear weapons have intensified significantly recently. It is absolutely clear that the time has not yet come for that,” That said, the talks are supported by 120 nations. A Bomb of Unprecedented Power In 1939, just after World War II broke out, physicist Albert Einstein and his colleague Leo Szilard described a “bomb of unprecedented power” that could be made using nuclear fission. The two men urged the U.S. government to race to build this so-called “atomic bomb” before Germany could.
Six years later, President Harry S. Truman would order atomic bombs to be dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Just five years after that, 54 percent of the original population had died from the two explosions. Those who survived had to deal with mental and physical trauma including burns, disfiguration, severe scar formations, blood abnormalities, sterility, leukemia, birth defects in children, cataracts, and cancer. Einstein would later regret his involvement in the creation of the bomb, saying: “had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I would have never lifted a finger.” But it was too late for Einstein. And our nuclear history didn’t end with him. Today, as political tensions rise, the scientists who have signed in support of the ban believe a nuclear war is more likely than one may expect: There is a steady stream of accidents and false alarms that could trigger all-out war, and relying on never-ending luck is not a sustainable strategy. Many nuclear powers have larger nuclear arsenals than needed for deterrence, yet prioritize making them more lethal over reducing them and the risk that they get used.
Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William J. Perry even noted, “the probability of a nuclear calamity is higher today, I believe, that it was during the cold war.” It is evident that the scientific community, as a whole, feels strongly about the issue at hand, and believes the issue deserves a certain level of urgency. Negotiations are sure to be heated, but, as Norwegian neuroscience professor May-Britt Moser, a 2014 Nobel Laureate in Physiology/Medicine, says, “In a world with increased aggression and decreasing diplomacy – the availability nuclear weapons is more dangerous than ever. Politicians are urged to ban nuclear weapons. The world today and future generations depend on that decision.”Atelier fans in the west can now mark their calendars for the English releases of Atelier Ayesha Plus and Atelier Shallie. Koei Tecmo set dates and prices for both, with Atelier Ayesha Plus landing first in January, followed by Shallie in March.
Atelier Ayesha Plus: The Alchemist of Dusk—which features new costumes, bosses, dual audio, and more—will arrive as a digital download in North America and Europe on January 13 and 14, respectively. The PS Vita RPG will be priced at $39.99 / €39.99.
Koei Tecmo's synopsis:
Atelier Ayesha Plus: The Alchemist of Dusk tells the tale of Ayesha Altugle, who after the death of her grandfather and the disappearance of her younger sister Nio, now lives alone blending healing cures to sell in her workshop. Upon a vision of Nio appearing near her empty grave, Ayesha, convinced she is still alive begins her search to save her.
The enhanced PlayStation Vita version will bring new features including dual audio, bosses from Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky, new costumes, a hard mode and the Album missions which unlock exclusive costumes and gameplay features and the ability to change party members at any time. Additionally, almost all content from the original PlayStation 3 version can be carried over.
Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea hits PlayStation 3 in North America on March 10, 2015, followed by Europe on March 13. This one's getting both a retail and digital release, and will be priced at $49.99 / €49.99.
Koei Tecmo sums up Shallie:
In Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea players chose to play as either the reserved, mission-focused Shallistera, daughter of a tribal leader who embarks on voyage to find a cure for her ailing father or ambitious, energetic Shallotte, who has been struggling to bring success to the alchemy workshop since the passing of her father. While their personalities and appearance are drastically different, they both share the nickname “Shallie” and uncover the reasoning why along each of their journeys— the dual main character system has been improved with separate stories and multiple endings for Shallistera and Shallotte.
For the first time in the Atelier series, Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea will include a 360 degree camera, giving players more freedom as they explore a vast world map that has expanded greatly with many new environments that evolve based on how the player progresses. In the new Quest system players can either take on only assignments necessary to progress the game or earn more points engaging in additional, more challenging quests.
Via Gematsu
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Joseph Luster is the Games and Web editor at Otaku USA Magazine. He also likes to draw comics. His blog can be found at subhumanzoids. Follow him on Twitter @Moldilox.Airmen assigned to the 633rd Force Support Squadron set up gym equipment at the Langley Transit Center gym on Langley Air Force Base, Va., Nov. 6, 2014. The LTC was established as a controlled monitoring area for military service members returning from supporting Joint Task Force United Assistance, where they participated in Ebola relief efforts in West Africa.
WASHINGTON — More than 80 troops were scheduled to enter three weeks of quarantine in Virginia on Thursday after their return from a mission fighting an Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
The 51 airmen, 27 sailors, four Marines and two soldiers were to arrive by military aircraft at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., in the early afternoon, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in written statement Thursday.
The group, none of whom are showing symptoms Ebola, will be medically screened on arrival. They’ll then enter a 21-day period of what the Pentagon calls “controlled monitoring” in secluded buildings near the flightline, Kirby said. During their isolation, troops will be screened twice daily for symptoms at a medical facility dedicated to the servicemembers back from Liberia.
Defense Department officials say the monitoring period, in which all troops who spend more than a short time in the Ebola zone must participate, is intended to be comfortable. Two of the larger buildings will be used as a dining hall and a gym, Kirby said.
“The facilities will include all appropriate amenities,” he said. “Troops will be able to communicate with family members via telephone and electronic means.”
Kirby said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel “joins all Americans in welcoming the troops home” and promised to provide all the care and support they’ve earned.
“Secretary Hagel is both proud and grateful for the service rendered by these men and women in the critically important mission of trying to stop the spread of Ebola at its source,” he said.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has infected some 14,000 people and has killed more than 5,000. About 2,200 U.S. troops are deployed to Liberia to help build treatment facilities, train healthcare workers and provide testing services to identify those who are infected.
news@stripes.comDespite only just reporting on another Japanese exclusive RPG getting the fan translation treatment, it would appear we have yet another to add to our gaming backlog. Acclaimed ROM hackers Dynamic Designs have finally finished the English language patch for the quirky and unusual Chaos Seed - an underground land healing adventure on the SNES.
Unlike most traditional RPGs, Chaos Seed doesn't have you raiding dungeons, but instead places you in charge of enhancing these underground dwellings. With a clear divide between the surface-humans and those below, in this story the cave-humans you're put in control of must fend off monsters and NPCs whilst building a town and restoring the lost balance of energy in the land around.
Chaos Seed was originally developed by Neverland and released in Japan back in 1996, shortly before seeing a re-release in 1998. Despite having a lush visual style, addictive unique gameplay and an adventurous soundtrack, the game itself never saw release outside of the East. Dynamic Design's recently released fan translation patch for Chaos Seed translates the entire game, leaving you to either enjoy it in a Super Nintendo emulator or on the original hardware using a Super Nintendo flash cartridge.
Chaos Seed (Super Famicom) Gameplay
A downloadable English patch for Chaos Seed can now be found at the translation patch creator's websitek. As usual, to enjoy this fan translation patch you will need to have an original Chaos Seed ROM file to which you can apply this patch to. Full instructions on how to patch this ROM can be found within the download, or you can refer to this handy ROM patching guide on YouTube.
Link: Chaos Seed (Super Famicom) English Translation PatchI n this case, it was good not to get a perfect 100.
For only the fourth time since 1883, summer temperatures did not reach 100 degrees anywhere in Alabama, according to Dr. John Christy director of the Earth Systems Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
"We've looked at all the data since 1883 from all the weather stations in Alabama," Christy said.
After reporting that this summer was one of the coolest on record, Christy posted an updated August climate report this week showing the data on 100-degree temperatures. Read it here.
"Back in the 1800s, there were just a handful of stations but every year from then through 1964, somewhere in Alabama had 100 degrees," he said. "It wasn't until 1965 that there was no 100, then in 1994 and 2001, and now this summer."
No station in Alabama recorded a 100-degree temperature in the "meteorological summer," which is June, July and August and, at this point, it's unlikely temperatures will reach 100 before the end of the year, Christy said.
However, he pointed out that today marks the anniversary of the highest recorded temperature in the state: 112 degrees in Centreville in Bibb County in 1925. But because this year's cooling trend is expected to continue, Christy sees no signs that temperatures will reach similar extremes this month.
The summer of 1925 was one of the driest ever recorded statewide, which is not the case this year when rainfall has neared or broken records in many portions of the state.
Christy said the cool, wet summer gives no indication of what type of weather Alabamians will see in fall and winter.
"I've actually looked at that very closely," he said. "There is no predictive value whatsoever. We've had hot winters after cool summers and cold winters after hot summers."
Call al.com reporter Kelly Kazek at 256-701-0576 or find her on Facebook.Myths and Misconceptions: Growing a Handlebar Moustache
BY Doug Geiger
Myths and Misconceptions of Growing a Handlebar Moustache
Myth 1: The longest hairs are on the outside
Not true! A proper handlebar moustache has, as its members, hairs from all parts of the upper lip. One might think that because the tips of the handlebar are the most salient feature of the moustache style, the outer hairs are the longest. In reality, the innermost hairs are the longest because they have to travel across the whole lip and then up into the curl. The whiskers closest to the curl are the shortest if the moustache is ever trimmed.
Myth 2: You don't need to be "X" to have a Handlebar Moustache
The handlebar moustache belongs exclusively to no one type of man. Hipsters appreciate the casual confidence it lends. Prep school types appreciate its distinguished pedigree and lumberjack types love the pure manliness it exudes. If you are like me you don't fit 100% into any of these categories. I grow a handlebar moustache because it fits me. Try it out and see if it is "you."
Myth 3: Handlebar moustaches makes you an "X"
Kind of like myth #2, some people will think you are a certain sort of guy because you grow a handlebar moustache. Sometimes this is good. As an introvert, folks think I am outgoing and therefore feel comfortable starting conversations with me. I have personally never met a dumb person with a handlebar. Some folks think men with handlebars are more creative. This is the good part. Other folks don't hold handlebar moustaches in high regard. The truth is: you decide what your handlebar says about you. I think it expresses my confidence and appreciation for classic values. Only let the labels stick that apply to you!
THIS ARTICLE IS PART OF CAN YOU HANDLEBAR’S ONGOING EDUCATIONAL AND LIFESTYLE BLOG, READ MORE AT THEBEARDMENTOR.COM
You May Also LikeCLOSE The medical marijuana industry is poised to explode with new state regulations and taxes on the dispensaries that will sell the weed. Kathleen Gray/Detroit Free Press
Dave Wilson cares for marijuana plants at the Ataraxia cultivation center in Albion, Ill. Federal lawmakers could change pot’s status as a drug with no medical purpose. Several states already legalize it for medicinal use. (Photo: Seth Perlman/Associated Press)
The state is opening up the medical marijuana business to big-time grow operations, according to an advisory released Thursday.
When the Legislature passed medical marijuana bills last year, it created three classes of licenses for growers: Class A - up to 500 plants; Class B - up to 1,000 plants, and Class C - up to 1,500 plants.
The rules advisory released this week, however, specifies that one person or business can apply for as many of the Class C licenses as they want, opening up Michigan’s market to mega growers.
“The stacking of class C grow licenses is a more efficient way for LARA (the state department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs) to keep track of large grows in the state,” said LARA spokesman David Harns. “Stacking will also allow businesses to operate more efficiently, which in turn will allow for a better consumer experience.”
More: Medical marijuana shops get a temporary reprieve from state
More: Communities across Michigan deciding on opting in or out of medical marijuana business
But some potential growers believe the ruling will squeeze the smaller operators out of Michigan’s lucrative medical marijuana industry.
“They’re doing everything they can do to shut down the mom and pops,” said Jason Durham, a medical marijuana cardholder and caregiver, who grows medicinal cannabis for five patients, but hopes to be awarded a license to grow up to 500 plants. “They want it to be one corporation that has control so they only have to babysit and monitor one business.”
It will be more expensive for the large-scale growers to get into the business. Everyone seeking a license will have to pay an application fee that will carry a cost of between $4,000 and $8,000 depending on the number of applications received. But the regulatory assessment will carry a sliding scale cost ranging from $10,000 for the smallest grower up to $57,000 for large growers, transporters and dispensaries.
The applicants also will have to prove they have the capital for the operation and carry enough insurance and security.
CLOSE Local officials are beginning to decide if they want medical marijuana businesses in their communities before the state starts giving out licenses next year. Wochit
Applications for the five categories of medical marijuana licenses — for growers, processors, transporters, testers and dispensaries — will be available on Dec. 15, and the Michigan Medical Marijuana Licensing Board will begin awarding licenses in the spring of 2018.
The medical marijuana business, once the newly regulated business is up and running, is expected to generate $711 million in sales a year and $21 million a year in tax revenues for the state.
Robin Schneider, legislative liaison for the National Patients’ Rights Association, which advocates for safe and legal access to medical marijuana, said she understands the department’s desire to stick to the letter of the law, which said the number of licenses can’t be mandated, “But there is the potential that they’ll take away opportunities for smaller business owners.”
In other states, large-scale grow operations are well underway. In southern California, Canndescent, a 9,600-square-foot marijuana grow facility opened in September with plans to expand to 100,000 square feet of growing space now that voters have approved marijuana for recreational use in November. And in Massachusetts, Americann has the option to purchase a 52-acre parcel of land, which would be transformed into greenhouses and processing facilities.
Durham hopes that won’t become the landscape in Michigan.
“It will make it almost impossible for us small guys to get into the market," he said.
Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430 or kgray99@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @michpoligal
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2k8dLjpThis is part of my RPG series of entries here at SOB. See the inaugural entry in the series for more details.
All you gamers out there are surely familiar with that “monstrous humanoid” race known as “orcs”. You know what an orc is — right?
Are you sure about that?
The Common Perception
Amongst players of RPGs, the orc race is generally assumed to have certain characteristics, regardless of gameworld:
Large: Orcs are taller, broader of shoulder, thicker boned, more solidly muscled, and much heavier than humans. Strong: Orcs are more physically powerful than humans. In fact, simply being a half-orc hybrid makes for a +2 Strength bonus |
$20 market full of good tunes, and OnePlus joined with its massively improved Bullets v2 at the same price point. Meizu’s EP51 showed up as an excellent $65 pair of wireless sports buds, and premium smartphones finally started bundling premium earphones by default, such as with the Nubia Z11. HTC’s audio-focused Android flagship for this year, the 10, also came with some high-quality buds in the box, and LG’s QuadBeats have been consistently good for years.
The best all-around headphones launched in 2016, except for Focal’s unattainable duo, were Bang & Olufsen’s second-generation Beoplay H6. They strike the perfect balance between fun and faithful sound, and their design is as sophisticated as it is comfortable and lightweight. The only problem for the H6 going forward? Everyone shopping in their price bracket in 2017 will be hoping to ditch the wire. — Vlad Savov
Verge 2016 Report Card: Headphones B 2016 Grade Gold Stars: Focal raised the bar for high-end headphones
Sound quality advanced across all price ranges
The neckbuds trend died a quiet death
Apple’s W1 wireless chip is a real boon for simplifying Bluetooth pairing Needs Improvement: Outside of Apple, wireless connections are still a pain
Gaming headsets remain mostly awful
Phone makers that drop the headphone jack need to better explain why they’re doing it
Streaming music
For most music listeners, 2016 will be remembered as the year exclusive releases complicated all our lives. It will also be remembered as the year that access to streaming services became a necessity.
At the beginning of the year, the only guaranteed exclusive release on the horizon was Drake’s Views, which was a part of the deal the musician signed with Apple Music in 2015. But most fans didn’t expect that the onslaught of exclusive content would become Apple Music’s primary tool for chasing down Spotify, or Tidal’s fight for continued existence.
Following nearly every major album announcement in the past year, fans have had to find out if they will have access to the music through their current streaming service, or if they will need to pay and switch providers. Drake, Beyoncé, Chance The Rapper, Rihanna, Frank Ocean, Kanye West, Gucci Mane, The 1975, Future, YG, 2 Chainz, DJ Khaled, and many other artists released exclusive albums on either Apple Music or Tidal this year.
For fans, exclusive releases became a burden
Those deals worked out well for artists (they got paid), streaming services (who acquired more subscribers), and labels (the streaming services paid for marketing), but when it came to the fans, exclusive releases became a burden. Despite the inconvenience for consumers, exclusives did help bring in more users and increased engagement for streaming services. Apple Music reached 20 million subscribers a few weeks ago, after just 18 months in the market. Tidal topped 3 million subscribers, which isn’t much compared to Apple or Spotify, but far more than most expected the service to attract. SoundCloud, Amazon, and Pandora entered an already crowded field, each announcing on-demand services to compete with the incumbents. And Spotify crossed the 100 million user mark in June and topped 40 million paying subscribers in September, cementing its spot as the biggest streaming service in the world without even participating in the exclusives game.
Exclusives also benefitted listeners in ways many didn’t expect. Garth Brooks, who has notoriously kept his music off streaming music platforms and iTunes for years, signed an exclusive deal with Amazon’s streaming service. Frank Ocean’s deal with Apple Music allowed him to release Blonde — after a very extended delay — independently, and reap the financial benefits. It also caused his old label Universal Music Group to ban exclusives — which could mark the beginning of the end for the music industry’s favorite trend, and allow listeners to stick with one streaming service going forward..
While 2016 may have been an inconvenient year for some music fans, right now it doesn’t seem like exclusives will be a permanent fixture in the music industry going forward. Yes, Drake’s relationship with Apple will continue and you can expect the next Beyoncé album to arrive on Tidal if it’s still around, but from all indications 2016 was the peak of exclusives. Now it’s time to settle in. — Micah SingletonESPN, which laid off 100 people last week, has a multitude of problems, but the basic one is this: it pays too much for content and costs too much for consumers.
That didn’t used to matter because, thanks to the way the cable industry “bundled” channels, cable customers were forced to pay for it even if they never watched it. Now, as the cable bundle slowly disintegrates, it matters a lot.
ESPN — “The Worldwide Leader in Sports,” as it likes to call itself — is undoubtedly the most important channel in the history of cable television. Founded in 1979, it was airing professional basketball by 1982, and the National Football League by 1987, when its long-running Sunday Night Football franchise began. ESPN showed that major sports events did not have to air only on the legacy networks like NBC and CBS. No cable distributor could do without it. (Disclosure: “Indentured,” the book I co-wrote with Ben Strauss, won the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing last month; we each received a $2,500 cheque from ESPN.)
Indeed, since buying Capital Cities/ABC and its ESPN franchise in 1996, the Walt Disney Co. has used the sports channel as a battering ram to force cable companies to accept price increases for other channels Disney owned, like ABC Family, Disney Junior and ESPNU. It also ruthlessly raised the cost of ESPN itself. Only a tiny handful of cable channels get more than $2 a month per cable subscriber; ESPN charges over $7 a month per subscriber. When you throw in the rest of the ESPN channels, that number approaches $10.
At the same time, the content providers — the professional sports leagues and college conferences — were every bit as ruthless in their dealings with ESPN. The $1.9 billion a year ESPN pays the NFL (for one game a week, and usually a lousy one at that) is twice what any other network pays to air pro football. It signed a 12-year, $7.3 billion contract for the rights to the college football playoffs. The NBA costs it $1.4 billion a year. Its new TV deal with the Big Ten will cost it $2.64 billion over six years. Its annual content costs more than $7 billion, according to SNL Kagan.
But then, starting around 2013, the model began to sputter. Over the last four years, ESPN has lost around 12 million subscribers, from over 100 million to 88 million, which cost it well over $1 billion in annual revenue. It remains immensely profitable, but it is no longer the reliable cash cow for Disney that it once was.
ESPN has responded with a series of cutbacks — goodbye Chris Berman! — of which the layoffs this week are simply the latest. In the scheme of things, though, the cost savings are chump change, and have served mainly to show ESPN’s overlords at Disney (and Disney’s overlords on Wall Street) that it is serious about righting the ship.
But it’s a pipe dream to think that ESPN will ever make the kind of profits ($6.4 billion in 2014) that it once did, for two reasons. First, as is the case with so many other industries, the Internet has both shined a light on the flaws of the cable model and exploited them. What was the main flaw of the cable model? It was that consumers had to pay for channels they never watched.
And now they don’t.
It turns out that there were lots of people, including sports fans, who resented having to pay for the most expensive channel in the bundle. The popularity of streaming led to “cord cutting,” but it also caused cable companies to begin offering less expensive “skinny bundles,” some of which don’t include ESPN.
“You can take a Sling bundle that doesn’t have ESPN,” said Richard Greenfield, who follows the media industry for BTIG. “You can get Dish or Verizon without ESPN.” I went to Comcast’s website and found two bundles that didn’t have ESPN. The ability to get cable television without ESPN or to stream sports without cable means that the subscriber losses are going to continue as inexorably as the drop in newspaper circulation or album sales.
There is a second way the Internet is damaging ESPN. One of the things the channel has always done well is stitch together highlights of yesterday’s games. But between Twitter, YouTube and who knows what else, highlights have become ubiquitous online. So has the kind of sports news and analysis that has long been the staple of ESPN’s signature show, “SportsCenter.”
ESPN has responded by moving away from sports reporting — most of the 100 people laid off this week were reporters — and toward opinion, which is usually expressed with an absurd amount of vehemence, given the subject matter. But let’s face it: there’s only so much Stephen A. Smith a person can take.
Last year, Disney paid $1 billion for a stake in BAMTech, Major League Baseball’s technology unit, which provides streaming services to a host of companies. It is widely assumed that Disney will soon start up an ESPN streaming service that won’t require a cable subscription, just as HBO has. But as other industries have learned, gravitating your business to the Internet usually means lower profits, often drastically lower. ESPN’s problems are only going to get worse.You must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters
Message: * A friend wanted you to see this item from WRAL.com: http://wr.al/18SJ0
— A series of tweets from the account of a political action committee connected to Republican House lawmakers lobbed gay slurs and obscenities Wednesday night at Democratic House lawmakers and a Senate Republican staffer.
When Senate Republican staff attorney Brent Woodcox objected, the user targeted Woodcox as well.
According to state campaign finance records, the North Carolina Conservative Political Action Committee originated in 2016. The group's webpage lists Rep. Chris Millis, R-Pender, as its spokesman for the 2016 elections. However, Millis said Wednesday night that he is no longer connected to the group and is not able to post to its Twitter account.
"I am not currently representing. Regardless, it is my understanding that the account has been hacked, as the rhetoric is no way reflective to past posts," Millis said in response to a question from WRAL News. "The proper authorities are attempting to shut down from what I am told. Let me know if you have any questions, but this is in no way linked to me."
Before the account was taken offline, yet another tweet was sent.
The group is registered to James Smith of Arden, who did not immediately respond to a call for comment.
NCCPAC was fined by the state elections board earlier in 2017 for failure to file its campaign finance reports for the second half of 2016 on time. It's still not clear to which campaigns the group donated.
However, earlier 2016 reports show many Republican donors and House members contributed to the PAC, including North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Robin Hayes, party luminaries Ed Broyhill and Baker Mitchell and Reps. Justin Burr, R-Stanly, Beverly Boswell, R-Dare, Cody Henson, R-Transylvania, Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, Larry Pittman, R-Cabarrus, and Scott Stone, R-Mecklenburg.
LGBT advocacy group Equality North Carolina called on the group and its supporters to apologize.
UPDATE: In an unsigned statement issued on Twitter Thursday morning, the organization claimed the tweets were sent by a "former volunteer associate of our organization who had password access to our Twitter account." The accused former volunteer is not identified by name.
"The tweets, which have been deleted, in no way reflect the views of our organization or anyone associated with us and we sincerely apologize to everyone, especially Representative Jackson and Mr. Woodcox, for any offense those Tweets may have caused," the statement reads.
The statement also claims the group's website "was altered and then taken down without our knowledge," but offers no further details.Today we’re taking a closer look at one of the figures from the upcoming DC HeroClix: Wonder Woman Gravity Feed. Today’s subject is none other than the scarlet speedster himself, The Flash!
Portrayed here in his DC Rebirth costume, this version of Wally West is indicative of his time with the Titans. The 005 version of The Flash is a 60-point piece, has 4 clicks of life, and possesses the Titans team ability. He begins with a trait called Titans Together, which states that if another friendly character healed this turn with the Titans team ability, modify The Flash’s attack value by +1 this turn. He also possesses two special powers – the first of which is called The Speed Force Strengthens Me, appearing on all 4 clicks of his movement dial. This power states that The Flash can use Hypersonic Speed, and when he does, he can use Steal Energy and modify his speed value by +2 – letting him move up to 11 squares!
His second special power, Velocity Impact, appears on his first two clicks of damage. This power states that when The Flash uses Hypersonic Speed, his damage value increases by 1 this action for every 5 different squares he’s moved through this turn! He follows those special powers up with the standard powers Quake, Super Senses, Combat Reflexes, and Close Combat Expert.On October 15, adjunct English professor Divya Nair faced a disciplinary hearing regarding her suspension from the Community College of Philadelphia. What had she done? She spoke at a rally organized by three social justice groups, including Black Lives Matter, to protest a Philadelphia Police Department campus recruiter. Though the university did not specify the particularities of her suspension, including how she violated the school policies they listed in their letter to Nair, the timing of the suspension indicated that it was a result of her participation in the rally.
It's hard to figure exactly how the school determined that Nair's participation in a political protest warrants suspension. But her case echoes that of Steven Sailata, whose faculty appointment at the University of Illinois was rescinded over comments he made about the Israeli attacks on Gaza in 2014.
Another concerning aspect of this incident is Nair’s vulnerability as an adjunct, and therefore non-tenured, professor. Philadelphia Magazine quoted another speaker from the event, Drexel professor George Ciccariello-Maher, who recounted this about Nair’s participation last Thursday:
She was not disorderly in any way…she was quieter than most people present. There was no aggression. It's egregious that she's being targeted. She an adjunct faculty member, and they think they can get rid of her.
This vulnerability can have serious free speech implications, as adjuncts might decide that self-censorship is better for one's career. Unless public colleges actively promote and protect their employees’ First Amendment rights, professors will not be able to fully participate in campus discussions, and the intellectual freedom of everyone in that academic community will suffer.
As we wait for the results of the hearing, a petition to reinstate Nair has recorded almost 1,500 signatures.Introduction to LDS FIR
Facility Issue Reporting (FIR) is an application that allows local unit leaders to report issues to local facilities management. A leaky faucet, a damaged wall, and a malfunctioning heating or cooling system are just a few examples of the maintenance work performed by local facilities management.
FIR simplifies the interactions between facilities management offices and local ecclesiastical leaders. It enables leaders to submit, track progress of, and view details of facilities issues in their respective buildings. Facilities managers can easily and instantly provide updates to unit leaders through the application.
Now Available for Mobile Devices
Based on FIR’s intended use and the broad adoption of mobile computing, a mobile experience was needed. This release of LDS FIR provides Apple and Android mobile applications and also a redesigned user interface on LDS.org that makes the website version of FIR more mobile friendly.
Key Features
GPS Capabilities. The application uses the device’s location to identify the facility where the issue is being reported. This makes it so the person reporting the issue does not need to spend time finding the correct location.
The application uses the device’s location to identify the facility where the issue is being reported. This makes it so the person reporting the issue does not need to spend time finding the correct location. LDS Account Synchronization. The application automatically completes as much of the contact information as possible, based on the LDS Account used to access FIR.
The application automatically completes as much of the contact information as possible, based on the LDS Account used to access FIR. Take and Submit Pictures. If the user’s mobile device is equipped with a camera, he or she can take a photo and automatically attach it to the report of the issue.
If the user’s mobile device is equipped with a camera, he or she can take a photo and automatically attach it to the report of the issue. Redesigned User Interface. The LDS.org version has been redesigned to provide an experience similar to the mobile interface.
The LDS.org version has been redesigned to provide an experience similar to the mobile interface. Internationalization and Language Support. In addition to supporting English, Portuguese, and Spanish through LDS.org, FIR now supports Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Russian.
Download and Install LDS FIR
LDS FIR is available for the following devices:
Note: Android devices running versions older than 4.4 are not supported, and Apple devices running versions of iOS older than 6 are not supported.It's under active development too - each update brings cool new features and refinements, and I pay attention to every bit of feedback. If you've got a question or suggestion, reach out and say hello!
Chunky wants to take the friction out of reading comics on your iPad - it's jammed full of little features designed to make your comics look as good as possible and make reading them a pleasure.
FAQ
What kind of comics can Chunky read?
It can handle CBZs, CBRs, CBTs, and PDFs, and if they contain CBI/ComicbookLover or ComicRack tag info it'll read and use that too.
If you have a choice of formats, CBZ should be your first choice - it has the least potential for weird problems (and really CBR and CBT have no reason to exist at all).
What do I get if I buy the Pro upgrade?
You get the ability to download comics directly from your PC/Mac in a variety of ways (SMB, AFP, FTP, SFTP, OPDS, Calibre, Ubooquity and ComicStreamer), the ability to tweak the app's colour-scheme, the option to auto-crop page borders, zap watermarks from some PDFs, download a folderful of images as a single comic, and a warm fuzzy feeling from supporting an app you (hopefully) like.
How do I switch reading direction?
Hit the little arrow at the bottom-left, under the page number.
How do I connect to a Ubooquity server?
First, go to 'Advanced' in Ubooquity and switch on 'Enable OPDS feed'. Hit 'Apply and restart server' for this to take effect.
Now open the 'General' section and make a note of your network address.
In Chunky, add a 'Calibre / Ubooquity / OPDS' account. In the dialog that pops up, in the server field enter your Ubooquity server's network address, and add opds-comics onto the end of it. It should look something like this: 192.168.1.100:2202/opds-comics.
How do I import comics from my PC or Mac over wifi? (Pro upgrade required)
First, share the folder with your comics on your PC or Mac
In Chunky, hit 'Edit' or '+' at the top left of the cloud menu, and pick 'Windows shared folder'
Hit the little radar button in the dialog that appears, and you should get a list of local computers including yours
Pick your computer and fill in your username and password for your computer (or if you shared the folder with everyone, try leaving them blank)
Now hit 'Connect' and if all is well, navigate to the subfolder you want to add to Chunky and pick 'Select'.
If you get stuck, don't hesitate to get in touch via the Tools menu and ask for help
Ugh, is there a simpler way?
Yep, you can try Chunky's web interface (Pro upgrade required)
Turn on the app's web-server using the switch at the bottom of the cloud menu. Enter the address it gives you into a web-browser on your computer and you should get a web-page with an area you can drop comics into to send them to Chunky.
Does Chunky run on the iPhone?
I spent a while on this, but it was no fun to work on and not much fun to use so I eventually gave up. I might come back to it someday but probably not for a while. Sorry.
How about an Android version?
Sorry, I'd really love to support more platforms but I don't have the time and energy to do a good enough job of it.
Desktop?
Again, no time or energy, and I don't really have any good ideas about how to make a great desktop reader either.
I'm on iOS7 and don't want to upgrade - can I still try the app?
Yep, but you'll be stuck with version 2.3.2 which has a few bugs (but nothing too bad).
Open iTunes on your PC or Mac, find Chunky in the App Store, and hit 'GET'. It should now show up for download on your iPad in the 'Purchased' section of the AppStore app.
Can Chunky talk BitTorrent Sync?
It's an awesome protocol and I'd love to support it if they every release an SDK (which is apparently in the works).
Why doesn't Chunky do [X]?
Get in touch and ask! I can't guarantee I'll add what you need, but most of Chunky's best features exist because someone asked for them.
Where do I get DRM-free comics?
Image Comics is home to a big range of crazy-good comics and all their new releases are available DRM-free. And Chunky can browse and download directly from your Image account so your whole library is always close-to-hand.
2000 AD also has a great online store for all your Ol' Stony Face needs.
Top Shelf has released a first wave of DRM-free books, including the excellent 'Heck' and 'Crater XV'.
Humble Bundle do incredibly good-value comics bundles and they change often so you should check back regularly. Protip: You can import comics from your library directly using Chunky's webview.
Many Golden- and Silver-Age comics are now in the public domain, and The Digital Comic Museum and Comic Book Plus both do great work collecting and publishing these online for you to download completely free.
There are also a ton of interesting independent and auteur comics and publishers out there who've gone DRM-free; a few to check out include Panel Syndicate, Double Barrel, The Bunker, Thrillbent, Manta Ray, The Uniques and Rainbow in the Dark.
Got a comic or publisher that you think should be on this list? Tell me!
I forgot my passcode, how do I get past the parental lock?
You can do an emergency unlock like so: Connect your iPad to your PC/Mac, open up iTunes, browse to your iPad and click the 'Apps' tab. Scroll down and find and select Chunky in the File Sharing section. Now you need to drop a file named "iforgotmypasscode.txt" into Chunky's Documents window - this can be a blank file you make with TextEdit or whatever, but make sure it's name exactly matches, including it being all lower-case. Now in Chunky hit 'Parental Lock'.
Note to naughty kids reading this: The last 3 emergency unlocks will be listed in the parental controls section, so your folks are probably going to notice and have some difficult questions for you.
I got the upgrade but it didn't do what I expected it to
I can't refund you directly, but Apple is normally really good about giving refunds, no questions asked - I'd much rather you get your money back than have an unhappy customer. Check here for how to ask Apple.
Why 'Chunky'?
No good reason. I like chunky knitwear, chunky rice, chunky bacon, Chunk from The Goonies. Plus it comes early in the alphabet so you don't have to scroll too far down the iTunes file loading screen.This is the story of a man who has yet to realize what destiny holds in store for him…
In the distant future, mankind has lived quietly and restlessly underground for hundreds of years, subject to earthquakes and cave-ins. Living in one such village are 2 young men: one named Simon who is shy and naïve, and the other named Kamina who believes in the existence of a “surface” world above their heads. The destiny of these two starts moving drastically when the ceiling of their village falls in, and a gigantic “Gunmen” and a beautiful girl named Yoko, wielding a superconductive rifle, come from the surface. Together, Kamina, Simon and Yoko ride the mecha “Lagann” that Simon digs out of the ground, and fly up to the surface!Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the South Florida Fair Expo Center on Thursday in West Palm Beach, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Donald Trump is displeased with the media. He expressed this displeasure during his speech in West Palm Beach, Florida on Thursday. The problem is that the media has taken his own words about how he lunges at women and starts kissing and groping them, and turned up real-world instances of him allegedly doing so. Trump is used to getting away with this sort of chatter, these sorts of actions. He’s not getting away with it now, and it infuriates him.
So disruptive is this rare moment of accountability to everything Donald Trump’s ever known in 40-plus years of public life that he can’t just blame the media, either. He can’t just blame the Clintons. That he’s losing the presidential race, and facing public allegations of past sexual assault from more women every day is, in his mind, the sign of a global conspiracy. It’s all he’s got.
A conspiracy. As we’ve seen in the WikiLeaks hack, Trump said early in his speech, “Hillary Clinton meets in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers, her special interest friends and her donors.” (Donald Trump’s Jewish son-in-law Jared Kushner has assured us that he’s not an anti-Semite.) After this line, the crowd began chanting “lock her up!”
“So true,” Trump responded. “Honestly, she should be locked up. She should be.”
But back to the conspiracy. The vehicle through which this globalist “plot” is carried out, Trump asserted, is the “corporate media,” the “most powerful weapon deployed by the Clintons.” He then went on this rampage:
The corporate media in our country is no longer involved in journalism. They’re a political special interest no different than any lobbyist or other financial entity with a total political agenda. And the agenda is not for you, it’s for themselves. And their agenda is to elect crooked Hillary Clinton at any cost, at any price, no matter how many lives they destroy.
For them, it’s a war. And for them, nothing at all is out of bounds. This is a struggle for the survival of our nation. Believe me. And this will be our last chance to save it on November 8th. Remember that. This election will determine whether we’re a free nation or whether we have only the illusion of democracy but are, in fact, controlled by a small handful of global special interests rigging the system. And our system is rigged. This is reality. You know it. They know it. I know it. And pretty much the whole world knows it.
The establishment and their media enablers wield control over this nation through means that are very well known. Anyone who challenges their control is deemed a sexist, a racist, a xenophobe and morally deformed. They will attack you. They will slander you. They will seek to destroy your career and your family. They will seek to destroy everything about you, including your reputation. They will lie, lie, lie. And then, again, they will do worse than that. They will do whatever’s necessary. The Clintons are criminals, remember that, they’re criminals.
He described all of the groping allegations flooding into media streams Wednesday evening as “false,” “vicious,” “fabricated,” “outright lies.” He seemed to signal that he would go on the offensive against each of them: “These events never, ever happened. And the people that said them fully understand. You take a look at these people. You study these people and you’ll understand also.” In particular he singled out the New York Times and People magazine stories. Of the latter, he instructed his supporters to “take a look. You take a look. Look at her. Look at her words. You tell me what you think. I don’t think so.” In other words, the People reporter who is alleging assault wasn’t hot enough to be assaulted.
“These attacks are orchestrated by the Clintons and their media allies,” Trump said as he tried to move on. “The only thing Hillary Clinton has going for herself is the press.”
Read more Slate coverage of the 2016 campaign.If you had free rein over two giant billboards in central London for just under a week, what would you do with them?
That was the question faced by Rebecca Ross,a lecturer in communication design at the Central Saint Martins art school, when she undertook some consultancy work for billboard firm Outdoor Plus. As part of her remuneration, the firm gave her use of two of its electronic billboards, in Holborn and Aldgate.
So, what do do with them? Most of us, let's face it, would probably fill the space with our Instragram feed, or with pictures of cats, or with our Instagram feed about cats. But, as part of the "London is Changing" project, Ross has been collecting anonymised, individual testimonies of why people are leaving or arriving in London. She's using the billboards to highlight her research into the personal stories behind London's migration patterns.
Part of the appeal lay in the chance to highlight a socially conscious message "in an environment, and on a a scale, usually reserved for a sponsored corporate message," Ross says. The London is Changing board in Holborn is running between a Cadbury advert and an advert for the government's Good for Business campaign.
More importantly, though, Ross believes the complex demographics of London aren't thoroughly understood, and are often oversimplified:
The reason it's called "London is changing" and not "London is getting crap" or "London is selling out" or "London is getting too expensive" or "leaving London" is because the situation is actually much more complicated and nuanced than that.
We know anecdotally that there are loads of people coming to London for work from other European countries, for example, where there aren't many work opportunities. Their situation is different to the middle class situation we so often hear about. There are lots of reasons why people relocate – sometimes they're relocating because there are important opportunities here that there aren't elsewhere.
Of course, many are also forced out of London by rising prices: of the 155 responses the project has attracted so far, "most are from people leaving", Ross says. She hopes that the visibility of the billboards will encourage a more diverse range of testimonies, however – and more of those lesser-heard stories of new arrivals in London, who may have been less likely to hear about the project through social networks and university mailing lists.
Once the project is completed, Ross aims to combine the testimonies with more "statistically rigorous" numerical datasets on demographics in different areas (while the testimonies are anonymous, they do ask for respondents' borough). The responses will also be available to download in full online.
Here are a selection of the testimonies collected so far, taken from those that'll be shown on the billboards until Friday. First, the comments from some of those who are moving to London:
...and why others are leaving:
If you've moved to, from, or within London within the past year, or plan to in the next, you can leave your own testimonial for the project here. Responses will be collected until the end of the year.
Like what you see? Why not follow CityMetric on Facebook or Twitter. Go on, we're lovely.The year is 1975. There was yet to be a female prime minister in the UK, Monty Python and the Holy Grail was in the cinemas and Queen released Bohemian Rhapsody.
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?
No doubt, however, you will agree though that the biggest thing to hit in 1975 was the board game Ulcers. A game about corporations and hierarchy for ages 9-90.
If your grandad wants to play on his 91st birthday (as you traditionally have done for the last decade) tell him to naff off. “You’re too old, gramps!”
Will you be the first to get that perfectly blended company of two receptionists, two salesmen, two sales managers, one vice president and one president?
I bet you will. Your first question is probably, what does that have to do with Ulcers? Is it some gross metaphor on capitalism festering away on your insides?
Well, the game makers, as well as being business consultant gurus (probably), just so happened to be A-grade psychologists, as that is the first thing they set straight in the manual.
“Why is the game called Ulcers? Ulcers is a not so serious take off of serious business. Ulcers has all the excitement, the strategies and nerve wrecking decisions you have to face in setting up a decision in real life yet it’s only a game although there will be times you might easily forget this.”
That cleared that up?
No?
Good.
Moving on.
What’s the first thing you need when setting up a business ideas?
“A business idea and plan!” I hear you cry.
No.
“Money?”
Yep. Here’s $50,000.
“People?”
Exactly, you got it first try.
Mate, you dropped your ulcer card.
No one needs a fancy shmancy business idea just get some cash and hire some people, it’s easy. And none of your modern flat hierarchies either. It’s imperative that despite your goal being to build an eight person company you MUST ensure maximum hierarchy.
As mentioned before, the object of the game is to go around hiring these people to make your company great – but make sure you don’t pay anyone from the lower ranks more the people above them.
The rules make a whimsical meta commentary on this
“Theoretically, any number of employees of different rank may be all paid at the same salary level (But somehow it never happens in real life, does it?)”
And quite right, we’ll have none of your communism propaganda here.
“When you hire an employee, place him (or her)”. I love that little (or her). It’s the game’s vague attempt at recognising equal rights.
“I guess an employee could be a woman” it begrudgingly says.
The patriarchy was clearly strong in 1975 though, as despite women having jobs, in this game they can only be receptionists. There are no promotions, no Marissa Meyers or Hillary Clintons in this world – so
Ulcers says a woman’s job is to take calls and type up notes for the more important men *rolls eyes*.
So we’re all set up, we’ve got our starting cash, dice, pawn-thing, the board.
We best play then. Roll away.
Double six!
Great start. “Do I get to roll again after this go?” Joel (doesn’t) ask me.
Let me consult the rules on that.
“Doubles do not entitle you to another turn and money may never be borrowed from the bank.”
So sorry, no it doesn’t.
I love that in 1975 that had to be spelled out. I imagine it causing a family feud as dad flips the table “WHAT IS THIS PIECE OF CRAP THAT DOESN’T LET ME MOVE TWICE ON DOUBLES!” And “Look I’m just going to borrow this from the bank, I need it, I’ll pay it back … shut up Jimmy this receptionist needs a pay rise now … go to your room”
After a few goes I had a two person company of a vice-president and a sales manager I had poached from Joel’s company with an alluring pay rise.
Oh no! I’ve landed on Scandal!
I must pay $25k OR fire my most important male employee and fire a receptionist (remember they’re all female) or their names and my company will be dragged through the mud.
The game never actually says what the scandal is, but given those are my options I guess the cliche boss and his receptionist trope is strong here.
I only have men in my company, but I can’t pay the fine.
Joel insists I fire him, I assume without any women in this office he was just caught furiously masturbating by a local photographer.
Mostly that is what you are doing, trying to hire and poach employees and rolling dice randomly moving around the board landing on squares It’s all fairly mundane in practice.
One square soon became my particular favourite, the “business venture” square.
Like all real life business ventures you put up your stake, you roll a single dice and the space you land on tells you how you’ve done. Options include ‘investment doubles’, ‘investment triples’ or the dreaded final square ‘investment wiped out’.
I tried “Business Ventures” three times and had somehow had my investment wiped out each time, but this time would be different.
I threw down my remaining $50,000 and began to roll.
Doubles.
Triples.
Doubles.
Triples.
DONE.
$1.8m! JACKPOT.
Given that the most I can pay anyone is $200,000 (the game insists no employee can be paid more, or would seemingly want to be) and that I only need eight employees to win I literally have more money than I will ever need.
Joel looked at his $30k and three receptionists and said “this game is shit”.
We stopped playing and I doubt you will ever start.
Note: When we later looked it up Ulcers was actually first released in 1969. That’s at least 6 years of reprints…. uhhNathaniel Comfort takes |
records were about ten years ago. So it’s those two, and then the third is either “Endtroducing” by DJ Shadow, “Tortoise” by Tortoise and “At Action Park” by Shellac. The first two are are always the same, and then the other one always changes.
I went to Red Bull Music Academy in 2011, and the application form has a mixture of questions about music, like what five tracks would you play if you were headlining a DJ show, what are the best records of all time, and so on. It’s a difficult task, like, draw us a map of your record collection, or a rough picture of where you fit into the musical universe. It’s quite good though, and I think it’s kind of the same every year, which leads me to believe the questions have some sort of purpose and that they understand what the different responses mean.”
RBMA seems like a really inspiring place. What you think is different since you went there? “Everything’s completely different because what they do is, they throw you together with people who are from really different backgrounds and probably make really different music and have really different views on things even, but somehow who you’re going to get on with really easily – which I think this is the point of the ridiculous form: they’re working out how to build a group that’s going to get on. And that’s the first thing, it immediately puts you inside a community, which I think is useful for musicians, especially when there’s much less of a concept of a localized scene these days. There’s something about having some kind of musical family. And then my own context was that I had just quit my job; I’d been working the same office job for five or six years, and I had just quit it to do music, and maybe a few weeks after I’d handed in my notice, I got into RBMA and it was kind of like a sign that maybe this wasn’t a terrible idea. So that’s kind of what changed for me – the people that I met, now I have these musical friends from all around the world, and I kind of feel like it gave me the confidence to pursue music as a career.”
Well, it definitely seems to have worked out. You mentioned a localized scene, and obviously that’s central to the LuckyMe crew. How did you get involved with them? I assume you were friends with Dominic.. “Yeah, basically me and Dominic worked together: his first job after school and a university job of mine, we worked in the same shop. He then moved to Glasgow and went to art college, and when he came back to Edinburgh he was the graphic designer for a clothing brand and I would often just go and sit in the shop and hang out with him when I had nothing to do. And one time he asked me if I had any music, so I played him the Myspace tracks from my band American Men, which had been written about a week before or something, and I played about the first four bars of the first song and he was like, “Oh, you know I run a record label, do you want to put something out?” And that was pretty much it.”
I feel like it’s more than just a record label though; there’s a whole concept going on, with the art and the parties and the mixtapes. And of course everything blew up last year with the TNGHT release with Warp, and now LuckyMe seems to be taking over the airwaves too. “I guess that was it, it was always there from the start. Like, when it first started I was looking at it like, yeah it’s just some mates putting on a club night in Glasgow, but Dom and Martin – the other guy who runs LuckyMe – sort of insisted that it was a more complete concept, and I think time’s definitely proven them right. Because I’m not in the UK I don’t hear the radio, but when I was back over Christmas, I can’t remember where it was – it was like Gap or Topman or something – I heard them playing “Higher Ground” and it was a bit strange.”
You live in Berlin now, don’t you? Was there any particular reason for moving? “Well, as I said I quit my job to focus on music and Edinburgh’s quite expensive, and I kind of felt there wasn’t going to be a great deal going on for me there. I’d already planned on going travelling for a while, and spent the first six or seven months of last year in Asia, and I just needed somewhere cheaper to come back to. I’ve got friends here, too. It’s funny, I read something just recently. It was a kind of article that a lot of people were sharing on Facebook, which was written by an Australian guy, about Berlin killing creativity. And a lot of people that I know that shared that article are people who live here, and they’re just like, bullshit, the reason this guy didn’t meet anybody who was working in Berlin was because if you’re working, you’re not meeting people.
I find this a really easy place to be creative. I was looking at my iTunes – which is how I judge how creative I’ve been – and since I’ve been in Berlin, I’ve written about seventy tracks or something. That’s as many as I’ve probably written in the past few years put together, and that’s not sitting in the house doing nothing else either, as I went out quite a lot during the summer. I kind of feel that it is quite an inspiring, creative place. I sometimes get the impression that what spurs the whole gentrification process – I guess I can say this because I used to be an office worker – is office workers who want to be cool and want to be “creative” identify that an area has a vibe and a creative reputation and then they’re just gonna move there, either because they’re deluded that it’s going to make them into an artist, or they just want to feed off that vibe, just want to go to bars that are full of graphic designers or whatever. There’s definitely an element of that here. I mean, I’m aware that I could be seen as an enormous cliché, you know – quit my job, a British person who doesn’t speak a word of German, moves to Kreuzberg, tells people he’s a musician… the difference is whether you’re actually producing stuff.”
Of course, it’s not your background that matters either as long as you’re creating. Talking of which, what’s going on musically for you these days? “It’s all been a bit hectic actually… the original plan was to do just an EP for LuckyMe, this kind of very particular strain of stuff I’d been doing recently, this droney, orchestral stuff, and then I did a remix for Kuedo, and off the back of that sent out some demos, and then Mike Paradinas from Planet Mu asked me to do an album, and then LuckyMe asked me to extend the EP into an album. So technically I’m doing two albums. It isn’t stressful, but it’s busy.”
You’re also really into pop as well, aren’t you? There’s this great Katy Perry remix on your Soundcloud… “I was talking to my girlfriend about this last night actually. She played me an M83 track because I’d never heard them, and it was like the second or the third track on the album, and it sounded like the Cult, or some sort of ’80s band. I’d never really thought about it in this way, but it occurred to me that there’s something about a lot of super serious music that’s actually quite draining, and it can be – well, I don’t want to say it’s a harrowing experience, but even if they’re not miserable records, listening to a lot of records takes a lot of energy away from you, and there’s something quite recharging about pop music. It doesn’t ask very much from you. I think that done the right way it can be a really good thing. I’m not saying all pop music is good, because it’s obviously just not, in fact most of it I would say is pretty dire, but the good stuff is really worthwhile I think.”
Stream: Claude Speeed – New Age Dream /// teeeeenage droneee
Oh yeah. Pop music is amazing, just a different kind of amazing from, like, arcane synth jams. “Yeah. I’ve heard Justin Timberlake’s got a new album coming out actually.” I heard the new track, it’s okay. “I listened to the first thirty seconds of it but I wasn’t into it. But I felt the same way about his second record. “Justified” I liked straight away, but the second one took me a while to get in to. I hated the first single, the lyrics are like, “If I wrote you a symphony,” and it’s totally brilliant. If someone played it at a party, I’d say this is one of my favourite tracks, but when it first came out, I thought it was rubbish. I actually do have some hope that the record will be really good.”
Maybe, that whole publicity stunt and the Myspace thing was pretty annoying though. “Oh yeah, he endorses Myspace, doesn’t he.” Dude, he owns it. “Really?” Yeah, he bought it. “No fucking way. I did not know that.” And they relaunched Myspace today, so if you go on it it’s just Justin Timberlake in a suit and tie, looking ridiculous. “Jesus Christ… oh Jesus, come on. That’s all that’s there. I tried to scroll down and there’s nothing. I think we should bring Tom back.” I think Tom’s quite enjoying retirement, having sold Myspace for about half a billion pounds. “Yeah, if he ever existed. Like, was he real? I always had my doubts.”
You know, I don’t know, maybe he actually wasn’t real. I never even thought of that. Going vaguely back on topic, you make synth music, obviously. Could you tell me a little about your current set up? “When the American Men record came out in 2010, people would ask what gear we were using and the honest answer at that point was the same as the honest answer at this point: everything’s made using an 11-inch laptop. It’s all soft synths. I think there’s maybe one of the Planet Mu songs where I used a a Waldorf Blofeld, which is like one of those little synths, but basically I was too lazy to figure out how to use it. I sold my bike and bought that synth, and used it for one show and one track, and then I haven’t used it since.”
On that mix, there’s a track called “Yolo Artdog”. Could you tell me a bit about that? “It was a wee while ago last year when absolutely everything had the hashtag #YOLO on it, hence the stupid name. I was at the kind of art show where they take over a whole village in or a whole town in Germany, an enormous contemporary art fair. They have a big park in the middle and there was this dog running around, like this beautiful short-haired white dog – I don’t know what kind of dog it was actually – but this really regal-looking dog with one leg painted pink. It would run around and climb up on things, and everybody was just watching it as if it was going to say something but of course it just sat there looking at people and looking good, and then got up and ran away again. And that’s the story of the YOLO artdog.”
Great story. Last question: when was the last time you danced? “On Friday I was at a friend’s housewarming party. It was all people from RBMA – not everyone, but one person’s moved from Helsinki, and the other person’s moved form Istanbul. So they’ve just moved in together and they played “Swimming Pools” by Kendrick Lamar, I reckon… I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say 15 times, and I danced about 5 times. I’m not gonna go into the details but it was not the most inappropriate song to play at that party.”
Any final words of wisdom? “Shoutout to Martyn for totally getting and supporting my weird reinterpretation of his amazing “We Are You In The Future”, and to three of my RBMA homies here in Germany, Gora Sou, Phoebe Kiddo and Biblo, and also Sevendeaths (aka John Awesome from American Men), all of whom have tracks in this mix.”
Truancy Volume 62: Claude Speeed by TRUANTS
Claude Speeed – Traumwelt Mix for Truants
Tracklisting:
Claude Speeed – Bantei Srey Intro
Gora Sou – Volleyball Girls
Martyn – We Are You in the Future (Claude Speeed’s “You Are Us in the Past” Remix)
Claude Speeed – Spectrall Trance
Claude Speeed – Live Forever Flamingo Master
Claude Speeed – Fifth Fortress
Claude Speeed – Crushed Rave
Phoebe Kiddo – Psyche
Biblo – Tim
Gora Sou – Babylon Weeping Willow
Suzanne Ciani – Lixiviation
Claude Speeed – MP1
Claude Speeed – R U Sorry?
A Winged Victory For The Sullen – Minuet For Cheap Piano
American Men – Yolo Artdog NYC (Prenzlauerberg Demo)
Sevendeaths – All Night Graves
Claude Speeed – Guitar Music Memo OutroLeonard Campanello’s take on the war on drugs has evolved as pilot program in Massachusetts works to help addicts toward recovery instead of prison
'No one starts with a needle in their arm': a police chief fights drugs with empathy
Located about 40 miles from Boston, the city of Gloucester looks like a postcard. It boasts quaint cafes, art galleries and bookstores, while the harbor brims with boats. But lately, the city has been drawing national attention for something other than its popularity as a summer spot.
On 1 June, the Gloucester police department began a pilot program in which any opioid addict can walk into the police station at any time, surrender their drugs and related paraphernalia, and not be arrested. Instead, they are fast-tracked into a recovery program. No one is turned away, regardless of their income, where they are from, or what insurance they have.
Thirty days in, 30 individuals have taken advantage of the new initiative and are now in rehabilitation. Though most of those who have entered the program in the past month are from Massachusetts, several have travelled from out of state, including one person who drove 11 hours from New Jersey, and another who flew in from California.
“We try to place everyone as easily and quickly as possible,” says Leonard Campanello, the chief of police in Gloucester.
When a person with an addiction first comes into the station seeking help, they are assigned an “angel”, someone whose duty it is to simply stand by their side, hold their hand and offer support while a treatment plan is formed.
“Many of the people we have worked with have said having an angel made the difference,” Campanello says.
If a local bed at an affordable rate cannot be found for someone seeking treatment, the Gloucester police department locates a recovery program that will offer its services at a serious discount or on a scholarship basis, with people in the initiative being sent to treatment facilities as far away as Florida.
“It’s a dirty myth that there are not enough beds available,” Campanello says. “It’s a myth that has to do with stigma and money.”
So far, the police department has partnered with more than 20 addiction recovery institutions across the country.
When asked if he has received more personal feedback on the program, Campanello points to a corner of his desk, which is covered with a thick, colorful stack of “thank you” cards from people around the country. He then presses play on his answering machine, which transmits the trembling, tear-choked voices of parents of some of the individuals in the program.
“You saved my son’s life,” says one man. “I don’t know if you are a father, but if you are, I’m sure you know what this means to me.”
Chief Campanello – who is a father – has worked in law enforcement for 25 years, seven of which he spent as a plainclothes narcotics detective. During this time, his perspective on drug addiction has changed considerably.
“I have spent a lot of time analyzing the data,” Campanello says. “And the science proves that [addiction] is a disease, not a crime.”
Campanello’s sentiments are representative of a shift in attitudes toward addiction that has been slowly occurring in the US, which leads the world in incarceration rates and where more than half of the prison population is serving time for drug-related offenses.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heroin overdose deaths in the US have quadrupled since 2000, with overdoses now surpassing car accidents as the number one cause of injury-related deaths in the nation. This huge increase is largely due to the explosion of prescription availability for opioid painkillers such as OxyContin, Vicodin and Percocet, which increased to nearly 207m in 2013 from 76m in 1991.
In fact, the US accounts for nearly 100% of the world demand total for Vicodin and 81% for Percocet.
However, recent tightening of regulations on prescription availability and reduced insurance coverage of opioid painkillers has led many to seek out its much cheaper street alternative, heroin, with 77% of heroin users reporting trying prescription painkillers first.
Last year, 1,000 people died of opiate overdoses in Massachusetts, 11 from Gloucester. This year, six more people have died of overdoses in the city, which is what prompted Campanello and his colleagues to take action.
“No one starts out with a needle in their arm,” says Campanello.
Alex Doyle, co-owner of the Gloucester pharmacy Conley’s, agrees. “Nobody dreams of growing up to be a drug addict,” he says.
Conley’s works in partnership with the Gloucester initiative to offer Nasal Narcan, an opiate antagonist that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose, to anyone who wants it, regardless of cost. The Gloucester police department has offered to foot the bill for anyone whose insurance does not cover it with money seized from previous drug busts.
“The goal here is to try to remove financial barriers to access,” Doyle says. “This way someone can have a second chance and get the help they need.”
The Gloucester program is already having a ripple effect.
At the end of June, the Massachusetts governor, Charlie Baker, announced a $27m plan to treat drug addicts. In particular, $800,000 of these funds have been earmarked specifically for an “addiction awareness campaign” to reduce the stigma surrounding addiction.
The plan also calls for 100 new treatment beds in the state, half of which are due to open up starting this month. Meanwhile, Mayor Marty Walsh of Boston said he is considering implementing a similar program to Gloucester in his city.
In response to this interest from other cities and towns, Campanello and several others founded the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI), a nonprofit offers resources to other police departments interested in adopting a similar method for addressing addiction. This past week, PAARI awarded the Massachusetts town of Arlington a $5,000 grant to fund an outreach initiative there modeled after the Gloucester program.
“We fought the war on drugs and it was a good fight, but we lost,” he says. “We’ve done as much as we can to attack this thing from the supply side. Now we need to try to attack it from the demand side.”Your Financial Wingman Debit or credit? No worries - we got you, bro!
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On a separate note, an upshot in relationship breakdown and soaring divorce rates is being witnessed globally. Several newspapers articles confirm similar trends in all segments of the socially stratified Pakistani society. This brings us to the conjecture, is there a link between the use of social media and growing discord?
Through research done mostly in the OECD countries, the detrimental effects of social media are becoming apparent. Earlier this year it was revealed that people are now more likely to make new friends online than in real life. The same goes for choosing a partner/spouse. This fact may seem trivial to the youth, as courtesy social networking, they have never been as exposed to such high numbers of acquaintances and that too ubiquitously. However, it was a more recent research carried out in the UK of which the results are far more telling.
A survey of 2,000 people was conducted by the family law firm Slater and Gordan [1]. It highlights that about 14% people have contemplated divorce because of their partner’s activity on social media.
“Almost 25% said they had at least one row a week because of their partner’s use of social media while 17 % said they argued because of it on a daily basis.
Nearly 5% of the surveyed were upset that their partner did not post any pictures of them together. 15% considered social media dangerous for their marriage. Respondents deemed Facebook most hazardous, followed by WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram. Interestingly, nearly 10% admitted hiding images and posts from their partner while 8% admitted having secret social media accounts.
Almost a third said they keep their social media log-in details a secret from their partners. A further 58 % admit to knowing their partner’s log-in details, even if their spouse was not aware they knew them.”
In light of these survey results, it is crucial to dig deeper into why a technology that has been instrumental in bringing people closer virtually is tearing them apart physically. Why are relationships getting undermined?
To converge towards an answer, a condition psychologist are calling the “online dis-inhibition effect” needs to be understood. Dr. John Suler first used the term in his article published in Journal of Cyberpsychology and Behaviour (Volume: 7 Issue 3:2004). He explored why some people self-disclosed or acted out more frequently or intensely online than they would in person. Dr Suler points out six factors namely invisibility, asynchronicity, solipsistic introjection, dissociative imagination, and minimization of authority that lead to disinhibitive behaviour.
In short, the “online disinhibition effect” (ODE) allows people to let their guard down and break-off from social conversational norms when communicating with people online. This is mainly because of lack of direct and synchronous feedback.
While ODE can be directly linked to several cyber ills such as, trolling, cyber bullying, blackmailing, child grooming and phishing but its connection to the strain on relationships is more shrouded.
Experts say that ODE can lead a person to share intimate thoughts with someone further afield that would be otherwise too embarrassing to share with someone in close proximity. This degree of openness has its thrills but drives a wedge of irony between couples living together. Your spouse, who is physically close to you, becomes psychologically distant. While people living thousand miles away are more aware of you then they aught to be. This sharing of information is often seen by one party as an assault on the intimacy of the relationship.
The sense of diminished responsibility (as triggered by ODE) is also making difficult for people to bury the proverbial skeletons in the closet. Social media enhances the temptation of not only keeping tabs on your former partner/s but re-engaging with little foresight.
Anne Chilton the head of counselling at Relationship Scotland was not surprised about the survey results. She explained that the amount of time spent on social media is also another factor. Marriages breaking down because of a workaholic spouse are a known phenomenon. The use of social media effects in a similar way. This disdain for not the type of activity but the time of activity on social media was also reflected in the survey.
The telecom industry in Pakistan is vibrant to say the least. It is a sector that has witnessed unparalleled growth and continues raking riches. While scanning the TV adverts across many Pakistani channels, a pattern is observed. It is largely telecom adverts that are the mainstay of the screen time and are only occasionally punctuated by detergents or soft drinks commercials.
In trying to be progressive, the adoption of technology is considered incumbent by many. The replication of global modern culture often leaves us caricatured particularly when we find certain values countering our own. Some may argue that growing out of the ODE through further exposure is the right way forward. However, it should be realized that the survey results presented herein are from UK, a country that is much more tolerant and progressive than our own country. The fissures created by ODE in our conservative society would run deeper.
Exercising restraint on a newly found freedom is a hard task but the perils of pulling all stops have now become apparent. We are living in transition times where more and more of our lives are spent glaring at screens. We dont have to run amok with this technology or ostracize ourselves. We just need to tread cautiously for it is now easier than ever to transform between Jekyll and Hyde by literally twiddling thumbs.
In the UK, children are being educated not to post anything online which they would not in public. Similar awareness programs should run in our country, financed by the flourishing telecom industry to educate our next generation about the pitfalls of power they have in their hands. Equally important is to inform adults for taking a balanced approach while using social media. It has been globally acknowledged that for a healthy society marriage is a fundamental building block. Let’s try to safeguard ourselves from online inhibition effect and avert the harm it can bring to our relationships.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/science-technology/social-media-now-marriage-wrecker-5608126Nearly three-quarters of Millennials in the US want a new party
By Tony Colton
13 December 2017
Last month, NBC News and the University of Chicago conducted a survey of young adults between ages 18-34, known commonly as “Millennials”, which found that an increasing number of young Americans express concern or dissatisfaction with the current two-party electoral system in the United States.
Nearly half of all those surveyed expressed “strong disapproval” of the current Trump administration, while only six percent voiced strong approval of the president. More than half answered with disapproval of “the way Congress is doing its job” and over 60 percent stated that “this country is...on the wrong track.”
When asked “What best describes your feelings about what Donald Trump is doing as President?” 74 percent answered either “concerned” or “scared”, while only four percent expressed excitement. Half of those polled said that Trump will go down in history as “a poor president,” with only six percent predicting that he will be remembered as “a great president.”
Most notably however, when asked “In your view, do the Republican and Democratic parties do an adequate job of representing the American people, or do they do such a poor job that a third major party is needed?” an overwhelming majority, 71 percent, answered that a “third party is needed.”
The latest report is further confirmation of the growing radicalization among students and young workers and above all a growing disillusionment among the Millennial generation with the Democratic Party. Confronted with rising inequality, nearly three decades of unending war, and a fascistic billionaire demagogue president, the younger generation is not expecting any viable opposition to come from the Democratic Party.
Selena, an undergraduate at Wayne State University in Detroit, told the WSWS that she was not surprised by the report. “I am a part of the 71 percent of Millennials that would support a third party. I think it is clear to most that both parties are failing. One of the biggest issues for me is that both parties are overcome with special interests; every issue is driven by money. I think the main problem people have with two parties is that they know the candidates who are put forward are just puppets of larger forces.”
The abandonment of the Democratic Party can largely be explained by understanding the experience of the Obama administration, which was brought to power on a wave of antiwar sentiment among young people and promises of a better future under the slogan of “Hope and Change.”
What the Obama administration delivered was, in fact, the opposite.
After funneling trillions of dollars of taxpayer money to the banks and auto industry; escalating United States military involvement around the world—from Iraq and Afghanistan, under Bush, to Syria, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan and Yemen; constructing the world’s most massive domestic surveillance apparatus and persecuting whistleblowers; killing tens of thousands of innocent people with an illegal drone program and openly authorizing the assassination of US citizens; overseeing the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in history, it should come as no surprise that large segments of youth and students became disillusioned with the empty rhetoric of the Democratic Party.
Asked about why she opposed the Democratic Party, Selena criticized, above all, the foreign policy of the Obama administration. “The Obama administration oversaw the murder of Gaddafi which was orchestrated by Hillary Clinton. I think Hillary Clinton is a really bad example of what should be considered ‘left.’ I mean yes, a progressive women president might sound nice but does it matter if she is a woman if she is demonizing layers of the population and pushing for things like the industrial prison complex?”
Speaking about the conditions facing youth, Selena explained that after eight years with Obama in power most Millennials find themselves living “in a very precarious state. Many students I know are homeless and the others are at risk of being homeless. They don’t know what they will do to live from one month to the next. Most of my friends are at minimum wage jobs. Some jobs that require a bachelor's degree nowadays only pay $12 an hour which is really not even $25,000 a year before taxes.”
The devastating effect of the “Obama experience” was most conclusively illustrated in the 2016 election. In Hillary Clinton, workers, youth, and students, like Selena, saw a continuation and intensification of the pro-war and pro-corporate policies of the Obama administration. Unlike Obama, Clinton did not even give the pretense of being an anti-establishment or anti-war candidate but rather campaigned openly as the candidate of war and Wall Street. Clinton’s campaign strategy was distinguished by her relentless promotion of identity politics and a complete disregard for the working class and the youth.
On the other hand, her competitor in the primaries, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, brought class issues to the forefront of his campaign by railing against “the billionaire class” and calling for a “political revolution.” The World Socialist Web Site explained from the outset of his campaign that Sanders, despite his populist rhetoric, was neither a socialist nor an independent, but a liberal apologist for an increasingly right-wing Democratic Party dispatched to redirect the leftward movement of workers and youth.
To the surprise of the Democratic Party and Sanders himself, millions of young people, seeing no future for themselves under the present system, sought an alternative to the big business politics that have dominated political life in the United States, and were attracted to Sanders’ promotion of class-based questions and his identification as a socialist.
That the nominal “socialist” Sanders was able to garner the support of some 13 million voters in the primaries was an indication, not of confidence in the Democratic Party, but instead an indictment of the party’s decades-long rightward shift. And, in the end, Sanders’ thirteen million supporters watched as he worked hand over foot to channel mass social discontent back into the dead end of the Democratic Party, which was completed by his full-throated endorsement of Hillary Clinton.
Eleven months into the Trump presidency, workers and youth face increasingly worsening conditions of life. Trump’s ultra-right cabinet is leading a full-on assault on living standards in the US with Congress passing massive corporate tax cuts.
Under these conditions Kahuk, a student at University of California in Berkeley, told the WSWS that he was deeply troubled by the prospects for youth and students in the world today.
“It is troubling to know that I'm entering a workforce where democratic rights have already largely been taken away. And that I'm part of a system that I didn't really have any consent over, paying for debts that I didn't really have any choice but take, but trying to enjoy school at the same time.” He added, “My life is inherently political because it feels like every decision I'm making is because of a system that was completely out of my control.”
When the WSWS asked Selena what she thought of prospects for the future she said she was confident that things could change, “There is a lot of unrest and discussion going on right now, particularly among young people. I think the youth are poised and ready to move the world.”
As more and more young people are beginning to realize, the solution to the crises of capitalism—concentrations of unimaginable wealth into fewer and fewer hands, more than a quarter-century of unending war, and the bolstering of far-right forces around the world—will not be found in either of two parties of Wall Street and the Pentagon, nor the pro-capitalist Green Party or the whole host of pseudo-left parties who supported Jill Stein, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. The present situation requires a party that bases its program scientifically on the objective lessons of history. That party is the Socialist Equality Party and its youth wing, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.New camera
After weeks of hacking away at my camera HAL for the OPX, I think I'm finally ready to release a beta version of this new camera software for my beloved OPO. This huge camera upgrade isn't quite perfect yet, so you may experience a few quirks when using it.This new camera software consists of:*Proprietary camera libraries from OxygenOS 2.2.0 for the OnePlus X*Rear-camera sensor calibration ported from the OnePlus XThese new proprietary libraries are completely incompatible with my current custom camera HAL for the OPO, so I had to make a new camera HAL from scratch using newer CAF sources. The new camera libraries from the OnePlus X gave me more control over the camera, so my new camera HAL comes with some shiny new features that I've written (finally, some anti-shake love for the OPO!).Here's the full list of features that the new camera HAL has:*4K UHD and DCI video recording*Intelligent anti-shake algorithm (significantly reduces motion blur when capturing photos)*Faster autofocus in low lighting conditions*No stuttering/frame drops in camera viewfinder (viewfinder frame rate won't go below 30 FPS)*Improved photo quality*Photo capture up to 4208x3120 resolution (instead of 4160x3120)*JPEG quality always forced to 100%To install the new camera software, flash the following 2 packages (you can flash them in any order):This is only compatible with my CM13.0 ROM. A version compatible with my CM12.1 ROM can be found here. Please report back on photo quality/overall camera experience. There are some costs to this (no manual shutter time greater than 1/5th of a second, and some others), so I'd like to know if this upgrade seems like it's worth it.Also, using flash is not reliable with Snapdragon Camera. Use Google Camera to take pictures with flash instead.One of the best stories coming from this year’s IIHF World Championship is the blossoming relationship between Capitals’ star centerman Nicklas Backstrom and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ young forward William Nylander. The two have led Team Sweden to the tournament final against Team Canada on Sunday, and are having a ton of fun along the way.
NoVa Caps previously wrote about the history between Nicklas Backstrom and the Nylander family. When Backstrom first arrived in the District before the 2007-08 NHL season, he was just 19, with no place to live. Fortunately for Backstrom, fellow Swede Michael Nylander and his family, which included young son, William, gave Backstrom a place to stay while he found a place of his own.
Now, just 10 years later, Backstrom and Nylander are linemates for Team Sweden, and doing serious damage in the 2017 IIHF World Championship. The two are responsible for seven of Tre Kronor’s 15 goals in just four games played together.
Pulling the “All-Nighter”
Backstrom arrived in Cologne, Germany for the Championship last Sunday morning, following an all-night flight from DC. The jet-lagged Backstrom would play in a preliminary round game later that evening, scoring a goal and an assist. His assist was a thing of beauty, setting up Nylander for Team Sweden’s third goal of the game.
Chemistry Off the Ice
Following Sweden’s semi-final win over Finland on Saturday, the Swedish duo faced the media line together where Backstrom decided to interject a bit of levity in the middle of Nylander’s post-game interview. [translated below]
First “their chemistry is wonderful”
Bäckis: you aren’t good at ping pong, right?
William: “you don’t have a chance”
Bäckis: “i kicked his ass before at least”
William: “he thinks he can beat me, but there’s no chance”
The two star players have developed a tremendous chemistry on and off the ice, and it’s been on full display this past week during the championship. The two have been seen numerous times smiling and joking with one another, looking to be really enjoying their time together. It’s clear a close relationship has developed between the two and that’s truly refreshing to see.
Now if we can just get Nylander to Washington.
By Jon Sorensen
Follow @NoVa_CapsCharles Hawkins: Saints minicamp Wednesday
Wide |
8, and cannot be appealed. The court is expected to schedule a hearing as soon as possible on a preliminary injunction, which would last until the courts ruled on the larger issue of whether Indiana ban’s is constitutional.
Castillo said the couple sought a temporary restraining order because that process moves faster than others. “It was more of an urgency issue,” he said.
Quasney and Sandler have been together 13 years and have two daughters, ages 1 and 2, conceived through “reproductive technology” and birthed by Sandler, according to their brief. In their federal complaint, the women argued that Indiana’s marriage law “encourages and invites private bias and discrimination, including in medical settings.”
The brief argued that if the state listed Quasney as unmarried it would interfere with Sandler’s ability to take care of her partner’s affairs after her death, and to access the safety net generally available to a surviving spouse and the children of the person who has died.
In Illinois, a same-sex couple in which one woman had cancer was the first to marry in the state after a federal judge ordered that they be granted an expedited marriage license ahead of the date when the state’s gay marriage law took effect. A subsequent judge’s ruling then paved the way for more same-sex couples to marry early in some Illinois counties. The big difference is that Illinois already had a law passed allowing gay marriage, though it had not yet gone into effect.
Although Indiana’s Legislature did not send a proposed state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage to a referendum this year, the state already bars gay marriage under a statute defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
The Courier-Journal contributed to this report.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Read or Share this story: http://cjky.it/1gR6lmvA North Korean defector living in South Korea said on Wednesday he has launched balloons carrying thousands of copies of the film “The Interview” to North Korea, despite protests from the isolated country and emailed death threats.
North Korea has denounced the Hollywood comedy featuring a fictional plot to assassinate the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, as an act of war and threatened retaliation if the film was released.
Lee Min-bok, a defector who left the North 20 years ago, said he had sent DVD copies of the film, dollar notes and anti-North leaflets in satchels tied to helium-filled balloons on four occasions, most recently on Saturday.
The launch of leaflets infuriates Pyongyang and has in recent months threatened to scuttle negotiations between the two Koreas. South Korean authorities have urged activists to refrain from launching leaflets on safety grounds, but say they have no legal grounds to stop them.
Lee said he received an email traced to an address in Shenyang, China, which warned that his head would be “shattered by the iron club of justice” and his arms “torn to pieces by the dagger of judgment” if he carried out the launches.
“I will keep sending balloons no matter what,” Lee told Reuters. The email was being investigated by South Korean authorities, he said.
Computer networks at Sony Pictures, which published the film, were crippled late last year in an attack by hackers who leaked unreleased films, employee data and internal emails.
The United States has said the attack was carried out by North Korea — an allegation Pyongyang denies.The UK should set up a Ministry of Immigration, assign “unique person numbers” to the population and reshape migration policy to suit British people, a think tank has recommended.
The new report, produced by Policy Exchange, calls for changes to Britain’s migration system which would see it better serve voters’ needs. It advises the country reduce its dependence on migrants and instead invest in training its own citizens.
Authoring the report, David Goodhart argues that UK should set up a Department of Immigration. This, it states, would address the “powerful national mandate” to lower migration. Though Britain has a minister of immigration under the Home Office at present, the crucial policy area lacks its own department.
The report recommends that Britain creates a “Scandinavian-style” population register. It suggests that this could be based around NHS registration, and would give the government some more reliable oversight on the number of people in the country.
Pointing out that ‘Brexit’ provides a great opportunity for the government to reshape immigration policy, the report advises Britain more clearly distinguish between full and temporary citizens. The latter category, Mr. Goodhart writes, “should not have full access to social and political rights (and would not have an automatic right to bring in dependents) and should leave after a few years”.
Noting that current annual Home Office spending on immigration is just 0.3 per cent of total public spending, the report calls for the figure to be “both sharply increased and ring-fenced”.
Mr. Goodhart writes: “The Border Force and Immigration Enforcement functions also need a big increase in funding and manpower to do their jobs properly in our more globalised era with more movement across borders, both legal and illegal.”
Acknowledging that employers benefit in the short-term from the huge pool of willing workers the EU’s open borders policy provides, the report warns that this comes at the cost of society as a whole.
It notes that large migration flows come with brain-drain issues for migrants’ countries of origin, and have come at the expense of British workers. The report slams the private sector’s underinvestment in science, maths, technology, and engineering (STEM) skills. Mr. Goodhart puts this down to the ease with which companies can bring trained workers from overseas, and suggests that the system be overhauled.
The report also demonstrates how the influence of UKIP is felt within Conservative party linked pressure groups. It recommends the government take its advice to lower immigration, warning that otherwise “ a UKIP-inspired ‘betrayal’ narrative on immigration may become popular”.
Policy Exchange has been described as “the largest, but also the most influential think tank on the right” and Mr. Goodhart is head of its demography and immigration hub. He has for some time cautioned that research shows mass immigration, diversity and multiculturalism damage society by reducing trust and social capital.
Denmark is one country with a Ministry for Immigration. Its minister, Inger Støjberg, has slashed benefits for non-Danes and even took out adverts in foreign newspapers telling would-be migrants not to bother travelling to Denmark.
After trading insults with local left-wingers and migrants on a visit to Nørrebro in May, Ms. Støjberg wrote on Facebook:: “To the young immigrants who are devastating Nørrebro: behave yourselves!
“You live in the greatest country in the world. Opportunities lay right before you. So stop rampaging, the threats and yelling”.Muse are pleased to announce that France has been added to the Drones World Tour in 2016!
29 February | Paris | Bercy Arena | Tickets
1 March | Paris | Bercy Arena | Tickets
The Drones World Tour will see the band perform for the first time “in the round” from the middle of the arena. This stage design and configuration will give fans a true 360 degree audio/visual sensory experience.
Muse.mu Members presale begins tomorrow, 16 September at 10am local. Please note you must have registered to the Members section before 11 September to be eligible for the presale. To avoid issues accessing your code for the Members Presale, it is strongly advised to log in & write down your code before Wednesday.
General on sale starts 18 September at 10am local.
For VIP package details, click here.
View all dates on the Drones World Tour here.
Photo credit: Hans-Peter van VelthovenAre you sick of cars encroaching on your area to bike in? This laser bike lane light is a device that you attach to the back of your bike and it will display bright red lines on both sides of your bike to indicate to cars that you are a bike and to get the hell away from you. Even if there's no visible bike lane on the road, you can make your own that follows you along as you bike.
The instant laser bike lane is a great way to mitigate risk while bicycling at night on poorly lit roads. The laser bicycle lane projects two thick red lines to the side of you, along with a bicycle icon in the middle of the lane right behind you.
The laser bike lane is powered by 3 AAA batteries (which are not included), is super bright and very easy to see in the dark, and is easily mounted anywhere on your bike. You could even mount it right on your helmet if you wanted to!
The laser bike lane light contains 2 highly visible lasers, 5 bright LEDs, is weather and shock proof, and visible at up to 1 mile in distance.
Check out the laser bike lane in action via the video belowMORE LEAVING CERTIFICATE students are sitting Higher Level Maths and getting the top grades, according to the figures released today by the State Examination Commission.
The results show that there has been a sharp increase of almost 5,000 in the number of candidates sitting the Higher Level paper in the past two years, since the introduction of a bonus scheme introduced for the first time last year which gives students 25 extra CAO points if they pass. The extra points were introduced to act as an incentive to encourage people to sit the more difficult paper after figures declined in recent years.
More than 10 per cent of students who sat the exam received an A, which is broadly comparable to the percentage in previous years.
However the number of students who failed the subject rose slightly this year – from 2.3 per cent to 3.4 per cent – while the number of students who received a D, the lowest passing grade, also rose compared to last year.
The most common grade for students who sat the Maths examination was a C2 (for both the Higher and Ordinary Level paper).
Separately, many of the subjects in which students received the highest number of As were in non-curricular languages: 80.8 per cent of students who studied Higher Level Russian got an A, for example. Outside of the non-curricular languages, Accounting had one of the highest rates of students getting As with 20.3 per cent receiving either an A1 or an A2 at higher level.
Physics & Chemistry had the highest failure rate of all subjects with 11.2 per cent of the 330 students who sat the exam receiving an E, F or NG (No Grade) result. Classical Studies also had one of the highest failure rates with more than 10.6 per cent of students failing.
Here’s a round-up of how people got on with the three compulsory Leaving Certificate subjects.
ENGLISH:
33,279 students sat Higher Level English this year – more than half of all candidates in this year’s examinations.
students sat Higher Level English this year – more than half of all candidates in this year’s examinations. Of these, 9.7 per cent got either an A1 or an A2 (3.6 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively).
got either an or an (3.6 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively). The most common grade among students who sat the Higher Level Paper was a C2, with 14.4 per cent of students achieving this grade.
among students who sat the Higher Level Paper was a, with of students achieving this grade. 17,538 students sat the Ordinary Level paper. Of these, 7.4 per cent got an A grade (2 per cent got an A1 and 5.4 per cent got an A2).
students sat the Ordinary Level paper. Of these, got an grade (2 per cent got an A1 and 5.4 per cent got an A2). The most common grade among Ordinary Level students was a B3, with 15.6 per cent of students achieving this grade.
MATHS:
13,014 students sat Higher Level Maths this year – a massive increase of 5,000 in the past two years.
students sat Higher Level Maths this year – a in the past two years. Of these, almost 11 per cent of students got either an A1 or an A2 (5.4 per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively)
of students got either an or an (5.4 per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively) The most common grade among students who sat the Higher Level paper was a C 2, with 12.8 per cent of students achieving this grade.
among students who sat the Higher Level paper was a, with 12.8 per cent of students achieving this grade. 3.4 per cent of students failed Higher Level Maths, while Ordinary Level had a much higher failure rate: 9.4 per cent of students failed (which is exactly how many failed last year too).
per cent of students Higher Level Maths, while Ordinary Level had a rate: 9.4 per cent of students failed (which is exactly how many failed last year too). 32,165 students sat the Ordinary Level paper and 5,677 sat Foundation level.
students sat the Ordinary Level paper and sat Foundation level. 5.4 per cent of students got either an A1 or an A2 on the Ordinary Level exam (1.6 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively).
or an on the Ordinary Level exam (1.6 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively). The most common grade among students who sat Ordinary Level was a C2, with 11.6 per cent of students achieving this grade.
IRISH:
16,669 students sat the Higher Level Irish paper this year – a figure which has increased by more than 2,000 over the past two years.
students sat the Higher Level Irish paper this year – a figure which has increased by more than 2,000 over the past two years. Of these, more than 15 per cent of students got either an A1 or an A2 (5.8 per cent and 9.5 per cent respectively)
of students got either an or an (5.8 per cent and 9.5 per cent respectively) The most common grade among students who sat the Higher Level paper was a B3, with 14.2 per cent of students achieving this grade.
among students who sat the Higher Level paper was a, with 14.2 per cent of students achieving this grade. 23,066 students sat the Ordinary Level paper and 3,916 sat Foundation level.
students sat the Ordinary Level paper and sat Foundation level. Just 2.6 per cent of students got either an A1 or an A2 on the Ordinary Level paper (0.4 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively).
per cent of students got either an or an on the Ordinary Level paper (0.4 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively). The most common grade among students who sat Ordinary Level was a C1, with 15.1 per cent of students achieving this grade.
The National Parents’ Council is running a helpline today to offer assistance to students and parents. It can be contacted at 1800 265 165.
Best of luck to everyone getting their results today from all of us here at TheJournal.ie!A top economic adviser to President Trump slammed a research group's analysis of the GOP's tax plan during a visit to its headquarters Thursday.
“It’s inaccurate, it’s fiction,” Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said during an event at the Tax Policy Center (TPC).
The TPC produced a report last week estimating the Republican tax framework would cut revenues by $2.4 trillion over 10 years and produce a windfall for the rich.
“It is scientifically indefensible to say — as the TPC report of last Friday does — that the framework would have little macroeconomic feedback impact,” Hassett said.
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The TPC analysis generated big headlines, and even Sen. Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration The Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times MORE (R-Ky.) cited its estimate that the middle class would see a tax hike.
Republicans have come out fighting since, blasting the group as a left-leaning propaganda machine.
Sen. Orrin Hatch Orrin Grant HatchThe FDA crackdown on dietary supplements is inadequate Orrin Hatch Foundation seeking million in taxpayer money to fund new center in his honor Mitch McConnell has shown the nation his version of power grab MORE (R-Utah), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, questioned the credentials of the group.
Hatch said at a hearing Tuesday that “it’s odd... that the analysis came with a disclaimer that it was expressing only the views of the authors, not the think tank itself. Even more unusual, no specific authors were listed on the analysis, probably because no respectable academic or researcher was willing to have their name associated with something so haphazardly cobbled together.”
Hassett stuck to economic arguments against the analysis, noting that one of his former graduate school advisers used to work at the center.
The TPC has defended its analysis, saying it was built upon the tax plan that House Republicans released last year and the outline that the White House released in April.
“We feel pretty comfortable that we have something that’s consistent with the unified framework and that’s directionally correct,” TPC Director Mark Mazur said earlier this week.
Mazur also noted that there are Republican staffers at the center, a joint venture between the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute.
The former Obama administration tax official stood by the center’s analysis in a discussion with Hassett afterward.
“Demand from the public for an analysis is high,” he said, in response to criticism that they rushed out a study.
The group filled in the blanks of the nine-page framework with 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.)’s Better Way plan and Trump administration releases, he said.
Mazur asked Hassett what elements could be added to the plan to counterbalance all the changes that tend to benefit the wealthy — nixing the estate and alternative minimum taxes, for example.
Hassett would not go into great detail but did praise Republicans and President Trump on their flexibility to achieve equity.
“When was the last time you saw Republicans put the top rate on the table?” he asked. “I look forward to what they come up with.”
He also stood by the administration’s contention that the bulk of the benefits of corporate tax cuts flow to American workers.
The Treasury Department recently removed from its website a government study finding that roughly 18 percent of the benefits of a corporate tax cut would help workers — not the 70 percent cited by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Steven Terner MnuchinFed chief sees 'conflicting signals' from economy Treasury announces new Venezuela sanctions Trump trade chief changes terminology after president contradicts him MORE.
“I don’t know anything about the decision to remove the study,” Hassett said, but noted that he disagreed with its finding.
Mazur, who led the Treasury's tax unit under Obama, jumped in. “It’s really good,” he said.
This story has been updated.About
We believe in clean. To that extent we bring you our product the Band of Clean. It is a unique patent pending wristband designed to allow you to clean your hands wherever and whenever you need.
band of clean
A full body cleaning starts with a clean hand, and hand hygiene is a crucial part of staying healthy. Unfortunately, when you're on the go you often don't have access to soap and water when you need it most. Bands of clean are ergonomic and stylish wristbands that can store and release the hand sanitizer, water or lotion of your choice, all aimed at getting you clean.
With the bands of clean you are truly never more then a squirt, squeeze and a wipe away from a healthier daily life.
The basic concept surrounding the development of the bands has innate in it a stylish, sporty band that people would want to wear because of the style( and incidentally it can also be used to clean your hands). It is the perfect accessory to any workout gear and does not seem out of place at all.
The bands come in all colors and shades to match your mood and wear. The fit is comfortable and does not impede any circulation for most sized hands of both women and men.
HOW IT WORKS
We were not kidding when we said that this is a unique and original design. How the bands essentially work is by filling a sponge located in the center of the bump with the fluid of your choice. The sponge can hold the liquid for hours at a time and also can release when ever you need it.
Simply squeeze and wipe and you can give yourself hours of use, depending on the type of hand sanitizer/lotions that you use.
How It All Came About
Roughly two years in development, the concept behind the Bands of Clean came from two high school Math and Science teacher friends of ours who were always getting sick. They came across a solution while aiding students on a theatrical production that involved the development of props.
The first iteration came as a partial glove with a hidden compartment that would hold a sponge.
A person could saturate the sponge and then replace it back into specially formulated slit within the silicone of bands. The bands hand holes that would allow fluid to seep out when pressed. A person would have been able to remove the sponge at any time to refill the unit. We found many mistakes with that initial design including the roughness of silicone that would cut circulation off to a the thumb if left on for a while. We next came up with an series of iterations and drawings to work through some of the inherit problems that were caused by the different versions of the bands.
Through many iterations that we had come up with we had to balance look with function. This led us to make the design a basic ordinary wristband.
With the basic design we wanted to push the envelope on what we believed would be accepted and cool. We decided to extend the pocket for the sponge, as far out as we possibly could and still maintain some sort of elegance.
We then field tested the product on a loving family for true and honest opinions. The results was a resounding home run, they loved it!
SOME OF THE REWARDS PICTURES
For a limited run we now offer kid versions of the bands called Halo Sani CUFFS. The bands come adorned with original characters, Wilderness Kitties, on the surface, that have a compelling story behind them. You children will want to clean themselves when they wear these bands.
Here is a look at the Pima cotton HYDRO Shield sweat proof undershirts.
woman's shirtWhat Would Jesus Eat? Jim Campbell, DMin, dives into the diet of those living in the Holy Land, and illuminates what it would have been like to dine with Jesus. by James P. Campbell, D.Min.
There were a variety of foods available in the Holy Land. Chief crops were wheat, barley, olives, grapes; legumes such as lentils, fava beans, chickpeas; and vegetables such as onions, leeks, and garlic. Life was also made sweeter with fruits such as olives, grapes, date palms, apples, watermelon, pomegranates, figs, and sycamores (a low-quality fig eaten mainly by the poor). The people also raised sheep, goats, and cattle, and fished from the Mediterranean and the Sea of Galilee. Wine from the grapes was the main beverage.
Each day began with a light breakfast of bread or a piece for fruit. Bread was kneaded and baked every day, one of the mother’s main chores. At midday, those in the Holy Land would eat a light lunch of bread, grain, olives, and figs.
The main meal was eaten at the end of the day. Dinner was a one-pot stew served in a common bowl. Bread was used to spoon the stew. The stew might be a thick porridge of vegetables, lentils, or chickpeas spiced with herbs. Meat was only served occasionally, fish more often, mostly when the family had an important guest. Among the wealthy, lamb or calves were kept in stalls so they could be fattened for feasting (Luke 15: 23–30).
Meals were a sacred time when God’s presence was awaited and welcomed in every meal. The people recognized that although they had earned their daily bread, God still gave them all they had. Fellowship in a meal was always fellowship before God.
Jan Luyken’s Jesus Turns Water into Wine.
Hospitality
Travel in the Holy Land was dangerous. Single travelers, such as the man falling to thieves in the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 19: 25–37), put their lives in jeopardy on the roads. Inns were about 25 miles apart and the traveler never knew if there was adequate food, water, or shelter at the end of the day.
Hospitality was an important value across the Mediterranean world, but it was a value particularly taught in the Jewish communities. There were no strangers, as those of the Holy Land remembered how God provided for them when they were aliens in Egypt. In Deuteronomy 24: 17–19 God specifically mandates that in harvest time people were to leave enough in the fields to feed the widows, orphans, and the resident foreigners: “For remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt; this is why I command you to do this.” (Deuteronomy 24: 22)
Perhaps the greatest example of the meaning of hospitality is found in Luke 24: 13–34, the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The disciples were leaving Jerusalem heartbroken about the events that had taken place. Jesus had been crucified, and they believed he was gone. They meet a stranger who counsels them with the Scriptures, calling them to remember what God had promised. At the end of the day after arriving at an inn, the disciples offer hospitality. And at the meal Jesus Christ is revealed to them in the breaking of the bread.
God calls us all to be hospitable, to serve those in need, especially the starving children and victims of malnutrition. In meeting them at the table, we are meeting Jesus Christ today.
Audio Prayer Experience
Immerse yourself in the story of Emmaus with this imaginative prayer exercise from Vinita Hampton Wright.The martinet ([1]) is a punitive device traditionally used in France and other parts of Europe. The word also has other usages, described below.
Object [ edit ]
A simple, small martinet
A martinet is a short, scourge-like (multi-tail) type of whip made of a wooden handle of about 25 cm (10 inches) in length and about 10 lashes of equal, relatively short length. The lashes are usually made of leather, but sometimes soap-stiffened cords are used in place of leather. It was a traditional instrument of physical punishment in France and other European countries. In French, it also refers to a similar dusting implement; the type for chastisement was also known as fouet d'enfant, meaning child's whip.
The martinet was often applied on the calves, so that the children did not have to disrobe. Otherwise it was usually applied on the bare buttocks, adding humiliation to the physical pain, like the English and Commonwealth caning, birching, naval cat o' nine tails, American paddling, et cetera.
It is now considered abusive to use a martinet to punish children. However, martinets were still sold in the pet section of French supermarkets. Many believe that a large share of those sold are meant for use on children, not pets, or at least to threaten them. Nowadays, however, many supermarkets in France have stopped selling the martinet, even in the pet section.
The martinet is also used as an implement in erotic spanking scenes, hard to distinguish from the flogger, but that is usually lighter.
Person [ edit ]
In French [ edit ]
The term was used for an external pupil of a collège (i.e., a kind of French high school, especially Catholic). Jean Bodin, quoting the examination of three witches by Paolo Grillandi of Castiglione at the Castello San Paolo, Spoleto, records that the witches referred to the Devil as Master Martinet (Maître Martinet), or the Little Master (Petit maître).[citation needed][clarification needed]
In English [ edit ]
In English, the term martinet usually refers not to the whip, but to those who might use it—those who demand strict adherence to set rules and mete out punishment for failing to follow them. This sense of the word reputedly comes from Jean Martinet, Inspector General of the army of Louis XIV, and thus, etymologically, only by accident relates to the earlier sense.
In an extended sense, a martinet is any person who believes strict adherence to rules and etiquette is paramount. Martinets often use etiquette and other rules as an excuse to trump ethics, to the point that etiquette loses its ethical ground. Time, in 1977, famously referred to the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin as a "strutting martinet".[2]
Other uses [ edit ]
A French homonym, from the bird name Martin and suffix -et, is the swift. In French, martinet also means a type of hammer, a diminutive of marteau (Latin martulus, "hammer").This week on Heavy Hands, we're talking about stature. On this show, we have already dedicated numerous episodes to fighting style, and our main point was this: style is not a product of build, but of personality. It would be a mistake to base a fighter's approach entirely on his size and shape without taking into account the makeup of his mind.
Even so, there are certain tactics that work well for long and tall fighters, and certain tactics that allow short fighters to counter them. On today's episode, we discuss these techniques in-depth, addressing how short men can fight from the outside as well as in the pocket, and analyzing the difference between short man's boxing, and short man's MMA.
Yair Rodriguez and David Teymur are also on the brain thanks to their impressive performances at UFC Salt Lake City, and we spend the first segment of the show breaking down their fights, and predicting where they go from here.Fed up with the “mini dumping grounds,” London wants to crack down on unwanted clothing drop-off bins popping up in private parking lots across the city.
City hall staff are targeting bins that turn up uninvited and without a reputable organization’s name.
Often, the bins belong to businesses that resell overseas the clothing and used items collected, said Orest Katolyk, London’s bylaw enforcement boss.
The recommendation to regulate donation bins — which can basically be plopped down anywhere now, without rules or restrictions — with strict conditions is among draft changes to the city’s licensing bylaw that have gone before a city council committee and are headed to future public hearings.
One variety store owner, who said two green bins in her store parking lot have become a magnet for used items and trash, said she welcomes the proposal.
“People come and dump garbage here. Toys, clothing, electronics, garbage — I don’t want this, take it out of here,” said Ann Cho, who owns Crumlin Variety with her husband at Dundas Street and Crumlin Side Road.
Gesturing at two bins marked “used clothing donations,” and a black one for electronic recycling, she said sometimes they’re surrounded by bags of clothing and other used items, causing a mess.
Cho said the first green bin showed up on her property about three years ago.
A second one was later added, followed by the black box for electronics.
She said she’s repeatedly asked people who empty the bins to remove them, but her pleas go unanswered.
“He said, ‘No, it’s not my job,’” said Cho. Her first language is Korean, and Cho said she didn’t pursue the issue, because she believed her English wasn’t strong enough.
Messages left by The Free Press at phone numbers on the containers weren’t returned.
The problem donation bins aren’t those operated by the Canadian Diabetes Association or the Ontario Federation for Cerebral Palsy, which use such bins for charity but seek property owner approval first. Across the street from Crumlin Variety, two charity bins stand outside the Eggs & Fruit restaurant operated by Hamid Sadat.
“I have no problem with it,” he said. “They asked me if they could leave them here and it’s for a good cause, so I said yes,” he said.
Katolyk said the city is “totally supportive” of bins set up by registered charities, which also tend to maintain them effectively. But the bins dropped off without permission, are a different story.
“They’ve become mini-dumping grounds,” said Katolyk, who said the situation has gotten worse since yard sale season started, with people often bringing unsold items to the bins.
“I’ve personally seen bin divers with (their legs) sticking out of the bins, and ripping bags out and throwing them,” he said.
The competing bins also hamper charities and non-profits, he said, recalling news reports from 2012 in which charities said they were losing donations to the boxes and that for-profit companies sold nearly $138 million worth of collected used clothing overseas.
Some municipalities regulate bins by charging licensing fees; others, with donation bin bylaws.
“I believe the intent of the bylaw is to make sure there’s someone accountable for the bin,” said Ward 10 Coun. Virginia Ridley, who chairs council’s community and protective services committee.
“Often, some of these business are in plazas — the properties don’t always have someone on site, and then you’ve got 12 tenants staring at this thing every day and they assume the property owners know about it,” she said. “I believe this will help... narrowing down who it belongs to.”
The renewed effort to license donation boxes picks up on a similar initiative raised by city staff in 2012, but ultimately dropped by council.
Under London’s proposed regulations, bin operators would need permission from property owners and be required to follow standards for cleanliness. Bins would be metal only.
The city plans to hold a public meeting on the proposed changes.
jlobrien@postmedia.comGoogle has reportedly poached one of Apple's top chip designers, as it continues to pursue plans to design its own chipsets for consumer devices like its Pixel range of smartphones.According to The Information, the search giant has hired well-regarded Apple chip expert John Bruno, who has worked on silicon architecture for iPhones since 2012. Before moving offices to Cupertino to help with Apple's ARM-based mobile chip push, Bruno worked at Advanced Micro Devices and led chip design at ATI Technologies.Bruno founded and managed Apple's silicon competitive analysis group, which sought to keep the company ahead of competitors in the area of chip performance. He follows several other experienced chip engineers who have defected to Google from Apple over the past year, including Manu Gulati, Wonjae (Gregory) Choi and Tayo Fadelu.The hires highlight Google's attempt to keep pace with Apple, which has been designing its own mobile chips since 2010. Recently, Google said it would sell chips known as Cloud Tensor Processing Units (TPU) to other companies so that they could benefit from its deep learning tool set, TensorFlow. However, the recruitment drive is more likely to be aimed at making own-branded chips for Google's Pixel smartphones.Indeed, Google's first mobile chip could be right around the corner, according to Jim McGregor, an analyst at Tirias Research who spoke to The Information. With the help of off-the-shelf intellectual property, the Mountain View-based tech giant could have a multifunctional system-on-a-chip up and running in as soon as six months, McGregor said.Search for missing 17-year-old woman in Thunder Bay leads to several charges laid against two Toronto men.
THUNDER BAY – Two Toronto men have been charged with human trafficking of a 17-year-old southern Ontario female.
Thunder Bay Police, in a release issued on Tuesday, say on Jan. 9 officers hunting for the missing woman, believed to be in the city, located her and safely returned her to her home.
The first suspect, 20-year-old Kahli Johnson-Phillips, was arrested on Jan. 14 in Thunder Bay and was charge with trafficking in persons under 18 years and breach of probation.
A second male, a young offender who cannot be named under the terms of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was arrested by Peel Regional Police on Monday.
He faces a rash of charges, including trafficking in persons under 18 years, procuring, living on the avails of prostitution of a person under 18 years and distribution of child pornography.
Anyone with additional information about the investigation is asked to contact police at 684-1200 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.Following the release of iOS 7.1 beta 2 to developers last week, BGR is reporting that Apple has seeded a new build of the software update to carrier partners. It’s unclear when Apple will push the new beta to devs, but the site says a public release is still months away.
Citing a ‘trusted source,’ BGR’s Jonathan Geller reports that Apple plans to rollout iOS 7.1 in March of next year. That means we’re still a roughly 3 months out, and that the update would’ve been in testing for more than 4 months—a fairly long time for a ‘.1’ release…
Here’s Geller with the details:
“Apple has begun seeding a new build of iOS 7.1 to testing partners, we have learned from a trusted source. iOS 7.1 beta 3 is said to bring several important bug fixes in addition to some new features, though our source was uncomfortable detailing these for us at this time.”
It’s tough to gauge the likelihood of Geller’s report from previous.1 releases. Last year, Apple pushed out iOS 6.1 to the public in late January, but in 2012, 5.1 landed in early March. It’s also tough to gauge accuracy on BGR’s track record, which has been hit-or-miss.
That being said, an extended testing period like this isn’t too unlikely for Apple, especially given how rushed iOS 7 was. Also keep in mind that 7.1 is expected to add a major new feature: iOS in the Car—something that Geller says could be playing a factor in the delay.
As the first major update to iOS 7, iOS 7.1 is believed to include bug fixes, performance improvements and some new features. But if Apple is really going to wait until March to release it, you have to wonder what else it’s working on. Perhaps new or refreshed hardware?Donald Trump Jr. hasn’t even been summoned to Capitol Hill yet, but already a senator investigating the Trump Team’s ties to Russia considers his explosive meetup with a Kremlin-tied attorney an “attempt at |
and inequal distribution of labor, goods and services. this idea, came from Marx (among other thinkers) - one of his few good ideas.
equality, sustainability, and prosperity - the meeting of human economic needs - are roughly the best measures of success for any economic system, and were achieved thousands of years before us - so why do we fail to achieve them today? obviously, because our society isn't designed to achieve them. there is only one other way to explain the way our society is designed - greed. ignorance doesn't even come close to describing it by itself - in terms of economics, ignorance is a perfectly paved road for greed to follow.
in terms of the modern monstrosity of state-managed "capitalism" - this error takes the form of the belief that, since communal systems will supposedly inevitably fail as a result of lack of individual contributions, and excess of individual takings, that accordingly, we must provision ownership of everything that could conceivably be owned into individuals, with no regard for anything but whether or not the law recognizes it as their property - whether a result of 'free trade' (so often rigged by the state), or taxation or eminent domain seizure.
the error in this thinking is extreme. the fallacy is that, since greed prevents us from sharing, we must permit greed to grow into its most extreme forms. a young child can see through this monstrous error in logic.*
so, having already debunked the idea of'state-managed economies', we now look to anarchism, and the obvious schism in modern anarchism - the schism between 'anarchosyndicalists' and 'anarchocapitalists'.
how to be fair
the position of 'anarchocapitalists', although misaligned to the contrary, surprisingly takes the last error into consideration at times, and thus emerges with a remarkable similarity to the position of 'anarchosyndicalists' - that the benefits of production and control of production must be provisioned to the workers. such 'anarchocapitalists' believe that this is a logical consequence of a truly free market with unrestrained union activity, and a moral right, while the 'anarchosyndicalists' hold it as a fundamental building block of their system, and often hold the anarchocapitalists in scorn for not doing so.
obviously, the reconciliability of these two positions depends only on how essential the anarchocapitalist society believes this syndicalization of ownership is.
the divergence in thought appears to arrive specifically from the lineage of thought practiced by both schools. the 'anarchocapitalists' derive their thought from the 'classical liberal' tradition of the totalitarian Adam Smith, and later, the more respectable Friedrich Hayek, Murray Rothbard, and Ludwig von Mises, while the 'anarchosyndicalists' derive their position from the totalitarian Karl Marx, and later, the more respectable Mikhail Bakunin, Emma Goldman, and Joseph Proudhon (among others, for both schools of thought).
stunningly, both schools of thought reached their current states by identifying the errors of thinking in their predecessors, which had led them to create, respectively, the totalitarian disaster of the United States, and the totalitarian disaster of the U.S.S.R..
so how may 'anarchocapitalism' and 'anarchosyndicalism' be reconciled? it's simple - both schools of thought need to reject any totalitarian tendencies in thought which may or may not be present, and arrive at a single agreement on what characteristics are necessary and sufficient to produce a just society/economic system. both schools of thought should reject any violent tendencies that they have, in order to not alienate the rest of society (eye roll), and the 'anarchocapitalists' must understand that there are common sense limits to what can justly be considered one's 'property', which the 'anarchosyndicalists' have, for the most part, codified as 'usage' or 'possession' rights.
and what is the shared enemy of anarchists of any flavor? it's not a group - not even corporations or the state. it's the human failure to self-actualize - to become a responsible being. and who suffers the worst from this failure? those who we identify as our oppressors.
the only thing you need for a working society is for its members to be responsible people! of course, for responsible people, you need a culture that understands what responsibility actually means. and that is what we do not have.
*one of the most common examples used to justify ownership-based systems is the example of the Jamestown Colony in Virginia:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo86.html
Giving Thanks for Private Property by Thomas J. DiLorenzo The first British settlers of America arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, in May of 1607. There, in the Virginia Tidewater region, they found incredibly fertile soil and a cornucopia of seafood, wild game, and fruits of all kind. But within six months, all but 38 of the original 104 Jamestown settlers were dead, most having succumbed to famine. Two years later, the Virginia Company sent 500 more settlers, and within six months 440 had died of starvation or disease. This was known as "the starving time" (See Warren Billings, ed., The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century: A Documentary History of Virginia, 1606—1689).
the error in reasoning here is insane, but easily missed. the Native Americans who preceded those colonists enjoyed communal living, and managed to live comfortably, avoiding the starvation and disease this article cites.
it's only the extremely privileged European colonists, totally alienated from nature, by thousands of years of monarchism and Judeo-Christian religion, that managed to botch communal living and nearly kill themselves off - and then proceeded to genocidally exterminate the Native Americans who knew how to make it work. the society they emerged from - the British Empire - was so crazed that an attempt by American colonists to cut ties with the empire was met with a military invasion staged across the Atlantic Ocean! with greed so extremely ingrained into their culture, is it any surprise that their attempt at communal living failed on account of greed? it is a tremendous mistake to blame that on human nature itself.
and we still, to this day, use this story as an example of why communal property structures cannot work? it's true, then, that we haven't really learned anything about ourselves for hundreds of years! 'capitalists' at one extreme worry that communalism means absence of any goods for everyone, while 'communists' at one extreme worry that capitalism means the domination of all goods by the few. where is the happy medium of people having what they sanely need and want?FightLite has released the new version of their squad automatic weapon, the MCR (Mission Configurable
Rifle). The MCR is based upon the older ARES-16 AMG-2 ™ that has been on the Military/LE market for almost a decade and is an AR based solution to the M249 SAW. Numerous programs have been trying to replace it over the years, one of the most notable is the M27 program. With this version the company has improved various components of the operating system, essentially making the weapon much more durable when it comes to fully automatic fire capabilities. These include changing the feed roller housing to a square shaped design, configuring the feed tray to better accommodate the M855A1 round, changed the charging handle to become more robust, added a new compensator from the companies RipBrake design. Also added is a proprietary method of reducing the chances of cook-off in a closed bolt weapon system. We were able to get a hands on look of the older MCR at SHOT 2017 earlier this year.
From the product release-
Such enhancements include further weapon weight reduction and simplification, a square shaped feed roller housing, a heat treated steel feed plate that reduces feed ramp wear from M855A1 steel tipped projectiles, refinements in the breech bolt lug profile, a reinforced charging handle assembly, the company’s highly effective RipBrake ™ muzzle compensator, and a proprietary method of mitigating cookoff risk while maintaining a select-fire, closed bolt system of operation that is more accurate and user-friendly than standard open-bolt light machine guns.
Some additional key elements of the MCR ® are that it shares a 52% part commonality with existing NSN components already in the government system and the core technology can retrofit to any MIL-Spec AR15, M16 or M4 type lower receiver; meaning that it is rearward compatible to the very first Colt Mod. 01 (M16) manufactured in 1960. These accomplishments reduce a military’s logistical footprint and costs including spare components and operator and armorer training. Additionally, the dual-feed MCR ® permits squad automatic rifle users to operate during the assault with 100 and 200 round magazines of M27-linked ammunition, but also retains the ability to reliably feed from 4179 STANAG (M16/M4) magazines from other squad members should linked ammunition run low during combat.
Several designers have tried to tackle mounting a belt-fed upper receiver to the AR platform, but few with the success that the former ARES Shrike has. Combining the ergonomics and accessory potential of the AR platform with the ability to go belt-fed can be seen as a competitor to the many complaints about the M249 SAW, especially in terms of reliability. The fact that the MCR is around 8.5 pounds unloaded is a major plus when it comes to weight reduction as well. Another important factor is that it can reliably accept STANG magazines, which plagued the M249 for much of its development. The light machine gun hasn’t gained widespread acceptance, but it has had enough customers around the world to give reliable feedback to the company in pushing to the next step.
A photograph of the earlier Shrike from Autoweapons.com–Image caption Nato forces have been training Afghan soldiers for years
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has named seven areas of the country which will pass from control by foreign troops into Afghan hands from July.
They are the relatively peaceful provinces of Kabul, Panjshir and Bamiyan, the cities of Herat and Mazar-e Sharif and the town of Mehtar Lam.
But he also named Lashkar Gah, capital of the volatile Helmand province.
The handover is seen as a critical step in a transition of power before foreign troops end combat operations in 2014.
"The people of Afghanistan don't want that foreigners take responsibility for security any more," President Karzai said.
This is the first step in a long process of withdrawal, which will begin in July when the first tranche of foreign troops is set to leave Afghanistan.
After that, in these areas, the primary role of foreign troops will be to train and equip Afghan security forces, he said. Nato troops will cease to engage in battle.
Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed the announcement by President Karzai: "This represents the next stage of Afghanistan's journey, not the destination," he said in a statement.
But he added that "every step of the way will be determined by conditions on the ground".
Transition 'risk'
Speaking at the National Military Academy in the capital, Kabul, President Karzai was keen to stress the entrenched nature of the commitment: "Transition means taking responsibility for both security and development."
Analysis This speech was about reasserting Afghan control over the country's destiny. President Hamid Karzai had an optimistic message: that this transition is the true beginning of Afghan leadership and ownership. He said the aim is to successfully implement the transition process by the end of 2014, heralding a new phase of the international community's engagement in Afghanistan. He does not want to be dependent on foreign forces forever. The rhetoric was nationalistic without being aggressive towards the West: it set out his vision of security and life after 2014. He was eager to draw a line between Afghan priorities and aspects of foreign engagement: "Private security firms, detentions of Afghans by foreigners and night raids on Afghan houses by foreign forces should end," he said. But he acknowledged that there was a common interest to eliminate terror. He said that if the West wants to end terror, they need the Afghan people. In this speech to gathered military dignitaries President Karzai made it clear that this will be most effective if Afghans control their own security. Huge challenge for unprepared police Afghan recruits: Eight weeks to face the Taliban
President Karzai said that the handover would eventually be extended to individual districts outside of the cities named. The entire province of Kabul, including the capital of the country, would come under Afghan control - but the restive district of Surobi would remain in foreign hands.
"Afghanistan has been burning for 32 years," President Karzai said.
He said that the war against terror should not be fought in Afghanistan's villages but should be taken to the havens and sanctuaries of the insurgents.
But he also urged militants to join peace negotiations.
"I once again urge the armed opposition to stop their attacks and killings and join the peace process," he said.
Residents of the areas set to be handed over have been responding to the announcement.
''I am happy and sad at the the same time. I am not fully satisfied that our troops will be capable of securing the country. I am happy because we'll get our own sovereignty,'' Muhammad Ibrahim Chajirwal from Helmand province told BBC Pashto.
But, Abdul Sattar, a policeman from Herat province, said he was prepared: "I am fully ready. I'll secure the country.''
Renewed offensive
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Helmand, which has seen the worst of the violence over recent years, says that despite rising casualty numbers, the surge of extra American troops and tens of thousands of new Afghan police and soldiers have improved security in a number of areas in the country.
But, our correspondent says, this transition comes with a risk.
Although much improved, the quality of Afghan police and soldiers is patchy - and many people fear they will be unable to withstand a renewed summer offensive from the Taliban, our correspondent says.
Lashkar Gah in the insurgency-wracked province of Helmand has been the focus of a massive coalition operation to rid the area of militants.
British and US troops, supported by other Nato forces, have spearheaded that initiative and experts say there have been improvements in security. But hundreds of soldiers have been killed in these southern areas.
Analysts say that it is only to be expected that these regions will once again be the focus of a lot of activity as the Taliban will be planning to seize them back.
And the conflict remains a bloody one: a record number of civilians and security personnel were killed in Afghanistan last year.
More than 2,700 civilians were killed in 2010 - up 15% on the year before. More than 800 Afghan army soldiers and 711 coalition troops were killed in 2010. More than 1,200 Afghan police died in the line of duty.
A UN report on civilian deaths said that the Taliban were responsible for 75% of all deaths. The proportion killed by Afghan and Nato forces fell, accounting for 16% of civilian deaths.
The UN says the remaining casualties could not be attributed to any one side in the conflict.Developer Stoic will receive financial support from Sony in order to complete their port of their popular fantasy tactics game, The Banner Saga.
The Playstation Vita version tactical fantasy indie game The Banner Saga was thought to have been delayed indefinitely — that is until Sony announced today that they will be helping developer Stoic finish it.
International Business Times reported that Banner Saga developers Stoic had previously announced their intentions of releasing their game on Sony’s handheld Playstation platform. However, due to financial problems, it was reported that Stoic had shelved the Vita version of their popular independent game completely.
The Banner Saga is a tactical RPG video game originally developed by Stoic for PC. The game was developed by a relatively small team for a relatively small budget, though after it received favorable reviews it gained a modest following.
Stoic then announced plans to release the game on other consoles. It was, for example, released on Sony’s Playstation 4 platform. A version for the Playstation Vita was also announced, though has yet to come to fruition.
However, Sony and software developer Versus Evil have partnered up to deliver a Vita port of The Banner Saga, meaning that it is coming to the Sony handheld after all. These two companies will support developer Stoic with the costs of porting the game. They will also have a hand in the game’s profits when it is released.
This news comes as a bit of surprise. Fans believed that Sony had given up on supporting the Playstation Vita from a first party perspective — meaning that they had given up on developing and funding games for the system themselves and rely exclusively on third party developers to populate the console’s list of game’s.
It was confirmed by Playstation Vita PR via Twitter that the Banner Saga will be released on the Playstation Vita in 2016.Going to the dentist fishkill isn’t exactly something that most people consider enjoyable. The bright lights, the poking and prodding; going to the dentist isn’t exactly fun. However, while it may not be something to look forward to, most people don’t have any issue with going to the dentist because they know how important dental visits are for their oral hygiene. But for some people, the idea of going to the east fishkill dentist is downright scary. The very thought of visiting a dentist invokes fear and anxiety. If you’re one of those people, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve been putting off a dental exam – and you’re not alone. It’s estimated that up to 15% of American adults aren’t receiving the dental care they need because they suffer from dental phobia.
If you are afraid of the dentist, read on to learn more about dental phobia and how a reputable dentist can help you overcome your fear.
Dental Phobia Explained
Phobias are extreme and unreasonable fears. They aren’t uncommon; in fact, some of the most common phobias include claustrophobia (the fear of enclosed spaces), aviophobia (the fear of flying), and acrophobia (the fear of heights). However, there’s one phobia that may be more common than any other: dental phobia – an intense fear of going to the brewster dentist.
There are a lot of reasons why a person can become dental phobic. Some reasons may include:
A bad dental experience in the past.
Being afraid of any type of pain.
Feeling helpless or out of control.
Bright lights being shined in their face.
Not knowing what’s going to happen.
Fear of needles.
These fears can lead to feelings of extreme uneasiness. For example, the very idea of going to the dentist may induce physical pain or trigger a severe anxiety attack.
The Effects of Dental Phobia
Those who suffer from dental phobia avoid going to the dentist at all costs so that they don’t have to face their fears. However, while not having dental exams may prevent intense anxiety and panic, it can lead to serious issues. For example, those who are dental phobic have a higher risk of developing gum disease and tooth loss. Infections are also more likely to develop, which can lead to serious health complications, such as cardiovascular disease and infections in the lungs, which could decrease life expectancy. Furthermore, not going to the dentist can impact a person’s appearance and self-esteem.
Needless to say, putting off going to the dentist certainly isn’t a wise idea, no matter how afraid you may be.
Overcoming Your Fears
If you suffer from dental phobia, it’s far better to face your fear than it is to keep putting off getting the dental healthcare you need to avoid your phobia. As they say, the key to getting over anything you may be afraid of is by confronting it head-on.
Dentists are highly trained and understand that their patients can be fearful of dental exams and procedures. If your phobia has been preventing you from making an appointment with your dentist, here are some tips that can help you put your fears at ease:
Speak to your dentist. Make sure that you speak to your dentist to let him or her know about your phobia. A reputable dentist will be more than willing to talk to you before your appointment, discuss your fears, and figure out a way to help you overcome them. Something as simple as taking a tour of the office and knowing exactly what is going to happen during the appointment may be enough to put your fears to rest.
Make sure that you speak to your dentist to let him or her know about your phobia. A reputable dentist will be more than willing to talk to you before your appointment, discuss your fears, and figure out a way to help you overcome them. Something as simple as taking a tour of the office and knowing exactly what is going to happen during the appointment may be enough to put your fears to rest. Listen to music. Before you head to your appointment, make a playlist of soothing music to listen to during your examination, cleaning, and/or procedure. The music will help to drown out any noises that you find distressing; plus, music has an incredibly calming effect and will give you something else to focus on.
Before you head to your appointment, make a playlist of soothing music to listen to during your examination, cleaning, and/or procedure. The music will help to drown out any noises that you find distressing; plus, music has an incredibly calming effect and will give you something else to focus on. Take your time. If your dental phobic, talk to your dentist about taking things slow. For instance, you may want to take a few minutes to get yourself acclimated in the chair before the exam begins.
If your dental phobic, talk to your dentist about taking things slow. For instance, you may want to take a few minutes to get yourself acclimated in the chair before the exam begins. Consider sedation. If your dental phobia is severe, you may want to consider sedation. A highly skilled dentist will have board certified anesthesiologists on-staff who can sedate you before the exam, cleaning, or procedure begins. You’ll sleep through the entire experience and have no recollection of what happened.
No matter how intense your dental phobia may be, putting off going to the poughkeepsie dentist is not the solution. Our certified, licensed, and highly experienced dentist will work with you every step of the way to make sure that you are as comfortable as possible. Your oral health directly impacts your overall health and well-being. Stop putting off going to the dentist and call us to schedule an appointment today. We promise you that you’ll receive the most caring and compassionate care possible.When I began writing, my sole objective was to create the kind of story I wanted to read. That meant a world with depth, history, airships, and some light fantasy elements. It meant relatable characters born my own life experience. It meant an adventure story with cruel realities and misguided expectations. I wanted it to be fun to write and fun to read. I managed to convince Josh to help me with this and for some reason he included me on what *he* wanted to write. It took some discourse over many drinks, but it quickly became *our* book.
Though the product is wildly different from our initial 2012 outline, I regret nothing when it comes to the development. Josh and I have endlessly debated and tweaked the narrative based on our own ideas for what *our* story should be. Though I find we’ve easily discovered compromise within the broad strokes, we often haggle over nomenclature and each make unreasonable demands on what should not – nay, cannot – be altered. Some debates are kicked down the road time and again, the resulting line item looming in perpetuity inside the NextJam file. Only when the shame becomes unbearable, and self-imposed deadlines lie within sight, that we force ourselves to blunder into a resolution. I hope our tens of eventual readers never come to know how much time has been spent unearthing cogent names of irrelevant landscapes.
Sometimes the topic of marketability comes up. Who is our audience? Are we marginalizing X? Are we forgetting to include Y? Who will this even appeal to? Most of these questions still hang in their air unanswered. We stare at each other in silence before shrugging to continue writing the story we want to write. It is inevitable someone will stumble upon our work and wish it was something else. We cannot either cater to, nor please them all.
At the outset I wanted to shop our book to the traditional publishers. It’s respectable, I argued. The grand institute of validation. Josh had his reservations, but gave a silent nod of reluctant assent and entertained my ambitions. And so we dipped our toe into query letter writing. The idea of distilling your work to under 200 words, without spoiling key plot points, is a task unto itself. Josh did the brunt of the work, with me chirping unhelpful, distracting critique. The fruits of that labor can be found here and all praise should be heaped upon my co-author’s dark altar of broken PSUs and hoarded coax cables. The querying field is littered with mines, intended to whittle sparse wheat from the frequent chaff put before agents and publishers. Feedback we received from the query letter writing community provided us with some key advice that pushed us towards making some important decisions trending towards self publishing.
1. Our book is too long. For first time writers, a 300k word book is unlikely to be considered by a literary agent, much less a publishing house. Getting someone to read your query letter is a chore in itself. Having an agent digest two unknown’s lengthy manuscript might be a near impossibility.
2. We would split our book. Book 1, as it was intended, was outlined and constructed as three distinct acts from the get-go. Each act still comes in around 100k words, a healthy book by itself. The editing to smooth the transitions has been comparatively minimal, thanks mostly in part to our initial construction for narrative arcs.
3. Marketability. Because we are splitting the book into smaller pieces, we can price our work more competitively. This might just be my instinct, but buying an unknown author’s $9-10, 300k word book is a risky proposition, particularly with the minimal-marketing self published approach. But three books averaged out at $3 apiece might entice readers to actually take a chance on the first volume. Once we have established a body of work, using Volume I as a loss leader into the greater series might work in our benefit.
4. There are existing champions of self publishing. While success stories like Hugh Howey and Andy Weir are encouraging, we by no means accept it as the norm. But the available data is trending in the favor of self publishing.
5. Edit. Perhaps this is low-hanging fruit, but before we shit our first book onto your Kindle, the work needs editing. And then more editing. It needs to be honed, sharpened and reforged again. If we fuck up here, we’re perpetuating the stereotype that self publishing is for amateurs.
And so we take our time. Josh and I have been working on this project for over four years now, and while we do not have a definitive date to foist this upon the cold, unfeeling world, it *will* make its way out there. We’ll stumble and make some mistakes. But we’ll already be working on the next installment, so our fervent, insatiable eight readers will not have to wait long for Volume 2.† A Look at Father Anderson †
Alexander Anderson is so much more than a crazed Knight Templar who shouts AAAAAAMEEEEEEN constantly (something they toyed around with when adapting the OVA series cause Norio “Memetic God” Wakamoto was voicing him)
Anderson is a man of devotion…devotion to his cause of exterminating the ‘evils’ of the world, devotion to his belief in Catholicism, devotion in his role in the Iscariot Organization, devotion in his fellow Iscariot members, etc. He is one of the most assured and comfortable characters in the series; essentially meaning he never puts his duty, his job, his goals, his faith into question. This is one of several reasons why he is respected as much he is feared…
It would be wrong to discredit or ignore his…tendencies when on the clock. He takes great, almost insane pleasure in delivering his own brand of justice upon heathens and does not have much in the way of mercy for them as he believes them to be pure sin. This violent, overly righteous side is the one that tends to get the most focus because he is technically the ‘evil counterpart’ to Alucard. However that is not the real introduction to the character…
Earlier on Anderson is introduced as the seemingly kind and fatherly (no pun intended) director of a huge orphanage. While he quickly turns kinda psycho when Father Renaldo brings up the Protestant-based Hellsing Organization this love and generosity for the children and is an equally strong characteristic. This is driven further as the secondary characters of Heinkel and Yumie are introduced and together with Maxwell, were all raised at the orphanage by Anderson (who at this point is revealed to be at least much older than he seems thanks to the Regenerator abilities built into him). He has a big soft side for his students turned fellow Organization members–and for the latter the Organization’s director. Speaking of Maxwell…
We go back to Anderson being strongly devoted to his faith and his role. When Maxwell goes power-crazy and murderous due to his ascension to Archbishop status and command over the Ninth Crusade, Anderson knows that his student, his friend, his BOSS has crossed the line and he (rather sorrowfully) has to put him down. While he does so in a very harsh manner it is like he is showing Maxwell that although he is a man of power…he is not a god and he will pay for attempting be such.
Anderson’s huge final fight with Alucard has him reveal an interesting philosophy; that he believes himself to be simply a ‘tool’, a ‘weapon’, an ‘instrument’ of God. While Alucard is pleading for him not to use Helena’s Nail on himself which would rob him of his humanity and turn him into a ‘monster’ just like him, Anderson admits that he sees himself less as a human and more of a “bayonet” like the ones he uses in spades. Again, he is sure of himself, his role, his duty, his philosophy and not even a centuries-old vampire king can convince him otherwise.
The final part of my rambling about the Judas Priest is that of ‘respect’. Anderson, while very dangerous, and his sanity could come into question…he is able to command the respect of those around him. Whether it be his loyal fellow Iscariot members, the children he raised and even his enemies they all by the end respect him. Alucard, formerly a savage ruler who abandoned God ages ago and became a ‘sinful monster’ considers Anderson to be one of the greatest of humans, calling him his ‘beloved enemy’ and even echoes his catchphrase “Amen” as he passes away. Integra, someone who Anderson had threatened with death and bloody murder a few times, puts a sword in the ground resembling a cross as to honor the man.
And even the other way around Anderson himself shows respect to his enemies. He admires Integra for her strength, resolve and ability to tame a powerful entity, he shows some form of pride seeing Seras becoming a full Draculina and has adoration for his rival for being a monster who has lived and suffered for so long and telling him not to cry over his death.
LONG STORY SHORT Alexander Anderson is a great character and is one of the many reasons to love Hellsing
THANK YOU SO MUCH IF YOU READ THIS WHOLE SMATTERING OF WORDS AND ATTEMPTED GRAMMAR!! Hope you enjoyed it and I may make more of these long analyses if they catch on.
~ AMEN ~In the early 1980s, when AIDS deaths began to ripple across the U.S. in force, most people—including healthcare professionals—had never even heard of the virus behind the outbreak. It was a distant infection on African continent. Few predicted it would explode into a pandemic that would baffle scientists into the 21st century.
Now, researchers are piecing together HIV's full origin story: how it went from a simian virus in chimps to a human one that has infected an estimated 75 million people worldwide. In a paper published today in the journal Science, researchers follow the first reported cases of HIV from Cameroon (which previous studies had suggested as the likely place that the virus jumped from chimps to humans) down the Sangha River to Kinshasa, now the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) was at the very heart of the development of the pandemic," says Jacques Pépin, an epidemiologist at the University of Sherbrooke in Canada and coauthor on the paper. "That is where the virus was amplified to the extent that it eventually spread from there to the rest of the world."
Modern Genetics, Colonial Puzzles
Pépin and his colleagues analyzed more than 800 HIV samples, using modern molecular biology to scour hundred-year-old viruses for genetic similarities. They organized the DNA sequences of each sample into a viral family tree, ultimately tracing the viruses back to one common ancestor that originated in the year 1920.
One big mystery this team hoped to solve was how different strains of HIV separated over time. The predominant strain, called HIV-1, is generally broken down into groups. The M group is the major strain that now infects patients in the United States and Europe while the O group remains largely in central-west Africa.
Both strains surfaced in Kinshasa at around the same time, the researchers say. But by 1944, the M group had tripled its growth rate relative to the O group and quickly outpaced human population growth in the city. The reason for the surge is unclear, though the researchers speculate that sexual activities and unclean needles played a major role.
Another question is exactly how the virus first spread across Africa. Although prior studies had pointed to riverboats that ferried passengers—and their diseases—between African nations, the authors of this study suggest that the bustling African railroad was the more likely culprit. Many of the early sites of the outbreak were major coal mining centers connected by rail lines. At the height of the coal mining economy, these trains transported thousands of passengers every year. The authors suspect that HIV hitched a ride on the rails to gain a foothold in many African cities.
The Mysteries
This study may paint the clearest picture yet of the early days of HIV and its spread across Africa. But it remains unclear just what happened in Kinshasa. We know that this is where HIV gained the traction that would propel it into full-blown pandemic status. The question is, how?
"We are working on this—to what extent what happened in Léopoldville in the mid 20th century was the result of iatrogenic transmission [contaminated needles] versus sexual transmission," Pépin says.
Spread of HIV, 1920 to 1961.
And the specifics of the initial infection, including the identity of HIV patient zero, remain elusive. "Where did the very first patient, the one who got it from a chimp, live?" Pépin says. "I don't know whether anybody has any plan to investigate this now."
Why Study the History of HIV?
"The methodology is good, and the results are convincing," says Demetre Daskalakis, an infectious disease physician and head of New York City's Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, who was not involved in the study. It's important to remember, he says, that the findings, probably will not impact the treatment or prevention of HIV. "This is more of a viral archaeology paper," he says.
While Pépin acknowledges this, he is quick to add that a real understanding of the factors that caused the emergence of HIV could help us prevent similar disasters in the future. And besides, he argues, there is value in memorializing the dead by studying the origins of an infection that has taken so many lives.
"At least 35 million people have died from this virus so far," he says. "I think we owe it to them to try to understand how it happened."Skills! When Per Mertesacker thought he was Lionel Messi (Arsenal v Montpellier)
There was so much for Arsenal fans to enjoy on Wednesday night.
Jack Wilshere scored his first goal in 725 long long days (his last competitive goal for Arsenal was against Aston Villa back in November 2010), Lukas Podolski cracked home a sublime volley golazo, while no-longer-a-numpty striker Olivier Giroud chipped in with assists for both of the Gunners goals.
Yet one clip from the opening exchanges of the match with Montpellier appeared to entertain the Arsenal fans more than any other.
With the match still goalless, Arsenal pressed for an early opener as Laurent Koscielny powered a header onto the bar. Arsenal managed to maintain the attack after the woodwork was rattled, and seconds later giant centre-half Per Mertesacker almost brought the house down as the German thought he was Lionel Messi as he danced he way past two Frenchmen into the box before taking a comedy tumble under pressure from defender Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa.
Sadly we don’t (yet) have an individual video/GIF for Per Mertesacker’s mazy run, but the footage can be seen 25 seconds into the video below.Because we still haven't gotten around to watching Cosmopolis, though we hear it's good.
'Breaking Bad' Creator Thinking Maybe Next Season Should Take Dark Turn
Because Breaking Bad was the show of 2012 until everyone decided it was Homeland.
Weird Couple Has Greatest Sex Of Their Lives After Announcement Of Disney-LucasFilm Merger
Because we're sure this actually happened somewhere in the world.
The Best Headline 50 Shades' Cultural Relevance Could Ever Give Us
Naked, Tied-Up Paul Ryan Tells Staff He Can’t Prepare For Debate Unless They Slap Him Harder
Just... maybe this could have gone in the previous group, too.
The Best Joke About Fat People
Everyone At Airport Delighted By Chubby Family Rapidly Waddling Toward Gate
Because we've all been there.
The Best Slideshow of Teenage Boys
Hot Boys We Liked in 2012
Because, well, it's not the best Sexiest Man Alive story. (More on that in a minute.) But it still deserves to be nominated for something, because it's hilarious and accurate while still being creepy.
The Most Close-to-Home Story of the Year
Area Mom Was Waiting In The Car For 20 Minutes
One of the best things The Onion does is take a real life situation and do a small write up for it. They nailed this one |
do our drum track, it's not some ProTools drum track. It's a live drum track. We don't drag stuff to a hard drive. I still go into a real studio with a big board. I don't sit in somebody's room and record into ProTools. It's a real recording session still.
Deth Red Saboath definitely has that feel to it. So, say someone doesn't know you or your music, someone really young, and this is their first introduction to Danzig. Is this a good introduction?
Sure. Any of them are. We get a lot of young kids at our shows. The demographic is like 50 to like 14. (We both find that very amusing.) It's insane. But it's cool. People are always like, "How do you feel about that?" You know what? It's why we started punk. We didn't want people to be listening to Journey and Foreigner.
Bubblegum rock?
Yeah, whatever that crappy FM '70s shit that was like "let's make a record and make money and go on tour." It was just a big media suck-up. It was just the worst, most uninspired stuff and was actually the impetus for punk. That whole rebellion.
That's still sort of going on with stuff like American Idol. It's so manufactured. (Oh, I'm way off track now, but I'm sort of lost in the moment.)
Even when we started Danzig, we were like the more things change, the more they stay the same. And now here we are with American Idol. You have these manufactured people who haven't done the hard work being out on the road and playing for 10 people in Iowa or something. They make them stars overnight, they put out a record that sells to those people that watched it that season and then the next record, they're dropped. They're the flavor of the month and next year, they're working at McDonald's.
I did want to ask you about this nine-city tour...
It's not even a tour. I traditionally don't go out before a record comes out, but my management really wanted me to go out because we're not going out again until the fall with my Blackest of the Black Tour, which is going to be really big this year. The management said you've got to do some dates, so I said I could do four or five dates on the East Coast and four or five on the West Coast. I'll live with that. We'll see how it goes.
How on earth did Boise get lucky enough to be on something like this? The kind of tour that you never do...
You know, we come to Boise all the time.
(Forgetting that I'm talking to a music icon, and one who could crush my head with his upper arms, I yell the next part in a far-too sassy tone.) I know. But how...
That's how! (Danzig yells right back, but he's not angry. We both laugh. Phew.) We're going to places where we have fans and where people wanted the show. You'd be surprised but Reno is a really big market for us and we're going there. And Boise is within driving distance. We could've gone to Spokane but we didn't. (He pronounces it Spo-kayne. Suck it, Spo-kayne.)
On behalf of Boise fans and those within driving distance, I'll thank you now. (As soon as the words leave my mouth, I feel ridiculous.)
Well, thanks for being so nice to us. It's great when you go somewhere and people appreciate it. I know the last two times we went to Boise, the shows were nuts. One of the times, we had Doyle [Paul Caiafa a.k.a. Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein] with us and the people up front were going crazy. I was like, "You have to calm down." Not that we don't like fans going crazy, but just like totally out of their minds. They didn't know where they were. They were like, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" It was cool. (We are both laugh so hard, it takes a moment to get back on track.)
Well, good. And I'm sure those guys will be there this time, too. You were just talking about a booklet for this new CD. Is it important for you as a musician, a multimedia artist if you will that people pick up the physical product or are you OK with people buying in online?
No. I hate that. Since I started doing all of this music stuff, the cover is so important because it tells you about the band: what they're about, what they're thinking about. When you download a song on the Internet, you don't get that. I want to hold something in my hand. As soon as I put the CD in, I'm opening that booklet to see what they're about. I want to see some lyrics or some pictures that they decided to put in there. Right away you can tell whether the band put it together or their label did it for them. A band put it together, it's going to be a gigantic booklet. A label did it, and it's going to be a four-page folded thing with dorky pictures. I don't come from that kind of mentality. Punk bands and metal bands—I guess they were calling it "underground metal" at the time—they were all really involved in how people perceived them, and the artwork on their covers. You know what I mean? (I do know what he means and my admiration of Danzig grows immensely.)
Absolutely.
It's really important to this day for me and I know it's important to my fans. I get that feedback from them right away on the road. They want a good package.
Right.
And also these days, like you said with the downloading, you better give your fans a good package or they're just going to download it.
And you can't think of a Misfits song without thinking of the album cover, too.
It's important to do that over and over. If you're going to put out a record, you better make sure the cover looks good. I think that's also a throwback to the '60s, maybe even the early '70s before it got all sell-out. The record covers are important. That's what made me buy my first Black Sabbath record. It was called Black Sabbath and here's this girl in a satanic cloak on this dead farm. I was like, "I gotta have this record. If it sounds halfway as good as it looks, I'm going to be blown away." And I was.Loading... Loading...
The modern and postmodern development of the scientific fields have, for many, left a vastly unabridged gap between the wisdom of present, and the wisdom of old. A large number of people tend to look at physics, or biology, or mathematics, et cetera, as fields of study that are largely absent from the necessity of everyday life, and thus have very little practical usage to them. Unfortunately, this is a misconception that has been fostered by this split between the wisdom of present and old. Whereas science today has more dynamic and advanced ways of observing the universe, it is entirely and completely devoid of any emotional, sociocultural context. Indeed, the fact that science has no basis in the human spectrum of inter/intra-personal functionality is usually said to be the most honorable quality about science. In very literal terms though, this has created a sociopathic cultural approach to the pursuit of knowledge. After all, social interplay conducted without the thought put into implications of this social interplay, is the definition of sociopathy.
Ancient metaphysics, originally inspired by the Gnostic Mystery Initiations of Egypt, with precursors that can be traced back nearly 7,000 years ago, if not further, was primarily interested and centered around what was considered “Gnosis.” Technically a Greek work, Gnosis can loosely be translated to knowledge, but the definition is infinitely more nuanced than this. It represents the pinnacle of knowledge as actualized through the Self; or, “the knowledge of transcendence arrived at by way of interior, intuitive means,” which is done through observation of the Self in reaction to an ambient (exterior) catalyst. In other words, this is the second, deeper half that science is missing–the application.
Perhaps even more aptly put, Gnosis is rooted in all forms of philosophical, intellectual, and spiritual pursuit, but it is never noticed unless it is being sought out. Gnosis already resides in scientific pursuits, but it has hardly been fleshed out adequately (although there have increasingly more great minds paving the way). In order to bridge this misconstrued gap between science and esoteric metaphysics, some of the most awing and direct analogies we have between the two are things like holography, computer sciences and technology, and (something that has dropped off points of discussion recent years) chaos theory.
Related Reading: The Beginner’s Guide to Metaphysics – Part 1: Introduction
Many have heard the “holographic universe/ computer simulation” Theory, and whatever the grand implications may be, this does in fact remain one of the most accurate models in modern day physics that has been demonstrated.
Chaos theory, despite having equally profound implications of a supplementary level, received an inclining trend of interest in debate from the 1970’s, peaking in the 1990’s, and seeming to all but die off after the early 2000’s. Today, chaos theory survives among the intellectual “underground”, where philosophers, writers, and rogue scholars have continued to foster it.
Chaos theory had entered the mainstream scientific playing field by the 1990’s, just in time to influence the “super radical” “X-Treme”-ness of the decade’s culture–and because it fit in with this 90’s culture’s mindset so seamlessly, it seems that many people have tossed the baby out with the bath water.
For those unfamiliar, chaos theory is well described by the famous adage about it:
“It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.”
While this is a grandiose example of what chaos theory could ultimately imply, this is actually an entirely accurate example. This, however, does not tell the reader about another essential piece of the theory: initial conditions. In this case, the initial conditions of the wing’s flutter.
Take, for example, a blood splatter being analyzed by a forensic scientist. Inherently, their deduction methods are guided by chaos theory. A splatter of any type of liquid, when the action has completed, comes across seemingly random–and sometimes, drops of that spilled liquid can make it halfway across the room on seemingly nothing more than chance. It could certainly be considered chance, but words like these are ultimately meant for the shallow thinkers of the world. For the deeper thinkers, those who take words like “faith” and “chance” into account, but don’t accept the face-value of these statements, there is chaos theory.
What ultimately dictates chaos theory, in the case of a blood splatter, are–as briefly alluded to above–the initial conditions. These conditions could be called “stressors,” “catalysts,” and are often termed with the theory as an “attractor.” These attractors of initial conditions can best be described as a feedback loop, because that is literally what it is. Using the exact informational communication principles that computer circuitry, a guitar amplifier, or a transistor radio uses, for example: the energetic information of the action is sent into the environment, which is “assimilated” in a sense by the ambient (exterior) information of the environment, and fed back to the initial source of the action. When it is fed back, the conditions have changed from their initial trajectory, in accordance with the environment that the action is transpiring within. This is the process of the feedback loop, and it is repeated in this loop more times than could ever really be counted or processed by the human brain. Chaos theory boomed so tremendously in the early 80’s and all the way through the 90’s, essentially due to the rise in computer science and technology, which allowed for statistical analysis that had never been done before, of these incredibly dense, chaotic types of data sets, due to the sheer incomprehensible magnitude of some of these sets. This is essentially Chaos Theory as a quickly digestible explanation.
Today, scientists have been able to apply chaos theory in physics, fractal geometry, astronomy, computer circuitry, population densities, chemistry, economics, and even concept of the perception of time, through fields like thermodynamics. In a more philosophical sense, chaos theory very easily explains childhood development, which is based on initial conditions, which are reinforced in a feedback loop which is determined by the utmost (seemingly random) subtleties of its environment. This, as well, provides the perfect model of understanding when dealing with the psychology/sociology of Carl Jung’s archetypes, and the esoteric symbolism of the occult Divination Arts. In short, what started out as allegories for ancient man’s philosophy and early sciences became reinforced sociocultural axioms of human understanding. Amazingly, chaos theory not only explains the history of this symbolism, but even how these symbols are utilized within the inner psyche–using the initial conditions of the symbols to catalyze deeply personal resonances.
Chaos theory seems to account for the abundance of “Sacred Geometry” that can be found within the environment, through the Pi and Phi ratios. Again, the idea of “initial conditions of life being reinforced repeatedly by nuanced details of the environment” is brought up, and suddenly it doesn’t seem so confusing as to why plants and even human beauty would define itself with mathematical ratios. As discussed above, fractal geometry as popularized by Benoit Mandelbrot, is a quintessential part of both chaos theory and Sacred Geometry, and the mathematical principles of the fractal are represented by things like, for example, a leaf. As a very quick over-arching definition, a fractal can overall be considered as a complex and infinitely layered pattern that is founded in self-similar, self-“mimicking/copying” geometric concepts.
Chaos theory as applied to metaphysics in this regard, is widely known today as chaos magick, and it also does not seem to be coincidence that one of the most poignant, surviving adages of occult philosophy is simply “order out of chaos.” Taken in its natural sense, a human consciousness can very much be taken as a “splatter” onto its environment, as described by the connection with childhood development. If nature is order, man is chaos in the truest, mathematical sense. Along these lines, “enlightenment,” “transcendence,” a simple “peace of mind,” et cetera, could very much be considered as the refocusing of this chaos back into order. Order becomes chaos, and so one must derive their own order out of the chaos they have karmically embodied. This, after all, appears to be why human beings have been philosophically considered as “fractal consciousness.”
Popularized in the 90’s by minds like theoretical physicist, Peter Carroll, the torch is very much carried by researchers and chaos magicians such as Gordon White. Off-shoots of chaos magick include interesting, comprehensive Neo-Pagan experimental doctrines such as “cybercraft,” and while these metaphysical outlooks seem to have taken a backseat along with chaos theory and the era of the 90’s, chaos magick and the like has maintained its advocates for its unique and novel blends of esoteric principles and modern research–gnosis coupled with science–and has recently received another rise in common interest, as it rightly deserves. With any luck, chaos theory and its metaphysical implications will not be thrown to the side like all too many of the most novel and revolutionary scientific paradigms. But even if it is, history has shown us (in a somewhat chaotic sense) that the brightest and most useful human ingenuity, even if ignored at first, will eventually have its day, and the real question is “When?”
Sources: http://fractalfoundation.org/resources/what-is-chaos-theory/, https://www.wolframscience.com/reference/notes/971c, https://books.google.com/books/about/Exploring_Chaos.html?id=xhm3m-ka0XUC, http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/chaos/, http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/chaos/cybercft.txt, http://www.specularium.org/
Help Us Be The Change We Wish To See In The World.ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – An Iranian official on Friday accused Washington of being two-faced regarding the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum scheduled for Sep. 25, 2017.
“Washington is declaring its opposition to the Kurdish referendum but, in reality, it supports the break-up of Iraq and the Middle East,” Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, the spokesperson for the Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, told a local Iranian news agency.
Tehran is one of the few countries which has voiced strong opposition toward the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum, extending support for a united Iraq.
“Our experience with the Americans has taught us that the US policy, in reality, is different from what the US officials are saying to the media,” Hosseini added.
In the past months, Washington has repeatedly expressed its concern about the timing of the Region’s referendum.
US officials have stated the independence referendum will distract from other priorities such as the defeat of the Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq.
The President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani, along with other Kurdish officials, insisted on holding the vote, stating the people of Kurdistan have the right to decide on their future democratically and peacefully.
“The Kurdish regional referendum will be like a suicide bomber in the heart of Iraq and the Middle East,” the Iranian spokesperson noted.
Disrespecting Kurdistan’s decision, Hosseini claimed the Region has no credibility and necessary factors in the international arena.
“The violation of Iraqi territorial integrity and the attempts to disintegrate the country will lead to the formation of dangerous threats in the Middle East,” he said.
Kurdish officials have emphasized the independence of Kurdistan is only related to the Iraqi Kurds and will not change the borders of neighboring countries Turkey, Iran, and Syria who have a large population of Kurds.
Officials in Kurdistan have repeatedly asked Tehran not to interfere in the internal affairs of the Region and Iraq, stating the matter needs to be resolved and discussed between Erbil and Baghdad, not other countries.
With a population of nearly six million, the Kurdistan Region is home to about two million refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who fled IS from Syria and the rest of Iraq
An independent Kurdish state has been the dream of almost all 40 million Kurds around the globe. They are believed to be the largest stateless nation in the world.
Editing by Karzan SulaivanyFrink
What's New * FAQ * Download * Frink Applet * Web Interface * Sample Programs * Frink Server Pages * Frink on Android * Donate
Frink is a practical calculating tool and programming language designed to make physical calculations simple, to help ensure that answers come out right, and to make a tool that's really useful in the real world. It tracks units of measure (feet, meters, kilograms, watts, etc.) through all calculations, allowing you to mix units of measure transparently, and helps you easily verify that your answers make sense. It also contains a large data file of physical quantities, freeing you from having to look them up, and freeing you to make effortless calculations without getting bogged down in the mechanics.
Perhaps you'll get the best idea of what Frink can do if you skip down to the Sample Calculations further on this document. Come back up to the top when you're done.
Frink was named after one of my personal heroes, and great scientists of our time, the brilliant Professor John Frink. Professor Frink noted, decades ago:
"I predict that within 100 years, computers will be twice as powerful, ten thousand times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will own them."
For those with a short attention span like me, here are some of the features of Frink.
Frink changes almost every day. If your version of Frink is more than a few days old, you're probably out of date! The latest versions are always available here. Keep an eye on the What's New page to see new features and keep abreast of its rapid developments.
While that page is the most detailed and constantly-updated source of information about changes in Frink, I also announce new features on Twitter at @frinklang. And if you want to follow Alan's personal ramblings for some reason, those are at @aeliasen.
If you find Frink useful, there are lots of ways you can donate to its further development. I'd really appreciate it!
General Frink list (low-traffic):
To receive periodic notifications of general interest about the Frink language, please join the Frink mailing list. (Hosted by Yahoo! Groups. Link opens in new window.) This is a lower-traffic list, mostly for announcements.
Subscribe to Frink Enter Email Address:
Detailed Frink list (higher-traffic):
For detailed discussions about particular programs, programming help, algorithms, and details of the Frink language, please join the Frink-discuss mailing list. (Hosted by Yahoo! Groups. Link opens in new window.) This is the appropriate place for posting programming questions and will probably be a higher-traffic list.
Subscribe to Frink-discuss Enter Email Address:
This list is intended to discuss problems in math, science, and physics and explore solutions using the Frink language.
Frink Science mailing list. (Hosted by Yahoo! Groups. Link opens in new window.)
Subscribe to FrinkScience Enter Email Address:
You can read (and watch using RealPlayer) my presentation Frink -- A Language for Understanding the Physical World that I gave on Frink at the Lightweight Languages 4 conference at MIT. This discusses some of the design decisions of Frink, how it has evolved, implementation details, and future directions for the language.
Table of Contents
Using Frink
If you want to try the calculations as you're reading, click here to open the web-based interface in a new window. The web-based interface gives hints for new users, which may make it the easiest way to learn how to use Frink.
If you have a frames-enabled browser, and you don't see a Frink sidebar to the left, you can also click here to try Frink in a sidebar as you read this. (The sidebar mode doesn't give as many hints, though.)
Quick Start: On many platforms, if you already have Java installed, you can start Frink in the GUI mode by simply downloading and double-clicking the frink.jar file. For more startup options, see the Downloading Frink section.
Another method of installation requires Java Web Start, which is installed with most versions of Java. Using Java Web Start is used to be a great way to run Frink if you don't need to run programs from the command-line. (But you can still write and run programs from the GUI using Java Web Start!) If you do want to run programs from the command-line, see the Downloading Frink section below. Java Web Start will allow you to automatically get the latest version of Frink and will update Frink automatically when new versions are available.
Installation Steps
If you don't have a recent version of Java, you can get it from Sun. (Link opens in new window.) (Optional) If you've never installed anything with Java Web Start, please read and understand the FAQ entry about the security warnings you'll see (link opens in new window) and your alternate download options. Warning: Most major browsers have now disallowed Java plugins to run in the browser. However, if you have a Java Virtual Machine installed, you probably still have Java Web Start installed, which you need to invoke from the command-line with the command javaws. In Fedora, you can make sure this is installed by installing the icedtea-web package from your package manager, e.g. as root, typing dnf install icedtea-web and then one of the commands below. Warning: If you're using Java version 7u51 or later, they silently and incompatibly decided to change default security settings so you'll need to open the Java Control Panel to allow Frink to run. Otherwise you will see a dialog that says something like "Application blocked by security settings" or "Your security settings have blocked a self-signed application from running." (This silent change was made after 12+ years of the aforementioned method working fine.) The best way to allow Frink to run is to follow the instructions listed here and add http://futureboy.us to the exceptions list in step 7. Note: As always, Java's instructions and installer are terrible, and the Java Control panel on Windows may actually be under your Start menu as Java | Configure Java, or under your Windows Control Panel, or if you start your Control Panel and don't see it, Java's control panel will be hidden under "32-bit Control Panel." And sometimes you'll have multiple versions of Java installed and the one that gets started isn't the latest version. I had lots of problems until I manually uninstalled all the versions of Java on the Windows machine, reinstalled the latest version, and uninstalled Frink and reinstalled it. Sorry about that. Windows and Java integration is terrible. (The icedtea-web package for Fedora and other installations contains a vastly better implementation of Java Web Start.) Click one of the options below to install Frink: (see the screenshots below): Swing Interface Prettier. Requires Java 1.5.0 or later. Note: If your browser no longer supports Java in the browser, you can probably install this from the command-line by typing: javaws https://futureboy.us/frinkjar/frink.jnlp
Swing Interface with standard libraries. This is a version of Frink that contains a variety of standard libraries and useful programs. It's a larger download, but the standard libraries change somewhat infrequently and should only get downloaded when changes are made. Note: If your browser no longer supports Java in the browser, you can probably install this from the command-line by typing: javaws https://futureboy.us/frinkjar/frinkwithlibs.jnlp
AWT Interface - Not as pretty as the Swing mode, but will run on older JVMs. Note: If your browser no longer supports Java in the browser, you can probably install this from the command-line by typing: javaws https://futureboy.us/frinkjar/frinkawt.jnlp
If you've read those security notes, and understood what the security messages are telling you, and the warnings are still too scary, (and you don't want to send me the $400 per year it would cost me to remove at least one of them,) and you'd rather download a limited version of Frink that runs in the most restrictive security sandbox (breaking some features), then click here to install a limited version of Frink. Again, please read those security notes to see what features will be unavailable if you choose this option. You can always get the full version of Frink later if you need those features.
If someone wants to send me the $400 necessary to get a VeriSign "Code Signing Cerificate", I'll sign it just for you. It won't work any differently.)
If you have an old version of Java Web Start, Frink will probably show up in the "Downloaded Applications" section of the Java Web Start panel which isn't immediately visible. Use the View menu option to select the Downloaded Applications tab. It will also let you create a Frink shortcut on your desktop or in your start menu. The defaults in Java Web Start before version 1.4.2 are set oddly so that the second time you run Frink, it will ask you if you want to make a shortcut.
If you're using Linux, and Sun's Java release, only Java version 1.5 beta and later will install shortcuts onto your desktop and start menu. Highly recommended.
The Swing version allows mixed fonts and colors. Due to some performance bugs in Sun's Swing implementation (like large paragraphs taking several minutes to paint every time you resize or scroll,) it can be problematic. As of 2008-08-25, the capabilities of the Swing and AWT interfaces are about the same.
The AWT user interface has several modes. The two-line conversion mode and programming mode are shown below. Small devices usually can't run Swing, but all Java platforms should be able to run AWT.
If your web browser supports Java 1.3.1 or later, try the Java Applet-based interface. It looks and works just like the GUI above, but it requires you to be connected to the internet and must download for each session. Your browser must support Java 1.3.1 or later, or you will need to get download a newer version of Java from Sun. It is extremely highly recommended that you have Java 1.5.0 update 2 or later. This has been tested with Internet Explorer, Netscape 4.x, Netscape 6+, Mozilla (Windows and Linux), and Opera.
If you don't have a recent version of Java, you can get it from Sun. (Link opens in new window.)
(The certificate is just signed by me, so you'll get a warning. Network access is necessary to use the network portions of Frink... like currency calculations, translations, etc. If you deny network access, the non-network parts of Frink will work just fine. If someone wants to send me the $400 necessary to get a VeriSign "Code Signing Cerificate", I'll sign it just for you. It won't work any differently.)
If the applet doesn't work for you, try the web interface. It should allow you to use the latest version of the Frink engine. It is now powered by Frink Server Pages.
In this web interface, you can enter any Frink expression in the "From:" box. If you also enter a value in the "To:" box, it is treated as the right-hand side of a conversion expression (that is, to the right of the conversion operator -> )
Thus, to convert 10 meters to feet, you can enter 10 meters in the "From" box and feet in the "To" box, or, equivalently, type 10 meters -> feet in the "From" box and leave the "To" box empty. It does exactly the same thing.
Quick Start: On many platforms, if you already have Java installed, you can start Frink in the GUI mode by simply downloading and double-clicking the frink.jar file.
If you're just using Frink for interactive calculations, or are happy using the built-in programming mode and you're not writing running programs from the command-line, see the Java Web Start section above.
(If you're looking for an installer for handheld devices, like Android, see the Small Devices section below.)
If you want to write full Frink programs and run them from the commmand-line, you will need to get your own copy of Frink, and have a Java 1.1 or later runtime environment on your machine, 1.4.2+ is recommended as it's less buggy. The date calculations in anything before Java 1.3 are rather bad,) you may download the latest executable jar file. (Note that this changes almost daily as I do more work, so download often.)
Otherwise, here are the steps to downloading Frink:
If you don't have a recent version of Java, you can get it from Sun. (Link opens in new window.)
Download frink.jar.
(Double-clicking the file you just downloaded might start Frink in GUI mode, depending on your operating system. If that's not enough, read on.)
See the Running Frink section below for directions for starting full Frink programs, running from the command-line, etc.
Quick Start: On many platforms, if you already have Java installed, you can start Frink in the GUI mode by simply downloading and double-clicking the frink.jar file.
If you want to run Frink in command-line mode, here are a couple of sample scripts you can use to start Frink. You will need to edit them to match the paths on your system!
(Windows batch file) frink.bat
(Linux/Unix shell script) frink
In the samples below, you may need to replace java or javaw with the full path to your Java Virtual Machine, whatever that may be. Note that javaw is a Windows-only command that simply starts Java without opening a console window. You'll probably replace this with java on other platforms.
The most general way to start Frink is to launch the frink.gui.FrinkStarter class:
java -cp frink.jar frink.gui.FrinkStarter [options]
(The above starter scripts use this class. Look at them first.) By default, this starts in text mode but allows many command-line options to start in different modes:
Switch Description --swing Starts in Swing GUI mode --gui Starts in Swing GUI mode --awt Starts in AWT GUI mode --fullscreen Starts fullscreen --prog Starts in programming mode with a blank program -open filename Starts the specified filename in programming mode (this option is passed by double-clicking a file in Windows if you have file associations set up.)
Other start options are listed below, if you want to use them. I'd suggest using one of the scripts above and modifying it.
To run the jar file in text mode (only), use:
java -cp frink.jar frink.parser.Frink [options]
To run the jar file with the Swing GUI, (shown above under Java Web Start,) use:
javaw -cp frink.jar frink.gui.SwingInteractivePanel [options]
The Swing GUI is the default action for the jar file, so this is the same as saying:
javaw -jar frink.jar [options]
To run the jar file with the AWT GUI, which gives access to several modes, including programming mode, use:
javaw -cp frink.jar frink.gui.InteractivePanel [options]
To run the jar file and start the AWT GUI in programming mode, use:
javaw -cp frink.jar frink.gui.ProgrammingPanel [filename]
To run the jar file and start the Swing GUI in programming mode, use:
javaw -cp frink.jar frink.gui.SwingProgrammingPanel [filename]
If a single filename is specified in programming mode, this file will be loaded into the interface.
To run the AWT GUI in full-screen size (this is primarily for small devices,) use:
javaw -cp frink.jar frink.gui.FullScreenAWTStarter [options]
Depending on your operating system, I recommend that you write a shell script, batch file, or create a shortcut to let you run this even more easily (see below for samples.) To exit, use Ctrl-C, or send your platform's end-of-file character (usually Ctrl-Z or Ctrl-D), possibly followed by carriage return. Or just close the window.
See the Proxy Configuration below for additional options if you're running behind a HTTP or FTP proxy server.
Also see the Performance Tips section below to see how to improve speed.
Arguments passed in on the command-line are treated as names of Frink programs to be executed. Other command-line options are listed below.
If you just want to have Frink calculate something and exit, you can pass arguments on the command line using the -e [string] switch. Each command-line argument following the -e will be interpreted as a Frink expression, making it easy to run Frink from other applications:
java -cp frink.jar frink.parser.Frink -e "78 yards -> feet"
234.0
Other command-line options:
Switch Description -f filename Allows you to specify multiple Frink source files to load and run. Multiple -f filename options may be specified. If this option is specified, the specified file will not receive any following command-line arguments. The -f switch is no longer required or recommended unless you are loading multiple files. Normally, you will just specify the filename to load as the last command-line argument. For example, to load your own definitions from mydefs.frink before loading the main program main.frink, you may do something like: frink -f mydefs.frink main.frink args -k Remain in interactive mode after loading files or parsing command-line arguments. This is very useful if you want to load definitions from one or more files and then go into an interactive session. -u filename Specify a different units file than the default. This allows you to change the fundamental dimensions that you like to use, or change my definitions that you don't agree with. You can download my latest data file (normally included in the.jar file) and modify it to suit your needs. --nounits
-nu Don't load a units file at all on startup. This will improve startup time, but will break all programs that use any of the standard units. No units of measure will be defined at all. -I path Appends the specified path to the paths that will be searched when a use statement is encountered in a program. This may be either an absolute or relative file path. You may specify multiple -I arguments on the command-line, and the paths will be searched in the order they are specified. --encoding str Specify the character encoding of all following Frink program files. This option must precede the filename that it modifies. Frink programs can now be more directly written in any language and encoding system. This switch is only necessary if your system's default encoding (as detected by Java) is different than that of the program file you're loading. The encoding is a string representing any encoding that your version of Java supports, e.g. "UTF-8", "US-ASCII", "ISO-8859-1", "UTF-16", "UTF-16BE", "UTF-16LE". Your release of Java may support more charsets, but all implementations of Java are required to support the above. The sample program encodings.frink also demonstrates how to list all of the encodings available on your system (and their aliases.) If you specify multiple files having different encodings using multiple -f directives, you can use something like --encoding "" to set the encoding back to your system's default. This flag does not alter the behavior of files opened using commands like read[] or lines[]. To change their behavior, use the two-argument versions of these commands. -v
--version Print out the Frink version and exit. (From inside a program, you can call the function FrinkVersion[] to return the current version.) --sandbox Enables Frink's internal "sandbox" mode so you can run untrusted code. This is different from Java's sandbox, in that it enables only Frink's notions of what should and shouldn't be allowed. It disallows programs to define functions and many other things, so it's rarely useful to the end-user, and hardly any programs will run this way. It's really more |
did it happen? House and Senate negotiators want to fund $5.4 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively, in public works spending to create jobs, but the Reagan administration threatened to veto any spending bill that included jobs money. The House also opposed funding the MX missile program, a major defense priority of Reagan's.
What resolved it? The House and Senate abandoned their jobs plans but declined to fund the MX missile, or the Pershing II missile (which was a medium-range missile, while the MX was intercontinental). They also provided funding for the Legal Services Corp., which provides legal support for poor Americans and which Reagan had wanted abolished, and increased foreign aid to Israel above what Reagan wanted. While Reagan criticized these moves, he grudgingly signed the bill following a short shutdown.
Yitzhak Shamir, who was prime minister of Israel when this shutdown occurred. (Getty Images)
Shutdown #10: So you can have your missiles but Israel gets some, too
When did it take place? Nov. 10-14, 1983
How long did it last? 3 days
Who was president? Ronald Reagan
Who controlled the Senate? Republicans, 55-45; Howard Baker was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Democrats, 271-164; Tip O'Neill was speaker
Why did it happen? House Democrats passed an amendment adding close to $1 billion in education spending. They also cut foreign aid below what Reagan wanted, adding money for Israel and Egypt but cutting it substantially for Syria and El Salvador, and cut defense spending by about $11 billion relative to Reagan's request. The dispute wasn't resolved before a short shutdown could occur.
What resolved it? House Democrats agreed to reduce their education spending request to about $100 million. They also funded the MX missile, which they had successfully cut funding for during the last shutdown battle. However, they kept their foreign aid and defense cuts, and got a ban on oil and gas leasing in federal animal refuges. The spending bill also added a ban on using federal employee health insurance to fund abortions, except when the mother's life was in danger, similar to the ban already in place for Medicaid (see above). That wasn't as partisan an issue at the time; it was a win for anti-abortion members of both parties (including Reagan and O'Neill) and loss for pro-choice Democrats and Republicans (including Baker).
(Courtesy of Grove City College)
Shutdown #11: Omnishutdown
When did it take place? Sept. 30 to Oct. 3, 1984
How long did it last? 2 days
Who was president? Ronald Reagan
Who controlled the Senate? Republicans, 55-45; Howard Baker was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Democrats, 270-165; Tip O'Neill was speaker
Why did it happen? Passage of a spending bill was complicated by the House linking it to a crime-fighting package (which Reagan wanted) and a water projects package (which he opposed), and the Senate's tying it to a civil rights measure (which Reagan also opposed) that would have reversed a Supreme Court ruling weakening civil rights requirements on universities receiving federal funds. Reagan offered to forgo his crime bill in exchange for junking the water package and the civil rights provision, but a deal wasn't reached in time to avoid a brief shutdown.
What resolved it? A three-day spending extension was passed and signed so that the parties could keep negotiating.
Shutdown #12: Omnishutdown II — Shut Down Harder
When did it take place? Oct. 3-5, 1984
How long did it last? 1 day
Who was president? Ronald Reagan
Who controlled the Senate? Republicans, 55-45; Howard Baker was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Democrats, 270-165; Tip O'Neill was speaker
Why did it happen? The three-day extension (see above) wasn't long enough, apparently.
What resolved it? Congress relented and the water projects were stripped from a spending bill, as was the civil rights measure. They passed a crime package along Reagan's desired lines as well. A compromise was worked out on funding for the Nicaraguan Contras (which emerged as an issue in the course of the negotiations, despite not initially being a cause of the shutdowns), wherein the anti-Sandinista forces could be funded until early the following year.
Shutdown #13: Welfare expansion fail
When did it take place? Oct. 16-18, 1986
How long did it last? 1 day
Who was president? Ronald Reagan
Who controlled the Senate? Republicans, 53-47; Bob Dole was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Democrats, 253-182; Tip O'Neill was speaker
Why did it happen? The brief shutdown followed several disagreements between Reagan and the Democrat-controlled House, including over a provision to ban companies from creating subsidiaries to get around labor contracts, another requiring that half the goods and labor used in offshore oil rigs be American in origin, and one that would have expanded Aid to Families with Dependent Children, which is what welfare was known as at the time. All of those were policies supported by House Democrats and opposed by Reagan and Senate Republicans. The dispute wasn't resolved in time to avoid a shutdown.
What resolved it? House Democrats gave up a number of their demands, and secured a promise for a vote on their welfare expansion, and in return passed appropriations necessary to reopen the government. Republicans, meanwhile, offered a concession related to the government's sale of Conrail, a then-public railway.
Shutdown #14: I Think You're a Contra
When did it take place? Dec. 18-20, 1987
How long did it last? 1 day
Who was president? Ronald Reagan
Who controlled the Senate? Democrats, 54-46; Robert Byrd was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Democrats, 258-177; Jim Wright was speaker
Why did it happen? Reagan and congressional Democrats could not agree on funding for the Nicaraguan "Contra" militants in time to avoid a shutdown. Additionally, Democrats pushed for a provision reinstating the "Fairness Doctrine," which required that broadcasters give equal airing to both sides in political disputes, and which the FCC had recently stopped enforcing at the time.
What resolved it? Democrats yielded on the Fairness Doctrine, and a deal was worked out wherein nonlethal aid was provided to the Contras.
OMB director Richard Darman, right, with then-Sen. Wyche Fowler and House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, in 1990). (James M. Thresher/The Washington Post)
Shutdown #15: Somebody come up with a plan!
When did it take place? Oct. 5-9, 1990
How long did it last? 3 days
Who was president? George H.W. Bush
Who controlled the Senate? Democrats, 55-45; George Mitchell was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Democrats, 258-176; Tom Foley was speaker
Why did it happen? Bush refused to sign any continuing resolution into law unless it was paired with a deficit reduction plan, and backed up the pledge by vetoing one that made it to his desk. The House failed to override his veto and the conflict was not resolved before a shutdown.
What resolved it? The House and Senate adopted a joint budget resolution that provided an outline for reducing the deficit, and Bush then signed a continuing resolution they sent him, ending the shutdown.
Federal workers marched outside the State Department on Jan. 3, 1996, to protest the partial federal government shutdown. (AP)
Shutdown #16: Clinton v. Gingrich, the First
When did it take place? Nov. 13-19, 1995
How long did it last? 5 days
Who was president? Bill Clinton
Who controlled the Senate? Republicans, 53-47; Bob Dole was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Republicans, 233-199; Newt Gingrich was speaker
Why did it happen? The GOP-run Congress sent Clinton a continuing resolution that would have raised Medicare premiums, committed the president to balance the budget within seven years, and curtailed environmental regulations, among other provisions. He vetoed it, triggering a shutdown.
What resolved it? The shutdown was ended when Clinton, Gingrich and Dole reached an agreement to fund the government at 75 percent levels for four weeks while budget negotiations continued. Clinton also agreed to the seven-year balanced budget timeline. Workers furloughed during the shutdown were given back pay.
Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich hold budget negotiations \Dec. 19, 1995. (Richard Ellis/AFP-Getty Images)
Shutdown #17: Clinton v. Gingrich, the Second: Baseline Boogaloo
When did it take place? Dec. 5, 1995 to Jan. 6, 1996
How long did it last? 21 days
Who was president? Bill Clinton
Who controlled the Senate? Republicans, 53-47; Bob Dole was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Republicans, 235-198; Newt Gingrich was speaker
Why did it happen? Republican leaders demanded that the White House propose a seven-year budget plan that balanced when using the CBO's economic forecasts, rather than the OMB's, which were more optimistic. The plan Clinton proposed still produced a $115 billion deficit in seven years according to CBO numbers, even as the OMB estimated that it would balance the budget by then. The dispute was not resolved before the continuing resolution agreed to a month earlier (see previous entry) expired.
What resolved it? Republicans caved, basically, and passed legislation to keep the government open. Clinton, in turn, submitted a budget plan that the CBO said balanced the budget within seven years.[Update Below] A tentative contract agreement has been reached between the LIRR union representatives and the MTA.
The news was announced on the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 589 page, with a statement reading "A STRIKE HAS BEEN AVERTED! A tentative agreement has been reached. Details to follow."
Sources inside the LIRR confirm that a deal has indeed been struck, but that the official agreement has not yet been ratified by all parties.
"The deal includes no strike, a seventeen percent hike over six-and-a-half years, full back pay, and two percent for medical pay. For new hires, there will be a six year progression, four percent pension for fifteen years and two percent medical," one source says. "Unions wanted six years for wages, MTA wanted seven, they settled on six-and-a-half. Currently employees only pay pensions for ten years, so they bumped it up to fifteen for new hires."
[Update] This afternoon Governor Cuomo was joined by MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Prendergast and the United Transportation Union President Anthony Simon in a press conference announcing the labor agreement.
“The Long Island Rail Road is a critical artery in connecting the downstate region, and the men and women who keep it running play a vital role in the lives of our commuters and in the communities that the LIRR serves,” Governor Cuomo said.
Under the terms of the agreement, based on the recommendations of the Presidential Emergency Board, existing LIRR employees will receive 17 percent raises over a term of 6-1/2 years. To ensure the long-term affordability of these wage increases, all employees will for the first time contribute to their health insurance costs, and new employees will have different wage progressions and pension plan contributions. The contract, which is still subject to approval from the eight Long Island Rail Road unions followed by ratification from their membership, will not have any impact on MTA fares.
“The agreement we reached today with the assistance of Governor Cuomo is just what he advocated - a fair and reasonable contract that will enable the nation’s busiest commuter railroad to continue to serve the people of Long Island,” MTA Chairman Thomas F. Prendergast said.
Governor Cuomo ended the conference by telling reporters he "sweetened the deal" by agreeing to keep the meeting short, and expressed envy for Mayor Bill de Blasio's Italian vacation plans.Australian dollar back to parity on Trump win: Saxo chief economist Steen Jakobsen
Updated
The chief economist at Danish global banking giant Saxo is maintaining his prediction the Australian dollar will return to parity with the greenback, possibly within a year.
Steen Jakobsen is renowned internationally for his unconventional forecasts.
He was one of the few financial analysts who tipped the Brexit vote getting up.
Among his latest predictions are that Donald Trump is a good chance to get into the White House, that this will halt further US rate rises and that Australian interest rates are near their lowest point.
Mr Jakobsen told ABC's The Business that Australians should expect interest rates to rise by a percentage point, even if they fall once more next month, and that this will drive the currency back to parity, possibly within 12 months.
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Interview with Steen Jacobsen (The Business)
TICKY FULLERTON: Let me ask you about the Australian dollar first, because parity with the US dollar: that's quite a big call. You made that call in March. A few things have happened since then. Are you still comfortable with that?
STEEN JAKOBSEN: I'm very comfortable. But of course, the word you left out is: "when" it's going to go to one.
But what I said is against what is the consensus view in Australia, you just trust on the inflation report.
I think people have to make themselves aware of the fact that the next 100 basis point move from the RBA will be on the upside.
It will not be an additional 100 bases on the downside, meaning that the interest rate cycle in Australia is flattening out.
We may see one more lowering of the rates, but that will be the low point. So that is the Australian side.
The US dollar side: we're getting a Trump, potentially, into the White House; we are seeing trade sanctioning across the board; we are seeing people going anti-globalisation. That is not good for the US dollar at all.
TICKY FULLERTON: So the earliest you could get to parity if those events happen would be: what? Within a couple of...
STEEN JAKOBSEN: When I come back to see you in 12 months from now, we could be at one in the absolute extreme case.
But I think what you have to remember is that Australia not only represents your daily life, but it is a quasi-China story.
It is a story where you have commodities trading at cyclical lows. You're trading at interest rate lows.
So, I think if you want to look to the world - if you want to look at the three to five years down the line - I think the Australian dollar is a safe haven because you are, in GDP per capita a very, very strong economy.
I think you are doing a lot of things wrong on the economic side, let me be honest. But I think the uptake from China coming online again is very, very potential. And the China story is totally misunderstood in the rest of the world.
TICKY FULLERTON: All right. Well, you mentioned the US being the other side of the coin, of course. Now, we've got the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting this week. What do you think is going to happen with the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen and these jolly old rates?
STEEN JAKOBSEN: They're going to do absolutely nothing, as they normally do.
They started the year by threatening, even promising, guaranteeing, us they were going to hike interest rates four to five times. They've done zero.
TICKY FULLERTON: So they won't upset the market? Janet Yellen won't upset the market, wrong-foot the market?
STEEN JAKOBSEN: They can't.
But there's even a practical reason why they can't do it: because the yield curve - so the difference between the very short money and the very long money, the money that you deposit at zero, which the banks want to lend out at 20 and 30 years - is trading at its all-time low, almost. It's running at 80 basis points.
So basically, whether you lend out money at zero months or in 30 years, it's almost the same. That is a huge tax on the banking sector. You see that in Australia. You see that in the US.
So there is actually, beyond the economic reasons, beyond the political reasons, there is also a practical reason.
If you keep heightening the interest rate, then you will have a tax on the financial system. Not happening.
TICKY FULLERTON: You mentioned China there. Of course, we've got the G20 going on - finance ministers - going on at the moment in China. There's been a bit of criticism there about the stealth devaluation of the yuan this year.
Do you think there is a lot of currency war play going on at the moment?
STEEN JAKOBSEN: Absolutely, and you have been part of it indirectly yourself in Australia, through having the weaker Aussie compensating for some of the lack of terms of trade.
But the fact is that the G7, the G20, all of the leaders today are agreeing that pursuing a policy of devaluing your own currency is not allowed any more.
So China is allowed because it is in a unique situation, they have taken all of the rise of the currency relatively to their competitors.
So I think China will be allowed to have a gradual 3 to 5 per cent devaluation over every six months.
And that leads to more deflationary forces that keep interest rates in place.
But what we have to look at in terms of China is the fact that the productivity in China is only 20 per cent of what it is in the US.
So China can surprise to the upside, but only through opening a market and internationalisation of the renminbi - which is the other side of your question.
'Trump will be good', the 'alternative of doing nothing'
TICKY FULLERTON: Steen, you correctly called Brexit, so you were one of few people there. But you also talk about it now as it could be a catalyst for positive change. In what way?
Because in the next 12 months we've got various European elections; we've got another referendum in Italy: lots of opportunity for things to go rather wobbly?
STEEN JAKOBSEN: Yeah. But think about it. The alternative of doing nothing - which is the policy priority of every single government and macro policymaker - we know where that leads.
It leads to more unemployment, more inequality, higher stock market valuation that drives you to nowhere.
So what I'm trying to say is that you can deal with problems through the fast track or through the slow track.
What Brexit did - and what will be positive from it - is the fact that it gets us to the root of the problem much, much faster.
We are dealing with the issue of Europe having to be less aggressive in terms of its vision.
We have to have the UK deal with the fact that the last time they had a current account surplus was in 1982, when Italy was world champion of football.
So, you know, what I'm saying, really, is that inevitably economic trends lead to change.
The only change you get is when the politics gets out of whack. We are out of whack totally in terms of noise. That is good. And that's also why Trump will be good.
TICKY FULLERTON: Briefly: let's go back to America and Trump. Now, both sides of politics are calling for a reinstatement of 'Glass-Steagall', which separates commercial banking from investment banking activities. What's that going to do to the market, briefly?
STEEN JAKOBSEN: That would be seen, at least by the banks and the banking lobbies, as negative, because it is more regulatory frameworks into a world of too much regulatory framework.
But I have to say, I am of the personal opinion that no financial industry should be left on its own.
I liked the days when I grew up when you had boutique finance. If you needed an M&A [merger and acquisitions] trade, you went to a guy who was an expert.
I don't like supermarkets. I never liked supermarkets. And I think we need to go back to specialisation and giving the best marginal advice.
So to some extent, philosophically, absolutely. But we need anti-cyclical, not pro-cyclical regulations. So in that sense, it's a little bit of a bad harbinger for the markets.
Topics: currency, economic-trends, australia
First postedFor the second time in less than a month, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE is writing off a statement many found offensive — that President Obama was the “founder” of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) — as “sarcasm.”
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“ISIS is honoring President Obama,” Trump said Wednesday during a rally in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “He’s the founder of ISIS. He founded ISIS."
“I would say the co-founder would be Crooked Hillary Clinton,” Trump added of his Democratic rival and Obama’s former secretary of State. Trump has previously referred to each as ISIS's most valuable player as well.
Trump doubled down on the claim Thursday in an interview with Hugh Hewitt, telling the radio host that "everyone's liking" the comments.
“I know what you meant. You meant that he created the vacuum. He lost the peace,” Hewitt said.
“No, I meant that he’s the founder of ISIS,” Trump replied. “He was the most valuable player. I gave him the most valuable player award."
But on Friday, Trump tweeted that he was being facetious:
Ratings challenged @CNN reports so seriously that I call President Obama (and Clinton) "the founder" of ISIS, & MVP. THEY DON'T GET SARCASM? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2016
In July, Trump came under fire for saying he hopes Russian hackers find Clinton's 30,000 missing emails from her private server, statements he later dismissed as "sarcastic."Tension remains high in Northwestern BC as representatives from the Unist’ot’en clan and their legal representatives held a meeting with the RCMP regarding the fate of their settlement camp on Tuesday afternoon.
A non-violent occupation of unceded Unist’ot’en traditional territory since 2010, the camp was originally established to stand in the intended path of the Pacific Trail natural gas pipeline. It has since expanded to include structures built directly in the path of the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and the TransCanada Coastal Gaslink pipeline, encompassed within a sweeping declaration that all pipelines are banned from their territories. A checkpoint ensures that no one enters or leaves the territory without their direct consent.
The meeting comes in the wake of widespread speculation regarding a potential RCMP raid on the camp.
On Friday, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs warned of the potential of mass arrests, warning that police were gathering in nearby towns.
There is also a video report (which I cannot embed): http://www.vice.com/en_ca/video/vice-canada-reports-no-pipelines
This statement was sparked by a face-to-face meeting between the leadership council and RCMP representatives in the boardroom of the UBCIC, Philip told VICE.
“It became very evident at that point in time that, despite our objections, despite our strong opposition to them moving in in force, it was clear that they had made decisions that they were going to execute their operational plan,” said Phillip, speaking from the road on his way back from the Unist’ot’en camp on Tuesday.
That meeting was followed by an additional report, from a source Phillip considered to be reliable, that approximately 200 RCMP officers were gathering in towns close to the camp.
“There were phone calls made to the highest levels of the RCMP in Ottawa, who, under great pressure, admitted they were fully engaged,” added Phillip.
Fearing imminent violence, Phillip said he then “dropped everything” and immediately drove to the camp on Sunday, stopping only to buy a sleeping bag on the way.
As he traveled, wider speculation swirled that the impending raid could possibly be a test drive of new powers afforded to police by the newly enacted Bill C-51.
Though no evictions or raids have yet taken place, Phillip’s comments, which also warned of potential of mass arrests, prompted the BC Civil Liberties Association to issue a strongly worded letter to the RCMP, stating that such a move would be “disastrous” and “would not respect the constitutionally-respected Title and Rights of the Unist’ot’en, as well as their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
An additional letter, signed by a number of high-profile civil liberties advocates and environmentalists titled “We Stand With the Unist’ot’en,” offered further backing, much if it international, to the camp’s position.
On Friday, the BC RCMP responded with a statement that the police force had no intention of taking down the camp and said their position was one which “respects the rights of individuals to peacefully protest.”
“They could be standing back for a minute, and then come back again full force on Wednesday morning or something, that could happen,” said Zoe Blunt, a camp supporter who has helped organize caravans of other supporters into the camp for several years.
Blunt received an email from a camp member on Tuesday which stated that legal representatives for the Unist’ot’en had secured a guarantee from the RCMP that they would not enter the camp prior to Tuesday’s meeting. What happens beyond that point is dependant on what is discussed.
Both Blunt and Phillip feel that a raid, if planned, may have been stayed by the intense scrutiny and overwhelming support the camp has received in recent weeks.
A recent tour by Unist’ot’en camp spokeswoman Freda Huson and four hereditary chiefs from the area was met with standing ovations and packed crowds, said Blunt.
“This was the first time they had ever experienced anything like this, going off-reserve and speaking to a big group of people—that’s always been Freda’s role,” said Blunt. “They were just blown away, they were feasted everywhere they went and were treated like rock stars, basically. It must have been really overwhelming.”
Videos of Huson informing RCMP officers to leave the territory on July 15, in addition to more recent videos showing Chevron’s failed attempts to enter Unist’ot’en territory with gifts of bottled water and tobacco, have garnered thousands of views, said Blunt. In addition, their legal defence fund has received donations from as far away as Sweden and North Carolina.
Despite support from many corners, not everyone is pleased with the situation as it unfolds.
A letter issued from four elected Wet’suwet’en chiefs issued on Monday states that they are concerned with the support from aboriginal and non-aboriginal individuals and groups such as those who have signed the “We Stand With the Unist’ot’en” letter, saying that their definition of sustainability may be different from those who live in the area.
“We have long believed it is short sighted to turn down projects such as the Coastal GasLink project before understanding the true risks and benefits; that is just an easy way to avoid dealing with complex issues,” stated Wet’suwet’en First Nation Chief Karen Ogen, who was joined by Nee Tahi Buhn Chief Ray Morris, Burns Lake Band Chief Dan George and Skin Tyee Nation Chief Rene Skin in signing the statement.
The continued pressure from oil and gas companies has also not relented.
On the territory of the Gitdumden First Nation, work continues as Chevron clears a right of way for the Pacific Trail Pipeline up to two kilometres from the Unist’ot’en camp.
“We’re not out here causing any trouble, we’re here to see the damage that you guys are going to have to pay for when this all goes to court,” said Richard Sam of the Laxilyu clan, as he hikes out to survey the damage in a video filmed on Aug. 30 and posted to YouTube.
“It’s a bit pointless, right? They’re not coming through with their pipeline, so any money that’s spent at this point is a waste,” said Sam, who was a plaintiff in a 2011 Wet’suwet’en court victory against Canfor.
On Sunday, Gitdumden chiefs sat down with Unist’ot’en clan members to discuss how they might work together to stop Chevron from clearcutting the right of way for the PTP pipeline.
As the future of the camp remains uncertain, Phillip said on his trip he did not observe any RCMP in the towns closest to the camp, and believes they may have indeed left.
“I’m grateful that cooler heads may have prevailed and they re-thought the dynamic of this. Obviously the enormous groundswell of response through social media was an indication that this would have completely spiraled out of control, and quite possibly could have triggered other actions throughout the province and right across the country,” he said.
“One of the outcomes of this situation that arose is that there is an opportunity now for all the parties to understand the gravity of the situation and begin to open up a dialogue and come to some agreement.”
The RCMP have not yet responded to a request for comment on this story.
http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/everything-we-know-about-the-possible-rcmp-raid-on-the-unistoten-camp?utm_source=vicefbcaSep 22nd, 2017
Sep 22nd, 2017
All through the AFL season, Geelong coach Chris Scott felt like he was plugging holes.
The dam finally burst on Friday night when his Cats copped a 61-point hammering from Adelaide in a preliminary final.
"Our season has ebbed and flowed in terms of the cohesion of our group and our injury list," Scott said after Adelaide's 21.10 (136) to 10.15 (75) victory.
"We probably thought that we had a few holes right throughout the course of the season that we were always battling to fill.
"... We had eight or nine debutants for the year. We had a lot of players used across our list.
"And while it's a credit to the players that are able to still get us to the point where we still finish second on the ladder at the home-and-away end, it would be much more preferable to be playing 25, 26 players across the course of the year instead of 36, 37."
More » Crows make 2017 AFL Grand Final
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Betts goals for Adelaide
Scott said Geelong had no choice but to again transform next year, given the retirements of defensive stalwarts Andrew Mackie and Tom Lonergan.
"I hope that no one associated with Geelong falls into the trap of thinking that we were close again, and have just got to improve a little bit to go the next step," he said.
"Because the cold, hard reality is we have got to go back to the start again.
"And there are some really good football teams with a lot of talent who didn't make the eight this year who I suspect will get better.
"I wish we could just fast forward to the prelim final next year. But we have got so much work in front of us to even make the finals."
Scott said he wouldn't rush to judge Geelong's season.
"I don't really feel like it's the time to make those assessments because we are all really emotional at the moment," he said.
"... Our job is to not let the emotion impact our decision making negatively."
©AAP2017Data produced and maintained in conjunction with UnKoch My Campus.
Originally published as part of Greenpeace's 2014 report: KOCH POLLUTION ON CAMPUS: Academic Freedom Under Assault from Charles Koch's $50 million Campaign to Infiltrate Higher Education.
This interactive database allows users to find grant information between Koch private foundations and colleges and universities. Greenpeace found that from 2005-2013, the Koch brothers have spent over $68 million on 308 colleges and universities (updated from initial report finding of $50 million to 254 schools, 2005-2012). Data is sourced from 990 IRS tax filings provided by the Charles Koch Foundation, the Charles Koch Institute, the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation, and the now-defunct Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation.
Additional references below document Charles Koch's influence over the education process, as explained by professors, students, reporters and watchdogs.
Charles Koch Foundation vs. Academic Freedom:
Before, and since, Greenpeace's 2014 report documenting Charles Koch and Academic Freedom issues on Koch-funded campuses, commentary has amassed from students and professors on impacted campuses, in addition to analyses from reporters, bloggers and researchers.
Professors discuss Koch-University arrangements that break academic freedom guidelines:
Students on Charles Koch grants violating academic freedom principles:
Florida State University (FSU):
George Mason University (GMU):
George Washington University (GW):
Kansas University:
Ohio State University (OSU):
Penn State University (PSU):
Suffolk University:
University of Dayton (UD):
Funding From The Koch Brothers Is At Odds With University Of Dayton’s Values - Jay Riestenberg (alumnus), the Punderbund, 2014.
University of Maryland, College Park (UMd):
Financial influence in academia - by Chris Bangert-Drowns, The Diamondback, 2015.
University of Pennsylvannia (U-Penn):
The Koch Foundation funds a lecture series at Penn - by Dan Spinelli, The Daily Pennsylvannian, 2015.
Utah State University (USU):
Examining the Koch Scholars Program - Brenna Kelly, The Utah Statesman, 2014.
Media reports documenting Charles Koch's disregard for academic freedom:
Multiple-campus Focus:
Arizona State University (ASU):
Catholic University of America (CUA):
Creighton University:
Florida State University (FSU):
George Mason University (GMU):
Hope College:
Markets and Morality: Koch brothers foundation bankrolls Hope College student group - Brian McVicar, Grand Rapids Press, 2014.
Kansas University (KU):
Mississippi State University (MSU):
Koch foundation to give money to MSU market studies center - Jeff Amy, Associated Press, 2015.
Pepperdine University:
Pepperdine Professor Investigated by Congressman - Emily Sawicki, Mailbu Times, 2015.
Suffolk University:
University of Arizona (UA):
University of Louisville (U of L):
University of Maryland, College Mark (UMd):
Maryland business school to receive $6 million donation - Ellie Silverman, The Diamondback, 2014.
Utah State University (USU):
West Virginia University (WVU):
WVU business center partly funded by Kochs - Paul J. Nyden, Charlotte Gazette, 2014.
Nonprofit & Watchdog Analyses of Koch Threats to Academic Freedom on Campus:
PolluterWatch profile: Charles Koch
SourceWatch has more information on Koch money at Universities and Academic Freedom implications.This article is from the archive of our partner.
Expensive sports channels are pushing cable bills to levels that make Internet-only subscriptions seem ever-more appealing. After its earnings report, Time Warner seemed to be in a bit of denial over the cable exodus as we discussed yesterday. At least one reason for the rise in cord cutting has to do with cost. As commenter TooDiesel lamented, cable packages don't come cheap. "I think part of the problem is the ridiculously high price of TW cable too. I live in Charlotte, can't get TW for less than $75 no matter what package I select," he wrote. Well, TooDiesel a lot of that has to do with sports packages driving up those prices, as data offered by AllThingsD's Peter Kafka confirms.
Looking at Kafka's chart of 2012 wholesale prices for each channel (below), we see that sports channels rank as the number one and two most expensive offerings, with a smattering of rankings in the top 25, confirming the fears cable execs had expressed back in December as they came to deals with these channels.
ESPN gets that top spot because viewers value sports. Thus ESPN and Disney can charge as much as they like. Cable companies are therefore obliged to carry them—and pass the spending onto consumers—because they're convinced the networks lure customers. Comcast even signed a deal to lock in this relationship with ESPN for the next 10 years.BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - U.S. government investigators looking into the crash of a UPS cargo plane said on Friday the pilots received a low altitude warning barely seven seconds before the sound of impact, according to data recovered from the cockpit voice recorder.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators retrieve the flight voice and data recorders from the wreckage of UPS flight 1354 in this handout photo taken in Birmingham, Alabama August 15, 2013. REUTERS/NTSB/Handout via Reuters
Investigators retrieved data from the cockpit and flight data recorders on Friday that could shed light on Wednesday’s fiery crash in Alabama that killed the jet’s pilot and co-pilot.
“I personally breathed a huge sigh of relief once I learned we had good data,” said Robert Sumwalt, a senior official with the National Transportation Safety Board. “We’ll know everything that was said in the cockpit.”
Sumwalt said a preliminary review of the voice and data recorders showed the pilots received the first of two audible warnings before the sound of impact can be heard, indicating the United Parcel Service Inc cargo plane was descending at a hazardous rate.
A warning system in the air-traffic computers at Birminghan’s airport showed no indications the plane was approaching too low, Sumwalt said.
The cockpit voice and flight recorders arrived at the NTSB’s headquarters in Washington late on Thursday, hours after they were pulled from a heap of melted plastic and debris at the crash site.
Preliminary results from the agency’s investigation, which is still in its early stages, have shown no evidence of engine fire, and the pilots did not issue a distress call.
The Airbus A300 jet was approaching the runway at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth airport before dawn when it clipped the trees in an adjacent residential area and crashed well short of the runway.
An air traffic controller on duty told NTSB investigators he saw a “bright spark flash” that looked like a powerline breaking, Sumwalt said. The controller saw the plane’s landing lights “followed by a bright, orange flash... and then a red glow.”
The NTSB has sent investigators to Louisville, Kentucky, to study the A300’s maintenance records, officials said.
UPS identified the crew members who died as 58-year-old Cerea Beal Jr., of Matthews, North Carolina, and Shanda Fanning, 37, of Lynchburg, Tennessee.
Beal, the captain, who was at the controls on Wednesday, had been |
Triple H was badly out of shape, thanks to a serious thigh/groin injury that kept him from working out to his overzealous liking. This meant in SummerSlam’s Elimination Chamber title defense, Helmsley (in garish bicycle shorts) watched Goldberg pulverize everyone before pinning “The Man” with a solitary sledgehammer blow, doing two minutes of work.
17. PULLING THE STRINGS (King of the Ring, June 27, 1999)
One of the en vogue story tropes of the Attitude Era was the “WHODUNNIT” mystery. Who ran down Austin in the parking lot? Who hit Kevin Nash with the Hummer truck? Who is the Higher Power? After Vince McMahon was hastily revealed as that last shrouded figure, the mysteries lost their luster considerably. At least the Higher Power, though, had a payoff.
Steve Austin battled Vince and son Shane for total control of WWE at King of the Ring in a ladder match, with the ownership certificates suspended in a briefcase above the ring. Austin had the match won, and made his climb, when the briefcase was suddenly jerked out of Austin’s reach. The McMahons won full power, and the assailant was never, ever revealed.
16. THIS IS A RECORDING (Over the Limit, May 22, 2011)
John Cena doesn’t quit. Period. Wisenheimer fans will note that Kurt Angle and the redacted Chris Benoit have made Cena tap (for $9.99, you can watch Angle do it at No Mercy 2003), but those are bits of buried history in the primary narrative. Cena, unless he turns heel, is never submitting. Otherwise, those hand-towels he displays are worthless. Well, even more so.
After tormenting WWE Champion Cena in an I Quit match, The Miz managed to draw a submission with a chair-shot beating. The referee then deciphered that it was a recording of Cena previously saying the words in a promo, via Alex Riley’s cell phone lying near Cena’s head. Cena came to life, chased Miz up the rampway, and made him submit seconds later.
15. HELP ME, OBI-WYATT (Hell in a Cell, October 26, 2014)
If the feud between Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins has not truly ended, then this entry wouldn’t be so bad. As it stands, it’s a detour for WWE’s best feud of 2014 (assuming it picks up in 2015 sometime). That doesn’t extinguish the randomness of the moment, as well as the all-too excessive nature of what took place. It did take away from an enjoyable brawl.
As Ambrose and Rollins concluded their violent-minus-blood Hell in a Cell bout, Ambrose was about to win when *gasp* the lights went out. Some sort of plain-spoken Middle-Eastern chant was played on loop for what felt like hours. Then a hologram of Bray Wyatt appeared over a smoking lantern in the ring. Wyatt appeared, randomly attacked Ambrose, and Rollins won.
14. SOME PARTING GIFT, BROTHER (WrestleMania VIII, April 5, 1992)
WWE began something of a free-fall in 1992, in regards to a major roster purge. By year’s end, The Ultimate Warrior, Davey Boy Smith, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Jake Roberts, Legion of Doom, and Sid Justice would all leave the company. Hulk Hogan, the biggest star WWE had known by a country mile, was finishing after WrestleMania VIII, a fact that the company vaguely hyped as true.
Hogan headlined against Sid in what was a pretty bland match, building to the Hogan Formula Finish. That’s when Sid kicked out of the legdrop in a shocker, purportedly because an interfering Papa Shango was late. The fact that WrestleMania ended with a disqualification was a considerable letdown, even with Ultimate Warrior making the save in a startling return.
13. OH, THAT’S WHY THEY…. (Royal Rumble, January 29, 2006)
In the 1990s, the company experimented three straight years with putting the World Title match on after the Rumble match. WWE soon figured out that nothing could follow the one-hour tradition, and by 1999, they reverted back to closing the event with the signature gauntlet. An exception has been made twice since: 2013, so Rock could close, and this mind-boggler.
In 2006, the 30-man classic went on fourth out of six matches. Kurt Angle and an ice-cold Mark Henry went on last for the World Title in a plodding affair, headshaking until Angle’s victory celebration. Undertaker arrived on a chariot and caused the ring to collapse as a means of challenging Angle. Boy, good thing WWE changed the match order before that supernatural act.
12. DEAL WITH IT (Royal Rumble, January 26, 2014)
A rare entry on this list that exclusively criticizes the choice of winner than an actual convoluted finish. You won’t need much reminding: Daniel Bryan was by the time the most popular wrestler in the industry, shaking off pointless refuge in the Wyatt Family by destroying the trio in a memorable conclusion to Raw, with the thunderous crowd “YESes” shaking the venue.
Two weeks later, WWE excluded Bryan from the Royal Rumble match, having him put Bray Wyatt over cleanly to start the show. As the crowd gradually grew more sour, an unwelcome Batista ended up winning the Rumble match. When Rey Mysterio entered at No. 30, the realization of Bryan’s absence drew the sort of caustic rage that every heel dreams of.
11. STEP ASIDE, JABRONIES (WrestleMania XXVII, April 3, 2011)
When The Rock made an unexpected return on the February 14 Raw, shockwaves coursed. It’d been seven years since “The Great One” made any sort of meaningful appearance in an actual WWE arena. The Attitude cornerstone would take on the dreaded ‘guest host’ role at WrestleMania, though his diatribes against John Cena were positively right out of 1999.
Problem: Cena wasn’t facing Rock. Instead, Cena was challenging WWE Champion The Miz, with whom he had as unspectacular a main event as you could have on the biggest stage. Miz wound up retaining after Rock cost Cena the match. Then Miz would ‘know his role’ by getting Rock Bottom’d in the aftermath, leaving Rock, a non-wrestler, as the only man standing tall.
10. GREAT MAIN EVENT? NO CHANCE (Royal Rumble, January 24, 1999)
As the previous entry suggests, a bad main event is made much worse with a ridiculous ending. A bad match that lasts one hour and has an equally insulting finish? Much worse, as you’d probably guess. When a bad Royal Rumble came down to the first two entrants, a barely-active Steve Austin and Vince McMahon, jaded fans half-heartedly expected a swerve, which they got.
After Austin beat McMahon half to death, with a World Title match hanging in the balance, he didn’t eliminate the boss, choosing to inflict more damage. This brought The Rock out to distract Austin, giving carte blanche to years of distraction finishes. A suddenly stupid Austin fell under Rock’s spell and tangled with him, allowing the cadaver of Vince to dump Stone Cold.
9. SPONSORED BY JIMMY-JOBS (Extreme Rules, April 29, 2012)
Brock Lesnar’s return following a bountiful UFC run created plenty of excitement. His post-WrestleMania arrival, in which he F5’ed John Cena, nearly blew the roof off of the arena. The vignettes hyping their match four weeks later at Extreme Rules were a paradox of simple, and outside-the-box. Lesnar was now a crossover star, the magnitude of which WWE covets.
So then after bloodying Cena with stiff blows, and nearly breaking the man’s arm with a kimura lock, Lesnar would lose the high-profile bout cleanly. Making matters more confusing was a post-match Cena promo, in which he claimed he may be going away for a while to rest. Not only did Cena not go anywhere, but it undermined the marquee return of beastly megastar.
8. CRANE POSITION (Survivor Series, November 19, 2000)
When topping a heinous act with a measure of revenge, never underestimate WWE’s ability to veer too far into the realm of the absurd. One year earlier at Survivor Series, Steve Austin would be struck by a car in a plot masterminded by Triple H (with Rikishi as the driver). Austin and HHH would war one year later. In Attitude Era WWE, they knew they had to top a speedy rundown.
The match spilled all over the arena, and into the parking lot. Austin fought off the interfering Radicalz, while an ill-tempered Triple H started up a nearby car. As he started it up, Austin appeared inside a crane, lifted the car a few stories off the ground, and let it drop with Helmsley inside. Instead of being, well, dead, Helmsley reappeared not long after with nary a scratch on his body.
7. PLOD DEVICE (No Way Out, February 20, 2005)
One of the common elements on the list: the sudden stupidity of babyfaces. For many of these ideas to ‘work’, the purported hero has to lose 50 IQ points at the worst possible time. Take the barbed wire steel cage match for the WWE Title between JBL and Big Show. On many occasions, Show has played the ogre-like fool, but none moreso than the ending of this No Way Out.
The bloody affair saw Show chokeslam JBL off the top rope, through the actual canvas. Instead of dragging JBL out of the pit and pinning him (Nick Patrick was officiating in the ring), Show slowly kicked open the locked door, walked 1.3 MPH out of the opening, and slowly walked down the steps. Surprise: JBL won when he crawled into the pit, and out from under the ring.
6. TV IS BAD FOR YOU (TLC, December 14, 2014)
I feel fairly confident with the high placement of this entry. Factoring in that Dean Ambrose hasn’t won a pay-per-view bout since June 1, in spite of the favorable reception he receives for his masterful selling, mannerisms, and presentation, WWE has yet to really throw him a bone in his singles run. The ending of TLC has become a new running gag, rightfully so.
Branching off the “sudden stupidity” theory from the previous entry, Ambrose had Bray Wyatt beaten following a car-crash of a TLC match. That wasn’t enough, so Ambrose brings in a plugged-in monitor from under the ring, admires himself in it, and tries to nail Wyatt, only for the plugs to explode and blind him. Say it with me now: Sister Abigail for the pin.
Battleground wound up earning the honor of Worst WWE PPV of 2013 across most outlets, and it’s easy to see why. Other than the Rhodes Brothers taking on the Shield, everything else ranged from dull to downright bad. The PPV was the third paying installment of the Daniel Bryan/Randy Orton/Abeyance World Title angle, so at least there’d be a payoff, right?
After 20 minutes of wrestling, Bryan had Orton enveloped in the Yes Lock, only for Big Show to jog down, pull the ref, and lay out Bryan with the WMD, at the behest of Brad Maddox. Show pulled a second referee after a change of heart and then KO’ed Orton, who he was supposed to be helping. Sixty of your dollars later, and the belt remained vacant until the next PPV.
4. EARLIER SHOW STOPPER (Over the Limit, May 20, 2012)
This one features all of the elements of a bad finish: hacky comedy, a plot hole, a bad match, and a worse ending. John Laurinaitis was forced into action against John Cena, with his job on the line. Anyone who interfered would be fired. There’d be no disqualifications otherwise, allowing Cena to drag the former Johnny Ace through some ha-ha-larious predicaments.
Days before the match, a surly Laurinaitis had fired Big Show on Raw. After 15 minutes of Cena pounding Laurinaitis (he could have pinned him at any time), the VP tries to escape, only to conveniently run into a loitering Show. Show brings him back, and then KO’s Cena in a swerve. You know, after Laurinaitis nearly lost a bunch of times. Ace wins, and Show was rehired.
3. GET EM, HULK! (WrestleMania IX, April 4, 1993)
Anyone shedding tears over Hogan’s half-hearted farewell one year earlier will either be overjoyed at the end of WrestleMania IX, or be further appalled. As WWE’s roster shifted into promoting gifted workers with realistic bodies, Bret Hart became its flagbearer and World Champion. A match with portly Yokozuna at WrestleMania IX would put him over strongly.
Hart lost, somehow knocked unconscious by salt to the eyes. This brought out a suddenly-slimmer Hogan to protest this great injustice. Then Mr. Fuji stupidly challenged Hogan to a title match on the spot. Seconds later, Hogan beat Yokozuna to become champion, wiping The Hitman off the slate completely. Hogan then devalued the belt while touring New Japan.
2. STARS AND SWERVES FOREVER (SummerSlam, August 30, 1993)
After Hogan vanished following his title loss back to big Yoko, WWE did not reinsert Hart back into the picture. Instead, they stripped Lex Luger of his ho-hum Narcissist persona, costumed him in all colors Americana, effectively trying to make him the new Hogan. Luger slammed Yokozuna in a public challenge on the Fourth of July, and seemed poised to win the gold.
After Yokozuna’s spokesman Jim Cornette deemed this Lex’s *only* shot at Yokozuna, the two proceeded to actually have a good match. Luger would indeed win, but by countout. Using the steel plate in his forearm, Luger blasted Yoko and knocked him out cold, but through the ropes. Luger celebrated with other babyfaces while balloons and confetti fell, but without the title.
1. LEGACY CEMENTED (Great American Bash, June 27, 2004)
The Undertaker has had his share of unrealistic storylines, many unworthy of equaling the supernatural grace he so easily portrays. In 2004, Undertaker reassumed his ‘Dead Man’ image after a few years performing as an amped-up version of his real life grizzled biker self. With the return to the Dark Side came the package deal of far-fetched incidences as well.
At this event, Undertaker faced the Dudley Boyz in a handicap match with Paul Bearer (back on Taker’s side) sitting in a clear cubicle. If Taker didn’t lay down, Paul Heyman would authorize dumping wet cement on him. The goop built, but Taker won anyway. Then, for reasons unknown, Undertaker himself filled the cubicle, presumably killing Bearer. This wasn’t a heel turn, by the way.
WWE: True Giants Home Video
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Justin Henry Justin Henry has been an occasional contributor to Camel Clutch Blog since 2009. His other work can be found at WrestleCrap.com and ColdHardFootballFacts.com. He can be found on Twitter, so give him a follow. More Posts Follow Me:No matter how you slice it, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, the most recent reboot of the classic franchise, has been a rousing success. Beloved by everyone from its target demographic – my three-year-old daughter is a rabid fan – to a growing community of adult, generally male viewers known as bronies, it's become a veritable pop culture juggernaut.
Still, despite its nigh universal acclaim, Hasbro has done little to favor the fanbase with a proper home video release. Sure, individual episodes are available via iTunes, but physical media releases have been few and far between. A Target exclusive DVD entitled Celebration at Canterlot (boasting a scant two episodes) was made available in 2011, but this month at last sees a more substantial collection make its way to the awaiting masses.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - The Friendship Express is a disc that ably explores an enchanted world inhabited by Manticores, baby dragons, Windigoes and, of course, bizarre anthropomorphic ponies. It's a character-driven affair punctuated by music and adventure, not to mention powered by the golden touch of former Executive and current Consulting Producer Lauren Faust. More importantly, though focused on the exploits of a predominantly female cast, its skillful blend of satisfying action and good-natured comedy help make the recurring themes friendship and acceptance palatable even to an audience trained to ignore the trappings of traditional "girls' cartoons."
This collection primarily consists of five episodes from the show's two seasons. Titular two-parter "Friendship is Magic" introduces viewers to the principle cast – narrative voice of reason Twilight Sparkle, noble country girl Applejack, timid animal lover Fluttershy, fashion plate Rarity and the sugar-fueled Pinkie Pie – while simultaneously highlighting the fantastical world-building that is a hallmark of the series. "Over a Barrel" finds your favorite ponies cast against a western pastiche as settlers and native buffalo vie for control of a disputed frontier, while the holiday-themed "Hearth's Warming Eve" tells of the founding of the magical land that is Equestria. Finally, "The Last Roundup" sees Twilight and the gang facing the possibility of Applejack abandoning them and their quaint hamlet of Ponyville. (It also features the first proper acknowledgment of fan-favorite character Derpy Hooves and a nice homage to I Love Lucy, which made it an easy highlight in my house.)
It's a solid selection of episodes that proves a great introduction to the series, but The Friendship Express also includes some newer material for longtime fans – specifically the latter two episodes – that make it more than a simple by-the-book rehash. Similarly, its supplemental material, while not overly substantial, is equally inspired.
A "Meet the Ponies" feature offers bios on the principle players, and a bonus sing-along provides karaoke-style on-screen lyrics for the show's theme song. There's also a bonus episode of another recent Hub network re-launch, Pound Puppies. The only head-scratcher is the included printable coloring sheet. Yes, I said sheet. Singular.
Still, Friendship is Magic succeeds more by virtue of quality than quantity, and The Friendship Express reinforces this by offering five great episodes in one handsome package. It might not be the full series that the community is clamoring for, but it's certainly a start. So if you and/or your geeklings are existing fans looking to relive your favorite moments or are only now discovering this world of spirited Pegasi, magical unicorns and industrious earth ponies, this DVD is an ideal way to do so.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - The Friendship Express will be available at retailers everywhere at month's end for a suggested retail price of $14.97. Consequently conscientious bronies can pre-order now from Amazon for a mere $9.99.
Review materials provided by: Shout FactoryDoes it ever seem like every holiday is an occasion for candy? Are you looking for something besides candy to put into eggs? Or something in addition to candy to give to the little ones? Free printable Easter gift certificates are a great non-candy/non-food option to give your kids a treat without giving them sweets. I’ve also included a page of “blanks” for you to write in your own ideas if you want! (Yes, I am thinking of you, my dear readers.)
Instructions:
• Print options: regular paper works, but I suggest card stock for durability.
• All of the files are in pdf below. Or click on the image. It will open in a new window and you can either print directly or save to computer.
• The default size of these is full-page. However, if you want smaller, simply reduce the print size!
Check out the “Easter Printables” page for more Easter-related free printables.Two Conservatives on Daventry District Council have defected to UKIP.
Councillor Stephen Pointer and Councillor Elizabeth Wiig said they felt ‘let down’ by the Conservative party so have left to represent UKIP.
Councillor Pointer, who was embroiled in a row over the council-funding of iPads for politicians in August, said: “I got disillusioned with the Conservative party about seven months ago. I’m sick and tired of the way David Cameron carries on not caring about local people, and that’s the reason I decided to leave.
“Another reason was that as a Conservative I was having to agree to houses being built where we don’t want them to be built in Brixworth and I didn’t want that.”
Councillor Pointer will inform his constituents of his decision shortly, though he believes representing a different party won’t bring much of a change on a local level.
He said: “Some people may be unhappy with my decision but it’s not going to alter what I do and what I fight for.”
Councillor Wiig echoed Councillor Pointer’s sentiments, insisting it was the right decision for them.
She said: “We both feel very let down by the Conservative party. We don’t feel they’re supporting local people anymore and not supporting local issues.
“We’ve thought about the move to UKIP long and hard and it has been a difficult decision to make, but we both felt it was the right thing to do.”
The leader of the district council, Conservative councillor Chris Millar, said: “Obviously it’s disappointing when Conservatives decide to move to another party, but I have to respect their decision and their individual views.”
Councillor Millar said the defection leaves 28 Conservatives councillors on Daventry District Council, making up the majority of the council.
There are also five Labour councillors, one Liberal Democrat and now two UKIP members.A new report from the United Nations says plastics labelled biodegradable rarely disintegrate in the ocean because they require industrial composters and prolonged exposure to high temperatures to break down.
Plastic waste is a serious concern in the world's oceans, where as much as 20 million tonnes of plastic ends up each year, according to recent estimates from the United Nations Environment Programme.
Biodegradable plastics were created to help reduce waste. However, the report released this week says some polymers need to be exposed to prolonged temperatures of above 50 C to disintegrate.
Peter Kershaw is one of the authors of the report. (Peter Kershaw)
These conditions are hard to come by in nature, says Peter Kershaw, one of the authors of the study.
"When you get in the ocean, the rates of degradation are even lower because UV light penetration is very limited," said Kershaw.
"It's cold, there's less oxygen. So once it's in the sea it's just going to stay there for an extremely long period of time."
Kershaw says it could take two or three years for some biodegradable plastics to disintegrate.
"Essentially the ocean is being used as a waste basket and the waste basket is getting fuller and fuller, and so the impacts of that plastic litter are just going to keep on increasing."
Forget recycling
The report says biodegradable plastic also poses a problem for recycling.
"If you're recycling plastic you don't want to have anything to do with biodegradable plastics," Kershaw says. "Because if you mix biodegradable with standard plastics you can compromise the properties of the original plastic."
A lot of the plastic that WWF-Canada finds on the country's shorelines are from every day waste, such as grocery bags, food wrappers and water bottles. (WWF-Canada)
He says even when biodegradable plastic does disintegrate, the fragments can pose a threat to ocean life.
"Each of those fragments then behaves exactly the same way as a standard piece of polyethylene," adds Kershaw.
"The objects may disintegrate, but you're still left with an awful lot of microplastics and those have their own problems in terms of impact on the environment."
Some evidence also suggests that labelling products as 'biodegradable' increases people's tendency to litter because they think they are not creating waste.
Arctic ice compounds the issue
Plastic distributes toxic chemicals throughout Canada's oceans, says David Miller, president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund Canada.
"It can have an impact on all sorts of marine life, from marine mammals to corals, and of course it can get ingested and become part of the food chain," said Miller.
'In the Arctic, because the ice traps them, the abundance of microplastics are at least three times more than in other areas in oceans,” says David Miller the President and CEO of WWF-Canada. ( WWF-Canada)
In the Arctic, ice compounds the issue.
"In the Arctic, because the ice traps them, the abundance of microplastics are at least three times more than in other areas in oceans, including the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is THE concentration of plastics."
Miller says a lot of the plastic that WWF-Canada finds on shorelines is from everyday waste, such as grocery bags, food wrappers and water bottles.
"What we can do, each of us, is dramatically reduce the amount of plastic we use; the second thing is to dispose of it properly," said Miller.
He adds that the good news is that more and more organizations are getting involved in clean up efforts to help restore our coastlines, such as the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup in Iqaluit this past June.Image caption Microsoft's blog shows how Windows RT computer designs have evolved from an early prototype
Microsoft has revealed five manufacturers will offer Windows RT PCs after the operating system launches.
It said Samsung, Dell and Lenovo would sell PCs powered by the software, adding to previous announcements about Asus and Microsoft itself.
Windows RT is designed to work on chips based on British firm ARM's designs.
It is the first version of Microsoft's flagship system made for consumer devices not powered by the x86 chip architectures used by Intel and AMD.
Windows RT devices will become available on 26 October alongside the release of other Windows 8 products.
But unlike the other versions of the system it will not be offered as a stand-alone purchase, and can only be obtained by buying one of the computers it is installed upon.
Publicising partnerships
Microsoft's announcement in June that it would offer its own Windows RT tablet - Surface - had led to speculation that the firm's relationship with other manufacturers could become strained.
The company acknowledged the risk in a filing with US regulators saying: "Our Surface devices will compete with products made by our OEM [original equipment manufacturer] partners, which may affect their commitment to our platform."
But in a blog post announcing the names of the device makers Microsoft was keen to stress the importance of its partnerships.
"Our engineering collaboration on these Windows RT PCs has been strong, collaborating with the PC manufacturers, silicon partners, and operators to focus on hardware, software and services integration," wrote Windows chief Steven Sinofsky.
"Product designs were informed and revised by our collective efforts through development and testing."
Acer has said it intended to release Windows RT devices next year.
But Toshiba said it wanted to "monitor market conditions" before making a decision, while Hewlett Packard said it wanted to focus on x86-based alternatives for the time being.
Image caption Windows RT will only offer users Microsoft's new touchscreen interface
Gaming controversy
Windows RT devices will offer full access to the system's touchscreen interface - previously known as Metro - but will not run third-party apps when switched to desktop mode.
They are likely to be marketed as offering extended battery life and the ability to turn on in less than a second from standby mode.
Microsoft has also signalled that its own Windows RT tablets would be cheaper and thinner than its Intel-based ones.
However, the company's decision to limit Windows RT devices to installing software from its store - which is not the case for other Windows 8 computers - has attracted criticism.
The move replicates a similar restriction imposed by Apple on its ARM-based iPads, but has still been attacked by video games developers who are unhappy that Microsoft will take a 30% cut of sales.
Gabe Newell, chief executive of Valve, which makes the Half Life and Portal series, branded it a "catastrophe".
An executive from Blizzard, the firm behind World of Warcraft, said the move was "not awesome", while indie developer Stardock's founder has said Microsoft was pursuing a "wrongheaded approach".North Dakota
Valley News Live checked on with schools in eastern North Dakota to see how they are responding to Obama’s directive:
Barnes County North: “As of right now, we do not have any students who this impacts. This is on the agenda for our next school board policy committee meeting. Hoping to have a policy in place before we have an issue.” Devils Lake Public Schools: “The Devils Lake Public Schools do not currently have a policy to address this. We have not encountered any requests for students to use a restroom that is not the sex identified on their birth certificate.” Fargo Public Schools: “Fargo Public Schools works with students and families if a need arises for accommodations on any issue pertaining to student needs. Those arrangements are made through the building principal.” Jamestown Public School District: “Our school board did recently bring up this topic as an area for future policy study. We have not had any student, family, or community requests in this area.” Kensal Public Schools: “I am hoping my board will adopt a policy where you can only use the bathroom based on your sex at birth.” Minnewaukan Public School: “We do not have any students who identify as transgender.” Northern Cass: “We have no students in our district that this currently impacts. In all reality, our Curriculum & Policy team has yet to discuss this matter, but it is clear we must address sooner than later. We will be having initial discussions at our next meeting.“ West Fargo Public Schools: “We do not have formal policy on this matter. However, any student that expresses a concern or need for a gender-neutral restroom is given access to one, like a staff restroom. We have had students utilize this process. As part of our annual policy review process, we are currently considering policies that would govern this matter.”
The North Dakota State Superintendent blasted the Obama directive, KFYR-TV reports:
Monday, State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler says she’s frustrated over what she calls overreach from the federal government. She says constant interference from Washington, D.C., makes it hard for the state to do it’s job. Saying the executive branch does not create law and if the federal government gets involved it’s our senators and congressman who make those laws. “It is clearly a local issue which is exactly where it belongs. These are decisions that are best determined by local school boards, local parents, community members to determine what’s best for their local school districts and the students attending those. So the Department of Public Instruction will be there to assist in whatever manor they would feel helpful to them but it clearly is a local issue that is best determined by our locally elected school board members,” said Baesler.
The station also reported on Gov. Jack Dalrymple’s statement on the directive:
“President Obama’s directive is another example of federal overreach and a blatant threat to withhold funding that is vital to student success. Local school districts are in the best position to ensure that all students are provided a healthy and safe learning environment.”
KEYZ Radio has more on the state response:
North Dakota joins a growing list of states that will ignore Friday’s White House directive to allow transgender students to use the bathroom that they sexually identify with, or risk losing Federal education funds. State Schools Superintendent Kirsten Baesler says this is yet another example of Federal overreach. “And I am frustrated by that. I believe that this is a local issue that should be decided by our local school board members and parents in our communities, and I think that anything more than that is a blatant example of overreach by the Federal government into the public education system,” says Baelser, who only two weeks ago announced the state would be abandoning the Federal Common Core teaching standards for math and English in favor of a new model that is written by North Dakotan’s for North Dakotan’s. As for the loss of Federal funds both Governor Jack Dalrymple and Baesler call that a “blatant threat”, and say for the time being our schools have more important issues to attend to.
“We’re advising our school districts to continue to focus on providing the high quality academic education to all of our students in North Dakota that our public has come to expect and that our students deserve in North Dakota,” Baesler tells news radio.
WDAZ checked in with central North Dakota schools:
I called Mandan Public Schools and they said they’re in compliance with everything the Department of Justice and Education issued as a guideline. Bismarck Public Schools was unable to release a statement by news time.
The Dickinson Press has a run-down of the responses from elected leaders:
“(Many students’) rights are violated because, by no choice of their own, they can be forced to use the restroom with someone of the opposite gender,” U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said in an interview last week. “We should be helping young people with counseling, with encouragement, not enhancing their confusion, but helping with who they are and not on a given day who they feel like they want to be.”
…
Cramer blasted the Obama administration for executive overreach. He said the heart of the matter is a “choice,” as he called it, to use a bathroom that didn’t correspond to sex at birth, adding “if we accommodate transgender lifestyle at younger ages, you’re not just accommodating it, you’re encouraging it.”
When asked about the letter and similar state-level matters, Chase Iron Eyes, the Democratic candidate running to unseat Cramer, issued a statement noting his stance against discrimination.
“I’m against discrimination of any form in North Dakota, as well as everywhere else and that certainly includes our schools,” Iron Eyes said in a portion of the statement. “Kids need to be respected for who they are, and making this a political hot potato does nothing to help educate or make people more aware of this issue.”
U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., sees the matter of federal versus local control.
In an e-mail, Hoeven’s communications director, Don Canton, explained the senator “believes all people should be treated with respect” but feels the decision on the issue rests elsewhere.
“He disagrees with President Obama’s directive because he thinks it’s up to school districts, parents, teachers and administrators to determine privacy policy with regard to school bathrooms, locker rooms and showers,” Canton wrote.
State Rep. Eliot Glassheim, D-Grand Forks, who is running for Hoeven’s seat, said he supports the letter’s stand against discrimination. He countered Hoeven’s states’ rights argument by suggesting the letter does not tell local leaders how to set their policies — just that they cannot be discriminatory.
“We can’t have discrimination anywhere,” he said. “(The administration) didn’t mandate … whether you have unisex bathrooms or what you have. That would be up to the individual school district. They just have to be careful to make sure that whatever their policy is it’s not discriminatory.”
Staff for U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., noted in a statement a correlation between transgender students’ suicides and “denied access to bathrooms in schools.”
“These decisions impact a small but particularly vulnerable population of children, and the consequences of not being permitted to be themselves can be severely damaging and long-lasting,” Heitkamp said. “They, and all students, deserve to be treated with dignity.”
Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker criticized Obama’s directive, Wisconsin Public Radio reports:
Speaking to reporters in Manitowoc, Walker said that the decree is an overreach. “The bottom line is issues like that need to be addressed at the local level,” he said. “That’s what we elect school boards for. It’s not an issue the federal government should be involved in, nor should the state. It should really be left up to the local districts.”
WKOW takes a look at a religious school receiving federal funds while also panelizing LGBT students:
A Baraboo school is under fire for allegations of discrimination against the LGBT Community.
A complaint has been lodged against St. John’s Lutheran School in Baraboo, claiming the school, which takes federal money, added new rules to exclude gay and transgender kids.
It’s an issue that shocks transgender woman Jamie Cook. She went to the neighboring St. John’s Lutheran Elementary in Portage, before transitioning into a transgender woman.
“That somebody is willing to punish a child, that’s my biggest issue with this this,” Cook said about the new policies.
“To find out that it’s such bigotry, it is hiding behind religion,” she said.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation recently learned about a letter sent home to parents in February, requiring parents sign a handbook pledge and provide a copy of their child’s birth certificate to prove gender.
“I would say we’re surprised, but more disappointed,” Freedom From Religion Foundation Attorney Patrick Elliott said. Elliott says because Baraboo takes Federal funding for school lunches, there’s an ethical problem.
The Baraboo News Republic has more:
Like many educational institutions, St. John’s Lutheran School in Baraboo uses federal tax dollars to pay for certain programs, such as free and reduced-price lunches for disadvantaged students.
The funds for those programs are taken from all U.S. taxpayers, without discrimination. And federal civil rights protections say that any student who legally qualifies for the programs can participate, regardless of race, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation.
But taxpayers whose children are homosexual or transgender may not be able to take advantage of those programs, at least not at St. John’s. That’s because officials at the private religious school say they have the right to discipline students for making what they refer to as “sinful choices.”
“I didn’t mean any kind of move around, or to manipulate the law or anything like that,” St. John’s Principal Craig Breitkreutz said about a letter he wrote to parents in February.
In the letter, Breitkreutz outlined new rules that required parents to provide a birth certificate and sign a parent handbook agreement prior to enrollment.
The birth certificate allows the school to know the child’s born gender, and the |
shouldn't be a reoccurrence.
"It's like sometimes being a parent, the kids won't listen to you, but the authorities they will listen to," Rivera said. "So I asked [the official] to come over and Cam settled down.
"But that's who Cam is, too. He's an excitable guy. He wants to be part of it. It's hard to stop him. He was good after that."John Lyon/Stephens Media
DRAWS LAWSUIT: Jerry Cox with his vending machine replica.
Tall talking by, head of the fundamentalist religious lobbyhas landed him in a federal lawsuit by a maker of
The suit by Medicine Dispensing Systems and Kind Clinics says Cox's statements about use of the machines damaged the company's reputation and were "falsely derogatory." It objected to Cox characterizing the devices as "vending machines that sell marijuana without any prescription to the general public and at convenience stores." This interferes with the company's business and damages it, the lawsuit says. The suit claims defamation and also a trademark violation for using the company's trademark in an altered fashion at a news conference. The lawsuit against Cox and the Family Council Action Committee said:
Strict security of Plaintiffs' product and control over access to medications are key features of the MDS. Defendants' false statements, altering the appearance of Plaintiffs' product, and displaying it at the news conference at the Arkansas State Capitol irreparably harmed Plaintiffs and will continue to harm Plaintiffs unless enjoined by the Court.
Tuesday, Cox spoke at a news conference at the Capitol against the medical marijuana initiative. According to the lawsuit, he had "an exact cardboard replica of the MDS. The replica had the words "Medbox" printed on it, and it was an exact representation of a MDS. The Defendants altered the MDS by pasting a large marijuana leaf to the MDS."
The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages and also injunctive relief against further statements by Cox, among others, that imply the MDS may be used 24 hours a day or at places other than licensed dispensaries (Cox raised the issue of convenience store availability). The lawsuit also seeks a public apology for false statements.
I've asked for a comment from Family Council. UPDATE:
“A lawsuit has been filed against us by a company in California,” Cox said. “We have no response to the specific allegations in the lawsuit itself. The matter has been referred to our attorney.”
Cox went on to say, “Family Council Action Committee has taken a stand for what’s right for many years. The people
of Arkansas are well aware of that, and most appreciate it. However, not everyone agrees with us. When you operate
in the arena we do, lawsuits can and will be filed against you.
“This is a national issue. People from all over the country are watching to see what Arkansas does. We addressed the
broad issue of marijuana and vending machines.
“This does not change any of the problems with the measure. Issue 5 is still a backdoor effort to legalize marijuana in
Arkansas.”
"Most"? What's "right?" I guess that's in the eyes of the beholder, Jerr.
The lawsuit outlines the steps by which the system aims to prevent unauthorized use.An Important Message About Vocabulary
While I do have a particular instance in mind, this little epistle is really in reaction to several comments, essays, loaded questions, and diatribes I've seen over the past three or four weeks in various places (though I hadn't seen it blow up into a shouting match anywhere until a couple of days ago). Note that if you don't know what the verb 'to other' means, or how the umbrella term 'transgender' is used, you may have some homework to do before getting into this. I expect that most of my readers already know those concepts.
[Minor edit to fit use of 'cisgender' instead of 'cisgendered' to current accepted style.]
Folks, 'cisgender' 1 and 'cisssexual' really are intended to be neutral terms and will be so until/unless some sort of general stigma gets attached to the concept of living / identifying / presenting as the gender society always expected of you because it was on your birth certificate. I don't see that ever being likely. (I have a hunch that I'll be responding to a lot of criticisms of this essay by pointing back to this very pragraph, starting at that "until".)
It's important to note that there's no reclaiming of an old slur involved, nor repurposing of a word with other baggage, because 'cisgender' was coined specifically for this meaning and this purpose, and wasn't a word before that. Any baggage the word has now has to have accrued entirely over the last decade and a half.
('cisgender', from 'cis-', "on the same side", + 'gender'; in contrast to 'trans-', "crossing over"; both from Latin, and both prefixes used in Chemistry with similar meanings.)
The reason it feels jarring -- "naming"? "marking"? -- to you, and gets your hackles up is quite simply that y'all are accustomed to being the unmarked class, and giving you any concise name is going to feel like an imposed label that, because you're not used to having to acknowledge a label at all, some of you start to suspect is somehow insulting or denigrating.
"gender is like underwear: if it fits ya don't notice. If it doesn't, you can't avoid noticing" -- 2009-06-30 -- LaughrioTgirl
Stop a minute and ponder for a moment the magnitude and type of privilege that is contained in not having to think about or acknowledge a label. Compare that to TVs, TSes, DQs, DKs, GQs, and all other subgroups of transgendered people. You don't like it? Pick and popularize a different label, but pick one that doesn't stigmatize everybody else in contrast to it. That you now have a label doesn't 'other' you; it merely makes you like everybody else who has a label. If one group gets to insist on not having a label, that 'others' everyone else. If we remove the "default class" from you, that loss of privilege you have a gut reaction to isn't because you're being insulted; it's because the field just got a tiny (tiny!) bit more level.
(Here's a big hint: 'normal' and'real' fail the doesn't-stigmatize-everyone-else condition spectacularly. Prefixing'man'/'woman' with 'bio-' or 'genetic' or 'born' to denote not-trans, 'others' the rest of us slightly more subtly, but only slightly, and no less problematically. Either respect us, be an ally, and use non-othering language; or admit up front that you don't respect us -- that holding on to your privilege is more important than supporting us -- so we can classify this as a variation on the "tone argument" and write you off as Part Of The Problem.)
[1] While I learned 'transgendered' as having '-ed' on the end to make it an adjective (and applied the same pattern to 'cisgendered'), within the trans community you will find most now insist on 'transgender' and 'cisgender' as adjectives themselves, without an '-ed' suffix. If you see the '-ed' versions, they mean the same thing but are an older form.
Othering And Non-Othering Labels
Othering | Not (or Less) Othering Unmarked 2 Marked | Equally Marked Equally Marked normal southpaw | right-handed left-handed straight kinky | vanilla kinky straight queer | het gay, lesbian, bi
'queer' sometimes works here as well faithful poly | monogamous polyamorous regular guy geek | lay user techie normal deaf | hearing deaf real woman tranny | cis woman trans woman bio-man transman | cis man trans man [2] I've labelled one member of each row "unmarked", though they're obviously no longer completely unmarked in a list like this, since they have acquired one or more form of normalcy tag as a result of the 'other' being talked about. In many situations these are literally unmarked however, so that the Other is assumed to be entirely absent unless specifically mentioned by label.
This table illustrates othering combinations of labels, and non-othering or at least less othering pairs.
Note that it is generally the name for the unmarked state, and its implications of being normal/default/good/real, rather than the name for the marked state, that makes the unmarked/marked pairings problematical and othering. 'rightie'/'southpaw' would be fine, because the problem with the first example isn't the word'southpaw', it's the claiming of right-handedness as the unmarked state. The problem with 'normal'/'regular'/'real' should be obvious; the flaw with'straight' may be less so. If that's the case for you, consider how many different layers of meaning there are on the word'straight': pure (unadulterated), honest (not crooked), undamaged (not bent), sober (not using drugs), clear (not confusing or obfuscating). Now reconsider what message you're sending by defining your class as'straight' and some other class as not-straight. (I did not get this myself until a stranger took me to task for using'straight' to mean 'het', and even then my first instinct was to get defensive about it instead of thinking about what his point was.)
Note also that some of the marked/unmarked pairs have problems of inaccuracy as well! Many people who do not identify as polyamourous, are not in explicitly polyamorous relationships, and even sneer at poly folk for being immoral, cheat on their partners. And many members of polyamorous N-ads are faithful to the promises they've made to each other. A "genetic woman" (an older usage that I don't hear as often nowadays) usually only knows her exact chromosomal makeup if something goes wrong that leads to a test -- we just assume that babies who look female and grow up to be women are XX because that's most likely, but we don't check... and a few transsexual individuals discover along the way that they aren't the XX or XY their parents had assumed they were (for a particularly well known example, see Caroline Cossey, who is chromosomally XXXY).
Another set of terms, the cumbersome 'FAAB' and 'MAAB' meaning "female-assigned at birth" and "male-assigned at birth", attempt to sidestep that problem by digging down to what we usually mean to refer to anyhow: whether the parents were told, "congratulations, you have a daughter," or, "congratulations, you have a son," when the individual was born. Even "bio-" isn't a very meaningful label, since all humans are still biological, trans or not. Note that while 'FAAB' and 'MAAB' are useful in certain contexts when discussing the ideas of sex and gender abstractly, when used casually outside of that context they still reveal too much emphasis on the idea that initially-apparent biology = destiny, and can be used as sneakier ways of saying "real man" or "real woman" for cisgender in order to exclude trans individuals from gendered spaces.
Othering | Not Othering Unmarked Marked | Equally Marked Equally Marked real woman trans woman | woman woman bio-man transman | man man
Finally, note that in most everyday contexts -- that is, normal social encounters and conversations and most policy matters, not specific medical or research or rights-activism contexts -- an even better version of the last two rows of the table would look like this version to the right --->
... but alas, I know there'll be a lot of pushback on that, from various quarters. Some of which really ought to know better. (There are some valid concerns there, and the conflict between different sets of rights and needs can be tricky to resolve, but more often the opposition to this idea stems from simple, conscious or unexamined cissexism.)
About Neutral vs. Non-Neutral Terms:
This started off with my observation of some same-gender-the-delivery-room-doctor- thought-they'd-be people's objections to being called 'cisgender', and complaining that it felt like a pejorative term (and one they hadn't chosen for themelves). So let's compare some value-neutral terms to some negative ones.
Value Neutral
or pretty close Disparaging Or Worse gay man, lesbian fag, dyke, pansy, lezbo heterosexual, het breeder parent breeder person of color [I'm sure we can all come up with far more examples to go here than we need, and I really don't even want to type most of those words] indigenous peoples savages Arab towel-head Christian Jesus freak,
God-botherer fundamentalist Christian funnymentalist,
Bible-thumper fundamentalist with OT emphasis Levitican atheist, apathist Godless heathen Republican Repug, Rethuglican left-winger moonbat transgender person,
transsexual tranny 3, shemale, he-she, it cisgender person,
cis person cissie or cissy 4 [3] N.b.! There is ongoing debate within the T* community over the use and attempted reclaiming of this word by trans men. Many trans women feel that since the negative use has mostly been directed at trans women and also used against any woman the speaker deemed "not femmy enough" (or in at least one case that comes to mind, for just being wrongheaded and mean-spirited despite being gender-conforming), it is therefore not trans men's word to reclaim. [4] I've never heard these in the wild. And, significantly, the only real sting in them comes from being homophones of'sissy' -- by suggesting a meaning very different from their actual root!
The examples I'm giving here may become dated as language shifts, and may even already be subject to differences in regional usage. There is a sort of euphemism treadmill for some terms so that the more-polite phrase gradually accrues all the negativity of the original epithet and needs to be discarded for a new euphemism; and there's'reclaiming', by which some terms lose their stigma and become mostly neutral barring tone-of-voice cues. (Also, at least with the T* community, when the community was much younger and still discovering/inventing apropriate and useful language, it embraced terms that were later realized to be troublesome. So if you read older texts, you may see trans folk casually phrasing things in ways that would attract flames today. We were -- are -- still learning and evolving.) Bear in mind that even some of the neutral terms can be suspect if used when there was no reason to bring them up in the first place. But in my dialect at this time, I think this is a useful illustration.
Here's the thing: if we meant to be insulting or disparaging in our choice of word for people who are not transgender, you'd know. It wouldn't be this nagging discomfort over finding yourself in a marked class and worrying about having a label at all for a change. It'd be a proper insult. (And as people have noted elsewhere, expressing exasperation with an individual member of a class does not make the name for that class into a derogatory term. It's possible for a T* person annoyed at a cis person's abuse of cis privilege to call them a thickheaded, bigoted cis person without making 'cis' the insult; it's the first two adjectives that are negative, not the identifier at the end. In the same way, someone can refer to "an evil man" without making'man' into a derogatory term, because the negativity is in 'evil', not'man'. So just because you've heard a trans person complain about a cis person, that is not enough to serve as an example that "'cis' is used pejoratively".)
Similarly, I've seen plenty of men try to argue that a woman who has said anything negative about one man or an identified subset of men must hate all men (therefore her opinion can be ignored), white people who've cried'reverse racism' when a person of colour has called them on their bullshit (therefore PoC are "just as bad" and their complaints can be disregarded), and countless cases of would-be allies complaining they feel attacked when a disprivileged person has complained about specific actions of some members of the group the would-be ally is a member of (and therefore the minority group is about to "lose an ally" because they were "mean"). Tone Argument, "it's all about me", and strawman "you people are just as bad", are derailing. Fifteen yards and loss of down. Don't go there.
And yes, some of the negative words can be used by members of the communities they're applied to, either as an early stage of reclaiming or because they have different connotations when used ironically by people who have a stake in those words. That's really a large enough matter on its own to warrant a separate essay. For our purposes here, consider uses of the words by a random cashier, cop, or passer-by who is not a member of the described group and isn't already a friend of the listener who is a member of that group. If you pull out the "Well, I heard some _____ people saying ______ once so it doesn't belong on the bad list," in this context, that'll be a five yard penalty for distraction. That is, it'll put you farther away from making your case, not closer. We can have the discussion specificaly about that phenomenon elsewhen.
(I should probably note discussions elsewhere regarding 'person with attribute' vs. 'adjectived person' vs. 'just a noun' labelling styles -- e.g. "person of colour" vs. "coloured person" vs. "black" (or other 'racial' marker used as a noun); or "person with diabetes" vs. "diabetic person" vs. "diabetic". Even a cursory examination of that topic would be too much of a distraction right here, but it's something that folks preparing to discuss labels should at least be aware of.)
If this sounds like I'm saying you have to agree with me to be allowed to speak, do a Google search for privilege bingo card and see how many of these "clever" arguments have been used so many times, regarding sexism, racism, ablism, poverty, and pretty much every other topic that involves a group struggling to be treated decently, that the very existence of these tactics has become a bitter joke. The rule isn't that you have to agree with me; it's that you have to fight fairly and argue in intellectually honest ways, rather than adopting the tactics of oppressors while claiming to be on my side.
A Significant Distinction:
"wtff? "Now can het people jump in and declare they are insulted by being called 'het' or'straight?' or can i cay 'i never really agreed to be called 'white' so it's insulting? and if not, what's the fucking difference?" -- maevele, 2009-06-29
An argument I've heard is that since we transgender people get to tell others what labels to use for us and which words are unacceptable, cisgender people should not have a label forced upon them. But we never got to choose whether to have a label; we only got to argue about which labels we didn't find insulting. The 'cis' debate appears (so far) to be about whether cis-folk should be given a label at all, which is hard to see as anything other than default-class privilege.
You don't get to hold on to being "just plain [unmarked] men" and "just plain [unmarked] women" and not have a label for your class, because that continues to promote the idea that trans men and trans women aren't really men and women. I sure hope that you can understand why trying to stop that meme is important enough to risk pissing off some folks we'd been on good speaking terms with before they started insisting on turning back the clock.
"I'm giving up on using the words man and male because in a patriarchy, it's the default assumption behind human, just as cissexual/cisgender is the default assumption behind man and woman. "So, instead of men and women, we'll have humans and women. "There, now we can avoid offending men, er, I mean humans." -- timberwraith, 2009-06-29
So here's the deal. I obviously do not speak for transgender people as a whole -- to be precise, I speak for nobody but myself -- but if instead of complaining about having a label, you propose a label you like better than 'cis'/'cisgender', a label that doesn't start with 'a-', 'an-', 'un-', 'non-', or 'im-' and doesn't simply translate as "real" or "normal", and you get a significant portion of the not-transgender people who are engaged in conversations with trans folk about language to agree that the word is a candidate worth discussing (I'm not asking for a majority of that group, just enough that we're not having the same conversation eighty zillion times with a different word that has only one supporter each time), I'll listen, and I think some other T*people will as well -- we I may still have criticisms of the label you choose, and/or helpful feedback; I may wind up pointing out that you've still left in 'othering' aspects that demean trans people; but I'll listen and discuss and you really do have a shot at convincing me to try to get others in the community to use your word instead of 'cis' if it really is a neutral term (i.e., not just a sneakier way to reassert cis privilege). Oh, there'll be pushback from some quarters even if its a great word, because some people just hate having to learn new words and habits (just look at the number of people who've used, "we don't need a new word" as an excuse to oppose 'cisgender' over the years! Or to step back farther in time, the men who used similar excuses for not wanting to use 'Ms.' when asked to), but bring labels you find respectful and acceptable that don't just go back to denigrating trans folk in contrast, that don't cast us as 'other' to your'real', and there'll be a real conversation and maybe -- I hope -- a meeting of the minds.
But as long as what I'm hearing is, "Waah, I don't want to have to have a label," or, "I don't like 'cis' but won't suggest something better," you can shut the [expletive] up. Because that's not a polite request for the right to choose your own nomenclature, it's just incredibly privileged whining about suddenly being treated like everybody not of the default class. And clinging to your privilege at my sisters' expense doesn't make you much of an ally. And my transgender brothers and sisters (and bi-gender, agender, and polygender siblings-in-arms) can hear that too, and most aren't just going to roll over and say, "Oh sure, unmarkedclass, we'll other ourselves just because you say it's impolite to try to be equally valid to you." While y'all are feeling butthurt about being handed an adjective (and not knowing which pocket to put it in), there are a lot of trans people busy just trying to get consistently recognized as human instead of being considered piñatas/targets, fetish objects, scapegoats, and comedy props.
Bring it. Bring the suggestions. Get a real conversation about this rolling. Until then, I'm going to continue using 'cisgender' unapologetically unless someone can show me why it really is offensive beyond existing as a label at all. This essay is a rant rather than a conversation, a shout at a bunch of whiners-for-privilege, but it's also an invitation to start a conversation if there really is a meaningful conversation to be had. I'm not saying, "Here's your label, like it or suffer" -- rather, I'm saying "If you don't like it, suggest something better." Show me there is a real basis for a conversation. Or quit complaining. Either way works for me.
Some people will read this who have already progressed beyond this stage, with or without input from me. You should be able to figure out whether you're one of the people I'm yelling at or not. If you're offended because I yelled at all, then even if I wasn't yelling at you when I started, I might be once I find that out.In a recent interview on The Real News Network, Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer sat down with Paul Jay, senior editor of The Real News Network, to discuss the current election and the future of the American democratic system. The interview begins with Scheer talking about the Republican National Convention and neofascist rhetoric. “You don't get fascist movements taking over, rising to power, without people being in pain,” Scheer says. “And we have a situation now in the United States that is increasingly resembling a kind of post-Weimar Germany.”
Jay then brings the conversation around to new movements like Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street, which Scheer says save “a reasonable established order” by forcing those in power to respond to the needs of the people. “It's only when the established order is failing to respond to the real needs of people that you get madness and chaos, and that's what I think you're hearing at the Republican convention.”
The two also discuss the United States’ militaristic foreign policy and Americans’ xenophobia against Muslims in this country. The rest of the interview focuses on next week’s Democratic National Convention -- mainly, the party’s faults and the position of third-party candidates.
“There's a lot of contradictions,” Scheer says of the Democratic Party before addressing concerns about a third-party candidate, such as Jill Stein of the Green Party, splitting the liberal vote. “You cannot blame people who take a principled position and find an audience to support them,” Scheer contends. “And if Jill Stein can do that, that's a victory for democracy, and I'm all with her on that.”
Watch the full interview below:
—Posted by Emma Niles0 of 7
USA TODAY Sports
With OTAs beginning last week, the Green Bay Packers were able to get a good look at most of their players. And even though it was only a few days' worth of practice without pads, there were still some players whose stock is now on the rise.
The reason for most of this is due to which players started with first teams or second teams. There was also information given out by coaches as to which players they were impressed with in the short amount of time they were together.
While there is still quite a bit of offseason left, it's important to note which players are moving up heading into training camp. Today we will take a look at seven players whose stock is on the rise after OTAs.Quality Journalism, Summoner.
Regarding The Daily Dots recent news post concerning Stixxay I thought i would take the opportunity to provide as much information as i have in an effort to illustrate how immensely incorrect and dishonest said article truly is. So lets take it point by point:
“According to sources close to the player and team, however, Elias and Georgallidis haven't made good on those promises, declining a number of offers from teams willing to pay the $10,000”
We have not declined ANY offers for that amount, which is his formal buyout amount. We would absolutely give Stixxay any and all options that would meet his buyout if he wanted to seek opportunities elsewhere.
“In addition, Hayes has recently been kicked from the team’s Skype group and has very little communication with the team outside of Elias and Georgallidis.“
Firstly the CLGB Skype group is for active members; not people looking for other teams. It would be grossly inappropriate to include people who have no immediate need to access the basic communications of the team as this is a highly confidential space for our players to work and interact with each other for TEAM RELEVANT information. Stixxay says he no longer wants to play on the team; he can't be a part of the team chat. Its very simple.
Aside from this, Stixxay has not been barred or otherwise limited in any way, shape or form with communicating with any player on any team or with any member of CLG staff. CLG’s communication with Trevor over the past few days has only increased since he has expressed a desire to seek other opportunities. To imply we would strong arm him from communicating with certain individuals is ridiculous and unfeasible. This is the internet. Lets be real.
“Most recently, the team allegedly blocked Hayes from moving to a new challenger team based out of New York, who intend to play this upcoming split.”
We have done no such thing. We have not received any formal offer to buyout stixxays contract from this team of mysterious origin and if we did it would be up to Trevor himself to decide if he would like to compete on said team should that offer be sufficient. We are happy to field all serious offers in a scenario where a player is seeking other opportunities and would do our best to hasten the process so that both the player and the team he is leaving can make the necessary arrangements so they can compete to the best of their abilities in the NACS or the LCS.
“Previously, the organization also allegedly blocked Hayes from a move to Cloud9 Tempest”
Again, see my past few responses. If Trevor wanted to go to C9T and they offered to pay his buyout: Gods bless America.
In summary: While Stixxay has only very recently expressed a desire to seek potential opportunities elsewhere we at CLG have an obligation to uphold the terms of our player contracts. We will work, and have worked, with Stixxay and any organization interested in his skills to make sure that happens. Ultimately we want players who are hungry to compete on CLG and have no desire to retain talent that does not. The idea that we would hold any player as a prisoner of their contract is ridiculous.
Due to our previous experience with this particular journalist we declined to comment, as is our right, due to a past article of his that he published, again on daily dot, speculating about the recruitment of k0ri as a potential starting roster jungler player for CLG’s main LoL squad. That article was completely wrong and so is this one. Not only was it wrong but the manner in which this “journalist” behaved himself was enough justification for me to never work with this particular individual again. He posted private skype logs of his and hotshots conversation in an effort to play the victim. Why on earth would I be in favor of working with such an individual in ANY capacity?
Reply · Report PostThere were plenty of grumbles heard around the fight game once the UFC booked B.J. Penn for his latest comeback attempt at UFC Fight Night 103. After shuffling through a broad spectrum of opponents, from declining veterans to genuine contenders, Penn somehow ended up with the most puzzling match-up of all: a dance date against the one of featherweight division’s longest, most athletic, most offensively ferocious prospects, 24-year-old Yair Rodriguez.
But ahead of UFC Fight Night 103, Penn brushed aside any criticism of the Rodriguez booking. The fight wasn’t surprising at all, he explained, because Penn heard rumblings about the possibility weeks before it even became a reality while working within the halls of Rodriguez‘s old Albuquerque stomping grounds at the Jackson-Winkeljohn gym.
“I think Yair and his manager saw me training at the gym (at Jackson-Winkeljohn) and thought, ‘this guy doesn’t have it anymore. Let’s fight this guy. He’s a big name, and let’s try to make our name off his.’ And that’s exactly how this fight got put together,” Penn told MMA Fighting ahead of Sunday night.
“Some people from the gym said, ‘hey, Yair is a p*ssy, he’s going to try to fight you because he thinks you’re older,’ and this and that. ‘His manager is trying to push for the fight.’ And I go, really, huh? I was talking to my buddies in Albuquerque, and then the UFC called me two weeks later and offered me Yair. That’s what it was.
“I don’t take it as disrespect,” Penn added. “I just laugh. And let’s just see. Let’s see if his intuition was correct.”
Rodriguez himself has disagreed with that particular version of events, stating that he too was surprised to be the one selected to face the UFC Hall of Famer. But that does not change the fact that the leap in stature from Penn’s initial opponent last year, Dennis Siver, to Rodriguez is a hefty one to make.
The young and creative Mexican holds a perfect 5-0 record in UFC competition, and his April flying switch kick knockout of Andre Fili was one of the nastiest finishes in a year full of nasty finishes. However, Penn has made a career out of embodying the “just scrap” mentality that has become increasingly rare in today’s modern game, and he said he never once thought for a second about turning down the opportunity.
“I think what it is, people look from the outside, and they don’t really look in,” Penn said. “And they’re like, really, how many people has Yair knocked out? Really, how hard can he hit? Really, how much this, how much that? How much experience? But they don’t add these things up. And a lot of people want what they want, and maybe for their perfect world, it’s not for me to be champion again. In their perfect world, somebody else has to be the champion, and that’s just what you get. But that’s sports. There’s nothing wrong with that, that’s part of the game.
“But it wasn’t surprising because you never know who they could match-up with somebody like me. You know what I mean? You could give me anybody. That’s the reputation we carry with us, and the faith of the company, that they know we can handle ourselves in that Octagon. It was never a surprise whenever they offer anybody. Anybody they ever offer me in fighting, I’ll probably never be surprised, unless it’s the guy’s first fight in the UFC.”
Barring any major betting swings, Penn will be the heavy underdog heading into Sunday — several oddsmakers have him listed as high as 4:1, the longest odds Penn has ever faced in his UFC career. And that is not particularly surprising considering Penn’s recent comeback attempts. The 38-year-old legend is just 1-5-1 since 2010, and nearly six years have passed since “The Prodigy” last captured a victory in any sanctioned fight. But with what will likely be his final chance to write a storybook ending upon him, Penn refuses to dwell in the past.
“I used to watch [my old fights] before, back in the day. I don’t know how many times I watched that first fight, me when I fought (Matt) Hughes and got the belt. I must’ve watched that so many times. But I haven’t seen any of my fights for years, and I haven’t been watching my fights that I lost, the fights that happened in the last five years,” Penn said.
“I wouldn’t want to sit there and just talk about the past, and say ‘oh, look how good I was,’ or, ‘I could’ve kicked your ass if it was back then.’ No, and I don’t [want to think] of excuses. I mean, look at Dan Henderson, Mark Hunt, Fabricio Werdum. All those guys. How can I have an excuse? They’re all in there. They’re all in their forties.”
The idea of a motivated B.J. Penn is one that has long tantalized fight fans, many of whom have gone through this luckless ride with Penn before. Only time will tell if this iteration is any different than the last, but it is clear that Penn believes he has put his best foot forward for the first time since the championship days of his decorated career. His work with respected coaches Greg Jackson and Jason Parillo consumed most of his 2016, and it certainly hasn’t hurt that many individuals in Albuquerque are intimately aware of the nuances in Rodriguez’s unique game.
So when Penn looks at the killer standing across from him at UFC Fight Night 103 — a blue-chipper who has built an entire career in the time while Penn was away — he sees a youngster with plenty of talent and potential, but also one who is over-confident and doesn’t fully grasp what he is about to get into.
“I’m a fan of everybody, I respect everyone. I’m proud of everybody who decides to take this path in life and chooses this profession. And I think he’s very good, a very solid opponent,” Penn said. “But a lot of people are going to be surprised when I get out there. It’s going to look like a professional against an amateur. That’s what’s going to happen, and Yair is going to be surprised, his coaches are going to be surprised. They’re going be like, ‘oh, I thought this we were going to come between this easy fighter and his big name.’ But we’re going to see. They’re going to see.”Bitcoin Wallets
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regarding their use of fragrances also went unanswered.
Anne Steinemann conducts research on pollutant exposures and related health effects. After studying about 50 types of fragrance products, she has begun to worry about the impacts these manufactured scents may have on our health. She says fragrances are a mixture of several dozen to several hundred primarily synthetic chemicals. What's troubling is that we don't know exactly what they're made of. "There is no law in any country that requires a full disclosure of ingredients," she said. And even if we did know all of the ingredients, there's a dearth of data regarding the toxicity of the chemicals both individually and in combination with others. "The industry says they're at low levels. But low levels add up. And low levels can still have impacts."
In 2010, the International Fragrance Association, in an effort to increase transparency, published a list of some 3,000 ingredients used in fragrance compounds. Among them are styrene and diethyl phthalate—the former a known carcinogen and the latter a reproductive toxin, according to Alexandra Scranton, the director of science and research at Missoula, Montana–based Women's Voices for the Earth, which works to eliminate toxic chemicals from the environment. "Mostly it's chemicals we've never heard of," she said. But even the innocuous-sounding ingredients, such as essential oils, can be troubling, she added, because the solvents used "can be pretty dangerous."
There haven't been many studies on the health impact of fragrances. Steinemann has done two national surveys and found that approximately 30 percent of the population is sensitive to fragrances, reporting symptoms such as asthma attacks, headaches, seizures, skin problems, breathing difficulty, nausea, and gastrointestinal problems. Scranton said most of the research on fragrances has been in dermatology, which has found that between 2 and 11 percent of the population have skin reactions. "The fragrance industry says it's a small number," said Scranton, "but 8 percent [of the US population] have asthma, and that's considered an epidemic. It's a large number of people—tens of millions."
The bottom line, said Scranton, is there's a lot we don't know about fragrances. "There's a data gap, a research gap, and it's disproportionate to how many people are exposed to this," she said.
Regardless of the potential health impacts, fragrances are clearly a turnoff for some consumers. So why do so many stores continue to use them? "The malls really have to think about... how many people they're repelling," said Steinemann. "I've gotten hundreds of e-mails from people who say they can't shop at the mall because of fragrances."
In response to the backlash, some government institutions, schools, and workplaces have banned fragrances. But the mall kiosk manager, York-Kinder, said he doesn't think big retailers like Abercrombie & Fitch will change their ways. "I don't think they'd give two shits what I think," he said. In the meantime, hold your nose.Note: In The Pop Traveler, readers name their cities' best pop-culture hot spots/events. Wanna write about your town? Holler at popcandy@usatoday.com.
By Dan Nailen, Special Correspondent for Pop Candy
Many people have an image of life in Utah capital Salt Lake City as some blend of Big Love and a never-ending episode of Donny & Marie, and there's no denying there's some truth to that. But many of us exist in a version of Utah that also is the home of great music, art and food, and a long-running "underground" scene that inspired the decent indie flick SLC Punk. We also have natural beauty that no other American city can match, courtesy of the Wasatch Mountains to the east and the Great Salt Lake to the west.
Here are a few of the things that make living here worthwhile:
1. Killer Mexican food -- The Red Iguana boasts seven kinds of mole sauce and many other spicy delights, and it draws both travelers who hit Red Iguana EVERY time they come to town and locals who can't imagine a month (or week) passing without tasting Red Iguana's food. The original of three locations has walls covered with the autographs of touring musicians and celebs who have passed word of the Red Iguana since 1985: ZZ Top, Drive-By Truckers, Los Lobos, Dick Dale and, um, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, to name a few.
2. Free summer tunes -- Every summer, the Salt Lake City Arts Council offers up a free concert series downtown, the Twilight Concert Series, that has grown from a few dozen people sitting on a hill to tens of thousands crowding into a downtown park for shows by the likes of the Decemberists, Q-Tip, the New Pornographers, Sonic Youth, The Black Keys and Bon Iver, all recent headliners. The series has been going for nearly 30 years, and it's the kind of use of taxpayer money that's easy to get behind.
3. A cult favorite -- Built in 1893 on the shores of the Great Salt Lake and designed to be the "Coney Island of the West," The Saltair has burned down and been rebuilt three times, been used for scenes in the 1962 cult horror flick Carnival of Souls, and then evolved into a concert venue. The Ramones, Green Day and Smashing Pumpkins all played there, and nowadays you'll find a steady diet of DJs like Skrillex and Benny Benassi, as well as metal and hardcore shows, filling the funky spot to the tune of about 5,000 people.
4. Horns up! -- Fans of the rock doc The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years might recall W.A.S.P. guitarist Chris Holmes floating in a pool and chugging vodka, praising the groupies of Salt Lake City. Yes, the rebellious children of Utah have always loved their metal, from hair bands to hardcore, and they've helped keep local treasure The Heavy Metal Shop open for 25 years. Kevin Kirk works as a butcher in the early morning hours, then opens his shop for autograph sessions, in-store performances and a steady stream of people who want a T-shirt or a CD. They're not just metalheads, either; check out Sleigh Bells' Rill, Rill video and you'll see guitarist Derek Miller sporting a Heavy Metal Shop hoodie.
5. Offbeat art -- Built by a local eccentric back in the late '50s/early '60s, Gilgal Garden is a collection of sculptures and stones engraved with a peculiar mix of religious scriptures, poems and philosophical quotes. The city and private donors stepped in to save the site from development about 15 years ago, and the space remains a favorite oddball stop by locals and tourists drawn to sights like a sculpture of a sphinx with Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith's head attached to a lion's body made of huge quartzite stones.
6. Increasingly foodie -- Kouing-aman is the name of a buttery-on-the-inside, crispy-sweet-on-the-outside French pastry made by Salt Lake City's Les Madeleines -- and just a few other bakeries in the entire country, probably because they take nine hours to make. They're addictive, and also indicative of a foodie scene that's growing and full of top-notch fare made by creative chefs dedicated to local products and dragging Salt Lake City's dining scene into the 21st century. Be sure to check in at local faves The Tin Angel, Pago, Bambara and The Copper Onion if you find yourself in Salt Lake City and searching for something tasty.
7, Gay Salt Lake City -- Even those who already knew Salt Lake City has a large, active LGBT community were still surprised when The Advocate came out earlier this year and declared us the "gayest city in America." In the 2010 Census, Salt Lake City was No. 3 nationally among mid-sized cities for its number of gay and lesbian couples, and SLC's Pride weekend each year features a huge downtown parade and two days of music and partying that attracts gays and straights alike.
8. Ironic mustaches abound -- Salt Lake City will never be mistaken for Williamsburg or Portland, Ore., but we have all the accoutrements of hipster living -- just in smaller doses. We have roller derby leagues and microbreweries (check out Squatters and Epic Brewing, both award-winning breweries), competing burlesque troupes and a bevy of memorable dive bars, tattoo shops, trivia quiz nights, artisanal cocktail spots, gallery strolls and plenty of indie-rock, hip-hop and dance-music shows to go around. Our cinema pub, Brewvies, has been around for more than a decade, and all-ages music venue Kilby Court goes back even longer. Boutique distilleries arrived a few years back, and High West in Park City and Ogden's Own Distillery north of Salt Lake City both peddle excellent locally made spirits.
9. Easy access to the outdoors -- Just 20 miles or so from downtown Salt Lake City is the ski town of Park City, home to the Sundance Film Festival every January, and three world-class ski resorts that offer natural playgrounds in winter or summer for hikers, bikers and skiers looking to shred through the "greatest snow on Earth" (our license plates even say so!). The film festival changes the vibe from ski town to Hollywood, at least briefly, and the effects are felt in Salt Lake City, where Sundance holds dozens of screenings during the festival each year.
10. Street food -- The food cart scene is still relatively young in Salt Lake City, although the Asian-inspired, upscale Chow Truck has a serious following. We also have sushi carts, gourmet hamburger trucks, curry carts, hot dog and veggie dog stands and a mobile brick-oven pizza truck. Taco carts dot downtown in droves; virtually every block has a satisfying Mexican meal waiting for you to the tune of two tacos for $1.50. Strategically located outside many bars and music venues, your late-night munchies are often available before you get on the train home. Sometimes, you even run into the band you saw earlier that night, making their own taco cart run -- it happened to me with both The Thermals and She & Him.
11. The lush life -- Pressed against the base of the Wasatch Mountains on the east side of Salt Lake City, Red Butte Garden has amazing views of the Salt Lake Valley, meticulously maintained gardens of flowers and trees, rushing creeks, serene ponds and a 3,000-capacity amphitheater that is Salt Lake City's best summertime concert venue. The 2012 summer concert series includes shows by The Shins, Wilco, Steve Martin and Norah Jones.
Dan Nailen is a music geek, pop culture fanatic and freelance writer who's lived in Salt Lake City off and on since 1989. He blogs at SLCene.com.
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The Pop Traveler: St. LouisThis week we learned that Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) had hired Jack Hunter, an avowed secessionist with a history of anti-minority statements. Not only does Paul continue to employ him and refuse to renounce or even to comment on Hunter’s views but, according to Hunter, Paul was fully aware of his views and reputation when he first hired Hunter to co-write a book.
Sen. Rand Paul (James Crisp/Associated Press)
Even worse for Paul was Hunter’s accusation that his extremism has found a home with the senator, who has “learned to play the game,” such as declaring that an attack on Israel would be an attack on the United States. With a few “rhetorical flourishes,” he said, Rand Paul is more respectable than his father, Ron, and can thereby get farther in politics. That is precisely the concern that many center-right observers had in trying to decipher Rand Paul: namely, that he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
What is interesting is the reaction of those who supported, cheered and hired Hunter for his avowed views — views from which he is now trying to distance himself.
The Washington Free Beacon first reported that Hunter wrote for Taki’s Magazine, a Web site, then edited by Richard Spencer, that was open to harangues against minorities (one of which, by John Derbyshire, got him canned from his more prominent perch at National Review Online)
In reviewing Hunter’s Southern Avenger Web site today, we found a number of podcasts with such titles as “a discussion on the 9-11 Truth movement, John Birch Society, populism and the ‘conspiratorial’ Right’ ” from 2009. However, none of the podcasts can be accessed, leaving us in the dark as to Hunter’s most candid views. What remains are a few written pieces: for example, decrying neoconservatism (a favorite target of Rand Paul). Where are the rest?
Spencer now heads the avowedly white supremacist National Policy Institute. Yesterday he put up a long, rambling video, discussing his long association with Hunter and relating that he produced “hundreds” of pieces and podcasts for Taki. Where those are now available, he does not say. But for nearly half of his diatribe, Spencer picks up on Hunter’s “playing the game” theme in relation to both Hunter and Paul. He is none too pleased about it. In his mind, people who cloak their real beliefs are “cowards” and should come right out and spell out their views, as did Paul’s father, who dabbled in conspiracy theories and put out a racist newsletter under his name. Spencer declares, “Rand Paul does play the game. He tries to alienate traditional conservatives a lot less.” But he deplores Rand Paul’s efforts at getting along as “ham-fisted.”
Others who peddle in these views appear to be equally dismayed. We see out on Twitter a smattering of racist tweets bemoaning Hunter for backing away from his previous views.
What does this tell us? Hunter and people who know him the best have told us what many long suspected: Under Rand Paul’s veneer of respectability is another, far more radical figure, not inside the mainstream of conservatism but one who is “playing the game.” The fact that Hunter is still in Paul’s employ and that Paul won’t repudiate any of his aide’s views suggests they are on to something.
Paul is not only taking heat from the media; Jewish groups whom he tried to woo are castigating him. So much for his pro-Israel campaign.
At the very least, Rand Paul owes it to voters to explain himself and his relationship with Hunter. This also suggests he’ll be a poor ambassador to minority communities, whom he said he’ll reach out to, given not only his past criticism of the Civil Rights Act but also his embrace of the Southern Avenger.UMe To Reissue Beck's Entire DGC/Geffen/Interscope Catalog on Vinyl / Multi-Grammy-Winning Masterpiece Odelay Celebrates 20th Anniversary in 2016
Since introducing himself to the world in 1994 with his genre-defying, multi-platinum debut, Mellow Gold, Beck has blazed a path into the future while simultaneously foraging through the past. Throughout his singular career he has utilized all manners and eras of music, blurring boundaries and shattering expectations with each album. From the world-tripping atmospherics of 1998's Mutations and the florescent funk of 1999's Midnite Vultures through the somber reflections of 2002's Sea Change, 2005's platinum tour de force Guero and 2006's sprawling The Information, no Beck record has ever sounded like its predecessor.
In the fall of 2016, UMe will begin to reissue Beck's entire envelope-pushing DGC/Geffen/Interscope catalog on vinyl, beginning in October with the trifecta of his 1996 Grammy Award-winning game-changer, Odelay, 2002's beautiful, brokenhearted, Sea Change, and 2005's Guero, which saw Beck reunite with the Dust Brothers. Sea Change will be released as a double LP while Guero will be made available for the first time ever as a single LP. Mellow Gold, Mutations, Midnight Vultures, The Information and Modern Guilt will follow at a later date.
Originally released 20 years ago in June 1996 on DGC, Odelay was Beck's breakthrough follow-up to his platinum bow, Mellow Gold. Selling more than two million copies in the U.S., the double-platinum-certified Odelay featured classics that loom large in Beck's live sets to this day, including "Where It's At," "Devils Haircut" and "The New Pollution." Odelay won two Grammy Awards in 1997, Best Alternative Music Album and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for "Where It's At," and was Beck's first album to be nominated for Album of the Year - the top honor his most recent album Morning Phase took home in 2015.
Produced by Beck with collaborators the Dust Brothers, Odelay continued to demonstrate and expand upon Beck's eclectic stylistic palette. It was universally praised upon its release, named Album of the Year in both Rolling Stone and the prestigious Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll, as well as the U.K. New Musical Express' critics' poll, where the album represented Beck's platinum breakthrough in England. In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Odelay one of the greatest albums of all time, while Rolling Stone ranked it in its 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time," and #9 on its list of the "100 Best Albums of the '90s."Trailer Park Boys: Don't Legalize It is a 2014 Canadian mockumentary crime comedy film directed by Mike Clattenburg, and based on the Canadian television series Trailer Park Boys. It is the third and final film in the Trailer Park Boys franchise, and a sequel to Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day (2009). In the film, Ricky (Robb Wells), Julian (John Paul Tremblay) and Bubbles (Mike Smith) attempt a series of get-rich-quick schemes, but are again pursued by Sunnyvale Trailer Park supervisor Jim Lahey (John Dunsworth). The story culminates in Ricky heading to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, where he tries to prevent the legalization of cannabis.
Clattenburg first announced plans of making a third and final film in the Trailer Park Boys series in May 2012. On an estimated $10 million budget, filming for Trailer Park Boys: Don't Legalize It took place on location in Halifax and Ottawa. The film marks the final appearance of series regular Richard Collins (appearing in the film as Philadelphia "Phil" Collins), who died during filming. In addition to Collins, the film is also dedicated to series regular Brian Huggins (who played Shitty Bill in the television series), and country/folk singer Rita MacNeil.
Trailer Park Boys: Don't Legalize It was released in Canada on April 18, 2014.
Plot [ edit ]
Residents of Sunnyvale Trailer Park attend the funeral of Ricky's father Ray, who is believed to have died in a propane explosion. Trailer park supervisor Jim Lahey and his partner Randy attend the service, despite being uninvited; the pair are forced to leave after Lahey expresses his belief that Ray is still alive.
Ricky has purchased a house in a subdivision where he keeps an upscale marijuana growing operation. Lahey has recently suffered a stroke, which he blames Ricky for, and vows to get revenge. With the help of his lackey Jacob Collins — who is now serving in the Canadian Army — Julian has developed a new money-making scheme in selling drug-tested urine. Bubbles has been living under J-Roc and Sarah's trailer step for two years due to his not being able to find work. J-Roc and Sarah later plan an intervention and tell Bubbles to move out. While Bubbles is packing his things, he receives a letter which he hangs on to. Bubbles is later attacked by thugs while delivering chicken and sent to the hospital.
Julian warns Ricky that with the potential legalization of marijuana, his growing operation business will become obsolete. Ricky refuses to work for Julian and vows to go to Parliament Hill in Ottawa to protest the upcoming legal action. After visiting Bubbles at the hospital, Julian asks him to work for him. Bubbles accepts the offer after revealing that his letter was from a lawyer saying that his deceased parents left land for him in Kingston. Julian promises to take Bubbles to the place after they finish the job. Jacob later reveals that he has been dishonorably discharged from the Army. After Jacob's father Phil rages at Julian, Bubbles, and Tyrone — who recently ran away from a halfway house — the three steal Phil's food truck, "The Dirty Burger", and make their way to the urine deal, with Julian letting Bubbles drive a separate van. Bubbles then offers Ricky a ride to Ottawa after the transmission in Ricky's car fails.
Lahey and Randy secretly follow the boys on their trip, with the intent of planting cocaine in their vehicles and framing them. While on the drive, Lahey tries some of the cocaine and quickly becomes addicted, which worries Randy. While Bubbles and Ricky are driving in the van, they drive by the now burned down Dirty Burger and watch as police arrest Tyrone; they pick up Julian before the police can find him. Later, Bubbles purposely drives past the turnoff to Montreal where the deal is supposed to happen. When Julian finds out, Bubbles admits that he does not want to be a part of the scheme anymore, and just wants to go to his parents' land. Once they get there, it is revealed that the home of Bubbles's parents is a rundown bus parked next to a lake. Bubbles opts to live there, despite Ricky and Julian's protests; however, at the last minute, he decides to go back with them.
Once they arrive at Montreal, Bubbles and Ricky go to a strip club while Julian waits for his customers; he is then robbed by his arch-rival Cyrus and his accomplices Dennis and Terry. Randy calls the bomb squad on Julian's van, and they discover cocaine in the wheel well. Julian is arrested, but Bubbles and Ricky manage to get away. After finding Lahey and Randy, Bubbles steals their car and drives Ricky to Ottawa. Once at Parliament Hill, Ricky sneaks his way into the building and makes an outrageous speech which gets him pulled out by security. A lawyer then offers to help get him out of jail quickly and obtain a marijuana license. While a police officer takes Ricky and Bubbles away, Lahey, highly intoxicated on liquor and cocaine, knocks the officer unconscious and fights a handcuffed Ricky. After the officer regains consciousness, he tases Lahey.
Now in jail, Lahey reveals that the taser shock reversed his stroke. He is no longer using cocaine and has started a relationship with his cellmate. Bubbles has his parents' bus taken to Sunnyvale where he now resides. Julian has stopped dealing drug-tested urine and has started a relationship with an unnamed woman. Randy has revealed that he is over Lahey and has gone back to hooking. Ricky reveals that his marijuana growing operation is a success, since he is now able to sell marijuana legally. He receives a letter containing a VHS tape, which reveals that his father Ray is still alive and now living in a landfill site in Florida, having performed a life insurance scam.
Cast [ edit ]
Production [ edit ]
Prior to the release of Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day in 2009, creator, Mike Clattenburg confirmed that it would be the final installment and that no additional Trailer Park Boys installments would be made. However, in May 2012, Trailer Park Boys creator Clattenburg announced on his Twitter page that a third and final film in the series was in development.[6] It was announced that this third and final film, titled Trailer Park Boys: Don't Legalize It, would be the final feature-length film in the series.[1] The film will also mark producers Clattenburg, Barrie Dunn and Michael Volpe's final involvements with the franchise; on July 4, 2013, it was announced that actors Robb Wells, John Paul Tremblay and Mike Smith—who play Ricky, Julian and Bubbles, respectively—acquired the rights to the franchise from the producers. This included rights to the original television series, subsequent specials, the first and second feature films, and all assets and intellectual property rights related to the franchise.[7]
The film had an estimated production budget of $10 million, of which $3.5 million came from the government-owned corporation Telefilm Canada.[2] Filming for Trailer Park Boys: Don't Legalize It was scheduled to begin in October 2012. Principal photography commenced in March 2013[8] due to scheduling conflicts. "Having to reschedule was actually a blessing in disguise", explained Volpe. "The extra time allows us to get all our financing in place before shooting begins and gives all our creative departments more time to prepare."[9] Filming began on March 17, 2013,[10] first taking place on location in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Extras, actors and the rest of the crew used The St. Patrick’s-Alexandra, a former school, as a "base camp" while filming in downtown Halifax. Filming in Halifax concluded on April 17, 2013.[11][12]
On April 20, 2013, the production moved to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where filming took place at Parliament Hill during the 4/20 weekend;[13][14] production commenced on the same day that more than 10,000 people descended on Parliament Hill to protest Canada’s marijuana laws. The team hired Ottawa police for security on the two days of filming. Clattenburg devised a plan to sneak Wells, Tremblay and Smith onto Parliament Hill without being noticed by the 10,000 attendees; at least 50 extras were hired to surround the actors with cameras rolling, though onlookers ultimately uncovered the ruse. No real drugs were used by any of the performers during production.[5]
Trailer Park Boys: Don't Legalize It marks the final film appearance of actor Richard Collins, who played Philadelphia "Phil" Collins in the franchise. Collins passed during the production of the film on April 15, 2013. In addition to Collins, the film is dedicated to Brian Huggins, who played scrap metal picker Shitty Bill in the television series, series regular Bill Parsons, who played one of the Sunnyvale Trailer Park residents, and country/folk singer Rita MacNeil, who appeared in a Season 4 episode. Clattenburg had written a part for Huggins in the film, but the actor was unable to appear due to his deteriorating health. MacNeil had passed on April 16, 2013, one day after Collins's passing.[5]
Reception [ edit ]
It currently holds a 57% critic rating on the review aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes.
Release [ edit ]
On October 15, 2013, film distributor Entertainment One confirmed that Trailer Park Boys: Don't Legalize It would be released on April 18, 2014, to coincide with the following 4/20 weekend.[15] The film held red carpet premieres in Toronto on April 3, 2014, and in Halifax on April 16, 2014.[4]
Home video releases [ edit ]
In Canada, Don't Legalize It was released on DVD and Blu-ray disc formats on July 29, 2014.The Tor Project has released an upgrade to its software that blocks some recently revealed critical vulnerabilities in the Tor network’s protection of user anonymity. The Tor Project’s Erinn Clark detailed the fixes in a blog entry, and urged all users to update immediately.
Tor, originally called “The Onion Router,” anonymizes user visits to websites and other Internet traffic by passing it through a series of relay servers around the Internet. It also can be used to bypass national firewalls like China’s Great Firewall, or Internet “shutdowns” like the one imposed by the Mubarak regime in Egypt earlier this year, through “bridge relays” that connect to the global Internet through dialup or satellite connections or other connections that bypass normal Internet routing. However, an attack has been developed that could be used to track individuals using the Tor network, and discover hidden bridges, potentially putting them at risk.
These fixes are totally unrelated to the vulnerabilities in Tor alleged by the research team of Eric Filiol, head of the Operational Cryptography and Computer Virology lab at ESIEA in Paris. Filiol is presenting his research on an exploit he said can be used to take control of parts of the Tor Network at the Hackers To Hackers conference in São Paulo this weekend.
The privacy of Tor users could be exposed by the attack because the previous version of the software used the same Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificate when connecting to different Tor network relays. An attacker who has identified the user’s client key could use the Tor network’s protocols to probe relays to see if the user’s key was connected to it. “Each client or bridge would use the same cert chain for all outgoing [Onion Router] connections until its IP address changes,” wrote Clark, “which allowed any relay that the client or bridge contacted to determine which entry guards it is using.”
The new version of Tor, version 0.2.2.34, no longer sends the TLS certificate chain as part of connections over the Tor network. It also changes the router code to block probes to test them for clients that are still transmitting TLS certificates.
One of the vulnerabilities that makes these attacks possible has been well-known for years. In 2005, Steven Murdoch and George Danezis of Cambridge University’s Computer Laboratory demonstrated a traffic analysis method that could allow attackers to figure out which nodes in the Tor network were being used to relay traffic from a specific site. Since Tor clients randomly select three relay sites at connection as their “guards” for privacy, the guards selected by a client could be used as a fingerprint for the user.
That vulnerability, which would allow a malicious website to discover the Tor relays for a specific user, had not yet been addressed, and Clark wrote that traffic analysis attacks “remain as open research problems.”WALTHAM, MA - A local company designing a mobile payment product to directly compete with Apple Pay has announced it will cut 30 jobs.
Waltham-based Merchant Customer Exchange is also delaying the national release of its mobile payment app, CurrentC, multiple outlets reported.
The company is a network of merchants from across the country, including Best Buy, 7-Eleven, Dunkin' Donuts, Old Navy and Walmart.
Merchant Customer Exchange CEO Brian Mooney said in a statement that the layoffs were "tough decisions, but necessary steps."
In the meantime, the company will focus on partnering with financial institutions; it recently began working with Chase Bank to develop its own mobile payment service, Chase Pay, according to Fortune.
CurrentC allows customers of participating merchants to access unique rewards, set up payment accounts and automatically receive coupons and promotional deals, according to the company's website.
The cuts impact roughly 40 percent of Merchant Customer Exchange's employees.James Comey compared the practice to locking your door.
September 15, 2016 2 min read
FBI chief James Comey yesterday reiterated the importance of covering up your webcam -- comparing it to locking your doors and setting up alarm systems.
With the number of cyber attacks today, it’s easy for hackers to break in your computer and spy on you through your webcam.
Related: The Director of the FBI Puts a Piece of Tape Over His Laptop Webcam. Should You?
“There’s some sensible things you should be doing and that’s one of them,” Comey said during the Center for Strategic and International Studies conference. “You go into any government office and we all have the little camera things that sit on top of the screen. They all have a little lid that closes down on them. You do that so that people who don’t have authority don’t look at you. I think that’s a good thing.”
Related: 7 Cybersecurity Layers Every Entrepreneur Needs to Understand
Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was seen in a video with his camera taped up. And in April, Comey admitted to putting taping on his webcam as well, comments over which he later said people mocked him.The latest Arcade offering from Tableau Vivant and the new group gift at Glam Affair inspired me to become a mermaid for the day!
If you’re a member of the GA group (if you’re not, you should be!) you simply must pick up this special Sea Nymph edition of the new Cassia skin in America tone, the make-up is simply stunning!
Later on I was joined by my SL family and we had a mer themed day 😀 we had so much fun splashing about and posing for this picture, thanks girls!
Skin – Glam Affair ‘Cassia America – Sea Nymph’ GROUP GIFT/30L JOIN
Hair – Tableau Vivant ‘Longfall Hair Light Dyes’ (The Arcade)
Headdress – Tableau Vivant ‘Mermaid Headdress – Princesses RARE’ (The Arcade)
Outfit – ::: B@R ::: ‘White Scale Mermaid’
Hands – Slink Avatar Enhancement Hands
Pose – Astalianda ‘Pose 3’
*Skin in second picture is Glam Affair – Summer
AdvertisementsSamuel McLure argued that should anti-choice activists control the state government, they could effectively end legal abortion in the state no matter what courts decided on the issue. He added that a state militia could be used to defend the policy.
Though he has not held political office, attorney Samuel McLure has dabbled in politics in order to push for so-called personhood legislation in the state.
The Adoption Law Firm / YouTube
An adoption lawyer running for the Republican nomination for attorney general in Alabama is targeting abortion providers on social media and has staked out a platform around prosecuting them for murder.
Since announcing his run for office in July, Samuel McLure has centered his desire to “prosecute abortionists” as a key tenet of his campaign, even listing it as the top issue on his campaign’s website. Founder of the Adoption Law Firm, McLure first became an activist in the anti-choice movement “when a friend introduced him to sidewalk counseling” outside of an abortion clinic in Montgomery. He has since founded and participated in several anti-choice initiatives, according to a press release from his campaign.
At the start of September, McLure conducted a Facebook Live video outside of what is presumably that same clinic. In the video, McLure claims that the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark abortion decision in Roe v. Wade has ensured that “you can’t protect children from murder,” repeating oft-quoted rhetoric from the anti-choice movement.
McLure is seen in the video pointing to abortion clinic escorts, who help ensure patients are able to access care at clinics amid interference from anti-choice protesters, and he suggests that “somebody is profiting” from the services being provided there. “We need an attorney general that will prosecute places like this to the fullest extent of the law,” he adds. “I want to eradicate places like this.”
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Though McLure appears to be positioning himself as someone who has long pushed his views outside of abortion clinics, pro-choice advocates who work with the Montgomery clinic he targets say he only recently appeared before their building. People Organizing for Women’s Empowerment & Rights, also known as the POWER House, a “multi use building that houses the offices of Montgomery Area Reproductive Justice Coalition and serves the patients of Reproductive Health Services, Montgomery’s only abortion clinic,” wrote in a July blog post that those who work at the organization had not “ever seen him on the sidewalk” before June.
Mia Raven, the POWER House’s founder and director, told Rewire in an interview that McLure was “brand-new” to protesting outside of Reproductive Health Services. “The only thing I’ve seen him doing is espousing violent rhetoric,” Raven said when asked about what McLure does outside of the clinic. “In my opinion, it is strictly to get his name out there because nobody knows who he is,” she said.
Though there are some people who regularly protest outside the clinic, especially on days when it is providing abortions, “McLure is no way, shape, form, or fashion a regular at the clinic, nor has he been” in the years she has been there, Raven said.
Speaking with Rewire by phone on Monday, McLure said that he began doing the “sidewalk counseling” referenced in his campaign’s aforementioned press release in 2012 and countered that while he doesn’t “know off the top of [his] head” how often he visits, he had been going there for some time.
Still, the videos outside of the Montgomery clinic are hardly the only time McLure has posted videos of himself outside clinics.
In a series of social media posts earlier this month, he targeted one doctor in particular, providing links to an anti-choice website with the doctor’s personal information—including an address to her other practice and photos presumably of the doctor’s vehicle and license plate—and asking if anyone could “publicly defend why she should not be prosecuted for murder.”
According to Raven, that doctor works with Reproductive Health Services. “This is something new. We’ve not really had our doctors doxxed here in a very long time,” she said, later adding it was a “scare tactic.”
“Not only do they want to scare the doctors, they want to scare the patients, they want to scare the staff,” she said. “But we can’t let it scare us.”
In his September 8 Facebook video, McLure defended linking to the personal information of the doctor, claiming that it was “all public information” and that the linked website contained a disclaimer denouncing violence against abortion providers. He dismissed those who criticized him for doxxing the doctor and said that he had not been “advocat[ing] for vigilante justice” against her.
“Why do we call out abortion doctors by name?” McLure asked in the video. “It’s not nice …. But you know what, it’s not nice to kill babies.”
Answering a question about the role of an attorney general during a late August interview on “The Big D Radio Show,” McLure again said that if he won he would have the power to prosecute abortion providers and specifically mentioned Gloria Gray, the director and owner of a clinic in Tuscal |
an ambition to join both NATO and the EU. In 2002, the United States sent hundreds of Special Operations Forces to train the Military of Georgia—a programme known as the Georgia Train and Equip Program. Perhaps most significantly, the country secured a $3 billion project for a Caspian-Mediterranean pipeline (Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline)
A powerful coalition of reformists headed by Mikheil Saakashvili and Zurab Zhvania united to oppose Shevardnadze's government in the November 2, 2003 parliamentary elections. The elections were widely regarded as blatantly rigged, including by OSCE observers;[91] in response, the opposition organised massive demonstrations in the streets of Tbilisi. After two tense weeks, Shevardnadze resigned on November 23, 2003, and was replaced as president on an interim basis by Burjanadze.
These results were annulled by the Georgia Supreme Court after the Rose Revolution on November 25, 2003, following allegations of widespread electoral fraud and large public protests, which led to the resignation of Shevardnadze.
Saakashvili presidency (2004–2013) [ edit ]
2004 elections
A new election was held on March 28, 2004. The National Movement – Democrats (NMD), the party supporting Mikheil Saakashvili, won 67% of the vote; only the Rightist Opposition (7.6%) also gained parliamentary representation passing the 7% threshold.
On January 4, Mikheil Saakashvili won the Georgian presidential election, 2004 with an overwhelming majority of 96% of the votes cast. Constitutional amendments were rushed through Parliament in February strengthening the powers of the President to dismiss Parliament and creating the post of Prime Minister. Zurab Zhvania was appointed Prime Minister. Nino Burjanadze, the interim President, became Speaker of Parliament.
First term (2004–2007)
The new president faced many problems on coming to office. More than 230,000 internally displaced persons put an enormous strain on the economy. Peace in the separatist areas of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, overseen by Russian and United Nations peacekeepers in the framework of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, remained fragile.
The Rose Revolution raised many expectations, both domestically and abroad. The new government was expected to bring democracy, ending a period of widespread corruption and government inefficiency; and to complete state-building by re-asserting sovereignty over the whole Georgian territory. Both aims were very ambitious; the new ruling elite initiated a process of concentration of power in the hands of the executive, in order to use the revolutionary mandate to change the country. In fact, the Saakashvili government initially achieved impressive results in strengthening the capacity of the state and toppling corruption.[92] Georgia's ranking in the Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International improved dramatically from rank 133[93] in 2004 to 67 in 2008[94] and to 51 in 2012, surpassing several EU countries.[95][96] But such achievements could only result from the use of unilateral executive powers, failing to achieve consent and initiating a trade-off between democracy-building and state-building.[92]
After the Rose Revolution, relations between the Georgian government and semi-separatist Ajarian leader Aslan Abashidze deteriorated rapidly, with Abashidze rejecting Saakashvili's demands for the writ of the Tbilisi government to run in Ajaria. Both sides mobilised forces in apparent preparations for a military confrontation. Saakashvili's ultimatums and massive street demonstrations forced Abashidze to resign and flee Georgia (2004 Adjara crisis).
Relations with Russia remained problematic due to Russia's continuing political, economic and military support to separatist governments in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russian troops still remained garrisoned at two military bases and as peacekeepers in these regions. Saakashvili's public pledge to resolve the matter provoked criticism from the separatist regions and Russia. In August 2004, several clashes occurred in South Ossetia.
On October 29, 2004, the North Atlantic Council (NAC) of NATO approved the Individual Partnership Action Plan of Georgia (IPAP), making Georgia the first among NATO's partner countries to manage this task successfully.
Georgia supported the coalition forces in Iraq War. On November 8, 2004, 300 extra Georgian troops were sent to Iraq. The Georgian government committed to send a total of 850 troops to Iraq to serve in the protection forces of the UN Mission. Along with increasing Georgian troops in Iraq, the US will train additional 4 thousand Georgian soldiers within frames of the Georgia Train-and-Equip Program (GTEP).
In February 2005 Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania died, and Zurab Nogaideli was appointed as the new Prime Minister. Saakashvili remained under significant pressure to deliver on his promised reforms. Organisations such as Amnesty International have pushed serious concerns over human rights.[97] Discontent over unemployment, pensions and corruption, and the continuing dispute over Abkhazia, have greatly diminished Saakashvili's popularity in the country.
In 2006 Georgia's relationship with Russia was at nadir due to the Georgian–Russian espionage controversy and related events. In 2007, a political crisis led to serious anti-government protests, and Russia allegedly led a series of airspace violations against Georgia.
2007 crisis
Since the weakening of the democratic credentials of the Saakashvili cabinet after the police crackdown of the 2007 protests, the government has put the stress on his successful economic reforms. Kakha Bendukidze was pivotal in the libertarian reforms launched under Saakashvili, including one of the least restrictive labour codes, the lowest flat income tax rates (12%) and some of the lowest customs rates worldwide, along with the drastic reduction of necessary licenses and permits for business.[92] The objective of the Georgian elite switched to the aim of "a functioning democracy with the highest possible level of economic liberties", as expressed by the prime minister Lado Gurgenidze.[92]
Saakashvili called new parliamentary and presidential elections for January 2008. In order to contest the presidential election, Saakashvili announced his resignation effective 25 November 2007, with Nino Burjanadze becoming acting president for a second time (until the election returned Saakashvili to office on 20 January 2008).
Second term (2008–2013)
In August 2008 Russia and Georgia engaged in the 2008 South Ossetia war.[98] Its aftermath, leading to the 2008–2010 Georgia–Russia crisis, is still tense.
The 2012 parliamentary elections
In October 2011 famous georgian tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili admitted his entrance to politics of Georgia. In December he established opposition political movement Georgian Dream and announced his desire to take part in the 2012 parliamentary elections to obtain replacement of government regime of Mikheil Saakashvili and United National Movement. In February 2012 they formed coalition with Republican Party of Georgia, Free Democrats, National Forum and Industry Will Save Georgia. Tensions rose during pre-election campaign, whereas many leaders of opposition were arrested and sentenced for administrative detention. 54% of electorate voted in favor of the newly-formed coalition, thus Georgia Dream determined 65 seats in parliament.
In October 2012, Saakashvili admitted defeat for his party in parliamentary elections. In his speech he said that "the opposition has the lead and it should form the government – and I as president should help them with this." This represented the first democratic transition of power in Georgia's post-Soviet history.
Margvelashvili presidency (2013–2018) [ edit ]
On 17 November 2013, Giorgi Margvelashvili won the Georgian presidential election, 2013 with 62.12% of the votes cast. With this, a new constitution came into effect which devolved significant power from the President to the Prime Minister.[99] Margvelashvili's inauguration was not attended by his predecessor Mikheil Saakashvili, who cited disrespect by the new government towards its predecessors and opponents.[100]
Margvelashvili initially refused to move to the luxurious presidential palace built under Saakashvili in Tbilisi, opting for more modest quarters in the building of the State Chancellery until a 19th-century building once occupied by the U.S. embassy in Georgia is refurbished for him.[101] However, he later started to occasionally use the palace for official ceremonies.[102] This was one of the reasons for which Margvelashvili was publicly criticized, in a March 2014 interview with Imedi TV, by the ex-Prime Minister Ivanishvili, who said he was "disappointed" in Margvelashvili.[102]
2018 crisis
On 13 May 2018 thousands protested in front of the Parliament building in Tbilisi after police raided nightclubs Bassiani and Gallery. Minister of Internal Affairs Giorgi Gakharia stated that law-enforcing structures had exclusive information about unlawful drug-selling in the nightclubs. Protesters asserted that the accusations were groundless and no one was arrested during raids. Some ultra-fascist groups also attended demonstrations and supported the raids.
On 31 May 2018 a wave of demonstrations started in the streets of Tbilisi to protest a perceived miscarriage of justice following the killing of two 15 years old teenagers in a street knife-combat in December. The protests continue sporadically until June 11, when the police dismantle camps erected by the protesters in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi. Georgia's chief prosecutor Irakli Shotadze resigned over the case, while the government established a special parliamentary fact-finding commission chaired by an opposition politician.
On 13 June 2018 Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili resigned following the May protests.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ]
Ammon, Philipp: Georgien zwischen Eigenstaatlichkeit und russischer Okkupation: Die Wurzeln des russisch-georgischen Konflikts vom 18. Jahrhundert bis zum Ende der ersten georgischen Republik (1921), Klagenfurt 2015, ISBN 978-3902878458
, Klagenfurt 2015, ISBN 978-3902878458 Avalov, Zurab: Prisoedinenie Gruzii k Rossii, Montvid, S.-Peterburg 1906
, Montvid, S.-Peterburg 1906 Anchabadze, George: History of Georgia: A Short Sketch, Tbilisi, 2005, ISBN 99928-71-59-8
, Tbilisi, 2005, ISBN 99928-71-59-8 Allen, W.E.D.: A History of the Georgian People, 1932
, 1932 Assatiani, N. and Bendianachvili, A.: Histoire de la Géorgie, Paris, 1997
, Paris, 1997 Braund, David: Georgia in Antiquity: A History of Colchis and Transcaucasian Iberia 550 BC–AD 562. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1994, ISBN 0-19-814473-3.
. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1994, ISBN 0-19-814473-3. Bremmer, Jan, & Taras, Ray, "New States, New Politics: Building the Post-Soviet Nations",Cambridge University Press, 1997
Gvosdev, Nikolas K.: Imperial policies and perspectives towards Georgia: 1760–1819, Macmillan, Basingstoke 2000, ISBN 0-312-22990-9
, Macmillan, Basingstoke 2000, ISBN 0-312-22990-9 Iosseliani, P.: The Concise History of Georgian Church, 1883
, 1883 Lang, David M.: The last years of the Georgian Monarchy: 1658–1832, Columbia University Press, New York 1957
, Columbia University Press, New York 1957 Lang, David M.: The Georgians, 1966
, 1966 Lang, David M.: A Modern History of Georgia, 1962
, 1962 Manvelichvili, A: Histoire de la Georgie, Paris, 1955
, Paris, 1955 Salia, K.: A History of the Georgian Nation, Paris, 1983
, Paris, 1983 Steele, Jon. "War Junkie: One Man`s Addiction to the Worst Places on Earth" Corgi (2002). ISBN 0-552-14984-5
ISBN 0-552-14984-5 Suny, R.G.: The Making of the Georgian Nation, 2nd Edition, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1994, ISBN 0-253-35579-6Junior dos Santos is taking some time off after a devastating loss to Cain Velasquez at UFC 166, and his next bout could be against a top ranked opponent.
Dos Santos, who suffered the first TKO loss of his MMA career last October in Houston, Texas, told Lance he expects to face off against Josh Barnett or Travis Browne, who are set to collide on Dec. 28 in Las Vegas, Nevada, at UFC 168.
"I believe it would (make sense to fight Barnett or Browne next)," dos Santos said. "The heavyweight division is in a great moment right now. We have great fighters, and you never know what’s going to happen in a heavyweight fight. One punch can change everything."
Barnett returned to the UFC after 11 years with a first-round TKO win over Frank Mir, and Browne won "Knockout of the Night" bonus in his last couple victories inside the cage, when he stopped Alistair Overeem and Gabriel Gonzaga.
"I don’t know what’s next for me, and I don’t choose opponents," dos Santos said. "I’ll be ready for anyone, but I believe my next opponent can be either Josh Barnett or Travis Bowne."[Previously on Mad Men Power Rankings: Don goes for a swim at a Los Angeles party … Roger has a disagreement with an ex-employee … Peggy and Joan reach an understanding … Jim and Teddy successfully brainstorm … Pete Campbell learns to appreciate Janis Joplin.]
1. Don Draper (last week: 1)
You were expecting Sally Draper in this spot. You are disappointed that Sally Draper is not in this spot. You are thinking to yourself, This is an outrage that Don Draper is still in this spot. He’s always in this spot. Why is he still in this spot? Did these idiots not watch the episode I just watched? And then you are thinking to yourself, loudly enough inside your head that maybe some barely squelched shouts leaked out into the room, startling the dog and the rabbit, and you’re now yelling, “These are called the POWER Rankings. Doesn’t Sally have all the power right now? One little word to Megan, or to Arnie and/or Mitchell Rosen, and this whole shit-sweater Don’s knitted for himself unravels, relentlessly and ceaselessly, until his shoes are covered in yards of the filthy yarn of his lies and he is standing topless in the middle of his living room, tearing out his own chest hair with his meaty hands because of his pathetic grief!”
And then you are looking in the mirror, ashamed that you’re getting so worked up about this, and then you realize you are the self-same idiot who is writing these words, too late into the night, and you may have now talked yourself into it. Shouted yourself into it, really. Things are getting loud up in here. You are typing with your fists. Maybe take a deep breath and stop doing that.
Fine. Fine. Fine.
Fine:
1. Don Sally Draper (last week: unranked)
Are you happy now? Good. Because that makes exactly one person in the world who’s happy. You. Who else is happy? Not Sally. She had to see her father pumping away on top of the neighbor lady, then had to listen through her bedroom door as he tried to sell her some jive-ass line about comforting Mrs. Rosen during a difficult time. She’s walked in on Mommy and Henry before, she knows what it looks like when sex is being made, in a wide variety of Mommy sizes. So not only is Daddy cheating on Megan, he’s treating Sally like a stupid child, and that’s almost worse. She’s almost ready to go all the way herself. Mitchell’s going to be a pilot soon, then fly her somewhere distant and exotic, a place far beyond second base.
Don’t tell her it’s complicated, because it couldn’t be more simple: Daddy let her down again. All that’s left is for Sally to decide what to do about it.
2. Don Draper (last week: 1)
“Dear Brigadier General,
I’m writing to you at the behest of Mr. Theodore Chaough, who informed me that there might be exciting opportunities for young men of exceptional promise in the Air National Guard. But let’s forget about all that for a minute. I don’t want to waste your time listing all my best qualities to try to convince you that I do indeed hold that exceptional promise you’re looking for.
I’m here to talk about dreams.
Picture this: a sleeping baby wriggles gently in his crib. He suddenly wakes up. He cries, as babies ripped from peaceful slumber tend to do. Is he colicky? Perhaps. But that’s not important. His parents enter the room, see he’s crying. And they do not feed him. They do not change him. They do not burp him. They spin his mobile. A mobile of tiny airplanes. Red plane, white plane, blue plane. The notes of “The Star-Spangled Banner” play. The baby stops crying immediately. The planes fly round and round, in an endless circle. His eyes are fixed on them. And he drifts back to sleep. He dreams of those planes.
Now that same boy is 5 years old. He’s running in a park, in delirious circles. Round and round. Arms extended, flaps down. Did I say he’s running?
He’s flying.
High above the clouds even though his feet never leave the ground. He’s free.
‘Mad Men’ Power Rankings The definitive character rankings for each episode of Mad Men. We visit that boy once again. But he’s 19 years old. A young man, walking through that same park. Hands deep in his pockets. The world is a different place. You can read it on his furrowed brow. But then something happens: The hands come out of the pockets. His arms extend. He’s running. Twisting, diving.
Flying. Free again. Because in an increasingly dangerous and complicated world, the brave men and women of the Air National Guard have assured that freedom.
And what is flying if not the ultimate expression of freedom? From fear, from limits, from gravity.
Brigadier General, it’s time that young man learned to fly. For that sleeping baby dreaming of planes. For that child in the park.
For America.
Very truly yours in flight,
Mitchell Rosen”
Don Draper Fingerbang Threat Level: A Farewell to Arms
Don extends a hand. Teddy grasps it greedily. It’s not a peace offering. It’s a binding contract. The end of a war that only one of them knew was being waged.
Their eyes meet, lock. Teddy raises an eyebrow.
“The war’s over, Don.”
“So you can let go.”
“You first.”
“Fine, Ted. If that’s the deal.”
“That’s the deal.”
Don does not let go.
He grips tighter. Almost imperceptibly so, but he knows Teddy can feel it.
“We just agreed you’d let go first, Don.”
“We did.”
“OK, so let’s try this. On the count of three, you let go.”
“OK.”
“One … two … three … now.”
Don does not let go.
“You didn’t let go.”
“Didn’t I?”
“You didn’t. I think I would have noticed you letting go of my hand.”
“Do you notice this?”
Don’s finger breaks free of their clasp. It dances out from Teddy’s palm, snakes around his thumb. It’s a caress at first. Then it’s something different.
An invasion.
“I thought we were lowering our weapons,” Teddy whispers, as Don’s probing invader thrums back and forth across the webbing between Chaough’s index and middle fingers. “I thought the war was over.”
“It is.”
Don’s finger strikes.
Teddy gasps.
“It is.”
3. Teddy Chaough (last week: 7)
There was a very valuable lesson learned this week: At the end of the day, it’s all your juice when you own part of the firm. You don’t need to get so hung up on the concepts of “his” juice and “your” juice. Just imagine a giant pitcher in the middle of the office, maybe next to that table where all the creatives are smoking dope, into which everyone dumps all their juice at the end of the day, and on the side of that pitcher is the name “Sterling Cooper & Partners.” It’s a collective juicing operation. It doesn’t matter who poured what, or even how much they poured. Just be happy the pitcher’s getting filled. Then get in your plane and fly home, because you have a fucking plane.
Don doesn’t have a plane. Just saying.
4. Peggy Olson (last week: 4)
If you were trying to hunt a rat loose in your apartment, there are probably worse tools for the job than a crude weapon fashioned from a broom handle and a steak knife. If nothing else, it provides the necessary reach to keep the terrifying varmint at a safe distance, far out of the rabies-spreading range of its tiny maw. And then there is the thrill of the hunt to consider — would there be anything more primally empowering than the stalking and dispatching of a disease-riddled intruder at spear point? The downside, of course, would be the risk of flashback to that time when you accidentally disemboweled your boyfriend. But go ahead, opt for the trap, the coward’s way out. The streaks of fresh blood on your hardwood floors left by a half-dead rodent trying to drag itself out of your life probably won’t at all remind you of the erstwhile life partner you gutted.
There is also the nuclear option to consider. Pros: It is genetically engineered to eliminate your rat problem. No muss, no fuss. Cons: There is a certain stigma attached to a single woman who lives alone with a furry, indifferent predator. While you’re stroking it as it sits at your side on the couch, pretending to comfort you while it merely bides its time until you are of some use to it, you might succumb to painful thoughts of the budding office romance that will probably never bloom, no matter how many times you drunkenly moon at each other before climbing into a flying death trap. Though you might think that Mr. Phineas Q. Whiskerface is purring with sympathy, he’s just waiting to feast on the delicious salt of your tears after you fall asleep in front of the television.
Don’t be a cat lady, Peggy. Be a spear lady.
5. Dot Campbell and Manolo Colon (last week: not ranked)
How many different ways did Dot need to say it? She has waited long enough to experience the physical aspects of love, and Manolo has awakened something long-dormant inside her. Reignited a fire in her abandoned loin-furnace. Released the sexual Kraken from its cage deep beneath the roiling Sea of Widows as she waits atop a nearby cliff, a lusty sacrifice straining against the shackles of desire, ready to be devoured whole.
Is this merely the hot-flashing throes of dementia, or is Manolo a full-service murse, nothing but a well-compensated gigolo in a health care professional’s clothing? Maybe he’s just a little too good at what he does. He’ll take his month’s pay and move on to the next job. There’s no shortage of smoldering carnal campfires that need stoking.
6. Bob Benson (last week: 3)
“Bob Benson. Beloit. Wharton. Accounts. But you know that already. Do you mind if I shut the door? Sit down. Drink this. I made two, this one’s for you. That’s good, drink up. Mind if I join you? Whoops, I drank the whole thing already! Haha. Delicious. Can I ask you something? Is it really so impossible to imagine happiness? Couldn’t it be that if someone took care of you, very good care of you, if this person would do anything for you, and your well-being was his only thought … is it impossible that you might begin to feel something for him? When there’s true love, does it matter who it is? Oh, I’m sorry. That’s my knee down there. I got a little bit lost in this incredibly intense eye contact. Should I move it? Or let it linger there for a moment longer? OK, you moved your knee, I respect that. Signal received. Now let’s not throw around words like ‘disgusting’ too hastily. What if I told you I am a secret government spy, sent to monitor the internal workings of a high-profile ad agency? Would that change anything? No, of course not. That’s ludicrous. I don’t even know why I brought that up. Oops, knee’s back. Let me move that out of the way. Sometimes it’s got a mind of its own. Oh, you already moved yours again. And I can tell from the way you’re looking at me that this has been something of a miscalculation on my part. How about I pay Manolo his severance? I got you into this awkward situation, I’ll get you out. I’m more than happy to take care of that for you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to meet my incredibly busty sex-bombshell of a secret girlfriend. Whoops, guess that just slipped out. We have a big beach date this weekend. Enjoy the rest of your drink. We’ll never speak of this again. And I promise not to linger by your office door, or gaze at you longingly through the conference-room window from my perch on the stairs. I have a girlfriend. She’s incredible. I’ll tell Manolo you said hi. Bob Benson.”
7. Stan Rizzo (last week: not ranked)
Why is Stan using his sexy voice? Baby, this is the only voice Big Daddy Stan’s got. [Stan rolls over, high-fives anonymous one-night stand, hangs up phone.]
8. Pete Campbell (last week: 8 )
He can’t even think about his mother brushing her teeth. So this Manolo thing, well, you know. He just hopes they’re staying away from toothbrushes now, because that’s an image he’s not going to shake, especially when she wanders into the living room with an Oral-B sticking out of her mouth as she gets ready for bed every night.
9. The Rosen Family (last week: not ranked)
Well, at least their kid’s not going to die in Vietnam, right?
10. Don Being Late for Meetings (last week: unranked)
When’s that meeting, Dawn? It already started? Maybe it’s time to get Don a pocket calendar. He’ll just fill it up with coded tryst appointments, but you at least have to try to get a system in place.
Not ranked: Roger Sterling; Harry Crane; Megan Draper; Betty Francis; Julie; the fill-in doorman; Nan Chaough; the Chaoughlings; Jim Cutler; Ross McCarthy; Ocean Spray; Sunkist; the box of oranges; Paris; the Manhattan; excellent French; Lake Erie; Antioch; the classics; Stan’s ladyfriend; the 1-A designation; the half-dead rat; Raisin Bran; the keys; Stan’s sex partner; Teddy’s hobbies; the XP; a young person’s sense of his own mortality; Eleanor Roosevelt.EUGENE, Ore. -- When Michigan State scored 20 consecutive points and took a nine-point lead over Oregon in the third quarter, the collective head nod of the college football nation was palpable from coast to coast. Everyone had seen this storyline before. Oregon was a fun team, a good team even. Interesting uniforms. But when the Ducks go nose-to-nose with a highly rated program that makes its money on the line of scrimmage, their ludicrous speed offense sputters to a stop.
Auburn in the national title game after the 2010 season. LSU in 2011 and Stanford the past two seasons. The Ducks, according to the skeptics, wilted against physical teams, and bruising Michigan State was taking it to the Ducks on Saturday. It wasn't difficult to imagine the I-told-you-so's and knowing smirks breaking out across the country.
Royce Freeman's second-half production helped Oregon rally past Michigan State on Saturday. Phil Ellsworth/ESPN Images
That storyline broached and retweeted by folks ready to dismiss Oregon from the national conversation -- again -- is the most notable part of No. 3 Oregon's 46-27 victory, at least from the Ducks' perspective. The perfectly reasonable reintroduction of that narrative made it all the more meaningful that Oregon ripped the Spartans apart over the game's final 20 minutes, announcing themselves -- again -- as national title contenders with college football's marquee nonconference game of the season.
The familiar script was on the table, and the Ducks tore it up. They matched and overcame the Spartans' physicality. Then they turned on the showmanship, just to remind everyone they were still fancy-pants Oregon and they like to win cool.
It was a big win for the program. It was a big win for second-year coach Mark Helfrich, who is trying to emerge from the considerable shadow cast by Chip Kelly.
"Our team was good tonight," Helfrich said. "[Michigan State] was an exceptional team."
The Spartans, ranked seventh, looked exceptional while taking a 27-18 lead early in the third quarter. To that point, they had stymied the Ducks' offense and moved doggedly down the field with a balanced attack. The Spartans looked a lot like the Stanford team that kept Oregon from playing for the national title the previous two seasons. Yet one quick-thinking play from Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota seemingly changed everything.
On third-and-10 from the Oregon 41-yard line with just over six minutes left in the third, Mariota was chased from the pocket. He probably could have run for a first down, but he flipped the ball to true freshman running back Royce Freeman for a 17-yard gain. It was vintage Mariota improvisation, the sort of creative, off-script playmaking that has distinguished the Ducks during their rise as a national power.
Mariota would finish the drive with a 24-yard touchdown pass. After the Ducks' resurgent defense forced a three-and-out, Mariota gave the Ducks the lead for good with a 37-yard TD toss to Keanon Lowe. And just like that, the rout was on. It was stunning but also familiar. Oregon was doing its thing, imposing its will, wearing a foe down, only it was doing it against a team that was supposed to be unyielding.
"Things started to snowball and we couldn't stop it from snowballing," Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio said.
Speaking of snowballs, Mariota's Heisman Trophy campaign should make like one. He was the linchpin of the Ducks' turnaround. He completed 17 of 28 passes for 318 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions and rushed for 42 yards, but his contribution was more than pure numbers. On the go-ahead drive, he rushed for 11 yards on third-and-9. On the Ducks' final possession, which killed 6:31 off the clock and ended all Michigan State hope, he rushed for 40 yards on second-and-17.
Big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games. That's what Mariota did. That's what Heisman winners do.
"I should have to pay him to watch him play," Helfrich quipped.
Yet Oregon isn't a one-star constellation. It produced a long catalog of clutch in the overwhelming second half. Physical? The defense produced a critical stop on fourth-and-2 from the Ducks 24-yard line in the fourth quarter. It allowed just three second-half points. While Oregon averaged a stout 7.2 yards per play, the Spartans went for just 5.6. Physically impressive? Cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu had a diving interception off a deflection that might end up being the most athletic play of the season.
The Ducks' offensive line, struggling in the first half and suffering an injury to right tackle Andre Yruretagoyena early in the third quarter, asserted itself in the second half. It first pushed the pile for a key third-and-1 conversion before the go-ahead score, and then took control in the fourth quarter as Oregon drove 96 yards in 11 plays for its final TD, a 14-yard touchdown jaunt on fourth-and-2 from freshman running back Freeman.
"I don't think we were fazed by their physicality," Lowe said. "We're physical, too."
Helfrich wouldn't take the bait when asked to ascribe special meaning to the victory. Nor would be say the whole "Oregon can't play with physical teams" skepticism has been vanquished. Truth is it probably hasn't been. As good as Michigan State is, the Spartans play in the Big Ten and the Big Ten had a horrible Saturday, with Michigan getting stomped by Notre Dame and Ohio State losing to Virginia Tech, among other indignities.
Oregon won't win over the entire nation until it wins a national championship, the one glory that has eluded the program.
Beating Michigan State, while only giving the Ducks a 2-0 record, is a significant step toward potentially filling that hole in the program's résumé.We have already seen numerous human tissues 3D printed in a process which has been call 3D bioprinting. Such technology promises to, in the long run, cure many ailments, regrow faulty organs for implantation, and eventually allow for all sorts of ‘replacement’ body parts.
One American based artist, Diemut Strebe, has teamed with scientists to produce what may be one of the craziest pieces of art we have ever seen. Strebe has 3D printed the severed ear of late painter Vincent van Gogh. Most of you reading this probably figure that the ear was somehow printed out of plastic, like most of the other 3D prints you have seen in the past. However, this ear was actually printed using real living human cells from, Lieuwe van Gogh, the famous painter’s great-grandson, who shares 1/16th of the same genes as the 19th century icon. The original plan was to use actual DNA, extracted from an envelope that Vincent Van Gogh had licked, but the DNA turned out not to be his.
“I use science basically like a type of brush, like Vincent used paint,” stated Diemut Strebe, the piece’s creator.
The famous ear was chopped off by van Gogh himself, and delivered to a brothel in which he was a regular at. This took place in 1888, two years prior to his death in 1890. Using a sophisticated 3D bioprinter, and computer software, Strebe was able to actually print the cells in a shape that resembles the painter’s actual ear. Once the cells were printed, the ear was grown at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Believe it or not, the ear is technically alive, as it is made out of living human cells, which have been formed into cartilage. If that isn’t impressive enough it can also ‘hear’ as well.
The ZKM | Media Museum website states that “You can talk to the ear. The input sound is processed by a computer using software that converts it to simulate nerve impulses in real time. The speaker remains in soliloquy. The crackling sound that is produced is used to outline absence instead of presence.”
The ear will be on display on the ground floor of the ZKM | Media Museum in Germany until July 6th of this year. The ear can theoretically be kept alive for years because of the nutrient solution which feeds its cells. Diemut Strebe, who is represented by the Feldman Gallery, plans to showcase her art in New York City next spring. Whether this ear will be on display or not, we are not certain.
What do you guys think about this incredible piece of work? Let us know in the ‘3D printed Van Gogh ear‘ forum thread at 3DPB.com
[Image Source: Associated Press]The wife of fallen U.S. solider Sgt. La David Johnson finally addressed her version of that now infamous condolence call between her and President Donald Trump.
In an interview Monday with George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America,” Myeshia Johnson said President Trump did say her husband “knew what he signed up for” and that it left her deeply hurt.
“The president said that he knew what he signed up for, but it hurts anyways and it made me cry because I was very angry at the tone of his voice and how he said it,” she said. “He couldn’t remember my husband’s name. The only way he remembered my husband’s name is because he told me he had my husband’s report in front of him.”
Also Read: Sgt. La David Johnson's Widow Victim of Fake Facebook Post That Defends Trump
Johnson said that the president’s fumbling over her husband’s name also left her insulted and that her congresswoman, U.S. Rep Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), had accurately reported what happened because she was present during the phone call.
“Whatever Ms. Wilson said was not fabricated. What she said was 100 percent correct,” said Johnson. “The phone was on speakerphone. Why would we fabricate something like that?”
It appears that Trump, a compulsive morning television critic, also watched the interview, tweeting out Monday morning a denial that he had fumbled on La David’s name.
Also Read: 'Fox & Friends' Defends Trump's Call to Soldier's Widow: 'Not Something You Should Be Complaining About'
“I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!” |
Kilman's government, only in power since June, is now in a precarious position
The original corruption allegations were that Deputy Prime Minister Moana Carcasses paid 13 opposition politicians 35 million vatu ($312,000; £202,000) last year.
On Thursday, Mr Carcasses was sentenced to four years in prison, and the others for three years each.
Justice Mary Sey, in the capital, Port Vila, said the payments were made to influence the MPs.
Those who "occupy a position of trust or authority can expect to be treated severely by the criminal law," she said, according to Australia's ABC News.
As well as the deputy prime minister, many of the other convicted MPs were also cabinet ministers, including the Foreign Minister Serge Vohor and Finance Minister Willy Jimmy.
Willy Jimmy was given a 20-month suspended sentence, as the only one to plead guilty at his original bribery trial.
Sentencing for the original corruption offences was due to happen on 22 October, so it is not clear whether the ruling that the pardons were unconstitutional affected their jail terms.ADVERTISEMENT
As a "severely conservative" Republican primary candidate, Mitt Romney said he would consider shuttering the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is currently bracing for the fallout from Hurricane Sandy, aka the Frankenstorm. When asked how he would fund FEMA as president, Romney responded that "every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that's even better." When asked specifically about disaster relief, Romney said that "we cannot afford to do these things without jeopardizing the future or our kids," and that it is "simply immoral" to "rack up larger and larger debts." (Watch the video below.) Liberals are sure that Romney will come to rue those words. Will he?
Yes. Federal aid is essential for disaster relief: "Totally devolving responsibility for emergency management and disaster relief to the states, much less the private sector, is a notion only a stone ideologue would embrace," says Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly. "The feds don't always do the best job in these situations, but suggesting they are none of the national government's business is the kind of policy that might have even given Barry Goldwater pause."
"You're on your own when disaster strikes"
But Romney wouldn't really shutter FEMA: "Many things that Romney said back during his severely conservative period I have little doubt are what he really believes," says Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo. This statement, on the other hand, is "so nonsensical that I'd chalk it up more to his penchant for pandering and lack of character." That, however, is a "difficult excuse for Romney to use on his behalf."
"Did Mitt say he'd shut down FEMA"
Clearly, a Romney presidency would be horrible for disaster aid: Romney has gone on record demanding "that the federal government only disburse disaster relief funding if Congress agreed to offsetting budget cuts elsewhere," says Scott Keyes at Think Progress. A Romney presidency could very well "hold desperately-needed disaster relief funding hostage unless Congress agreed to cuts elsewhere in the budget, an extraordinarily difficult prospect even in normal circumstances." And remember, Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, has long championed tying emergency aid to budget cuts.
"How Romney and Ryan would severely impair disaster relief efforts"This week during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, massive chip-maker Intel announced plans to allocate $300 million to bolster the company's efforts to support diversity and inclusivity. Intel will use the funds to support a new hiring and retention initiative called Diversity in Technology, which aims to achieve "full representation of women and under-represented minorities" at the company by 2020.
"Full representation means Intel's U.S. workforce will be more representative of the talent available in America, including more balanced representation in senior leadership positions," Intel said.
"We're calling on our industry to again make the seemingly impossible possible by making a commitment to real change and clarity in our goals" -- Intel CEO Brian Krzanich
As part of Intel's Diversity in Technology initiative, the company said it plans to "build a pipeline" for more female and under-represented engineers and computer scientists. The funds will also go towards hiring and retention efforts for women and minorities, and also to fund programs to "support more positive representation within the technology and gaming industries."
"We're calling on our industry to again make the seemingly impossible possible by making a commitment to real change and clarity in our goals," Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said. "Without a workforce that more closely mirrors the population, we are missing opportunities, including not understanding and designing for our own customers."
Intel will work with a number of partners to achieve its Diversity in Technology goals, including the International Game Developers Association, the E-Sports League, the National Center for Women in Technology, the CyberSmile Foundation, Anita Sarkeesian's Feminist Frequency, and Rainbow PUSH.
In addition, Intel said it plans to "deepen its engagement" with education institutions, and expand its partnerships with computer science and engineering programs at a range of colleges and universities, including minority-serving schools.
In a statement, Intel explained that its new diversity efforts come after the "recent confluence of events related to women and under-represented minorities." Intel didn't mention the campaign known as GamerGate outright, but the firm found itself associated with it last year. The company temporarily pulled an advertising campaign on game industry site Gamasutra after it was targeted by people claiming to represent GamerGate for a story about gamer culture.In an opinion piece for the Washington Post, a black community organizer says he is “relieved” that the Las Vegas shooter is white.
“I was devastated about Las Vegas — but quietly relieved that the shooter was white,” the headline to Zack Linly’s piece reads.
In fact, Linly said “relief” was the first emotion he felt when he found out about the mass shooting, writing, “And before I could feel fear, grief or despair, I felt relief that the killer was white.”
Linly argues that minorities who commit shootings are unfairly stereotyped based on their race, while white men are never accused of having larger racial or cultural deficiencies. If the shooter were a minority, he claims, those racial groups would have to worry about being persecuted and blamed for the actions of the shooter.
“I doubt many people of color were celebrating and high-fiving each other because we didn’t look like the bad guy,” he says. “But I know that if the shooter had been black, the national conversation would somehow ‘straw-man’ its way into being about Black Lives Matter and black criminality. God help us if it had happened at a rap concert.”
Similarly, Linly asserts, if the shooter were Hispanic people would call for stricter immigration laws, and if the shooter were Middle Eastern people would blame radical Islam and tie him to terrorist organizations.
“But white people don’t need to fear their movements for justice being undermined or the whole of their demographic feeling the pressure to answer for the crimes of a few,” Linly continues. “What I know is that on Monday, I found out that innocent people died, and I felt relief…I felt free in the way the white majority — the default — gets to feel naturally.”
Follow Amber on TwitterUPDATED: Occupy Working Group Plans National Conference In Philadelphia
A group affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement is planning a national conference in Philadelphia this summer. According to the group, which is dubbed "The 99% Declaration," an online election will decide on the 876 delegates — a man and woman from each Congressional district — who will gather in Philadelphia on July 4th.
Of course, the date and place is a nod to the delegates who met in Philadelphia in 1776 to declare independence from the British monarchy, who the founding fathers said had failed to address the grievances of Americans.
On the group's website, they explain that the delegates will draft and ratify a "petition for a redress of grievances," which will then be sent to all members of Congress, the president and Supreme Court justices.
"The National General Assembly gives the 113th Congress, President and the Supreme Court reasonable time to act upon and redress the grievances listed in the petition," the groups says. "If the grievances are not redressed to the satisfaction of the NGA, delegates reconvene to organize a new grassroots campaign for political candidates who publicly pledge to redress the grievances."
The AP spoke to Michael S. Pollock, an attorney who advised OWS protesters in New York. He said any U.S. citizen or permanent resident older than 18 is eligible to become a delegate.
"We feel it's appropriate to go back to what our founding fathers did and have another petition congress," Pollok said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We feel that following the footsteps of our founding fathers is the right way to go."
The group's website gives you an idea of what kind of grievance you can expect to see listed by the group. Among the working suggestions are the "elimination of the Corporate State," as well as debt reduction, a fair tax code, an end to wars and health care for all.
Pollok told the the AP that the group had already paid for a venue in Philadelphia and the website indicates that it is already accepting delegate candidate applications.
Update on Feb. 24 at 12:22 p.m. ET. OWS Doesn't Endorse Convention:
Occupy Wall Street said it doesn't endorse the convention. In fact, they say, the Philadelphia General Assembly flat out rejected the idea and at the New York General Assembly the idea "generated more controversy than consensus."
We've changed the headline to reflect this news and added a separate post about this.The eleventh soundtrack LP to be released by Data Discs goes on sale Saturday 27th May (that’s tomorrow if you’re reading this article on the day it was published!). Info: www.data-discs.com
DATA011 has been announced as Gunstar Heroes - the complete soundtrack to Treasure’s acclaimed run-and-gun shooter. Newly remastered and available on vinyl for the first time, it looks set to be yet another hit for the London-based outfit.
Article by Darren Browne aka kingmonkey25
I caught up with Data Discs founder Jamie Crook to ask a few questions about the company themselves and what goes on behind the scenes…
Q. So who are Data Discs and how did the idea for the label come about?
We're lifelong record buyers and in 2014, it just seemed like there was glaring gap in the market, especially considering the proliferation of movie scores on vinyl in the preceding years. Specialist soundtrack labels such as Death Waltz had already paved the way for a venture such as ours, but I think the demand has always been there. For example, I remember discussing how suitable 'Streets of Rage' would be for a vinyl pressing about 10 years ago and I'm still astonished that no-one did it years before us. I guess in the end, we just got tired of waiting and decided to do it ourselves.
Q. What made you decide on vinyl over compact discs? Is there any particular philosophy behind the label?
To us, vinyl is anything but a “retro format”; it’s always been relevant and vital to the kinds of music we enjoy. As for our label philosophy, fundamentally we’re a record label and not a merchandise company, which is something we hope is reflected in our pricing and general ethos. We consider our records to be standalone albums, rather than nostalgic souvenirs or novelties, and we hope that people beyond the gaming community find them accessible and enjoyable. It’s just interesting, pioneering electronic music on a format that, besides being our favourite, also compliments the audio in new and interesting ways. In many ways, we’re a DIY label in the traditional sense. We just happen to focus on audio sourced from video games.
Q. What are the weirdest and most frustrating things that have happened in the label’s history?
We’ve found ourselves in some pretty unbelievable situations since we started, although I’m afraid I can’t share the details. Just general stuff… overseas meetings, having to deal with frustrating industry types etc.
Q. Can you talk us through the process of making a release? How many stages and people are involved?
We handle almost everything in-house, from licensing and product development, right through to order fulfilment. It’s our way our ensuring that everything we do is to the same standard that we’d like as buyers ourselves. Licensing is always complicated and every deal is different. My partner works in licensing for her day job, so knows her way around a contract. The audio is handled by my brother, who’s a professional sound engineer and we’re fortunate enough to have own our custom-built mixing/mastering studio here in London, which gives us the freedom to take as much time as needed over our releases. Audio can often be a large obstacle with this kind of material – there are obviously no “master tapes” and it’s usually a case of sourcing everything ourselves. As an example of our process, our Streets of Rage trilogy of releases started back in late-2014 as a series of emails to Sega of Japan and the composer, Yuzo Koshiro. At the time, there was no-one releasing this kind of material, but thankfully Sega were really open to the idea and supportive from the start. We settled on a mixture of sources for the final audio. Koshiro-san sent us the original NEC-PC88 files, which we then mixed with high resolution Mega Drive recordings. For the captures, we tap the audio at the chip and bypass the console’s inbuilt pre-amp, opting instead to use our own high quality pre-amps to reduce noise and bring the levels up. Then our general mastering duties involve taking care of the dynamic range and timings, phase incompatibilities and any problematic areas in the frequency range (often there are unpleasant sounds that you wouldn’t notice through a TV, but become distracting when played on a standalone hi-fi setup). We also make some creative choices to bring together the body of the sound and ensure that everything suits the vinyl format. For Streets of Rage 1 & 2 we chose the source material (whether to use the PC-88 files or the MD captures) on a track-by-track basis, depending on the specific requirements of each. Generally speaking, the PC-88 files were better for bass-heavy tracks, whereas the MD captures feature the distinctive characteristics of the Mega Drive’s YM2612 sound chip, which suits some more than others. We never try and just make everything as ‘clean’ as possible; there’s a fine balance to be made between clarity and the inherent noise of the chip. We tried numerous combinations to see which source selections worked best for the album as a whole (we did 20+ different mixes alone for SoR1). As always, we then ordered some test pressings which were subsequently rejected (it’s not unusual for us to go through three or four sets of test pressings per release). Once we were happy with the pressing quality, we went into full production and finally shipped to our customers (along with Sega and Koshiro-san, of course) and thankfully everyone seemed to enjoy it!
Q. How long does it take to get each album released?
Each release typically takes 6-8 months, but depends on the complexity of the rights situation, artwork sourcing and mastering time. Every release has its own issues and none of them have been straightforward so far. We have one that’s been in the works for over 18 months so far. How do you decide on what to release? We grew up playing games and have many favourites, but when it comes to curating our catalogue it’s predominantly based on the audio itself. We’re a record label above all else, so if the music is good, then we’re going to try and release it, even if it’s from an obscure franchise. Our own personal nostalgia plays very little part in the selection process.
Q. Do you get support or assistance from any of the Sega branches?
We primarily deal with the Japan office, however we did recently collaborate with the US office for an upcoming release. I think they’re starting to take more interest in what we’re doing now, which is good to see.
Q. Just how stressful is launch day for you?
Contrary to what some people might assume, we don’t have a Customer Service Department – it’s just a couple of us running everything. We have a pretty unique ordering system (using passwords based on time zone), so things tend to run very smoothly. The vast majority of our customers just pick up the records they want and move along, but it only takes a handful of issues to slow everything down. Thankfully, almost all interactions with our customers are overwhelmingly positive - they’re a lovely, supportive bunch and a pleasure to deal with. If you wish to purchase a copy of Gunstar Heroes or even some of their back catalogue, then head over to www.data-discs.com and be sure to register for their newsletter for updates on future releases!
Article by Darren Browne aka kingmonkey25Everywhere you look, people have their eyes glued to a laptop/tablet/smartphone screen. I was in a restaurant last week and saw a family of 6 go through an entire meal barely speaking, because each of them were worshiping some smart device or another.
I don’t think it’s too drastic to say that for many people, life is literally passing them by. As people become consumed with their electronic devices, they’re missing out on real and meaningful moments in life — the connection they’re making is with an inhuman gadget and life will never truly be enjoyed through a computer screen.
I discovered a video that expresses a wonderful message: ‘it’s not about ‘battery life, it’s about real life!’ The video presents different scenes in which people fail to see and experience meaningful moments right in front of them because they have their eyes and fingers glued to an electronic device — in every sense of the word, it shows how life can quickly pass you by.
But, while the first half of the video does show the breakdown in society that can result from and addiction to technology, the second half shows that in moderation, it can be a valuable convenience in our lives.
As the video fades out, a simple yet powerful statement flashes across the screen: “Sometimes we have to disconnect to make a connection.”
Personally, I find the obsession with technology to be very worrisome — we’re very quickly losing ourselves inside a ‘smart’ device and I fear all of society will pay the heavy price. What will the youth of today be like as adults if they experience life through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat?
Please share this video — it has a very important message for all of us, so engage in an act of positivity by sharing this post with your friends!
Image credit: The Mirror.Digital currency exchange Gemini is doing away with transaction confirmations for approved customers.
Announced yesterday, the move will see the New York-based exchange, founded by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, begin crediting users for their bitcoin deposits before those transactions have been confirmed on the network.
Typically, most services will wait for at least three to six confirmations before accepting a deposit as genuine. Bitcoin transactions, after being included in an initial block, become “confirmed” as new blocks are added to the transaction history.
Now, Gemini – citing transaction delays on the bitcoin network due to congestion – is starting to credit users before the first confirmation, assuming they pass a new clearance system.
The exchange explained:
“Here’s how it works: we’re running every bitcoin deposit on Gemini through a proprietary analysis to determine how likely it is to get confirmed, even if the network is clogged with other transactions. If your transaction passes our criteria (which may take a few minutes), we’ll pre-credit the amount of your deposit and make it available for trading immediately.”
The move comes months after Gemini began expanding its services to Asian markets. The exchange opened its doors in late 2015 following approval by New York state regulators.
The bid to offer zero-confirmation deposits is the latest move from the firm as it seeks to attract more traders – something it has struggled with since launch.
According to bitcoin data service provider Bitcoinity, Gemini has seen roughly 1,900 BTC in trade volume over the past 24 hours.
Car passing image via ShutterstockPLEASANTON — A former commander in the Pinole Police Department and his wife have been charged with trying to defraud an 82-year-old Pleasanton woman, police said Friday.
Matthew Messier, 36, of Pleasanton, was charged with several crimes, including four counts of elder abuse. Pleasanton police said Messier and his wife, 30-year-old Elizabeth Regalado, tried to defraud the victim by placing her entire estate into a trust they controlled.
Police arrested Messier at his home Friday but are still trying to locate Regalado. Messier remains at Santa Rita Jail on $322,500 bail.
Messier also was charged with three counts of attempted grand theft, two counts of registering a fraudulent document, one count of criminal conspiracy and one count of practicing law without a license. Regalado has been charged with one count of criminal conspiracy.
Police said the investigation began in July when Messier was still serving as a commander with the Pinole police. Pinole police Chief John Hardester said Messier, who had been with the department since 2001, resigned his position Oct. 23 but declined further comment.
According to police, Messier used his position within the department to gain the victim’s trust, after which the victim put her entire estate into a trust fund controlled by Messier and Regalado.
“There was no real smoking gun. This is a case of detectives sifting through mounds of documents,” Pleasanton police Sgt. Kurt Schlehuber said. “It’s a paperwork case.”
Messier was perhaps best known in the department for his work on a double-homicide in 2005 that stemmed from a deep-rooted war between rival gang members.
He also was a popular figure within the Pinole Historical Society. Messier gave two presentations to the group on the city’s police history “and drew very large crowds both times,” historical society vice president Jeff Rubin said.
Messier also collected memorabilia and artifacts related to the department’s history, some of which are on display at the Pinole Library.
“Other than his involvement with the historical society, I didn’t really know him well,” Rubin said. “I had an idea something was up, because he just sort of disappeared (from the historical scene) without warning.”
Anyone with information about Regalado’s whereabouts or the case can contact Pleasanton police at 925-931-5100 and reference Case 12-26567.
Rick Hurd covers breaking news. Contact him at 925-945-4780 and follow him at Twitter.com/3rdERH.The last time we wrote about the long-running saga of the scandalous collapse and constant corruption at the Malaysian state wealth fund, 1MDB, which also happened to be an unconfirmed slush fund for president Najib, was a month ago when we learned that the NY bank regulator was looking into fundraising by the fund's favorite bank, Goldman Sachs. Then overnight, the story which already seemed like it has every possible angle of crime and corruption covered for a series of Hollywood action-adventure blockbusters, got a new twist when the DOJ announced it would seek to seize some $1 billion in assets from individuals affiliated with the fun as part of one of the largest seizures in US history.
The expected asset seizures would be the U.S. government’s first action tied to the 1MDB investigation. Among the properties the US is looking to confiscate, are Van Gogh paintings, Beverly Hills properties, a private jet, ultra high end real estate in NYC and LA, and the rights to profits from the hit movie The Wolf of Wall Street.
The move by U.S. authorities to seize assets tied to an investment fund run by a foreign government would be a major escalation in Washington’s global efforts to fight corruption and block allegedly illegally obtained funds, facilitated by Goldman Sachs, from moving through the world’s financial system the WSJ adds.
The case represents the most detailed and sweeping allegations to be brought in the multinational probe into a global scheme to siphon more than $3.5bn from the Malaysian government fund. As the FT adds, it is also the first time Malay prime minister, Najib Razak, has been officially tied to the scandal, and while he has not been by name in court documents the description of “Malaysian Official 1” matches his biography and job responsibilities. In what may develop into a major diplomatic row, the DOJ states that that "official" received funds misappropriated from 1MDB, prosecutors say. Najib has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
The actions by U.S. authorities also threaten to upend the country’s relationship with Malaysia, a moderate Muslim nation that has long been an important U.S. ally in Southeast Asia, and may force Malaysia to enter China's sphere of influence in exchange for protection from US retaliation. Malaysia has deep ties to the Middle East and has been seen as a bulwark against China, which has increasingly asserted its power across Asia. President Barack Obama cultivated a relationship with Mr. Najib, including playing golf together in Hawaii over the Christmas holidays in 2014, something we reported at the time.
Amid the controversy, the Malaysian leader now was likely to focus on his domestic political survival rather than retaliate against the Obama administration, said James Keith, US ambassador to Malaysia from 2007 to 2010. Malaysia is a key regional partner for the US, backing a proposed trans-Pacific trade deal and hosting a digital centre to counter Islamic State propaganda. “I don’t think this is unexpected from Najib’s perspective,” said Mr Keith. “His approach is: batten down the hatches; we’re going to survive this, no matter what. He’ll do everything he can just to pretend this didn’t happen.”
* * *
Political fallout notwithstanding, the case reveals just how extensive money-laundering by the fund, the Malay prime minister, and a handful of affiliated individuals, often with US bank assistance, has been ever since 1MDB was created in 2009 as a government-owned vehicle to promote economic development through global partnerships and foreign investment.
Ironically, it ended up anything but as funds intended to benefit the Malaysian people were instead diverted to buy real estate, works of art and jewellery, pay casino bills and hire musicians and celebrities for the conspirators’ “lavish lifestyles”, the complaint says. More than $200m was spent on art alone, prosecutors allege.
As part of the complaint, US authorities accuse Malaysian officials and business executives with receiving laundered 1MDB funds through banks in Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg and New York. The Malaysian officials “treated this public trust as a personal bank account”, said Loretta Lynch, US attorney-general. The misappropriation occurred over four years beginning shortly after Mr Najib set up the fund, according to the complaint. According to the suit, in March 2013, $681m in proceeds from a 1MDB bond offering were transferred into an account belonging to the official matching Mr Najib’s description. Five months later, $620m of that amount was shifted to a different account to which a 1MDB official was an authorised signatory.
Officials at 1MDB and others began diverting money shortly after the fund was created in September 2009 under the guise of investing in a joint venture with a private Saudi oil extraction company, PetroSaudi International. More than $1bn was transferred to a Swiss bank account held by Good Star Ltd, which was owned by Mr Low, prosecutors allege. Andrew McCabe, deputy director of the FBI, told reporters in Washington: “The Malaysian people were defrauded on an enormous scale.”
There is more in the full complaint, and it revolves around the three main players who, aside from the prime minister, were instrumental in the perpetuation of this grand fraud, including, Riza Aziz, stepson of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak; Jho Low, a Malaysian financier; and Khadem Al Qubaisi, a former Abu Dhabi managing director of a sovereign-wealth fund.
Details about their involvement can be found in the WSJ.
* * *
Much of the above was already known, or implied, however this is the first official confirmation of just how vast the money-laundering scheme was and that it stretched to the very top. What is now also confirmed, is that at the heart of the fundraising operation was none other than Goldman Sachs.
According to the complaint, in 2012, 1MDB officials and others fraudulently diverted $1.4bn in proceeds from two bond offerings arranged by Goldman Sachs, according to the complaint. Representing almost 40 per cent of the total raised, the funds were transferred to a Swiss account controlled by a British Virgin Islands entity called Aabar Investments PJS Limited. Aabar had been named to suggest a relationship with an Abu Dhabi company, Aabar Investments PJS, an investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government. But funds diverted to the Swiss account ultimately ended up in a Singapore bank account.
In 2013, several officials including those from 1MDB diverted nearly $1.3bn from another $3bn Goldman bond offering. The money was supposed to be used to finance a joint venture known as the Abu Dhabi Malaysia Investment Co but was instead funnelled into a Singapore account controlled by Mr Low’s associate, the complaint says.
Where it becomes clear that Goldman had a special arrangement with the complicit issuer and the prime minister, is that Goldman earned $192.5m or nearly 11 per cent of the principal amount on one of the 2012 bond deals, a $1.75bn offering, according to court documents, which also said that the offering circular “contained misleading statements and omitted materials facts”. Considering that a typical fee for an emerging market sovereign or quasi-sovereign bond offering between $1bn-$5bn would be between 0.1 per cent and 0.3 per cent, according to Dealogic, this is nothing short of kickback to Goldman, and raises questions about why Goldman wilfully accepted such an overblown fee for a deal which any of its competitor banks would have done for a fraction of the cost.
This being Goldman, of course, the bank was not accused of any wrongdoing in today's action. It may be in the future as per the DOJ's parallel prove whether Goldman violated the Bank Secrecy Act in its handling of the proceeds of the securities offerings, but somehow the FBI was unable to link the bank to any crime conducted by the same people who were paying it exorbitant fees to keep the money flowing.
* * *
So once Goldman's fundraising skills allowed corrupt Malaysian politicians and selected shady middlemen to have access to billion which they would then embezzle, what did they spend the money on? Perhaps a better question is what did they not spend on: among the purchases were Van Gogh paintings, a private jet, the rights to profits from the hit movie The Wolf of Wall Street, and real estate. Lots and lots of ultra high end real estate.
Here are some of the details from WSJ:
The properties allegedly bought with funds misappropriated from a Malaysian investment fund would make for a stunning house tour of high-end real estate in New York and Los Angeles. Besides flashy real estate, the U.S. government alleges that money from the fund, known as 1Malaysia Development Bhd. or 1MDB, was used to buy a $35 million private jet and a stake in EMI Music Publishing.
The assets that the government is trying to seize were purchased by three men who had close ties to 1MDB: Jho Low, a Malaysian deal maker; Riza Aziz, the stepson of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, and Khadem Al Qubaisi, a former Abu Dhabi managing director of a sovereign-wealth fund, and occasionally the men sold or gave assets to one another.
The properties range from a Beverly Hills mansion with a 120-foot-long pool to a string of Manhattan condos, including a seven-bedroom, five-bathroom duplex overlooking Central Park that cost $35 million.
The complaints paint a picture of lavish spending on casinos and private jets and a taste for high-end real estate—an asset that has been an increasingly popular place for the world’s wealthy to stash their cash outside the banking system and inside stable countries. Mr. Low declined to comment. A representative for Mr. Al Qubaisi didn’t reply to requests for comment. Red Granite Pictures, a company owned by Mr. Aziz, said it and Mr. Aziz “did nothing wrong.”
Mr. Aziz’s New York duplex is by far the most expensive property in the Park Laurel building, a prominent luxury address near Lincoln Center and overlooking Central Park. Mr. Aziz has stayed in the apartment when he visits New York, according to a doorman there.
A home bought by Mr. Low is located in the so-called Bird Streets in Los Angeles’s Hollywood Hills—a quiet enclave of narrow, twisting roads named after different types of birds. The property on Oriole Drive is a 6-bedroom, 5-bathroom home with a swimming pool, spa and wine cellar, which Mr. Low bought in 2012 for $39 million, according to records. A tall, white wall surrounds the house.
The Los Angeles home owned by Mr. Aziz on North Hillcrest Road— a winding street just off Sunset Boulevard—was purchased in 2010 for $17.5 million. Security guards on the site Wednesday said that they had no idea who owned the property and that no federal agents had visited.
The Viceroy L’Ermitage Beverly Hills, the hotel Mr. Low purchased in 2009 through his family’s trust, sits discreetly on a tree-lined, residential street and features a rooftop pool and 116 newly renovated suites. Hotel staff said they hadn’t noticed any unusual activity Wednesday morning.
Mr. Low owns a majority stake in the Park Lane Hotel, a trophy property overlooking New York’s Central Park. He put up about $240 million of the $400 million of equity provided by the investors who bought the 46-story property in 2013 in a deal that valued it at about $850 million.
The investor group, led by New York developer Steve Witkoff, planned at the time to continue running the Park Lane as a hotel while studying the possibility of redeveloping the hotel into condominiums or a mixed-use property. But when news broke that Mr. Low was under investigation, those plans were stymied. Such a plan would require approval from the New York state attorney general’s office, an unlikely event when the property’s majority owner was being investigated.
* * *
And that kind of magnificent organized crime, dear New Yorkers, is why real estate in Manhattan has never been more expensive.Mitt Romney strayed from his own campaign's talking points during a "reset" rally with running mate Paul Ryan today in Ohio.
In the midst of remarks otherwise ridiculing the president's tax record, Romney said: "I admit this, [President Obama] has one thing he did not do in his first four years - he's said he's going to do in the next four years, which is to raise taxes."
Behind him, Ryan appeared to wince at the mention.
During the primaries, Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul offered a very different view of the presidents record, when she told the L.A. Times: "President Obama has raised taxes 19 times."
Indeed, Republicans have spent much of the election season criticizing Obama for adding to the middle class tax burden, most recently citing in a campaign email blast the 6 million Americans expected to face a tax penalty for violating the Affordable Care Act's insurance mandate.
"The president has raised taxes on the middle class, as determined by the Supreme Court," Romney said in August, referring to the high court's decision to uphold Obama's health care law based on Congress's constitutional authority to levy taxes.
The Romney campaign offered a correction tonight.
"President Obama has raised taxes on millions of middle-class Americans during his first term in office," spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said in a statement. "Governor Romney was clearly communicating about an additional tax increase President Obama is proposing on American small businesses that will jeopardize over 700,000 jobs. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will stop the President's tax increases, create 12 million new jobs, and turn our economy around."Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Monday the current state of Atlantic City's casino industry illustrates the "greed we're seeing all across the country."Sanders took shots at presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and Carl Icahn, the billionaire owner who now owns the Trump Taj Mahal at the struggling seaside resort.Sanders told the Boardwalk Hall crowd that he stands with workers, including those who have lost their jobs or benefits as Atlantic City's casino industry contracts. Four of the city's 12 casinos went out of business in 2014, putting 8,000 people out of work.Trump once owned three casinos in Atlantic City, but he turned over control of them through bankruptcy proceedings. Trump has said on the campaign trail that he did great financially in Atlantic City and got out at the right time."Oh, I get it - you don't think he is a brilliant, successful businessman who can bring the kind of prosperity to America that he has brought here to Atlantic City," Sanders said of Trump.The main casino workers' union has just started what is likely to be its toughest contract negotiations in four decades in Atlantic City. They are fighting to reverse the elimination of health care and pension benefits by the Taj Mahal casino, a move that occurred after Trump no longer owned it, and just before Icahn took over."We are going to tell the Carl Icahns of the world that that greed is not acceptable, that greed is destroying America, and you are looking at somebody who, if elected president, will take these people on," Sanders said.Icahn responded Monday, saying that the Taj Mahal and Tropicana casinos would have closed and thousands more workers would have lost their jobs if he didn't provide tens of millions of dollars to save them."But, I do agree with Bernie Sanders on one thing: the income gap in this country is a major problem and I agree (with certain exceptions) that those that manage capital, as well as many CEOs, are ridiculously overpaid," Icahn said in a statement posted to his website. "If this problem is not addressed, there may well be disastrous consequences for the country."The city's casino workers are largely low-paid, blue-collar workers. The union says its average salary is $11.17 an hour.There also is a strong sense of resentment that many of the casinos, owned by out-of-state companies, routinely funnel profits back to the parent company instead of investing more of them into Atlantic City.The Atlantic City region also leads the nation in home foreclosures.ADVERTISEMENT
“You know you’re in trouble when you have to bail out the bailouts,” said Floyd Norris in The New York Times online, and “Europe did that twice very late Sunday night.” Following a failed summit on Saturday, Germany had to salvage a week-old bailout of its No. 2 mortgage lender, Hypo Real Estate, and the Dutch government restructured its bailout of Fortis.
Worse yet, as America’s “financial upheaval” washes "with full |
IVE.SHE HAS THE BURNS AND SCARS TOREMIND HER>> IT'S THE SCARIEST THING I'VEEVER BEEN IN MY LIFE.TAMMY: IN THE EARLY MORNING OFJANUARY 19, HEATHER WAS DRIVINGHOME WITH THE FOUR-YEAR-OLD ANDSIX YOU ARE OLD GIRLS SHEBABYSITS.HER CAR STARTED SPARKING ANDSMOKING ON ALBERTA STREET.>> I KNEW I ONLY HAD ONCE CHANCEAND ONE OPPORTUNITY TO DOEXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED TO DO.TAMMY: SOON THE FLAMES IN THEFRONT OF THE CAR MOVED TO THEBACK WHERE THE LITTLE GIRLS SAT.>> IT STARTED GETTING REALLYSMOKY AND I COULDN'T REALLY SEENOTHING AND I WAS TRYING TO GETOUT AND GET THEM OUT, THE FLAMESWERE GOING UP MORE, I WASSCREAMING FOR HELP.TAMMY: A GOOD SAMARITAN NAMEDWAYNE KEATON HEARD THOSE CRIESFOR HELP.HEATHER GRABBED ONE LITTLE GIRL KEATON RAN AND GRABBED THE OTHERCHILD.FIRE FIGHTERS HADN'T ARRIVEDYET.>> THE MAIN THING I WAS WORRIEDABOUT WAS THEM GIRLS THOUGH, IFI WOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN THEM OUT,I WOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TOLIVE WITH MYSELF.NEVER.TAMMY: THEY GOT TO SAFETY BUTHEATHER SUFFERED THIRD DEGREEBURNS ON HER LEGS AND ARM.THE LITTLE GIRLS WALKED AWAYWITHOUT A SCRATCH.>> THAT'S WHY I THANK GOD FORWAYNE, BECAUSE YOU KNOW IT DIDTAKE A WHILE AND WE WERESTRUGGLING FOR SO LONG AND ITWAS ONLY ME AND WAYNE.NONE OF US WOULD HAVE PROBABLYMADE IT OUT.TAMMY: ALL THAT'S LEFT OF HERTOYOTA IS A CHARRED METAL SHELL.SHE'S BEEN IN PAIN IN THEHOSPITAL FOR THREE WEEKS, BUTWHEN SHE CONSIDERS THEALTERNATIVE, SHE'S THANKFUL.>> IT WAS NOTHING BUT THE GOODLORD ABOVE, YEAH HE WAS LOOKINGOUT FOR ME, HE DID EVERYTHING INHIS POWER.TAMMY: YOU CAN SEE JUST HOW BADTHE DAMAGE IS.HEATHER LOST HER CLOTHES, HERWALLET AND PURSE WHICH WEREINSIDE THIS CAR.THE COMMUNITY HAS STARTED A
Advertisement Babysitter, 2 young girls saved from burning car by Good Samaritan Share Shares Copy Link Copy
A car went up in flames last month with a babysitter and two little girls inside in Ludlow.The babysitter has been in the hospital with third-degree burns for the last three weeks.Heather Hall, 31, spoke with WLWT for the first time, since a good Samaritan ran to help them.When Hall re-lives the moment her car was engulfed in flames, she knows she's lucky to be alive.Hall has the burns and scars to remind her.“I don't even know how we got out of it,” Hall said. “It's the scariest thing I've ever been in, in my life.”In the early morning of Jan. 19, Hall dropped off her fiancé and was driving home with the 4- and 6-year-old girls she babysits when her car started smoking on Alberta Street.Moments later, the flames in the front of the car moved to the back where the little girls sat.“I knew I only had once chance and one opportunity to do exactly what I needed to do,” Hall said. “I was trying to get out and get them out. The flames were going up more. I was screaming for help." A good Samaritan named Wayne Keaton heard those cries for help.While Hall grabbed one little girl, Keaton ran and grabbed the other child before firefighters arrived.“The main thing I was worried about was the girls,” Hall said. “If I wouldn't have gotten them out, I would have never been able to live with myself. Never."Hall, Keaton and the girls got to safety, but Hall suffered third degree burns on her legs and arm.The little girls walked away without a scratch.All that's left of Hall’s Toyota is a charred metal shell.Hall has been in pain in the hospital for three weeks, but when she considers the alternative, she's thankful.“That's why I thank God for Wayne because, you know, it did take a while, and we were struggling for so long. It was only me and Wayne,” Hall said. “None of us would have made it out.”Hall lost her clothes and wallet, which were in the car. The community has started a GoFundMe page to help her get back on her feet.Jerusalem’s mayor said Monday he was holding direct talks with the White House about President Trump’s plan to relocate the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to the Israeli capital — but some Israeli officials say the contentious issue may be on the back burner.
Noting that Trump plans on conducting hearings to discuss the controversial move, Mayor Nir Barkat called the president “a true friend of Israel who keeps his promises,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
“I congratulate President Trump and the historic message being sent by the White House by beginning hearings to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem,” Barkat said in a statement Monday.
“The announcement sends a clear message to the world that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel.”
But White House press secretary Sean Spicer emphasized Sunday before a first post-inauguration phone call between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that such a deal is still in its “very beginning” stages.
Barkat is friendly with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, who he suggested could take on the monumental task of mediating peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Israeli officials said the relocation issue was barely discussed during the 30-minute call, and diplomats said they believed it was being moved down the agenda, at least for now, Reuters reported.
“Sounds more like walking it backwards,” one Israeli official said in a text message after Spicer’s statement.
Another official said that during the call, Netanyahu had not sought a commitment from Trump on the move — or a time frame for it.
“This really means: ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you,’” Yigal Palmor, former spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said on Twitter.
Netanyahu’s lack of urgency may be based on Israel’s efforts to rebuild stronger relations with the Sunni Muslim world.
Washington maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv as do other countries, insisting that conflicting claims to Jerusalem must be worked out in direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, who want to have the capital of an independent Palestinian state in the eastern part of the city.
The Palestinians have warned against moving the embassy — a highly symbolic and politically charged act.
Jibril Rajoub, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, warned that moving the embassy would be tantamount to “a declaration of war against Muslims.”
“If someone on your side thinks it won’t have ramifications, they’re wrong,” he said, the Jerusalem Post reported. “This is a dangerous step, which will not bring stability to the region.”
Relocating the embassy also would likely prompt protests from US allies in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, countries that Washington relies on for help in fighting ISIS, which Trump said is a top priority.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas discussed the issue with King Abdullah of Jordan in Amman on Sunday. Palestinian officials said the king, who oversees the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, expressed concerns about any relocation.
Former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State John Kerry also have said a move could be explosive for the region.
In 1995, the US Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act with the intention to fund the relocation of the US Embassy no later than May 31, 1999. But presidents since then have signed waivers extending the legislation, citing national security concerns.
On Dec. 2, then-President Obama renewed a presidential waiver that delays plans to relocate the embassy until the beginning of June. It is unclear whether Trump would be able to legally override the waiver.
Despite the US legislation, US diplomats say that Washington’s foreign policy has been aligned with that of the United Nations and other major powers, which do not view Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and do not recognize Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem after the Six-Day War in 1967.
Incoming US Ambassador David Friedman has strongly backed an embassy move and said he plans on living in Jerusalem, where the US government has several buildings, including a consulate-general.A Michigan man pleaded guilty last week to hacking the computer network of the Washtenaw County Jail, where he modified inmate records in an attempt to have an inmate released early.
The man, Konrads Voits, 27, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, was arrested earlier this year after an FBI investigation.
Voits social-engineered jail employees
According to court documents obtained by Bleeping Computer, starting from approximately January 24, 2017, and until March 10, 2017, Voits used email spear-phishing and telephone social-engineering to trick Washtenaw County Jail employees into downloading and running malware on their computers.
Voits sent emails to jail staff posing as a man named "Daniel Greene" and asked for help with obtaining court records, and later also registered the domain "ewashtenavv.org," a look-alike of "ewashtenaw.org," the Washtenaw County's official portal.
Despite his efforts, the email spear-phishing campaigns were unsuccessful, and in mid-February, Voits switched to calling county jail employees.
During his calls, investigators said Voits posed as "T.L." and "A.B.," two actual Washtenaw County Jail, both working in the jail's IT department.
Voits called other jail employees and asked them to visit certain websites to download and install an executable that would "upgrade the County's jail system."
Telephone calls were successful
Some jail employees fell for Voits' scheme and installed malware on their computers.
"Through the installation and use of this malware, Voits was able to gain full access to the County network, including access to sensitive County records such as the XJail system (the computer program used to monitor and track inmates in the County Jail), search warrant affidavits, internal discipline records, and County employee personal information," the plea agreement reads.
The FBI says Voits was able to obtain information, including passwords, usernames, emails, and other personal information of over 1,600 County employees.
Once Voits had access to this data, investigators said he accessed the XJail system, searched and accessed the records of several inmates, and modified at least one entry "in an effort to get that inmate released early."
Intrusion detected right away
Jail employees noticed the modification right away and alerted the FBI soon after, realizing what happened. The Washtenaw County Jail also hired a security company specialized in incident response to clean its IT network.
Jail officials said they paid $235,488 "to determine the full extent of the breach, to reimage numerous compromised County hard drives, to verify the accuracy of the electronic records of nearly every then current County Jail inmate, and to attempt to reassure the 1,600 County employees whose personal data had been compromised by purchasing an identity theft program for County employees."
After pleading guilty last week, Voits now faces up to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Voits also had to forfeit all the electronics equipment he used to carry out his attacks — a laptop, four phones, one circuit board, and an undisclosed amount of Bitcoin.
Voits remains in custody. A judge scheduled his sentencing hearing for April 5, 2018.Melbourne Victory forward Kostas Barbarouses publicly supports Western Sydney Wanderers players in pay dispute
Posted
Melbourne Victory forward Kosta Barbarouses has publicly backed Western Sydney Wanderers players in their pay dispute with club management.
Barbarouses went on Twitter to show solidarity for the Wanderers, who are in Morocco preparing for a Club World Cup quarter-final against Cruz Azul of Mexico which may not go ahead unless the dispute is resolved.
Talks between senior players and their club have broken down over how much they should be paid for their CWC matches.
"We stand united behind the @wswanderersfc players and support them in pursuing a fair share of the Club World Cup prize money," Barbarouses said in his post.
Speaking after Tuesday's Victory training session, Barbarouses said the issue would not happen anywhere else.
"We can feel where they're coming from and they've been through so much travel and hard work, obviously committing to both competitions as much as they can," he said.
"They've done a fantastic job and it's only fair they get their just rewards.
"The 10 per cent they've been offered probably wouldn't happen anywhere in the world.
"We're just trying to show our support as players and as a union, as a PFA, to make sure they get their fair rewards."
Finkler the only injury concern for unbeaten Victory
The crisis at the Wanderers is in stark contrast to the Victory, who are unbeaten in the A-League and second on the ladder.
Gui Finkler is their only injury concern after he missed last Friday's 3-0 win over Central Coast Mariners because of a groin problem.
Victory host high-flying rivals Sydney FC this Saturday at Docklands.
"I asked him this morning, he said he was feeling pretty good," Barbarouses said of Finkler.
"I'm not sure if he's going to be alright, but (we're) still a few days out."
"He's been a catalyst for a lot of our attacking play (in) the first round.
"But it's not going to be a long-term thing, so he'll be back with us shortly."
Barbarouses is enjoying a strong season and was the first player of the month.
"I feel very fit, very strong, full of confidence," he said.
"'Mussy' (coach Kevin Muscat) has given me licence to just express myself in the final third."
While Victory will start favourites against Sydney, Barbarouses said his team must play to their strengths.
"We have to be patient - maybe a little more patient than we were on the weekend, when we tried to rush things at times," he said.
AAP
Topics: sport, soccer, a-league, melbourne-3000, vic, parramatta-2150, nsw, australiaSo, as you’re probably well aware of (if you arent..), Phil Kessel is closing in on an extension with the Toronto Maple Leafs before tomorrow’s opening night puck drop. The speculation is that he’ll take in and around $8 million per year over 8 years, locking him up until he’s 34 years old. People are debating whether this is the right choice.
What? This is crazy. If he’s asking for $8.5 million right now, the Leafs would win these negotiations without even negotiating. Anything now is gravy.
Lets look at prior history. Specifically, high production wingers going into their first contract with UFA years, between the ages of 25-28 in their contract years, in the salary cap era. You get the following players, with their contracts, and their adjusted contracts (cap inflation and removal of "circumvention" years after year 8)
Player Contract Contract Year Adjusted Contract Phil Kessel TO BE DETERMINED 2012/13 TO BE DETERMINED Patrick Marleau 2 years @ 6.3 M 2007/08 2 years @ 7.14 M Henrik Zetterberg 12 years @ 6.083 M 2008/09 8 years @ 8.58 M Marian Gaborik 5 years @ 7.5 M 2008/09 5 years @ 8.49 M Zach Parise 12 years @ 7.538 M 2011/12 8 years @ 9.16 M Dany Heatley 6 years @ 7.5 M 2006/07 6 years @ 9.59 M Rick Nash 8 years @ 7.8 M 2009/10 8 years @ 8.44 M Daniel Sedin 5 years @ 6.1 M 2008/09 5 years @ 6.91 M Corey Perry 8 years @ 8.625 M 2011/12 8 years @ 8.625 M Ilya Kovalchuk 15 years @ 6.67 M 2009/10 8 years @ 10.69 M
An average contract in this class comes out to 6 years @ 8.625 million. Seeing as all of them other than Gaborik and Parise signed with the teams they were with, it’s not crazy to assume that the average would be much higher with free agency shift arounds.
Here’s a comparison of their production in their contract years:
Player Contract Year Age GP G A PTS PM PIM S S% TOI Phil Kessel 2012/13 25 48 20 32 52 -3 18 161 12.4 951 Patrick Marleau 2007/08 28 78 19 29 48 9 33 185 10.3 1422 Henrik Zetterberg 2008/09 28 77 31 42 73 13 36 309 10 1531 Marian Gaborik 2008/09 26 17 13 10 23 3 2 68 19.1 340 Zach Parise 2011/12 27 82 31 38 69 -5 32 293 10.6 1762 Dany Heatley 2006/07 26 82 50 55 105 31 74 310 16.1 1725 Rick Nash 2009/10 25 76 33 34 67 -2 58 254 13 1591 Daniel Sedin 2008/09 28 82 31 51 82 24 36 285 10.9 1541 Corey Perry 2011/12 26 80 37 23 60 -7 127 277 13.4 1710 Ilya Kovalchuk 2009/10 26 76 41 44 85 10 53 290 14.1 1675
And adjusted to 82 games @ 20 minutes per game:
Player Contract Year Age GP G A PTS PM PIM S S% TOI Phil Kessel 2012/13 25 82 34 55 89 -5 31 277 12.4 1640 Patrick Marleau 2007/08 28 82 21 33 54 10 38 213 10.3 1640 Henrik Zetterberg 2008/09 28 82 33 45 78 13 38 330 10 1640 Marian Gaborik 2008/09 26 82 62 48 110 14 9 328 19.1 1640 Zach Parise 2011/12 27 82 28 35 63 -4 29 272 10.6 1640 Dany Heatley 2006/07 26 82 47 52 99 29 70 294 16.1 1640 Rick Nash 2009/10 25 82 34 35 69 -2 59 261 13 1640 Daniel Sedin 2008/09 28 82 32 54 86 25 38 303 10.9 1640 Corey Perry 2011/12 26 82 35 22 57 -6 121 265 13.4 1640 Ilya Kovalchuk 2009/10 26 82 40 43 83 9 51 283 14.1 1640
His production is right up amongst the best, only being outscored by Gaborik and his 17 game sample size, and Heatley, who who was the trigger man on one of the most stacked lines in modern hockey, rather than playing with Tyler Bozak. On top of that, this is a man who’s health has been fantastic since coming here, not missing a single game in Toronto since he hit the ice for the first time.
Simply put, Phil Kessel is in elite company for this contract negotiation scenario. He’s asking for a more than reasonable amount right off the hop, because honestly, he could easily get over 9M on July 1st. The fact he isn’t even asking for that is huge. Start celebrating.the top 15 compensation packages for private college presidents ranged from $3.36 million to $1.36 million.
See which presidents made the most money.
less In 2011 (the most recent year for which figures are available)ranged from $3.36 million to $1.36 million.See which presidents made the most money. the top 15 compensation packages for private college presidents ranged from $3.36 million to $1.36 million.
See which presidents made the most In 2011 (the most recent year for which figures are available)ranged from $3.36 million to $1.36 million.See which presidents made the most... more Photo: BK Angeletti, B.K. Angeletti Photo: BK Angeletti, B.K. Angeletti Image 1 of / 20 Caption Close Highest paid private college presidents 1 / 20 Back to Gallery
According to Education Dive, "Inequality.org predicts that income inequality could move onto the 'public policy center stage' in 2014, referencing proposals in Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, and the U.S. to tie chief executives' compensation to that of their workers, usually via ratios."
Income inequality is often discussed as a gender issue, but as students struggle with loan debt, it's becoming a hot topic in the conversation about education.
The Chronicle of Higher Education compiled figures for private college presidents' compensation packages in 2011 - the most recent year available. The top 15 packages ranged from $3.36 million to $1.36 million, and included three Ivy League Universities and three female presidents.
Twelve of the top 15 schools are in the Northeast. The exceptions are the University of Chicago, which comes in at #1, Florida Institute of Technology (#7) and University of Southern California (#13).
Expanding to the top 25 still shows an overwhelming majority of schools in the Northeast. The only other schools in different parts of the country are Northwestern University in Illinois (#16), Wake Forest University in North Carolina (#19), Kenyon College in Ohio (#20), University of Miami in Florida (#23) and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee (#25).
To get the data, The Chronicle of Higher Education compared the compensation received by 550 chief executives at 500 private nonprofit colleges during the 2011 calendar year. According to the Chronicle, numbers were compiled from the Internal Revenue Service’s Form 990, which is filed by most nonprofit entities.
"For our analysis, we selected the private nonprofit baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral institutions with the 500 largest endowments, as reported to the U.S Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or Ipeds. Some nonprofit universities don’t report the value of their endowments to Ipeds, and those were excluded from our analysis." - Chronicle of Higher EducationThis picture was originally just going to be a picture of battle-worn and battered Shining Armour in his more practical Captain of the Royal guard uniform of my own design. But suddenly a wild Twilight Sparkle Unicorn appeared and did battle with our valiant royal guard.I guess if I were to come up with a story for this, Twilight had been corrupted and one of the ponies she saught out on her path of vengeance happened to be her brother, who is refraining from attacking her. But even as powerful an Aegist-based unicorn such as he cannot hold back against the element of Magic herself, right?Not much story behind this. There was originally going to be a background to this set place in a battle scene but after I got lazy and began repeating the same two ponies to make up a huge army, I felt far less satisfied in it considering the effort put into these two, so have them on their lonesom (in 1080p no less! There's a first, a proper 16:9 resolution picture)Ponies belong to our supreme overlordPicture took 8 hours from start to finishA federal judge in Seattle on Friday granted a nationwide temporary restraining order blocking U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent action barring nationals from seven countries from entering the United States.
The judge’s order represents a major challenge to the Trump administration, which is expected to immediately appeal. The judge declined to stay the order, suggesting that travel restrictions could be lifted immediately.
The challenge was brought by the state of Washington and later joined by the state of Minnesota. The Seattle judge ruled that the states have legal standing to sue, which could help Democratic attorneys general take on Trump in court on issues beyond immigration.
“It’s a wonderful day for the rule of law in this country,” said Washington state solicitor general Noah Purcell.
The decision came on a day that attorneys from four states were in courts challenging Trump’s executive order. Trump’s administration justified the action on national security grounds, but opponents labeled it an unconstitutional order targeting people based on religious beliefs.
Earlier on Friday, a federal judge in Boston on Friday declined to extend a temporary restraining order that allowed some immigrants into the United States from certain countries despite being barred by U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order.
Also on Friday in Virginia, a federal judge ordered the White House to provide a list of all people stopped from entering the United States by the travel ban.
The State Department said on Friday that fewer than 60,000 visas previously issued to citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen had been invalidated as a result of the order. That disclosure followed media reports that government lawyers were citing a figure of 100,000.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia ordered the federal government to give the state a list by Thursday of “all persons who have been denied entry to or removed from the United States.”
The state of Hawaii on Friday joined the challenge to the order, filing a lawsuit alleging that the order is unconstitutional and asking the court to block the order across the country.
The new Republican president’s order signed on Jan. 27 triggered chaos at U.S. airports last weekend. Some travelers abroad were turned back from flights into the United States, crowds of hundreds of people packed into arrival areas to protest and legal objections were filed across the country.
The order also temporarily stopped the entry of all refugees into the country and indefinitely halted the settlement of Syrian refugees.
On Friday the Department of Homeland Security issued additional clarification of the order, stating that there were no plans to extend it beyond the seven countries. The DHS also reiterated that the ban did not apply to permanent residents, or green card holders, and some others, such as those who have helped the U.S. military.
In the Boston case, U.S. District Judge Nathan Gorton denied the request, after expressing skepticism during oral arguments about a civil rights group’s claim that Trump’s order represented religious discrimination.Product Details
Ancient secrets, sandblasted ruins, and unprecedented horrors await in Under the Pyramids!This side board expansion opens up six new locations throught Egypt, including bustling Cairo, ancient Tel El-Amarna, and the shining, snaking, Nile River. Yet the Egypt of the 1920s is hardly a safe tourist destination. Amid the cultural tumult and political instability of this modernizing African nation, countless Cultists are working to bring about the return of an ancient and powerful evil known as the Dark Pharoah. If he should rise up to rule Egypt once more with his iron will, he would doom all humankind to wretched, cruel slavery.
Fighting this battle against terrible evil are eight more investigators, aided by invaluable Relics, powerful Glamour spells, and legendary allies. The Museum Heist Adventure cards lead you on a hunt for stolen antiquities, and six more preludes that can transform your games of Eldritch Horror in innovative and thematic ways.
Under the Pyramids includes:
-A side board that opens up six locations spread across Egypt and North Africa
-A rulebook to guide your journey down the Nile and into the Sahara
-Two Ancient Ones, each with unique Mystery, Research, and Special Encounters decks
-Eight new Investigators
-Plentiful new Unique Assets, Conditions, Spells, Artifacts, Gates, and MonstersWhen you are dealing with the mainstream media, it is always difficult to tell if you are dealing with willful ignorance or just plain old ignorance-ignorance. There are plenty of moronic savants in the national media who have cracked the “hot take” code to please their left-wing masters but have no fundamental grasp of history, or much of anything much of else.
The act of willful ignorance in the media manifests itself through bias, and lies of omission conjured up to serve that bias. These dishonest liars know they are dishonest liars, and willfully choose to not tell the world pertinent facts like, say, Baltimore has been run by Democrats for a half-century, Hillary Clinton is in favor of legally aborting infants born alive, Ted Kennedy abandoned a drowning woman, and George Zimmerman is Hispanic.
Anyone who knows anything about history understands that tactically and morally, Geller’s provocative Muhammad Cartoon Contest was no different than Dr. Martin Luther King’s landmark march from Selma to Montgomery.
The first thing the spittle-flecked will scream upon reading the above is that I am comparing Geller to King. I did not know King. I do not know Geller. I am not comparing anyone to anyone. What I’m comparing is one righteous cause to another.
The second thing the spittle-flecked will scream is that King never would have held a Draw Muhammad Cartoon Contest … which brings me to the first reason there is no moral or tactical difference between Garland and Selma:
The Oppressor Chooses the Form of Protest, Not the Protester
Whether it is a bully stealing lunch money, an abusive husband “keeping the little woman in line,” a government passing unjust laws, or religious zealots demanding fealty from all, oppressors come in all shapes and sizes.
Oppressors do, however, share three important things in common: 1) The use of the threats of everything from shaming to instituting unjust laws to violence. 2) The goal of stripping others of their rights. 3) The choosing of the design and structure of whatever defiant protest might take place against them.
The protester has absolutely no say in this matter.
The only way to defy and protest against the bully who takes your lunch money, is to not give him your lunch money. Through his own actions the bully has designed the form of protest. The same is true for the abusive husband. If he is using the threat of violence to keep you “in line,” a defiant protest can only come in one form: doing the exact opposite of what he tells you to do or not to do.
If an unjust government passes a law making it illegal to sit in the front of the bus, the only way to protest the unjust government is to sit in the front of the bus.
Martin Luther King did not choose his form of protest in Selma. Racist Southern Democrats did.
Pamela Geller did not choose her form of protest in Garland. The jihadists did.
The day that changed America is called “Bloody Sunday.” On March 7, 1965, five-hundred-plus civil rights activists provoked violence from their oppressors by defiantly gathering on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.
It was the oppressor who chose this form of protest, not the protestors. Racist Democrats who ran Selma and the state of Alabama refused to authorize the march and pledged to stop it. Therefore the only righteous way to defy these racist Democrats who refused to allow Americans to exercise their God-given right to protest for their God-given rights, was to go ahead with the march.
What was true in Selma 50 years ago also was true in Garland 5 days ago.
It was the jihadists who told us they would oppress us with violence if we exercised our God-given rights to draw and satirize Muhammad. Therefore, to righteously defy this oppression, Pam Geller and the 200 others had no other choice but to draw and satirize Muhammad (more details on this below).
The Deliberatively Provocative Symbolism of the Site of the Protest
The launch point of the historic 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery was no accident. To poke a finger deep in the eye of their racist Democrat oppressors, civil rights organizers deliberately chose the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The bridge is named after a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, a confederate Civil War general, and a Democrat U.S. Senator.
Starting their civil rights crusade in such a place was an intentional taunt, an open insult to a diseased culture, and an obvious act of cultural blasphemy.
For the same righteous reasons, Geller chose the site of The Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas, to hold her defiant cartoon protest. Just two weeks after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in France, a Stand with the Prophet in Honor and Respect event was held at the Curtis Calwell Center. The Islamic event was a horror show of extremism.
An unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings was invited to the conference — a barbarian who has declared the F.B.I. a terrorist group and preaches, “This so-called democracy of America, will crumble and there will be nothing. The only thing that will remain will be Islam.”
The organizer of the event, Malik Muhammad, has advocated for Sharia Law here in America.
The entire event was premised on “defeating” those who disrespect Muhammad. This was all couched under the politically correct term of “Islamophobia,” but here is the rub:
“Frustrated with Islamophobes defaming the Prophet?” the event materials ask. … “Remember the Danish cartoons defaming the Prophet? Or the anti-Islam film, ‘Innocence of Muslims’?”
Like I said: it is the oppressor who chooses the form of protest.
A Righteous Cause for Civil Rights
In the face of a very real danger, Martin Luther King, his fellow organizers and hundreds of free Americans, stood up and defied their savage oppressors in defense of their God-given rights.
They provoked violence, taunted, and broke the law, all in furtherance of a righteous cause.
In the face of a very real danger, Pam Geller, her fellow organizers and hundreds of free Americans, stood up and defied their violent oppressors in defense of their God-given rights.
They provoked violence, taunted, and obeyed the law, all in furtherance of a righteous cause.
I Come In Peace
The Selma protesters defying their violent oppressors, did so peacefully. Their only provocation was exercising their rights.
The Garland protestors defying their violent oppressors, did so peacefully. Their only provocation was exercising their rights.
Democrat Bigots Victim-Blame
While much of the national media sided with the Selma protestors, local Democrats in the media and the political establishment blamed and demonized King, and his followers, for rocking the boat, provoking violence, insulting the local culture, and causing the violence to happen.
Last week, Democrats in the media (New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, and even some sorry corners of Fox News) and the political establishment blamed and demonized Geller, and her followers, for rocking the boat, provoking violence, insulting a culture, and causing the violence to happen.
The 1965 Democrats and today’s Democrats are also bigots. The same CNN that protects Islam from offense by blurring the Muhammad cartoons, does not blur the Piss Christ.
The same New York Times that blasts those who offend Islam, profits from Mormon bashing.
Every one of these present-day media Democrats are silent in the defense of satire and mockery directed Christianity, or they enjoy and defend it. The opposite is true of satire and mockery directed at Islam. And that is the very definition of bigotry.
For the Righteous Cause of Freedom, People Risk Their Lives
In 1965, defying racist Democrats posed a legitimate threat to your life.
In 2015, defying jihadists poses a legitimate threat to your life.
Martin Luther King knowingly risked his life. Pamela Geller knowingly risks her life.
—
In both good and evil ways, Sunday in Garland, Texas, history repeated itself.
The national media is hiding that fact because they are either too bigoted, cowardly, and biased to tell the truth, or too ignorant to see the truth.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNCNieR: Automata Director Talks Design Philosophies, Storytelling, Poop, & Butts
By Joel Couture. March 21, 2017. 2:00pm
NieR: Automata is the next game in a long line of intriguing, unique titles from director Yoko Taro. Exploring death and violence in games, unique storytelling techniques, and giving players the ability to find meaning in their interactions with the world he’s created, Taro’s work continues to promote thought and introspection in his latest title.
Siliconera spoke with the humble developer at PAX East, looking to learn more about his thoughts in creating games, and how they shaped NieR: Automata.
You’ve said of NieR: Automata that “It’s all poop.”, but your fans are all obsessed with 2B’s butt. Does this mean that your fans’ passion is everywhere in your game, since poop comes from a butt?
Yoko Taro, Director of NieR: Automata – (laughs) There’s one thing that I would like to fix or edit. Basically, when I said that the game was poop, I essentially meant that the scenario I created and wrote was poop, in essence, but the entire game developer by Platinum Games is an excellent title. So, we don’t want anyone to misunderstand that.
With regards to the whole butt incident, I didn’t think that that aspect would necessarily be one of the focal points that everyone would be drawn to, but it is great to know that something we’ve put a lot of hard work into has been creating a lot of buzz amongst our fans.
With that said, there’s different kinds of approaches or directions and aspects to a game in general. We may have something like the ‘poop’ scenario that we were just discussing, |
met Will for the first and only time this October (two plus months after the post above). Cancer survivor and former two-time USA marathon champ Ken Martin was in the Dallas area doing some work for the charity he started WorkOut Cancer, which provides financial support to researchers studying how/whether exercise can improve cancer treatments and outcomes, reduce side effects of treatments, and reduce recurrence.
Believe it or not, twenty years ago in high school, Will had tried to get Ken to coach him via fax – yes, fax. They reconnected because of Will’s battle with cancer and his thread on LetsRun.com.
Ken is also in the process of training to try and break the 50+ world record in the mile (at age 54 nonetheless) to raise awareness for WorkOut Cancer. Since September, Ken has been posting his training in the popular 50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum thread. The plan was for Ken to meet up with Will while in the Dallas area. Ken also wanted to reconnect with this long-time friend Aaron Ramirez, the 1986 NCAA Cross-Country champion, who lives in South Texas. Will invited me to join them hoping to generate some publicity for Ken’s charity. Watching Ken work out was thrown into the mix, and I headed over to meet all three of them.
*****
“Do whatever you want (in terms of exercise), we’re just going to give you drugs.”
– Will talking in October talking about the advice he was given by his cancer doctors about exercise.
*****
I think it is fair to say Will was frustrated with his own cancer treatment as he was left searching for many answers himself. A super-fit man by the standards of normal society, yet he was treated by the cancer doctors like a sedentary couch potato? Does that make any sense?
Should he exercise? Or would it just make him weaker for chemo? Could he withstand more chemo because of his fitness heading into his fight with cancer? Not a lot was known.
It does not take a scientific degree to understand that running helped Will in his battle with cancer. The goal setting, the routine, pushing your body to do what seems out of reach. Will had done this all his life, for he was a runner. Running was not something he did, it was part of who he was. Just from reading his posts, one sees that continuing to be a runner, even when he could barely walk, helped Will in his cancer fight, at the very least helped him keep up the fight.
Will did his own research and learned of Ken’s charity and felt exercise could do more than just inspire people in the cancer fight. It could possible help fight cancer or at least prolong the fight.
“There are studies that indicate that exercise literally helps prevent cancer growth and I don’t think a lot of people realize that … Getting people to realize (exercise) is not just going to help you feel better it is going to help you fight cancer. That is revolutionary in my mind,” Will said in October.
Will and Ken both had been left to search on their own for what they could and should do in terms of exercise while battling cancer. Self-coaching as an athlete isn’t the easiest thing to do. Now throw on top of it chemotherapy and in Will’s case a day-long surgery in 2011 that removed 268 tumors.
“There is a little bit of information out there but it is hard to pull it all together and make sense of it while you’re going through therapy and your brain is fried,” Will said.
Exercise at the very least can limit muscle wasting while undergoing chemo and can limit some of the damage to the heart from the chemo drugs. That much appears to be known. Will and Ken both believe it can do a lot more. But a lot is unknown. Ken noted that exercise science has progressed a lot in the last few decades, but exercise science as how it relates to cancer treatment is still in its infancy.
“Can you use exercise to improvement the treatment and will more people have better survival? That hasn’t really been investigated,” said Ken Martin.
*****
“I did a mile on Wednesday in just over 26 minutes. For me, that’s pretty good. I really thought it was going to take me about 40 minutes. Plus, that day, I was not taking pain meds, so, I was short stepping and achy. Not the best conditions for a ‘stroll.’ I could tell my heart rate was pretty elevated (maybe 150-160bpm) at that pace, but, I figure, if nothing else, it could help stimulate some blood cell production. Positive stress on the system. Hopefully, if I keep at it I can get a little better before things slip again … I really want to start doing at least a mile a day if I can help it. let’s say 30 minutes a day, bare minimum, 7 days a week. That’d give me a good 3.5-4 hours of aerobic activity. Add on top of that some weight lifting and stretching and I think I’ll see positive benefits in a few weeks. At least, that’s my hope.”
– The cancer guy writing on November 16th.
*****
Will Steele was a runner.
He may have posted on July 31st about no longer being a runner, but he was a runner until the very end. Even if his final post about his own training on November 22nd was about walking, he was a runner. On LetsRun.com, I don’t think there is a better compliment you could give someone.
In high school, Will started out as a 19 minutes for 2 miles guy. Thanks to two 1,000 mile summers (that’s more than 10 miles a day as a high schooler), he ended up as a 16 minute for 3 miles guy. His coach in high school was Pete Boudreaux, who would become the 2010 USATF Gill Athletics Coach of the Year. Pete’s expertise did not stop Will from searching for more answers and inquiring about Ken Martin coaching him via fax.
In college, Will then ran at Christian Brothers University an NAIA school in Tennessee. After college, Will was a 15 minute 5ker and 33 minute for 10k guy. I don’t know Will’s exact PRs because he didn’t tell me them. At one point, Will defined himself by how fast he ran in a circle, even to the point where he lied about his PRs. Now facing what proved to be terminal cancer, Will could take pride in 26 minute miles, and the rest of us were inspired.
Just as a life is not judged by how many years it lasts, Will reminded us a runner is ultimately not defined by their PRs.
*****
“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do drugs. I run …
What in the world are you talking about?”
–Will recounting what he was thinking when told he was diagnosed with cancer
*****
Cancer does not discriminate. The couch potato, the 33 minute 10k guy, the two-time USA Marathon champion, the seven time Tour de France champion, the founder of Apple Computer, are all victims.
Exercise, organic food, “being healthy” – these are not guarantees that keep cancer from striking.
Will believed his cancer was caused from a battery recycling plant near his house, but was well beyond the being pissed off stage when I met with him. Not to say anger didn’t occasionally creep into his posts, but I witnessed a man who knew what was most important to him, starting with his wife Kerri and children Paige, Emma and Liam, but extending to other areas of his life.
I asked him why there wasn’t more anger and outrage, and Will made it clear that anger and outrage wouldn’t improve what little time he had left.
The reality is we are all facing certain death. For the fortunate ones among us, that death is further down the road, but talk to someone facing an early death, or their loved ones, and you get a real different perspective quickly.
*****
“Does that make God any less holy? If I am to be honest, no, it doesn’t. It was my mistake for assuming something that isn’t necessarily true … but, rather, something I would like to believe. Who wants to think I’ll get incurable cancer at 33 and never see my kids grow up. As someone who tries to see God as a benevolent being, presuming things like that is not near the top of the list. But, when realities like that arise, it doesn’t necessarily invalidate claims like, ‘God is good.’ As I see it, the truth is so infinitely more complex than that, we as people, fail to grasp the numbers of ways things can go wrong and theological answers still hold true. Does it mean I all happy about it? No, I am a bitter, pissed off dude. But, is it reason to abandon my faith? Again, if I am honest, no.”
and
“God taps us on the shoulder all the time and we are often to(o) busy to even notice. Imagine if we heard all the little ‘shoulder’ taps. There is something awesome about living a fully spiritual life to which no action movie could compare. When everything you do was sparked by some improbably, unlikely, or, impossible event and suddenly, you wake up one day, realizing, you have been alive a year and a half longer than the doctors told you would, and (you) are in touch with people from every corner of the earth sharing this story people couldn’t even dream up if they tried. Yeah, I could reject God (I have at times only to come back) at all this, but, life is just so much more awesome with him in it than without him.”
–Will Steele writing on LetsRun.com about his faith.
*****
Will Steele was a believer in God and he wrote honestly about his faith on LetsRun.com.
Incurable cancer in his mid thirties did not diminish Will’s faith. It made him question what it means to believe and what his relationship with God was, but not to abandon his faith.
The honesty, the openness, the grace that Will dealt with his cancer on LetsRun.com was amplified when he discussed his faith.
Facing death, Will saw the beauty in life. Life was a gift from God that should not be wasted.
*****
“I’m given today, I’m going to do what I can with it and see what happens. I’ve accepted that I’ve got something and it’s probably going to get me in the end, but it doesn’t have me today. I’m going to keep going and see how far I can get.”
and
“As a runner you’re in the middle of the race and you are like, ‘I am so freaking tired. My legs are burning’ and you have to choose, ‘ok pull it together, focus, get it together, let’s go.’ And I think the same type of attitude is required to deal with cancer.”
and
“One of the hard choices is, you have the ability every day to choose ‘Am I going to live today?’ Or I am going to let cancer determine the way my life is going.”
– Will Steele talking about cancer in October.
*****
Why do we run? Why do we live?
The first question has been grappled with since the founding of this site and many times (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) afterwards. The second since the beginning of humanity.
Will’s posts taught us or reminded us how to live.
In the quotes above, Will is talking about his life and his battle with cancer, but notice the running metaphor. It was through Will’s own running and battle with cancer that he showed us how to live.
Running as a metaphor for life is not a new concept, but Will in his struggle and grace made it less of a metaphor and more reality. It was through running, or his attempt to run, that Will showed complete strangers that he was still alive and what it means to live.
As Oprah Winfrey once said, “Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it.”
All of us as runners understand on some level the running as a metaphor for life concept, but we do not fully embrace it. Will was consciously aware he was living it.
“Am I going to live today?”
“Or I am going to let ____ (cancer in Will’s case) determine the way my life is going.”
That was Will’s decision each day. Ultimately he couldn’t determine how long he lived on this earth, but he could determine each day if he was going to truly live.
*****
“It doesn’t sound like much but going from where I could literally
barely walk to running 16 minute miles, I was happy with that …”
“I’m going to take running not as a competitive athlete as I used to
be, but I’ve been blessed to have a little bit of life left …”
“Running is for me becoming a distant memory. I still love it. I
still check letsrun every day. I follow the news. It’s in my blood …”
–Will Steele talking in October.
*****
When I met Will in October, I was also talking to a LetsRunner who was hit by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan and survived the attack. For the longest time, I have wanted to have a Blue Collar Runner of the Month on LetsRun.com and the guy hit by the suicide bomber seemed to be the perfect candidate for the first Blue Collar Runner of the Month.
With Will’s death, I thought of making him the first Blue Collar Runner of the Month. To do so, however, would seemingly trivialize life and death and more importantly Will’s life and his impact on LetsRun.com.
Will was not just a blue collar runner. He was a runner. He represents what running is all about. So Will Steele is my Runner of the Year for 2012. Message board poster “joho” summed up Will best:
“Dude, You will always be a runner. You absolutely epitomize what being a runner is all about.
Don’t quit because it hurts.
Never give up.
One day at a time.
You are truly inspiring those of us following you and your battle.”
*****
An endowment has been set up in Will’s name at Christian Brothers University. The William Steele scholarship is being set up there to honor Will and to benefit (freshman) runners at CBU who have shown courage, determination and strong moral character throughout their life. You can contact Stephen Kirkpatrick: Director of Development @ CBU – [email protected] or 1-800-283-2925 for details on how to contribute to the scholarship.
Alternatively, if you are short on charity funds but would like to help contribute to the Will Steele fund, LetsRun.com in conjunction with partner Road Runner Sports is donating 15% of all purchases from Road Runner Sports originating from LetsRun.com now through the end of February to the Will Steele fund. LetsRun is making zero from these sales and donating 100% of its commission. Click here if you’d like to shop and contribute that way.
15% of All Purchases from Road Runner Sports via LetsRun.com Going to Will Steele Fund From Now Through End of February
More info: “Here’s to breaking 20 for 5k (à la EddyLee).” This is the thread where Will started posting his journey and is a highly recommended read.
*50+ Masters Training and Racing Open Forum thread (Where Ken Martin is chronicling his training to break the 50+ world record in the mile. Wejo will have more on this in January)
*WorkOut Cancer 501c charity started by Ken Martin to help use exercise to help improve cancer survival.
Weldon Johnson can be reached at [email protected]
Will and Ken and Aaron in their own words –When talking about smartphones and smartphone operating systems, there’s a pretty big chance that someone is going to at least mention Google. While there are other solutions out there, Google’s Android OS holds the majority of consumer shares. This due to the fact that while other developers are more or less bound to one platform or smartphone brand, Google distributes Android to mobile devices all over the world from all kinds of brands.
The latest edition of Google’s firmware is called Android Nougat and fans have been sizzling with anticipation every since they got their hands on the first Developer Preview. When it was first announced, Google’s Android Nougat was only made available to the Google Pixel, the company’s new flagship line of devices, but with a number of devices being put on the shortlist to receive the update. Once the update goes public, users will be able to get Android 7.1.1 Nougat on their Android handsets, and the first in line to receive it are the Pixel C, Nexus 5X, 6P and Nexus 9.
What can be expected?
Android 7.1.1 Nougat is on its way, but there’s a large number of consumers that don’t really know what it will bring to the table. Let’s go over the features that Android users can expect in the latest build of the operating system.
The new update will allow Google phones to be restarted from the shutdown menu. This is a nice addition which will replace the traditional way of restarting a device, which consisted of turning off the handset completely followed by a reboot. To access the restart feature, users just have to long press the Power button on their device.
Similar to how Apple’s iPhone has 3D Touch, Google is implementing App Shortcuts which enable us to drag shortcuts from different apps directly on the Home screen. Hard pressing the Settings app for example will let you drag the setting for WiFi directly to the Home screen. This a nifty feature to have that makes the whole experience much more versatile.
The Quick Toggles bar has been revamped with a new row of option for prime elements such as brightness or WiFi added to the main notification panel so that there is no more requirement for extra swiping or tapping to get to the quick toggles.
Those using Facebook messenger might already be familiar with the GIF feature which lets you add GIFs to your conversations instantly. A similar feature will be available in Android 7.1.1 Nougat, enhancing the messaging experience with the ability to bring up an unexpected comedic twist.
Taking a page out of Apple’s politically correct book, Google will offer several emoji skin tones so that no one will be offended during your chats. This will provide more variation and also a response to consumers complaining about one emoji or another being of just one skin tone.
On top of the new features, Android users can also expect a lot of bugs and issues to disappear, as maintenance hasn’t been neglected during development, showing that Google is focused not only on building, but also on bolstering what has been already built.
When is it coming?
The Android build is slated for a December release, more specifically on the 6th of the month. When it comes to size, the new build has 650 MB and will be downloadable over the air, so users are advised to make sure they have a strong and stable connection before initiating the software download.
If you find yourself unable to wait until the official release of Android’s latest build, you can sign up for Google’s Android Beta Program which will allow you to test the firmware ahead of time. Getting into this program will require a few simple steps but it is far from difficult. If you are interested in the Beta program you must, first of all, own one of the devices eligible to receive the new Android 7.1.1 Nougat update. If your device is on the list, you can proceed by registering to the Beta program provided by Google on their official website.
Conclusion
That’s all that you have to do. Next up, your phone will receive the update and the ability to download it through a WiFi connection, or OTA (over-the-air). If that’s not an option, you can also download the new Android update and install it manually.OTTAWA - The Ottawa Senators ( @Senators ) announced today that the club has signed forward Parker Kelly to a three-year entry-level contract.
Kelly, 18, was invited to the Senators annual development camp this summer before agreeing to an amateur tryout to attend both the rookie camp and the team's main training camp. Undrafted, the 5-11, 172-pound native of Camrose, Alta., has spent the last two seasons with the Western Hockey League's Prince Albert Raiders.
In 2016-17, Kelly established new major junior career highs in all major statistical categories, including goals (21), assists (22), points (43) and penalty minutes (75), while appearing in each of the team's 72 games.
Visit the Senators website: www.ottawasenators.com
Engage with the Senators on Twitter: @Senators
Like the Senators on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ottawasenators
Follow the Senators on Instagram: senators
- end -Yonhap News via Nate1. [+340, -10] Can they just admit they did it because the plagiarism was too obvious ㅋㅋㅋ2. [+310, -8] Wow, only now that it's time for comeback do they bother changing it ㅋㅋㅋㅋ acted like they were deaf and blind when the controversy was actually brewing ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ3. [+282, -8] Basically another method of brushing it under the rug before Coldplay comes after them with a legal suit4. [+39, -0] This is basically admitting to plagiarism... why do they need to explain themselves as if there's something more complex going on5. [+30, -3] So they're saying they had to register Coldplay because they didn't want to take it to court? They keep talking as if they didn't plagiarize but they don't want a legal battle over it... well, if they're so sure they didn't plagiarize, why not take it to a legal battle? What is this pathetic stance? And anyone can tell that the chorus is exactly the same6. [+28, -1] Isn't their nickname self-produced-dol? Their whole schtick is that they produce everything from their songs to their choreography? Well looks like they're plagiarized...7. [+26, -1] So ridiculous. I remember when people first brought up these suspicions, fans shielded them to all hell ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ but look at how the agency basically admits to it, all the while beating around the bush... Can Koreans please stop plagiarizing already? It's so embarrassing8. [+26, -2] The songs aren't even similar, they're exactly the same ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ9. [+17, -0] I immediately thought of Coldplay when I first heard this song ㅋㅋㅋ but their stupid fangirls kept saying it was sampling or whatever ㅋㅋ it was only the stupid fangirls who were deaf to the whole thing, the public could already tell that the song was plagiarized10. [+15, -1] They're basically plagiarism-dols now. I knew there was a reason the song was so good to listen to, it was too familiar to a song I already likedWhat is the FWL?
It is basically like fantasy football, but for the WWE. All you have to do is pick a team of WWE Superstars who you think will do well over the next few months. The better they do (more wins), the more points you get. At the end of the time period whoever has the most points, wins a cash prize. Best of all, its FREE to play!
Please note: Talk Whatever Online and the FWL are not associated, affiliated or otherwise endorsed by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). To visit WWE.com, click here
Season #44 has now begun – no new entries being accepted
Season #44 start date: Monday 11th February 2019
(Beginning with WWE Raw)
Season #44 finish date: Sunday 7th April 2019
(Ending with WWE WrestleMania 35)
SEASON #43
Click here for our previous season’s Leaderboard
Click here for our previous season’s Superstars Leaderboard
SUMMARY
This season your team must consist of 7 Superstars!
You could win up to £250.00 (approx $325), see below for more details
2nd and 3rd position prizes added
The weekly NXT shows are NOT included however NXT TakeOver will be part of the game
PICK CHANGES
You will have THREE opportunities to change THREE picks and/or your Captain, click here for more info
TEAM SELECTION
You will be able to select a team of 7 WWE Superstars and your budget is set at $4,000,000. You will also need to choose a Team Captain, select carefully as this captain will receive double points!
FWL Rules
Make sure you also read the: Competition Rules page
* You must be a registered member of the Talk Whatever Online Forums (it’s free to register).
* You must be a resident of the UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, New Zealand or Australia. (This is so that I can send you the prize if you opt for the gift voucher option, I would need to use an English language website to order the prize) If your not interested in the prize (or have a valid Paypal account), you can enter from any country.
* You must be over the age of 16.
* Your entries must be received in the times specified.
* You must pick a team with the set amount of Superstars and within the set budget.
* You cannot change your superstars after the deadline for entries has passed, however you will be able to change 3 superstars from your team during the FWL period (within specific dates, keep an eye on the FWL forum!).
The Prize
The winner of each season of our WWE Fantasy Wrestling League will win £50 (approx $70) PLUS the opportunity to boost their prize.
We’ll also be offering a 2nd place prize of £25 (approx $35) and a third place prize of £15 (approx $20).
The prize will be sent via Paypal to the winner, or if you prefer we can try to arrange a gift voucher of equal value for an online store: Amazon.com/.co.uk etc
First Place: Boost Your Prize
If you win the season (coming first place) you could increase your prize if you join in with discussions on our forum, if you do not contribute to the forum you are still eligible for a £50 prize. However if you are a regular contributor to the forum and win the season…the better your prize could be.
The winner of the season will win:
£50.00: 0 posts
£75.00: 1-250 posts
£100.00: 251-500 posts*
£125.00: 501-750 posts*
£150.00: 751-1000 posts*
£175.00: 1001-1250 posts*
£200.00: 1251-1500 posts*
£250.00: 1501+ posts*
Posts can be the Entertainment, Wrestling, Video Games, Sports, Boxing & MMA or General Chat forums
* You must have made 25 posts within the season. The post count will be taken at the end of the final day of the season. Posts will be checked so please do not spam as they will not count! Talk Whatever Online’s decision will be final.
In the event of a tie the prize will be split by split by the number of winners against their own prize banding. So for example if we had a first place tie, MemberA (0 posts) and MemberB (501 posts) are both joint winners; Member A will receive £25 (£50/2) and MemberB will receive £62.50 (£125/2) as long as Member B has made 25 posts during the season. If not, then they would get £37.50 (£75/2).
The 2nd and 3rd place prizes will be shared equally with the number of players, so if we have 2 players coming 2nd, they’d have £12.50 each (£25/2).
Member of another forum/website? Create your own user group!
Would you like to create a User Group with your own Leaderboard? Click here for more information.
WARNING!
You can only register one account! Any members caught using the same IP or using proxy servers to try and get around the rules will have all their accounts deleted. Any issues/concerns please contact Kam.
The Points
* The shows included are WWE Raw, Smackdown, 205 Live, Main Event and any PPV’s. (Weekly NXT shows are NOT included!)
* Points are earned for title wins, TV appearances and wins.
The Show Points PPV Main Event Win +50 PPV Main Event Match Appearance (run-ins do not count) +45 PPV Win +25 PPV Loss -10 PPV Match Appearance +35 PPV Appearance +20 Successful Title Defence on PPV (Any title) +30 Successful Title Defence on Raw, Main Event or Smackdown (Any title) +20 Raw / Smackdown / Main Event / 205 Live Win +10 Raw / Smackdown / Main Event / 205 Live Loss -5 Raw / Smackdown / Main Event / 205 Live Match Appearance +20 Raw / Smackdown / Main Event / 205 Live Appearance +10
Bonus points are given for title wins:
+75
Title Points WWE Universal Championship / WWE Championship +150 WWE Raw/Smackdown Womens title +125 WWE Intercontinental / US Title +100 WWE Raw/Smackdown Tag-Team Title +75 WWE Cruiserweight title +50
NXT TakeOver points will be scored as a WWE PPV, with the title bonuses the SAME as their respective titles on the main brand shows
The Win bonus would be added to the appearance score so for example a win on Raw / Smackdown / Main Event / 205 Live would earn 30pts (20pts for match appearance and 10pts for win). A win at a PPV would earn 60pts. A loss on Raw / Smackdown / Main Event / 205 Live would earn 15pts (20pts for match appearance, -5 for loss). A win in a PPV main event would earn 95pts. You would add the bonus points of winning any title on top of these points.
The “Main Event” points will be awarded to the final match of the evening, unless otherwise stated i.e. “double main event”.
The appearances can be anything ( interview, appearing at ringside, interfering in a match, standing in the background etc) but only 1 appearance per show can count. Trailers, clips of previous shows (this includes press events, tours etc) or vignettes for current superstars are NOT included.
Talk Whatever Online’s decision will be final.
Each week all the members that have entered – will be put into a leaderboard – the member with the most points by the end of the period gets the prize.
*The FWL is based on REAL results from Raw, Smackdown, Main Event, 205 Live and PPV’s!
HOW TO ENTER?
1) Register on the Talk Whatever Online Forums if you are not a member already.
2) Login to the Talk Whatever Online Forums (you must be logged in there before you can try and login to the FWL user control panel).
3) Go to the FWL User Control Panel, and login using the same username and password you use for the TWO Forums.
4) Click the “Picks” link, and make your selection. If you go over the specified budget or pick less than the required amount of Superstars it will NOT accept them.
5) Are you a member (or part of) of any of the user groups listed? Just select the name from the drop down menu under the ‘Your User Groups’ heading. You can only join ONE group! By default all players will appear in the Talk Whatever Online usergroup. (Let me know if you want a user group created for your forum or website)
6) Once you have selected your wrestlers and joined any user groups – you can check on the FWL picks page that your entries are ok. You will be able to change your wrestlers at anytime BEFORE the FWL game starts, you just go back to the above steps and alter your picks. Once the FWL period begins you will have to stick to the wrestlers you have selected, although you will be given the opportunity to change one wrestler sometime during the FWL (most likely half-way through the period). But you will still be able to login to the FWL user control panel to see how many points your wrestlers have got each week, as well as all the other wrestlers points.
7) Please check to see you do have an ACTIVATED forum account – as if you do not, your FWL entry WILL be deleted. You should have received an email when you registered and clicked an activation link within it) – email Kam if your having problems. If you are able to post on the forums then you have nothing to worry about.
8) Set your notifications for the FWL forum, details here.
9) Join the Talk Whatever Online fan page on Facebook to receive FWL updates (these will also be posted in our FWL forum).
10) Please share the game! Whether it’s through social media or word of mouth please share this page to allow others to join in too.
Like the Fantasy Wrestling League? Why not join in with our WWE Prediction League
All updates and news will be posted in the FWL forum. It is your responsibility to check the forum weekly to ensure you are up to date!
Having any problems? Just post your questions in the FWL ForumSignup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
In an apparent bid to back up the reasoning behind a petition to boycott Target over its trans-inclusive bathroom policy, right-wing website Breitbart has shown that trans people absolutely aren’t the problem when it comes to bathroom assaults.
The retail giant on Tuesday said customers at its stores may use the bathroom which is appropriate to their gender identity, not the sex stated on their birth certificate, as dictated by such laws.
Amid a campaign to boycott the retail giant over its new policy allowing trans people to use a gender-appropriate bathroom, Breitbart published the list of the ‘Top Twenty Sexual Crimes Committed at Target Stores’.
Despite attempting to back up the reasoning behind the campaign to boycott Target which is backed by the American Family Association (AFA), and a petition for which has reached over 800,000 signatures, the Breitbart list actually proved something most people are already aware of – that transgender people were not involved in any of the ‘top 20 sexual crimes committed at Target stores’.
It is also unclear how they ranked the serious crimes of sexual assaults against each other.
As reported by Slate, the claims made by those opposed to policies and laws to allow trans people to use gender-appropriate bathrooms, that they increase the risk of sexual assault, are a myth.
Not to mention that it was already illegal for anyone to sexually assault someone, and if a man wanted to go into a women’s bathroom to sexually assault someone, he probably wouldn’t take note of the law in doing so.
But as pointed out by this ‘redneck’ comedian, Target probably doesn’t care about the 800,000 people who have signed a petition to say they will boycott the brand.
Trae Crowder, in a brilliant video, put down the “bullshit bigotry” of those signing up to a campaign to boycott a company for making a move to be more tolerant.
A fake Facebook post is however, going viral, attempting to scare people into joining the anti-trans boycott of Target by claiming that it is installing urinals in women’s bathrooms.Inches separated the GYG Latin Heat rugby league side from prize money at last weekend’s Mitchelton Nines tournament in Brisbane, with newcomer Fernando Villegas almost scoring a wonder try.
Date: 25/9/13
Inches separated the GYG Latin Heat rugby league side from prize money at last weekend’s Mitchelton Nines tournament in Brisbane, with newcomer Fernando Villegas almost scoring a wonder try.
Having never played rugby league before the weekend, Colombian winger Villegas (a resident of Annerley) dived full stretch for a rolling ball on fulltime as the Heat debutants trailed hosts Wests Mitchelton 18-14.
Unfortunately the ball narrowly beat Villegas dead-in-goal, the second time in the space of minutes, denying the Latin American team a place in the Cup final and the chance of a cash bonus.
While rugby league’s newest international side went through qualifying without a win, the Heat’s spirited finish won admirers among seasoned supporters.
“I had plenty of people comment after the game how impressed they were with the courage and skills shown by the Latino guys,” Heat coach Rob Burgin said.
“We had numerous men playing for the first time in their lives or first time in years and, over the course of four games, you could see rapid improvement from them.
“Just as importantly, the players derived great enjoyment from the tournament and I feel our spectators added significant atmosphere to the day.
“We had approaches over the day from other international sides interested in playing us and players interested in joining us, so that’s a success in my books.”
Dayboro ended the nines tournament as eventual champions after accounting for Aspley 28-20 in the Trophy final, the Cowboys and Devils taking home $2500 between them.
Latin Heat sponsors Rumba Latina also generously chipped in, giving players from both sides a $50 voucher for their efforts.
In the Cup final it was an all-Panther affair with Mitchelton Twos springing an upset against Mitchelton Ones for the consolation prize.
Earlier in the day the Latin Heat debuted with a 30-16 loss to Mitchelton Twos, after trailing just 16-12 at halftime.
Hooker Josh Gadea-Hellyer, a Uruguayan who drove 1000km from Sydney to honour his heritage, deservedly became the first Latino player to score a try in Heat colours.
Subsequent losses to University of Queensland (36-10) and Aspley (30-6) looked comprehensive on paper, but both were willing contests until the final minutes.
In the 24 hours leading into the tournament, the Heat suffered the late withdrawal of its three professional players – Kevin McKenzie, Ben Vengoa and Brenden Vengoa – through a combination of sickness and family commitments.
This, combined with the withdrawal of five other squad members in the final week, meant it was a feat alone for the Heat to take the park.
“Absolute respect to the guys we called in at the last minute and those who travelled from far and wide,” said coach Burgin.
“When we woke on game day to news of the guys pulling out, it was a pretty sombre mood and there were some hasty phone calls.
“In the end we had some Australian friends who jumped in and filled a few spots and perhaps that worked for the best, because we’re all about integration and mutual appreciation of Latino and Aussie culture.
“I must say that the guys that filled in for us seemed to have a ball too.”
The GYG Latin Heat will next Monday stage a public recruitment day in Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall, with interested players encouraged to email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit: www.facebook.com/SouthAmericanRugbyLeague.
Beyond |
domed stadium in 2020, but they could toil in a temporary Las Vegas home as early as 2019. The entire plan doesn't sit well with the 81-year-old Madden.
"I'm not sure they have that whole deal together yet. I'm not sure that they even know exactly what the stadium is, how many, where it's going to be and all those things," Madden said. "For some reason, they jumped into that thing quickly."
Madden also called out mixed messages from a league that green-lit a move to Las Vegas, but also fined a collection of players who appeared at an arm-wresting tournament last weekend at one of the city's casinos.
"I would hate to be a coach to take a team in there. I would hate to have my team in Las Vegas on Saturday night before the game... every team has a bottom 10 (group of misbehaving players)," Madden said, adding: "I think there's going to be a lot of problems like that. I'd stay in Mohave (Arizona) or something."
That won't be Madden's problem to deal with, but 31 other coaches will face that exact challenge when the Raiders shift to Sin City.
It's a move that marks incredible changes for an NFL that has long shunned Las Vegas. For Madden, none of this makes much sense.
"There will be no more history of the Oakland Raiders, and that really bothers me," he said.
"Boom, it just goes away."SALT LAKE CITY — Life is a complicated and messy endeavor. Life Coach Kim Giles is here to help you with simple, principle-based solutions to the challenges you face. Coach Kim will empower you to get along with others and become the best you.
Question:
I loved your article on self-sacrifice and I’m trying to take care of myself, but my boyfriend doesn't want me to stand up for myself. When I do, he says I don't really want him in my life anymore. He thinks I’m a mean, selfish person if I get bothered with how I’m treated. Do you have any advice on how to actually transform this relationship?
Ask Coach Kim Do you have a question for Coach Kim, or maybe a topic you'd like her to address? Email her at kim@lifeadviceradio.com
Answer:
Your boyfriend is using guilt to manipulate you. So, I’d like to explain how you recognize manipulation and give you some ideas for getting out of or dealing with this person.
Here are some suggestions for dealing with this person:
1) If this is a friend or romantic interest, you might want to at least consider ending this relationship post haste. It is highly unlikely that this person is going to change, unless this person agrees to some serious professional help which most manipulators don’t think they need. It is best to deliver this news quickly and leave the premises so you cannot be manipulated and pulled back in. Sometimes it is best to break these relationships off by email or text to avoid further manipulation.
Common signs you might be in a manipulative relationship: Do you have self-esteem issues? Are you a kind person but also a little bit naïve? Manipulators are subconsciously drawn to people pleasers with low self-esteem because they are easily pushed around. Does this person use guilt to make you do things you don't want to do? Does it seem like every argument ends with you being at fault? Does this person trigger your emotions and then get mad at you for being emotional? Manipulators often figure out what character traits are important to you and then use them to push your buttons and control you. It sounds like your boyfriend knows you are afraid of being seen as selfish or mean, so he is using your desire to be a good person to manipulate you. Does this person do nice things for you and then make you feel obligated and/or guilty because of them? Do you have to keep some things secret and even occasionally lie to this person to protect yourself? Does this person get offended easily? Are you often walking on egg shells worried about doing or saying the wrong thing? Does this person discourage your friendships with other people? Does this person call you repeatedly to find out where you are or what you are doing? Often, manipulators are controlling. Does this person criticize your plans or goals and squash your dreams? Are they loving one day and cold the next? Do they often blame you for how they feel? Are you frustrated and sad more than you're happy in this relationship? Have you tried to break it off numerous times? If these questions are striking a cord, it’s safe to say you are in a manipulative relationship (also remember that manipulation can happen with a parent, a sibling or friend, too.)
2) If you decide to end this relationship, you are going to need a good support system to stand by you, and in some cases protect you from conversations with this person. You have the right to refuse to talk about it.
3) You must recognize that your low self-esteem is partly responsible for this situation. You may want to get some professional help from a counselor or coach to work on your self-image. You must learn to see yourself as bulletproof and refuse to let other people determine your value. You are a one-of-a-kind, amazing, irreplaceable being and nothing anyone says or does can diminish you.
4) If this person gets angry and tries to retaliate in any way, do not react or even respond. Let it go and move forward with your life. In some cases you may need a restraining order.
5) You are also going to need to grow a back bone and establish some boundaries. If this person is a parent or sibling, you can’t break up with them. So, you must have clearly defined boundaries and a strategy for enforcing them. Then you calmly repeat these boundaries over and over until they get it. You won’t be pushed around anymore.
6) You must stop caring what other people think of you, even your relatives. What they think is irrelevant and cannot affect, change or diminish you. They cannot hurt you without your permission.
Make it your official policy that it doesn’t matter what this person thinks of you.
Harriet Braiker wrote a book called “Who’s Pulling Your Strings?” In it she said, “If you are an approval addict, your behavior is as easy to control as that of any other junkie. All a manipulator need do is a simple two-step process: Give you what you crave, and then threaten to take it away. Every drug dealer in the world plays this game.”
You have got to quit playing this game with this person. You must figure out who you are and not let other people tell you different. When you let go of your need for approval and claim the power to determine your value and character, you will be free and invincible.
If this is proving difficult, I highly recommend some professional help.
Hope this helps.
About the Author: Kimberly Giles Kimberly Giles is the founder and president of ldslifecoaching.com and www.claritypointcoaching.com. She is a sought after life coach and popular speaker who specializes in overcoming fear. She offers a free webinar every Tuesday night with info on her website. Read her every Monday morning on ksl.com.
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Related StoriesTruth or Truthiness: Distinguishing Fact from Fiction by Learning to Think Like a Data Scientist is a new book by Howard Wainer that can serve as a manual for how to be a good skeptic.
Wainer is a statistician, formerly with the famous Educational Testing Service, and a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is well known for his work in statistics and data presentation.
You know what "truthiness" is. It is a term coined by Stephen Colbert in 2005 to refer to assertions that are clearly true because of how they look, feel, smell, but that are in fact, not true. But they are truthy. You get the point.
Wainer's book is an exploration of cases that demonstrate the difference between truth and truthiness, with an eye towards training oneself to tell the difference, and in some cases, develop arguments about the true and truthy. Does Fracking really cause earthquakes? Are school children in the US over tested? Is tenure what it is claimed to be? For these and other questions, one needs to have evidence, and to know how to evaluate that evidence.
This is a good book, and it is fun. You can read many of the various chapters independently to follow your own interests. To give you an idea of what is included, here is the table of contents:
Part I. Thinking Like a Data Scientist:
1. How the rule of 72 can provide guidance to advance your wealth, your career and your gas mileage
2. Piano virtuosos and the four-minute mile
3. Happiness and causal inference
4. Causal inference and death
5. Using experiments to answer four vexing questions
6. Causal inferences from observational studies: fracking, injection wells, earthquakes, and Oklahoma
7. Life follows art: gaming the missing data algorithm
Part II. Communicating Like a Data Scientist:
8. On the crucial role of empathy in the design of communications: genetic testing as an example
9. Improving data displays: the media’s, and ours
10. Inside-out plots
11. A century and a half of moral statistics: plotting evidence to affect social policy
12. Waiting for Achilles
13. How much is tenure worth?
14. Detecting cheating badly: if it could have been, it must have been
15. When nothing is not zero: a true saga of missing data, adequate yearly progress, and a Memphis charter school
16. Musing about changes in the SAT: is the college board getting rid of the bulldog?
17. For want of a nail: why worthless subscores may be seriously impeding the progress of western civilization.SEAHORSE KEY, Fla. -- The din created by thousands of nesting birds is usually the first thing you notice about Seahorse Key, a 150-acre mangrove-covered dune off Florida's Gulf Coast.
But in May, the key fell eerily quiet all at once.
Thousands of little blue herons, roseate spoonbills, snowy egrets, pelicans and other chattering birds were gone. Nests sat empty in trees; eggs broken and scattered on the muddy ground.
"It's a dead zone now," said Vic Doig, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist. "This is where the largest bird colony on the Gulf Coast of Florida used to be."
For decades, Seahorse Key has been a protected way station for myriad bird species. It's part of the Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge, which was established in 1929 as a sanctuary for birds devastated by decades of hunting for their colorful plumage. Accessible only by boat, today it's a rare island off Florida not dominated by human activity and development.
When the birds come to nest, so too do biologists and naturalists who study the different colonies. But this year, the birds' exit has the state's avian biologists scrambling for answers.
"It's not uncommon for birds to abandon nests," said Peter Frederick, a University of Florida wildlife biologist who has studied Florida's birds for nearly 30 years. "But, in this case, what's puzzling is that all of the species did it all at once."
Doig said some of the Seahorse birds seem to have moved to a nearby island, but they're just a fraction of the tens of thousands of birds that would normally be nesting on the key right now.
To find answers, service biologists have been acting on the few clues they have.
First, they tested left-behind bird carcasses for disease or contaminants. Those tests came back negative.
Next, they researched possible new predators. Did raccoons swim over from another island? Perhaps some great horned owls flew out at night and started feasting?
Traps caught a few raccoons, which is common, but not enough to have created a wholesale abandonment. There were no telltale signs of owls.
Finally, Doig said, recent years have seen an increase in night flights over the area by surveillance planes and helicopters used to combat drug runners. Although the planes' noise could be disruptive, Doig admits it's a longshot.
The abandonment concerns biologists because it could have a ripple effect: Many bird species here return year after year to the same nesting sites. The disruption provokes anxiety that this important island refuge could somehow be lost.
"Any rookery that's persisted for decades as one of the largest colonies is incredibly important," said Janell Brush, an avian researcher with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "It's quite a large colony. There had to be some intense event that would drive all these birds away."
Biologist also don't know how the disappearance will affect the island's other animals, some of which rely on the birds to survive. Cottonmouth snakes eat bird predators like rodents, and in turn the birds drop lots of fish and other nutrients from the trees to feed the snakes.
In the meantime, tour operators that once spent hours taking naturalists and bird watchers to the island are making other plans.
Mike O'Dell runs tours out of the little marina in nearby Cedar Key. He said on a Tuesday in May he led a group out to view thousands of birds crowding the shores of the key. On Wednesday, there was nothing.
"It's just that drastic," O'Dell said. "There were none. It's like a different world."Reading Time: 10 minutes
Starfinder, the intriguing new roleplaying game released at GenCon 50, is obviously born of Paizo’s experience with the enormously successful and ever-so awesome Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Some level of compatibility between the systems was always stated as a goal, with an emphasis on making sure monsters from Pathfinder could easily be brought into the science-fantasy themed Starfinder. At the same time, this is Paizo’s chance to break free from compatibility with D&D 3.5 which Pathfinder evolved from. Given Paizo’s opportunity to streamline and improve the system, let’s find out what some of the main differences are.
Interested in an overview of the the Starfinder Core Rulebook? I reviewed this awesome new game last week in Explore the Galaxy With the ‘Starfinder RPG,’ Sold Out at GenCon!
Okay, so what about the differences? The Paizo design team did an excellent job reducing the complexity of Pathfinder while keeping the best parts of the game, such as deep and engaging setting, and endless character creation options. In The Drift podcast they quoted Publisher Eric Mona of Paizo saying that if Pathfinder is a ten in complexity (and it wonderfully is!) that Starfinder is a six. I think this puts Starfinder somewhere between D&D 5e and Pathfinder/D&D 3.5. All have their merits, and their issues.
In short though, if you know how to play Pathfinder, you know how to play Starfinder. It’s a D20 system. It has strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma with the same modifiers. It has fortitude, reflex, and will saves. It has Skills (with some remapping), initiative, rounds for combat, and many more similarities. So, what are the big differences in the mechanics of the game? What will the experienced Pathfinder player be surprised by?
1. Point-buy Mechanic: The way players assign their character’s ability scores has changed. Ability scores, strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma, all start at 10. Then the player assigns any racial bonus. This raises some scores by two and may drop some scores by 2. Next the player chooses a theme that will also provide a bonus of +1 to one ability. At this point the player can add up to 10 points on a one-to-one basis to their ability scores. No score is allowed to be above 18, and no score should be below 8, and this just for racial reasons. The Core Rulebook states that you can, for roleplaying reasons, drop a score lower than 8, but reducing any score does not give you extra points to assign.
2. Ability Advancement: Instead of getting one point to assign to one ability score (strength, dexterity, etc.) every four levels like in Pathfinder, every five levels a player can upgrade four ability scores. If the current score is 16 or less, you get to add 2 points, and if the ability is 17 or more you can add one point. For instance, if a character had a strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, charisma stat array of 18, 14, 11, 10, 10, 10, and at 5th level decided to boost strength, dexterity, intelligence, and charisma the new array would be 19, 16, 11, 12, 10, 12. While characters won’t have super high stats at first level, by the later levels they’ll be pretty boosted! If a player was trying to boost four stats as high as possible, by 20th level their stat array, before magic or technology boosting if available, could be, 22, 21, 18, 18, 10, 8. Whereas in Pathfinder you may start with higher scores (20, 15, 10, 10, 10, 8), but you’d have just five points through level 20 to assign to your abilities. While that could result in a 25 in one ability with no changes to the rest, let’s max our highest at 22 to compare arrays, this would result in something like 22, 18, 10, 10, 10, 8, not nearly as good as the Starfinder array.
3. Theme: In addition to race, class, and potential archetypes, a new selection during character creation is theme. A theme represents a “core aspect” of your character’s background and includes such choices as Ace Pilot, Bounty Hunter, Scholar, and Mercenary. In addition to flavor, a theme slightly boosts one ability score, aids some skill checks, and provides other bonuses at various levels. Starfinder has no traits like Pathfinder does.
4. Hit Points, Stamina Points, Resolve Points, Injury, and Death: The most noticeable difference in character generation is with Hit Points. Pathfinder’s Hit Points have now split into Hit Point, Stamina Points, and a new mechanic, Resolve Points, are pools of points that can be used for special actions.
Hit Points measure how healthy you are. Loss of Hit Points represents actual physical injuries. When Hit Points reach 0, you are dying. Your starting Hit Points are determined by your race and class. As you gain levels your class determines how many more Hit Points you get each level. High constitution does not boost Hit Points. You can regain some Hit Points and all of your Stamina Points after 8 full hours of rest. Stamina Points measure your readiness and energy. Stamina Points are easier to get back. All damage is applied to Stamina Points first. Stamina Points are your ability to “shake off a punch.” You can fully replenish Stamina Points by spending one Resolve Point and taking a 10 minute rest. Stamina Points are determined by your constitution bonus and your class for first and all subsequent levels. Resolve Points measure how much grit and luck your character has. In addition to being used for healing as mentioned above, Resolve Points can be spent on various class abilities much like how in Pathfinder the Gunslinger has Grit Points. You determine your number of Resolve Points by taking half of the character’s current level (minimum 1) and adding the modifier of the key ability score of the character’s class. A character is going to start at first level with 1-5 Resolve Points. Resolve Points are fully replenished after 8 hours of rest. Dying: When your Hit Points reach zero, you fall unconscious and are dying. You lose one resolve point each round unless you are stabilized. If your Resolve Points are at zero and anything would cause you to lose another Resolve Point, you’re dead. If you are dying, you can stabilize by spending one-quarter your maximum Resolve Points. If you are stable but unconscious, you can spend one resolve point to heal one Hit Point and get back in the fight (but with just one hit point!). If any single attack takes you to negative your maximum Hit Points, you die out-right. A creature can also be stabilized with a Heal check, as well as technological and magical means. This is a big difference from Pathfinder where negative con kills you. In earlier levels when Hit Points are less than your typical constitution ability, Starfinder will be a little deadlier from single, lucky attacks, but at all levels after about third, a single hit on a weakened character is going to be much less likely to out-right kill a person. Also, with resolve, a Starfinder character can possibly save themselves by spending some resolve. In Pathfinder you’re counting on rolling well to stabilize, or someone else to heal you.
This system creates a mindset where we’re going to be much more careful when we start eating into Hit Points. While “hits” are taking down your Stamina Points, they’re really the effect of the character avoiding the hit with luck, or strain. So long as it’s just Stamina lost in a fight, it’s easy to rest, pop a Resolve Point, and be at 100%. The second we start losing Hit Points though, you’re starting to stare down death himself. The ability to pop some Resolve Points and stabilize, as well as actually heal a point, give the players more options. They don’t even need to count on a dedicated healer. One of the goals of the game design was to not require any specific set of classes in the game. In some of their play testing, they played with a whole group of soldiers to see if they could survive the scenarios.
5. Armor Class: Pathfinder’s Armor Class (AC), Touch AC, and Flat-footed AC are replaced with Energy Armor Class (EAC), Kinetic Armor Class (KAC), and a condition. EAC is target for attacks that deal some type of energy damage such as electricity, fire, or cold. KAC is targeted for attacks that deal damage from impact such as, bludgeoning, piercing, slashing–kinetic attacks. Armor provides separate bonuses for EAC and KAC. Whenever a character is flat-footed, such as when they have not yet acted in a round, you take a -2 to AC and cannot take Reaction actions (see below). That’s really all there is to say about that.
6. Equipment levels: All equipment in Starfinder has levels. A 3rd level character should have roughly 3rd level gear. It costs progressively more and is also progressively more powerful. I believe it will still be necessary to continually upgrade your gear to keep up with the power-curve, just like the math of Pathfinder assumes you’ll be getting higher bonus weapons, armor, and other magic items that boost your stats and saving throws. Interestingly, higher level weapons provide better damage, but not a better chance to hit. You’re just as likely to hit with that level one laser pistol as a level 20 laser pistol. You can also add fusions to weapons. These are essentially magical enhancements such as bleeding, corrosive, and holy.
7. Two Worn Magic Items: While in Pathfinder you have slots, each of which can typically have one magic item–head slot, neck slot, hands, belt, etc., in Starfinder you can only have two worn magic items such as rings, cloaks, amulets, and gloves–“beyond that, the magical fields start to interfere with each other.” Additionally you can only where one of any type such as a cloak or amulet, except for rings which you can have two of. This limit applies to worn items, not to armor upgrades, held items, weapon fusions, augmentations, magic armor, consumables, or other forms of magic. So really, while only allowing two worn magic items seems to be a big change, you can still have magic weapons, armor, and potions.
8. Spells Cap at 6th Level: This is not really a change to the mechanics of the game but rather to available classes, and will be significant to someone who really wants to play a full-caster, able to cast physics-bending 9th level spells. Currently the spell casting classes cap out at 6th level spells. There is nothing preventing Paizo from introducing full-casters at a later time, and with them, higher level spells. The intent here is that in Starfinder with technology doing so much and becoming so prevalent, magic has stepped back. This does not really have much impact until 13th level, when casters see their first 7th level spells in Pathfinder. (Really, in the AD&D days, someone needed to look up level in a thesaurus!)
9. Action Economy: This is another big one. In combat, a Starfinder player has two primary choices each round.
Take one Swift, one Move, and one Standard Action: The Standard can instead be a Move or a Swift. The Move Action can be a Swift. Perform a Full-Action.
There is no 5-foot step like in Pathfinder. To avoid an attack of opportunity while moving you can take a Guarded-Step (which is 5′) as a Move Action. Since this is a Move Action it cannot be done if you perform a Full-Action.
Most Free Actions from Pathfinder are now Swift Actions. Combat Banter and dropping an item are still “free actions,” or rather in Starfinder, things you can do without spending one of your actions.
Last, characters can take one Reaction. The primary Reaction is an Attack of Opportunity taken as a response to a foe moving out of a threatened square, making a ranged attack, or casting a spell.
The change to not allow Swift Actions with a Full-Action would be devastating in Pathfinder to a swift-action dependent magus or war priest, but in Starfinder Swift Actions are not common.
This is definitely a simpler system. The main thing I’m curious about what the loss of the 5-foot step will do to in-combat movement, when players cannot move at all if they take a full-action.
10. No Iterative Attacks: There are no iterative attacks like in Pathfinder. Everyone of every class gets one attack per round, or, as a full-action they can choose to take two attacks, each with a -4 to hit. There’s no difference between swinging your two-handed sword twice, discharging your pistol twice, or if you’re using two separate weapons–all equate to two attacks at -4 to hit for each attack. Some weapons are unwieldy and cannot be used twice in a round. There is no difference for being a two-fisted fighter.
11. Critical Hits: Critical hits no longer need to be confirmed. If you roll a 20, and the total roll would be a hit versus the appropriate armor class, then you get a crit. A critical hit gives you double damage including all usual bonuses and bonuses from special abilities (trick attack damage is doubled! In Pathfinder, some types of damage, like a rogues sneak-attack damage, is not doubled.). Some weapons have additional critical effects. While it’s a little more realistic to have to confirm a critical, there’s nothing more disappointing as a player (or a GM) than rolling a nat-20 on the die and then missing the confirmation.
12. Feats: While there’s no mechanical difference in how feats work, I want to mention this because it is a difference in design philosophy that could result in more varied characters. One of the designers said that their intent with feats was to make sure there were no must-have feats–one that everyone would always take, like point-blank is on every Pathfinder archer’s feat list. I will have to confirm this through play and building characters for fun!
13. Attacks of Opportunity: Only three things trigger an Attack of Opportunity (AOO)–moving out of a threatened square, taking a ranged shot from a threatened square, casting a spell from a threatened square. A big change for spellcasters is that they can no longer cast defensively. If you cast when an enemy threatens you, the enemy gets an AOO. If they hit you, you lose your spell. There are some range-touch spells that do not trigger an AOO even if cast from a threatened square just like in Pathfinder.
14. Combat Maneuvers: Pathfinder’s CMD and CMB are gone. To perform a combat maneuver, you just roll a to-hit roll versus KAC +8. Also, as just mentioned, combat maneuvers, like grappling and tripping, don’t trigger an attack of opportunity. Grappling no longer requires a flow chart–it is much more succinct and clearly described in just four paragraphs. Since combat maneuvers don’t trigger AOOs, hopefully we’ll see them more frequently spicing up combat!
15. Starships! Starfinder has starships and we get to start playing with them at level 1! The ships feel with, and are essentially, another character in the game. I covered them in detail in my prior review, Explore the Galaxy With the ‘Starfinder RPG,’ Sold Out at GenCon!
Those are the big ones I remember from reading the 500+ page volume. Another significant change is in monster stat blocks and the designing of monsters, but I’ll detail that when the associated rules are released in October with Alien Archive which will include, “A robust NPC-creation system to let Game Masters build any aliens or creatures they can imagine.” At PaizoCon the designers discussed how they wanted to allow a game master to quickly get the guts of a balanced creature generated, letting the game master focus on the interesting abilities that make the new creature special.
Other than the Hit Point change, I think that in general these changes make for a significantly simpler system. The introduction of Stamina and Resolve Points, while having more moving parts to track, give us some cool capabilities we did not have before, like fully healing Stamina after a short rest. I love having many options each round, and having cool but limited special abilities that I have to agonize over using or not. Giving everyone Resolve Points, like Gunslingers have grit, offers this great mechanic to all characters, allowing them to have access to cool special abilities, that they have to dole out very carefully. I’m excited to try out all of these changes to get a better feel for them.
What do you think? What do you like or not like about these changes? Let us know in the comments.
Also, if I have any of this wrong, please comment so I can correct it. My hope with this article is to give people familiar with Pathfinder a feel for how Starfinder is different, and I want to get it right!
Disclosure: Paizo provided the ‘Starfinder Core Rulebook’ for review.
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Get the Official GeekDad Books!President Trump recently formed an Election Integrity Commission to investigate voter fraud across the country.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), a liberal hero and deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, said at Tuesday’s Center for American Progress Ideas summit that the commission itself is the real “fraud” and they should begin exposing it as such immediately.
.@keithellison: White House voter commission "is a set-up...it's a commission to address a problem that does not exist." pic.twitter.com/Krt52nOu5N — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) May 16, 2017
DNC Chair Tom Perez is in agreement, calling the commission a “Trump propaganda factory.”
Ellison, Perez, and countless other liberals insist that voter fraud is a non-issue and that any kind of voter ID laws amount to discrimination. They ignore studies like those from the Pew Research Center which reveal rampant issues on the voter rolls. The National Review highlighted the researchers’ findings.
According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey, one out of eight American voter registrations is inaccurate, out of date, or a duplicate. Some 2.8 million people are registered in two or more states, and 1.8 million registered voters are dead.
Guy just reported on an instance in Florida county that gives these statistics some real life perspective. Putnam County election officials were forced to purge voter rolls on Monday because illegal votes just may have tipped an election from last fall.
In other words, voter fraud is not a conspiracy.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) provided another memorable moment from Tuesday's CAP summit, thrilling the crowd by again calling for Trump’s impeachment.First of all, those opening credits! They perfectly establish the blend of elegance and viciousness this show is striving for, and in my opinion, is achieving.
Looks like my prayers are going to be answered as far as the stylish aesthetic is concerned. The icy beauty of every shot gives me plenty of screenshot options. And we get plenty of striking imagery in this episode. From Garrett Jacob Hobbs' cabin, to our killer of the week's mushroom garden and plenty of Will's hallucinations and dreams in between. Even if people don't like the plotting, characters or anything else, it'll be hard to argue that the show doesn't look superb.
But, how could they not like the plotting or the characters? I hope each episode can stay as structured as these first two. While they are part of a continuing story, they manage to deal with their own arcs and themes in very dynamic and satisfying ways, helping to retain the "mini-movie" feeling the pilot established. In this case, the focus is Will's inner conflict in regards to him gunning down Hobbs. The ending with Lecter and Will discussing whether or not God feels good when he strikes down humans is wonderfully dark territory for a network show to be treading, and it also gives us even more insight into each of our main characters.
We also get introduced to tabloid reporter Freddie Lounds, who Thomas Harris fans will notice has undergone a gender change since his original appearance in Red Dragon. I really like her! I wonder if this means the show is willing to deviate from our expectations completely, and if it will eventually get brave enough to rewrite all of the established canon. If so, I'm all for it. It means we'll have no idea what's lying in wait around the corner, which is what you want from any suspenseful storytelling.
I'm also pleased that the show is going to keep a wry bit of dark humor in its pocket every now and then. My favorite moment of the episode was when Lecter confronted Freddie for recording his and Will's therapy session and after saying, "You've been terribly rude. What's to be done about that?", we cut to a dinner plate full of meat with a suspiciously red sauce being poured over it. Haha! While it turns out it's not actually Ms. Lounds, it's a great use of the audiences knowledge about Lecter. If we get little bits of beastly fun like that once an episode, I'll be delighted.
And I am sold on Mads Mikkelsen's Lecter. Although he's still being kept on the sidelines for now, I eagerly anticipate our first Lecter-cetric episode. Mikkelsen's calm and almost surgeon-like demeanor makes him the most interesting of monsters: one with precision. It's also clear that he's having fun with the character, really selling it in the few scenes he and Hugh Dancy have together (expect to see lots of these scenes in Lecter's office). If there's any compliment I can give, it's that I have put any preconceptions about the character off to the side and am just taking in every sinister scene Mikkelsen gives me.A military official walks through the mud during a rescue mission at the site of a landslide in Bellana village in Kalutara, Sri Lanka May 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Floods and landslides in Sri Lanka have killed at least 91 people while more than 100 are missing after torrential rain, officials said on Friday, as soldiers fanned out in boats and in helicopters to help with rescue operations.
The early rainy season downpours have forced hundreds of people from their homes across the Indian Ocean island.
“There are at least five landslides reported in several places in Kalutara,” said police spokesman Priyantha Jayakody, referring to the worst-hit district on the island’s west coast.
“Rescue operations are still taking place.”
The disaster management center said 91 people had been killed and 110 were missing.
The center said 38 deaths were reported from Kalutara while 46 were reported from the central southern district of Ratnapura.
Military Spokesman Roshan Senevirathne said about 400 military personnel had been deployed with boats and helicopters to help the police and civilian agencies.
The wettest time of the year in Sri Lanka’s south is usually during the southern monsoon, from May to September. The island nation also receives heavy rains in the North West monsoonal season from November to February.
Sri Lankan meteorology officials said Thursday’s rains are the worst since 2003 and they expected more rain in the coming days as the South-west monsoon condition had established over the country.July 28, 2015 6 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Money. It's one of the hardest things to balance (or accumulate) when you're an entrepreneur or small business owner. While you need money to keep an entrepreneurial dream alive, you also can't become consumed by it. Too many people lose sight of what they are passionate about amid the ongoing effort to build monetary wealth. To help you get a better grasp on money, I've put together 25 quotes that cover pretty much every big idea surrounding it. Whether it concerns investing or not getting into a business strictly for a payday, the following quotes are definitely ones that you should live by.
Earning it.
1. "Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it." - Steve Jobs, Co-founder and CEO Apple.
2. "I mean nobody likes to fail, but the worst thing was I lost my investors’ money and these were people that believed in this young guy that was passionate about this idea… [When you fail,] you start to question, are my ideas really good?" - Nick Woodman, Founder GoPro
3. "Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune." - Jim Rohn, entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker.
4. "You only have so many hours in a day, let others make the money for you!" - Nick Haase, founder of Loot
5. "The longer you’re not taking action the more money you’re losing." – Carrie Wilkerson, author, speaker and encourager.
6. "Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes." - Zig Ziglar, author, salesman, and motivational speaker.
7. |
expected. I had to sit in an oven of a car, trying to latch my screaming, hot infant. I should have been sitting in the comfortably cool mall food court.
Something happened that changed how I breastfed my babies. I had more of them. When baby girl arrived, just after baby boy turned one, I had an epiphany about breastfeeding. I HAD to be more flexible! It was mandatory and everyone else would have to live with it. I would breastfeed when and where my baby was hungry, while keeping up with an active toddler.
This strategy worked well for me and in I fit right in with crunchy Oregon mamas. Then I moved to Texas. Women warned me that it is different in Texas, it’s an old boy system, no one breastfeeds there, and I wouldn’t be able to breastfeed in public. I avoided going out for as long as possible. I am a band mom and I couldn’t miss my oldest son march with the band. I steeled myself for the first high school football game. I sat in the bleachers, looking at the people around me. I knew my baby was getting hungrier. I watched buxom blondes and brunettes walk by. Their breasts were barely contained in their school spirit tanks. I had a comeback all ready to go, for when the security guard came to tell me to leave. My comeback speech would be epic and would involve the aforementioned tank tops. Finally I gritted my teeth and slipped my little girl under my band mom T-shirt and she had her dinner.
That’s when it happened……absolutely nothing. Not one person commented or even managed a sideways glance. I was not able to spout off my clever retort. I wasn’t made a fearless champion for breastfeeding, singled out for ridicule or praise. I was just a mom watching my kid march with the band while feeding my hungry baby.
I have since breastfed everywhere in Texas, museums, parks, NASA, the DMV line, restaurants, hospitals, schools, and churches. I breastfed for the last time in our town’s Christmas Parade, sitting on a float in the freezing cold.
I didn’t know it would be the last time or my last baby. That’s just how it happened. It happened in Texas.
My advice to all you new and experienced mamas: Feed your babies where and when they are hungry! I wish I had been more comfortable the first go round. I wish I had not tortured myself and my baby because of society’s ideas about public breastfeeding. We have all heard the stories of boobie backlash. I challenge you to go ahead and brave it. You might get some negative comments, but in most states you have the legal right to breastfeed in public. Maybe someone will be watching you, a future mom or dad. Seeing you confidently breastfeed could make their choice to breastfeed easier.
You will be surprised that, in most cases, no one will give you a second glance.About the author
(NewsTarget) Many people want to make a difference today but aren`t sure how to go about it. The good news is: little changes can add up to big improvements and here are eight easy ways to make a big difference with just a little effort. In fact, if everyone were doing them, it would change the whole equation.Leading GMO researcher, Jeffery Smith tells us if only five percent of the population abandoned GMO foods it might be enough to encourage many food manufacturers to drop them as ingredients. Widespread avoidance is one way to put those who are genetically manipulating our food right out of business, while saving our health and natural foods for generations to come. (Confused about hidden GMOs? Check out the guide at the end...)Aside from the fact that humans aren`t designed to digest animalsthat most animals are improperly fed and drugged, farm animals are an enormous source of pollution. Raising farm animals produces more global emissions than all of the transportation worldwide. Rainforests are also regularly cleared for these animals headed for dinner plates.Processed foods create problems in the body, while nature`s unprocessed foods are healthy and healing. If taste is stopping you from dropping processed foods, it`s a sign that you need learn some more food preparation techniques. Healthy eating can be delicious.When you are truly internally cleansed, disease is not common. When you are filthy inside, disease is the natural result. Unfortunately, you can see where most of the population stands on this.As a bonus, as more of the population begins taking responsibility for their own internal cleanliness, it will end the funneling of billions of dollars to drug, chemotherapy, and radiation companies. It will also keep millions of profit dollars from being directed to government officials who, these days, are creating many pro-drug, anti-food, and anti-health laws.Composting returns nutrients to the earth and is an easy backyard project. On a larger scale, compost needs to be utilized by farmers and added to their soils. Healthy soils have far fewer pest problems, so composting easily decreases the "need" for pesticides and helps keep chemicals off our foods. Since a large portion of "trash" is compostable, composting also dramatically decreases what`s sent to landfills.Having a few fruit trees, vegetable plants, and herbs growing in your yard brings you closer to your food supply. And with the entire neighborhood doing it, it`s a great way to create community by sharing the results. It`s also a much better use of water than growing grass.Chemicals from plastic easily get lodged inside our bodies and they create many health problems. Since a great deal of plastic isn`t recycled, it ends up in our oceans creating the Great Atlantic and Pacific Garbage Patches.Many animals will thank you too; these died because their stomachs contained so much plastic that there wasn`t any room for food. http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?... Buy organic whenever possible to limit your chemical exposure. Start reading the ingredients and buy what`s natural - based on the ingredients - not what the seller says on the front of the package. Use plants to clean your air, not chemical-based air fresheners. Use baking soda and white vinegar to clean your home, instead of store bought chemicals. There are hundreds of small changes you can easily make that add up to a lot less chemical contamination in your body and in the environment.More:Want to know which foods and products contain GMOs? Check out and print this Non-GMO Shopping Guide: http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com/documentF... Kim Evans is a natural health writer and author of Cleaning Up! The Ultimate Body Cleanse offers deep cleansing and using methods in this book, people have gotten rid of dozens of different types of health problems, as well as just losing excess weight, thinking more clearly, and feeling better.Kim's next book chronicles events in her life that happen to match patterns in the Bible. She's also found three places in the Bible that tell us its about these patterns and even asking you to match them.Here's a little from the upcoming book...In Isaiah 22:20, it says, "And it must occur in that day that I will call my servant, namely Elia." But, because these prophecies are cryptic and they aren't meant to be understood until they are understood, it's only the last three letters.A few lines later, it says, "From the land of Kittim it has been revealed to them."Here, you just take out any three middle letters, and again, it's the name of the person bringing you this message, or the sacred secret of the prophecy. Actually, if you take those two passages, Kim is about the only name you can get from both of them.In Numbers 1:1 1:18, it's talking about "the family" and mentions Pagiel. It also twice mentions February 1st, (Kim's birthday) and then says that the youngest is 20 years old. Kim's little sister Paige is currently 20 years old.In Chronicles 1 11:20 it mentions the brother of Joab and then in the same sentence uses the word brandishing. Kim's middle name is Jo and her older sister's name is Brandi. There are other patterns to her sisters too but these sort of mention them by name.Of course, it helps if you know that there is a magical spiritual reality available that comes deep cleansing and often major dietary upgrades. It's also why Jesus was teaching the same thing, if you find his teachings in the Essene Gospel of Peace. In this text, he even says things like, "You'll never see the father unless you clean your colon." But, this is paraphrased...In the Bible Jesus says things more like, happy are those who wash their robes, as they can enter the tree of life. The tree of life is elsewhere explained as God's paradise. He also said, first clean the inside of the cup and then the outside will also be clean.Kim's bookis here http://www.cleaningupcleanse.com. You can also preorder here. It shouldn't be long.Kanye West was in court today for the photographer assault case which occurred last July at Los Angeles International Airport. Kanye avoided felony charges but will get 250 hours of community service, 24 months probation, undergo 30 days of anger management counseling and one day in county jail. West pleaded “no contest” to misdemeanor battery today for the arrest.
He is expected to be booked and immediately released. Back in July 2013, Yeezus was seen exiting LAX as the paparazzi surrounded him to taking pictures. When one spoke to Kanye, the chi-town spitta restrained himself once but grew increasingly agitated by the pap. Ye lost his cool and answered back “I told you don’t talk to me, right?.” He walked towards the photographer and shouted “You trying to get me in trouble so I steal off on you and have to pay you like $250,000 and shit,” before charging the man and grabbing him and his camera. The tussle took place for a few seconds before a female voice can be heard telling Ye to stop. He then jumped into a vehicle and drove away.
Medics came later to the scene to take care of the photographer who was grabbed as he quivered on the floor.
[via CBS ]Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
ISTANBUL - Turkish investigators pored over video footage and witness statements on Wednesday after three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers opened fire and blew themselves up in Istanbul's main airport, killing 41 people and wounding 239.
The attack on Europe's third-busiest airport was the deadliest in a series of suicide bombings this year in Turkey, part of the US-led coalition against Islamic State and struggling to contain spillover from neighboring Syria's war.
President Tayyip Erdogan said the attack should serve as a turning point in the global fight against terrorism, which he said had "no regard for faith or values".Five Saudis and two Iraqis were among the dead, a Turkish official said. Citizens from China, Jordan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Iran and Ukraine were also among the 13 foreigners killed.One attacker opened fire in the departures hall with an automatic rifle, sending passengers diving for cover and trying to flee, before all three blew themselves up in or around the arrivals hall a floor below, witnesses and officials said.Video footage showed one of the attackers inside the terminal building being shot, apparently by a police officer, before falling to the ground as people scattered. The attacker then blew himself up around 20 seconds later."It's a jigsaw puzzle... The authorities are going through CCTV footage, witness statements," a Turkish official said.The Dogan news agency said autopsies on the three bombers, whose torsos were ripped apart, had been completed and that they may have been foreign nationals, without citing its sources.Broken ceiling panels littered the kerb outside the arrivals section of the international terminal. Plates of glass had shattered, exposing the inside of the building, and electric cables dangled from the ceiling. Cleanup crews swept up debris and armed police patrolled as flights resumed."This attack, targeting innocent people is a vile, planned terrorist act," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters at the scene in the early hours of Wednesday morning."There is initial evidence that each of the three suicide bombers blew themselves up after opening fire," he said. The attackers had come to the airport by taxi and preliminary findings pointed to Islamic State responsibility.Two US counterterrorism officials familiar with the early stages of investigations said Islamic State was at the top of the list of suspects even though there was no evidence yet.No group had claimed responsibility more than 12 hours after the attack, which began around 9:50 p.m. (1850 GMT) on Tuesday.VICTIMS OF MANY NATIONALITIESIstanbul's position bridging Europe and Asia has made Ataturk airport, Turkey's largest, a major transit hub for passengers across the world. The Istanbul governor's office said 109 of the 239 people hospitalized had since been discharged."There were little babies crying, people shouting, broken glass and blood all over the floor. It was very crowded, there was chaos. It was traumatic," said Diana Eltner, 29, a Swiss psychologist who was travelling from Zurich to Vietnam but had been diverted to Istanbul after she missed a connection.Delayed travellers were sleeping on floors at the airport, a Reuters witness said, as some passengers and airport staff cried and hugged each other. Police in kevlar vests with automatic weapons prowled the kerbside as a handful of travellers and Turkish Airlines crew trickled in.The national carrier said it had cancelled 340 flights although its departures resumed after 8:00 am (0500 GMT).
Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>SYDNEY and AMSTERDAM and NEW YORK, Aug. 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS) has agreed to acquire Network Ten, one of three major commercial broadcast networks in Australia, it was announced today by Chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves. This transaction adds Network Ten to CBS Corporation's global content and distribution portfolios. In addition to core linear channel TEN, the deal includes digital terrestrial television channel (DTT) ELEVEN, which CBS already owns a 33 per cent stake, the DTT channel ONE and Network Ten's rapidly growing digital platform, TENPLAY.
At the same time, by leveraging Network Ten's linear and digital assets, CBS will also launch CBS All Access, the Company's digital subscription video on-demand service, in the Australian market. This marks another international territory announced for CBS All Access this month. The Company recently unveiled plans to make the service available in Canada next year.
"Network Ten is a prime broadcasting asset with over half a century of experience and brand equity in Australia," said Leslie Moonves, Chairman and CEO, CBS Corporation. "We have been able to acquire it at a valuation that gives us confidence we will grow this asset by applying our programming expertise in a market with which we are already familiar."
"Network Ten and CBS have enjoyed a close working relationship for nearly two decades, and now CBS will continue to provide Network Ten with access to the very best in U.S. content. We also look forward to working with the outstanding team at Network Ten to enhance and expand on its great legacy of Australian news, drama, reality and sports programming," said Armando Nuñez, President and CEO, CBS Studios International. "This acquisition not only presents CBS with considerable broadcasting opportunities in Australia, but also allows for further multi-platform distribution and growth."
The transaction will be completed in accordance with the Australian voluntary administration process and is subject to certain regulatory approvals.
About CBS Corporation:
CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS) is a mass media company that creates and distributes industry-leading content across a variety of platforms to audiences around the world. The Company has businesses with origins that date back to the dawn of the broadcasting age as well as new ventures that operate on the leading edge of media. CBS owns the most watched television network in the U.S. and one of the world's largest libraries of entertainment content, making its brand — "the Eye" — one of the most recognized in business. The Company's operations span virtually every field of media and entertainment, including cable, publishing, radio, local TV, film, and interactive and socially responsible media. CBS' businesses include CBS Television Network, The CW (a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment), CBS Television Studios, CBS Studios International, CBS Television Distribution, CBS Consumer Products, CBS Home Entertainment, CBS Interactive, CBS Films, Showtime Networks, CBS Sports Network, Pop (a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Lionsgate), Smithsonian Networks, Simon & Schuster, CBS Television Stations, CBS Radio and CBS EcoMedia. For more information, go to www.cbscorporation.com.
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http://www.cbscorporation.comBy Jonathan Beale
Defence correspondent, BBC News
Fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a United Airlines flight RAF Typhoon fighter jets have been scrambled twice this month amid fears of possible terror threats in UK airspace, the BBC has learned. One week ago - on 22 March - the RAF was alerted to a conversation overheard on the airwaves, believed to have come from a plane travelling through UK airspace. It included the words "ransom" and "hostage". Soon afterward a Delta Airlines plane - on its way from the US to Frankfurt - made what is described as an "unusual request" to descend just as it was flying south of Reading. Within minutes, two Typhoon fighter jets were scrambled from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire. The fighters circled over Kent as the civilian flight, which had raised concerns, cleared UK airspace. It was, thankfully, a false alarm. It is the latest incident to trigger counter-terrorism measures - first introduced after the attacks on 11 September 2001. Difficult decision On average the alarm is raised every month - perhaps no surprise given that there are three million flights through UK airspace every year. Whenever an alert is issued, Downing Street is immediately informed. One of a small group of senior ministers is kept abreast of developments. In this case, he or she would have been woken up in the middle of the night. Ultimately the minister would make the difficult decision to intervene or, if all else fails, to shoot an aircraft down. Tornado F3 fighters intercepted a Russian Blackjack bomber So far it has not come to that, but the procedures are in place. Typhoon jets were also launched from RAF Coningsby on 2 March, in another incident which has already been reported. They went to "assist" an American Airlines flight travelling from Dallas/Fort Worth to London. It followed reports that a passenger had tried to enter the flight deck. In this case, a female passenger had become distressed during the flight, but the flight crew had managed to calm her down. But the speed of the interception by the RAF Typhoons gives a sense of how seriously these incidents are taken. We are not allowed to report precisely how soon the fighters were at the scene, but again it took a matter of minutes to intercept the American Airlines flight. Cuts 'inevitable' Counter-terrorism operations are not the only thing keeping the RAF busy. Fighter crews have been scrambled more than 10 times in the past year to intercept Russian aircraft approaching UK airspace. Most recently two Tornado F3 fighters were launched from RAF Leuchars in Fife in the early hours of 10 March to intercept a "zombie" - or unknown aircraft. Within minutes the lead Tornado identified and photographed two Russian Tu-160 "Blackjack" strategic bombers. The RAF say such incidents are relatively frequent as the Russians carry out routine patrols over the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, though no Russian planes have ever entered UK airspace. It is perhaps no coincidence the RAF has made public these recent incidents. They are a reminder of the work the air force carries out to defend the homeland at a time when serious questions are being asked about the overall cost of the UK's defence budget. There will be a Strategic Defence Review after the general election that will decide the future shape of the armed forces. Cuts are inevitable. The RAF, like the Royal Navy and the Army are engaged in their own PR battle to ensure they will not end up bearing the brunt of the costs.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionA toddler in a preschool class is escorted to the door by a patient adult after he dawdles behind his classmates in Montreal. In another shot, a woman tries on a pair of shoes while chatting with a seemingly friendly clerk in a shop. In Burnaby, B.C., a man sighs and puffs on a cigarette in what seems to be a private backyard.
These are just a few of the shots from people's private lives anyone can peer into on dozens of sites online that stream footage from unsecured webcams.
A quick scan on sites like Shodan, NestCam Directory and Insecam displays thousands of livestreams, hundreds of which are in Canada. Some of the feeds have been left unlocked on purpose, like the public cameras that allow people to see the slope conditions at a ski resort near Banff. But others are more troubling.
An unsecured webcam shows the interior of a daycare or preschool in Montreal. (Photo: Insecam)
On Wednesday, CBC News tipped off the Cape Breton-Victoria School Board that its Panasonic HD security cameras were broadcasting faces of staff and students online. One of the cameras clearly showed boys entering and exiting the washroom, while another was pointed at the school's playground.
And on Thursday, a Vice journalist was browsing one of the unsecured webcam sites when he spotted a Brantford police car being worked on in a body shop. He contacted police who confirmed their car was at the shop, and said they would investigate.
The fix for this kind of security breach is an easy one — camera owners need to put a password on the device so it can't be easily accessed, or change the password if it's currently set to the default one that comes with the device.
"My strong advice to anybody who has a video surveillance system, whether they're individuals or businesses or public bodies, is: go to that website and see if your system's there," Nova Scotia privacy commissioner Catherine Tully told the Hamilton Spectator.
Follow The Huffington Post Canada on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Also on HuffPostAt an event organized by the Canadian Labour Congress this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was confronted with harsh criticism by young members of the labour organization who felt the Liberal leader had turned his back on them.
"Honour your promises!" demanded some.
This discontent on the Canadian political left is not yet a big problem for Trudeau's Liberals. They have more support today than they did on election night in 2015, much of those gains coming from past supporters of the NDP.
But as the government moves forward — or fails to — on a number of controversial files, from electoral reform to pipelines to peacekeeping, this discontent could indeed become a problem.
In addition to the progressive voters Trudeau has lured away from the NDP since the last election, a majority of Canadians who still support the New Democrats say they are "very" or "somewhat" satisfied with the outcome of last year's vote, according to a recent poll by Forum Research.
An Abacus Data poll from August found that three-quarters of Canadians who self-identified as being on the left or centre-left of the political spectrum approved of the government.
Maintain this coalition of centrist and left-wing voters and the Liberals will have an easy time winning elections. The New Democrats are now polling in the low-teens nationwide — a recipe for another Liberal majority in 2019.
But a number of issues will make it more difficult for the Liberals to hold this coalition together as the government moves from rhetoric and consultations to decision-making.
Delegates at the Canadian Labour Congress National Young Workers Summit discuss their fristartions with the Trudeau government which prompted their protest of the Prime Minister. 1:57
The electoral reform promise
Though the prime minister says he is still committed to electoral reform, the Liberals have been sounding increasingly less confident in their ability to get it done.
Electoral reform is not as important an issue to Liberal voters as it is to those who support the NDP. Forum has found while 72 per cent of NDP voters agree that the electoral system needs to change, just half of Liberal supporters do. Polling by EKOS Research has also found that New Democrats are much more likely than Liberals to feel the current system is past its due date.
The kind of reform that is adopted — if any reform is adopted at all — could also prove problematic for the Liberals. Polls show NDP voters clearly prefer a form of proportional representation (PR), whereas Liberals are more divided on whether they prefer the current first-past-the-post system, proportional representation or alternative voting. (Trudeau has previously expressed interest in ranked ballots, for example.)
Adopting alternative voting — widely perceived to be most beneficial to the Liberal Party — or failing to implement any kind of electoral reform at all could disillusion some of the progressive voters Trudeau has brought into the Liberal tent.
Peacekeeping maybe, combat maybe not
The government is currently examining where Canada could send peacekeeping troops to Africa. A decision is unlikely to be made before the end of the year. But the intensity of that mission could also cause some malaise among left-wing voters.
Forum's polling has found a majority of both Liberal and NDP supporters approve of sending peacekeeping forces to Africa, though New Democrats are somewhat less enthusiastic. But once respondents were told that these peacekeeping forces could come under fire, support plunged — particularly among New Democrats.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his son, Xavier, stand in front of an honour guard as they arrive at the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre near Yavoriv, Ukraine in July 2016. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
A majority of Liberal voters were still in favour, though disagreement increased by nine points, to 28 per cent. New Democrats were split, with 39 per cent still approving of sending peacekeeping forces to a region that could become hot, and 40 per cent disapproving.
Other foreign policy positions could complicate matters for the Liberals on their left flank and limit their potential for growth among NDP voters. A Forum poll in September found New Democrats were twice as likely as Liberals to disagree with forging closer ties with China — one of the more notable foreign policy shifts the Liberals have made since taking office.
Pipelines and carbon pricing
The issue that best encapsulates the Liberals' delicate balancing act between progressive and centrist supporters, however, is pipeline construction. This was one of the most important sources of angst among Trudeau's hecklers this week.
The prime minister gets high marks among left and centre-left voters on the issue of climate change. Abacus found that between 71 and 78 per cent of Canadians on this end of the political spectrum feel he is on the right track on the issue.
But even when coupled with a shift toward renewable energy, the building of new pipelines is met with greater opposition — particularly among those on the left.
Abacus found that 41 per cent of centre-left voters support new pipelines when coupled with a shift toward renewable energy, while another 31 per cent can accept it. About 29 per cent stand in opposition.
Among Canadians who self-identify as being on the left, however, that opposition increases to 40 per cent and support drops to 35 per cent. The 25 per cent who can accept the building of new pipelines gives Trudeau some wiggle room. But he still runs the risk of alienating between 29 to 40 per cent of voters on the left with every new pipeline approved.
On the centre and on the right, opposition was less than 20 per cent.
It's unlikely Trudeau and the Liberals will be able to maintain their high levels of support indefinitely. This week's tense confrontation with youth members of the Canadian Labour Congress served as a stark demonstration of the kind of opposition already facing them.
But as Trudeau's government spends more time governing and making decisions that will inevitably disillusion elements of its broad coalition, these demonstrations of opposition — particularly on the left — could become more and more frequent.New York City FC have completed the signing of Sean Okoli from FC Cincinnati.
Okoli enjoyed a remarkable 2016 in Ohio where he was named United Soccer League MVP, made the All-League Team and won the Golden Boot for his 16 goals in 29 games.
The 23-year old striker, who has been called up to the USMNT squads at u18 and u20 level, becomes NYCFC’s first acquisition of the winter transfer window.
Okoli told NYCFC.com: “The beautiful game can take you to some great places and I feel so blessed to be here. I know the team plays attacking football and I love that, so I’m looking forward to being a part of it.
“It means a lot to play under Patrick Vieira – he’s been everywhere I want to be as a player and I know he has a lot of offer, so I’m excited to get working with him as I just want to continue to grow.
“I know David Villa is a very special player who has scored big goals for big clubs so I just want to help continue this club’s success and score goals with him and with the rest of the team.
“It's a big club and we want to win here so it’s not going to be easy to just come here and continue to grow – I know I need to put the work in.
“I like to work really hard on the field and to score goals and hopefully I can do that in an entertaining way here in New York.”
Sean Okoli: Beyond the Pitch
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NYCFC Head Coach Vieira is delighted to have added Okoli to the NYCFC roster.
Vieira said: “I’m really happy to welcome Sean to this club as he is a talented striker who we believe has an exciting future in the game.
“Having had the opportunity to speak to him, he also is the kind of person we want at this club and I’m sure he is going to work hard to build on the excellent 2016 he enjoyed at Cincinnati.
“To win the Golden Boot and to be named as MVP in USL at his age are great achievements and so I’m looking forward to working with him in pre-season and throughout next year.”
Sporting Director Claudio Reyna added: “Sean has enjoyed an excellent year in USL with FC Cincinnati and we’re pleased he’s agreed to join NYCFC for the next chapter of his developing career.
“He’s someone who has been on our radar and he will give us options in the attacking third going into next season.
“It’s important for us to identify and recruit young American talent and we believe Sean is certainly a player with a promising future in the game.”
Born in Federal Way, Washington, Okoli was part of the Seattle Sounders youth setup earlier on in his youth career before he played college soccer at Wake Forest University between 2011 and 2013.
The tall, pacey 23-year old made his professional debut for Sounders, where he was on a Homegrown Player contract, on March 8, 2014 and went on to make four appearances in all competitions.
In 2015, Revolution took Sean to New England in the MLS SuperDraft and he made five appearances in his year there, before he joined USL side FC Cincinnati on February 24, 2016.
His 16 goals helped to fire his team to a third place finish in USL last year, earning him the league’s MVP award.
Twitter: @AskAboutUgo
Instagram: @askaboutugoThe United Nations says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “was horrified” at the recent report on alleged sexual abuses by security forces in Myanmar against the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric gave the U.N. chief’s reaction Tuesday to the report by U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.
The rights group alleged that soldiers and Border Guard Police took part in rape, gang rape, invasive body searches and sexual assaults while conducting counter-insurgency operations in western Rakhine state from October through mid-December.
Human Rights Watch urged Myanmar’s government on Monday to back an independent international investigation.
The estimated 1 million Rohingya face official and social discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Most are regarded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Many fled home during communal violence in 2012 and over 100,000 live in refugee camps.Among those injured is a 23-year-old man who is fighting for his life after getting trapped in the ski lodge fire
Firefighters extinguish a blaze Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016, at Boyne Highlands Resort in Harbor Springs, Mich. The resort called it a "significant structure fire" early Sunday. (Photo: Alex Childress, AP)
As investigators try to determine the cause of a devastating weekend fire at Boyne Highlands ski lodge, one lead they are following is that a guest set fire to his room and then stole the extinguishers before fleeing the northern Michigan resort, police confirmed Monday.
The middle-of-the-night blaze injured a dozen people, including a 23-year-old Traverse City man who is fighting for his life after getting trapped inside his room and a guest who jumped from her balcony.
►Related: Fire at Boyne Highlands Resort ski lodge injures 12
►Related: Michigan's largest spa undergoes renovation, now offers mountain views
The arson allegation surfaced in a taped recording of police scanner activity in Emmet County in which a dispatcher was heard stating at least four times that someone set fire to a room at the lodge and then left with the extinguishers.
Emmet County Sheriff Pete Wallin told the Free Press on Monday that he saw that allegation in the dispatch notes and that his office is looking into it.
"I have not heard the tape, but I did see it in the dispatch notes... and obviously, my detectives will see if they can locate that individual," Wallin said. He noted that police are trying to track down all 113 guests who were staying at the ski lodge.
Wallin stressed that a cause for the fire remains unknown and that no one is in custody. The incident is under investigation by the Emmet County Sheriff’s Office, Harbor Springs Fire Department, and the Michigan State Police Fire Marshal Division.
"My guys are following up on multiple leads. There were 113 guests. They're going to have to be talked to," Wallin said. "There's a lot of footwork to do."
►Related:Less-damaged Michigan ski resort settles with U-M frats
The investigation revolves around a fire that broke out at 1:34 a.m. Sunday on the third floor of the main lodge at Boyne Highlands, a popular Harbor Springs ski resort. The fire damaged about 40% of the resort's main lodge hotel and injured 12 people, including David Chauvette, who suffered severe smoke inhalation after getting trapped inside his room.
"When I first got there, there were 17 people unaccounted for. He happened to be one of them," Wallin said of Chauvette, noting Chauvette was eventually found and taken to a local hospital. He was eventually transported to Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, where as of 6 p.m. Monday, he was listed in critical condition.
News of Chauvette's ordeal quickly surfaced on Facebook, where many friends flooded the social networking site with words of support.
"If everyone could pray for David Chauvette his family and friends would really appreciate it," wrote Facebook user Brandon Mattarella. "David was caught late last night trapped in a fire at Boyne Highlands resort and inhaled a large amount of smoke. He is currently in ICU in critical condition and soon is being transferred to Grand Rapids. He's not currently breathing on his own so please please please : everyone pray for him. I love you buddy, I know you got it in you, come back to us, we're all here."
Kedna Lynn wrote: "Keep fighting babe. You can do this. Best 10 months of my life have been with you. Keep pushing through."
Haley Lamson wrote: "I hope you get better soon. I'm praying for you and your family. You're a strong guy you will get through this!!!!!! I'm sorry you're going through this"
The fire broke out during what was Boyne's third weekend of the ski season.
Boyne Highlands general manager Mike Chumbler said staff went door to door to ensure that guests had been alerted. They were moved to lodging elsewhere at the resort.
"Our first concern remains with those injured," Chumbler said. "We will continue to do whatever we can to support them."
Despite the fire, Boyne Highlands plans to reopen for skiing at 9 a.m. Friday as the slopes and other parts of the resort were not affected by the fire.
According to Chumbler, Boyne Highlands has started contacting guests with future hotel reservations in order to discuss lodging options. He also said that many parts of the structure were undamaged and will be reopened after cleanup.
Boyne Highlands has more than 400 units on the property with a total of 148 guests rooms in the main lodge.
According to a recording of the scanner activity, which the Free Press listened to, here are some of the comments made by dispatchers that night:
"Station 43, please respond to Boyne Highlands... someone set a fire and then took the fire extinguishers."
"Per security and first caller, (someone) set the fire, took off... with the extinguisher so nobody could put it out."
"Station 43... There is a subject that set a fire in the room and then took off with the extinguisher."
The scanner feed from Emmet County was provided by Fred Moses, a computer technician from Fenton who runs a website and Facebook page that archives and tracks scanner traffic from across the state. Anytime there’s a large incident, he said, he posts it to his Facebook page, Moses.bz. He also has family in northern Michigan, he said, noting his family ties keep him interested in police and fire scanner traffic Up North.
Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @Tbaldas.
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2hxon9uYour source code is now downloading. If does not start download please wait for 10 seconds
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Objective Center of gravity is a part of physics applied to game objects in a game. So let's take an overview of physics first.
You will get final output like this:
Step 1 Physics in Unity
To have a realistic physical behavior, your gameObject must accelerate correctly and should be affected by collisions, gravity and various other forces. This feature for physical simulation is provided by physics engine in unity.
After understanding physics |
for the White House and his future plans to destroy this once great nation entirely!
If Romney is a fighter, if he has FIGHT in him, this would be a good time to show it.Firstly, I would again like to offer my congratulations to johnsonpoops for winning the first of our hopefully many games. As it went so smoothly and well, we'll be doing another one! It will be the same time, 3PM EST, 8PM GMT, 2PM CST etc. but this time it is on Saturday the 9th not the Sunday.
Again, there is a 12 player cap, and previous winners of the normal games or weekly games will be granted a spot if they want one. The rest is first come first serve, and to enter all you need to do is comment on this news post! The deadline is Friday the 8th at 9PM GMT to get your name entered. Please spread the word to friends, as the more entries the better, as people who are too late for the first 12 will get a spot on the backup list incase someone can't make it.
Let's hope for another great game!
-delqhic
EDIT: Players in the game:
delqhic
beastboyrolf
climbxing
francosoccer
rkawesome
melange91
jongyon7192p
Sepulchr
MikeNZach
zigofzag
Batchman78
TKjr
boyceterous
QuuxZebula
dvngal
Please make sure you can come!
Hope to see you there,He’s Back: Bob Pittman Named CEO of Clear Channel
Longtime media and Internet exec Bob Pittman has been named CEO of radio broadcast and outdoor advertising giant Clear Channel, the company announced today.
Pittman — who has been chairman of Clear Channel’s media and entertainment platforms after making an investment in the company less than a year ago — will join the board of directors of CC Media Holdings, Clear Channel Communications and Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, as executive chairman.
Clear Channel’s holdings include a huge parcel of radio stations across the U.S., along with a number of digital properties and a big global outdoor advertising business.
Pittman — the former MTV wunderkind who started in radio at 15 years old as an announcer at a station in his native Mississippi — has not been in a top job like this one since he resigned from the then-AOL Time Warner as its COO in the midst of the botched merger mishegas almost a decade ago.
Since then, Pittman has been doing a range of things, including making canny investments in a variety of Internet start-ups such as Zynga and DailyCandy, and even in a high-end tequila company via the Pilot Group, a New York-based private investment firm.
He made his own investment in Clear Channel last year and has since upped his involvement, which resulted in the latest move to CEO.
“I swore I would never work like this again, but when something gets me this stimulated, I knew I wanted to get into it again,” said Pittman, in an interview with me yesterday. “I think this company has everything it needs to be a great media company in the new media landscape.”
That will include a range of new initiatives, including recent partnerships with Facebook and more.
“We want to move like an entrepreneur and have the assets of a big media company,” said Pittman. “I am an addict for this challenge.”
Here’s the official press release from Clear Channel:Get into the shower
and enjoy!
This beer has been specifically made to be enjoyed in the shower and is a collaboration between famous craft brewery Pangpang and creative powerhouse Snask. A 10% strong but sweet pale ale with Earl Grey Tea and Bergamot that produces a fruity and citrusy flavor. It can be used as a conditioner for those who feel like it. Hand brewed in Hökarängen, Sweden and filled up in an 18 cl bottle, small enough so you can drink it in 4 sips before it gets too warm. The ink on the bottle is screen printed and thus provides a better grip.
This beer is the ultimate pre-game beer that will set you on the right track for the night.
This beer has been specifically made to be enjoyed in the shower and is a collaboration between famous craft brewery Pangpang and creative powerhouse Snask. A 10% strong but sweet pale ale with Earl Grey Tea and Bergamot that produces a fruity and citrusy flavor. It can be used as a conditioner for those who feel like it. Hand brewed in Hökarängen, Sweden and filled up in an 18 cl bottle, small enough so you can drink it in 4 sips before it gets too warm. The ink on the bottle is screen printed and thus provides a better grip.
This beer is the ultimate pre-game beer that will set you on the right track for the night.VIM in my muscle memory is one of my popular posts, the day I published it, I attracted over 3,200 unique views in a single day, mostly from Hacker News and Reddit Programming. Although it is an extremely densely packed post with lots of information, I hope it has helped some to appreciate VIM like I do.
In my several years of VIM usage, I have tried several colorscheme’s, though I have come to like only a select few. One colorscheme that I have liked the most and have always ended up coming back to is the Railscasts theme. There are 2 versions of this script :
https://github.com/jpo/vim-railscasts-theme – the original GUI only theme by Josh O’Rourke. https://github.com/vim-scripts/Railscasts-Theme-GUIand256color/blob/master/colors/railscasts.vim – as the name suggests, this is an extension of the original theme by Josh O’Rourke with sane 256 color equivalents for terminal vim written by Nick Moffitt.
I have tried both versions, but there are several inconsistencies between them. I also tried using Josh’s version along with csapprox, but I did not like some of the color conversions made by it. It was simply not ‘coherent’ enough for my liking between the gui & terminal. Also some of the elements of Nick’s version in the terminal were annoying, for eg.) the default (Normal) background for terminal in Nick’s version was transparent. I use a terminal with transparency so I can often read stuff from my editor in the background or even the browser, but this does not work well with my editor, when I am coding I would not like the distraction of anything behind my code.
Since I use tmux a lot, as is obvious from my Tmux Powerline Special Characters Issue post, I have been working a lot with the vim in the terminal lately, and the fact that gui vim doesn’t play very well with rvm unless launched from the right context, inspite of usingtpope’s https://github.com/tpope/vim-rvm plugin, also added to that. I noticed more and more how the terminal & gui versions of vim don’t look similar enough for my liking.
So last night after searching a lot for a more coherent version of the railscasts colorscheme and not having found any, I spent a great deal of time in vim’s help to try and figure out how the whole syntax highlighting works and how I can tweak it. I finally tweaked the theme by merging both Josh’s & Nick’s versions and adding a lot more fixes to it to make the gui & terminal versions more coherent. I optimized almost every sintax highlighting group I could think of and tried to find good matches of the gui colors to those available in the terminal (for xterm with 256 colors). You can find my version at https://github.com/dhruvasagar/vim-railscasts-theme.
I would like to give a shout out to 2 great plugins that helped me immensly in getting this done :TV Reviews All of our TV reviews in one convenient place.
Oh, isn’t it grand to see The Good Wife get back in the normal swing of things with an episode about a very popular social media site? Well, no, not exactly that site, but a close replica with a similar name. In my notes I just decided to call the website “Reddit,” because I couldn’t remember the silly clone name they gave it (it was Scabbit, guys. Scabbit. Let’s all laugh about that forever and ever, amen). Yes, the Lockhart/Gardner vs. Florrick/Agos battle is ongoing, and yes, we had a silly political plot as our C-story, but Scabbit was the star of “Whack-A-Mole” and rightly so.
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Ripped from the headlines, as it were, “Whack-A-Mole” is inspired by the subreddits that searched for the perpetrators of the Boston marathon bombing and eventually turned into a bit of a misguided witch hunt. I have no idea if any lawsuits actually resulted from that whole situation (wouldn’t be surprised if it did), but the very concept of Reddit is a fascinating one from a legal perspective. It’s such an unsupervised, anonymous playground, but it’s also one of the most-viewed things on the internet. The power wielded is extraordinary, but extremely difficult to control—which is part of the appeal, of course.
In The Good Wife universe, there was also a terrorist bombing in Milwaukee, which Scabbit users are investigating. Just as the show has both ChumHum and Google exist, the Boston bombing is also mentioned, which is a necessary evil for the show—it can’t fictionalize events around such a fresh and searing tragedy, but it also can’t pretend that those events never occurred. The Scabbit investigation has turned the FBI onto an innocent man, Zayeed (Haaz Sleiman, who I know best from Thomas McCarthy’s The Visitor) and Alicia and Cary sue to try and stop the online investigation.
This is the first week where Alicia and Cary match wits with Will in the courtroom on a case unrelated to their workplace divorce. It was fun to watch! The Scabbit trial had all the twists and turns you might expect, although things never got as tense or heated as they sometimes can on this show. It was interesting to see Judge Jeffrey Tambor treat the case so jokingly, since the matters involved were quite weighty, but the lawyers’ actual complaints were on the silly side, revolving around taking down thread after thread and a witness who goes by the handle “lotionmyfeet.”
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Perhaps the weirdest wrinkle of all was the final scene, where Tambor (George Kluger is his actual name) asks Alicia out on a date. What!? He doesn’t know she’s married to the Governor? Sure, there’s rumors of sleeping in separate bedrooms or what have you, but this is a bonkers thing for someone to do. I guess… we’ll see where that goes. Their rapport had been established, but I was still taken aback.
Over at Lockhart/Gardner, Will makes an impulsive new hire, a bruising lawyer for criminals played by Jason O’Mara—who seemingly dropped right out of The Boondock Saints (that is not a compliment). I have always thought O’Mara was a fun enough actor, but it’s crazy how hard TV has tried to force him on us. Over the years, he’s had guest stints or starring roles in Grey’s Anatomy, Men In Trees (remember that one!?), Life On Mars, Terra Nova, Vegas, the list goes on and on. Well, here he is again, sporting his natural Irish accent this time.
His character, Damian Boyle, is a shifty sort who represents all sorts of dodgy criminals and thinks the best way to deal with Florrick/Agos is to steal their office furniture. I didn’t hate any of his scenes, but I’ve been reviewing this show long enough that an alarm bell immediately started ringing in my head, and jumped to turbo when he flirted with Kalinda. Does Kalinda need a third aggressive male love interest, after Blake from season two (ugh) and he-who-must-not-be-named from last year? I say she does not. I don’t know if the firm needs Damian Boyle, but we will see. At least he’s kinda funny.
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Finally, I rolled my eyes the second Eli forbade Jackie from doing something (rejecting a replacement candidate for Diane’s judgeship). Eli, you know you can’t do that shit! Jackie is unstoppable! When she wants something, she gets it! Let’s forget that she used to be a frail, demented bat, now she’s the finest political operator in all of Illinois and we’re happier for it. Jackie has good reason for hating on Rachel (Mary Stuart Masterson)—as a young clerk, she slept with Jackie’s husband, Peter’s deceased father, who is hilariously only referred to as “The Judge.” (Was Peter’s husband Judge Dredd? Should Peter walk around saying “I AM THE LAW”?)
Anyway, as silly as this storyline was, props to Mary Beth Peil for nailing her emotional material, more than she usually gets on this show. The wound being dredged up was an old one, but still fresh enough in her mind, and one she wanted to keep buried. Her maneuvering to keep Rachel out of the judgeship was aggressive and a little scary, but we understood her motivation. More Jackie storylines like this wouldn’t be untoward. And, hell. The Judge. Let’s never forget about The Judge.
Stray observations:
God, Will is losing his mind. “There are friends I have that I defend no matter what.” “Do they have money? Then it’s not a problem.”
“You’re the world’s number-one mom?” “Well, I have my moments.”
“You can call me Mr. Feet.” “No thanks.”
I know Reddit doesn’t have “pimp points,” but maybe it should.Estia (Greek: Ἑστία) means "home" in Greek. It has also lent its name to a Greek national daily broadsheet newspaper published in Athens, Greece. It was founded in 1876 as a literary magazine and then in 1894 has been transformed into a newspaper, making it Greece’s oldest daily newspaper still in circulation. It is named after the ancient Greek goddess Hestia, one of the Twelve Olympians. Estia is widely regarded as right wing in terms of political alignment and most often referred to as “conservative” and “nationalist” and is readily distinguishable as the only Greek newspaper still employing the old-fashioned polytonic system of accentuation. An “opinion newspaper” with a writing style acknowledged to be “incisive” and with a loyal readership also described as “exclusive”, Estia is often treated not merely as a newspaper but as “an institution of bourgeois Athens”. On the 120th anniversary of its publication (March 12, 2014), the President of Greece Karolos Papoulias issued a congratulatory note[1] crediting the contribution of Estia to public life. Run as a family business for more than a century (1898–2015) and successively managed by the descendants of Adonis Kyrou, Estia is currently owned, through “Estia Newspaper S.A.”, by Ioannis Filippakis.[2]
Language [ edit ]
In the 1980s and 1990s, Estia was the only daily written in katharevousa, a purist and archaic form of modern Greek that was abolished as the official administrative language in 1976. In recent years, however, Estia has adopted a conservative form of Standard Modern Greek. Estia is also the only daily employing the polytonic system of accentuation, which was officially abandoned following legislation in 1982; Estia, nevertheless, uses a simplified polytonic orthography in which the grave accent is replaced by the acute.
Format and layout [ edit ]
The paper's very first edition was misprinted, with Page 1 being on the back and Page 2 on the front. Adonis Kyrou I decided to keep printing the paper the same way, and the tradition continued to 1997, when it was abandoned because of technical difficulties arising from the change from linotype machines to computer-editing.
Estia did not switch to a modern computer system until 1997. At that time Unicode-enabled software had become more widely available and it was possible to continue printing the newspaper in the polytonic system. Until then, the newspaper continued to be set and printed using Linotype machines. Estia is one of the few Greek newspapers printed in broadsheet format. It normally contains only about eight pages a day. There are no pictures on the "front" page, and no colour photographs at all.
The paper's most popular column has always been the feuilleton "Pennies, Eidisoules, Perierga" (Strokes, small news, curiosities), noted for its dry, acerbic wit.
History [ edit ]
In 1876, Pavlos Diomidis founded a weekly publication named Ἑστία, which was a literary magazine similar to the present-day Nea Estia (Νέα Ἑστία) rather than a news-focused paper. Not until 1894 did the well-known poet and journalist Georgios Drosinis transform it into a daily newspaper about politics, culture and finance. In 1941, during the occupation of Greece by the German army, Estia closed, but soon after the liberation it resumed its publication. Estia has been managed by the Kyrou family for more than 120 years. Adonis Kyrou was its publisher from 1898 to 1918, Achilleus A. Kyrou and Kyros A. Kyrou from 1918 to 1950, Kyros A. Kyrou from 1950 to 1974, and Adonis K. Kyrou from 1974 until 1997, when the paper was taken over by Kyrou's nephew Alexis Zaousis.I am really excited to shared this bread with you. If you have never tasted beer bread, you don’t know what you are missing. It is sweet, buttery, moist and chewy. Every time I have beer bread I am utterly amazed at how delicious it is. It is great simply with butter, but imagine grilled ham and cheese with this bread (link for grilled ham and cheese recipe found here).
Incredible.
Now this bread is not with just any beer. This bread is made with Guinness. The classic Irish stout has a wonderful flavour and with every bite of this bread you can taste the Guinness. It is amazing because the taste of Guinness is present but not overpowering.
Not only do I love the flavour of this bread, but I also love how easy it is to make. There is no yeast in this bread, so there is no kneading required. There is also no need to let it rest and rise. This bread uses baking powder and that along with the carbonation of the Guinness it gets all the lift it needs. You can get this bread in the oven within 10 minutes. It is that easy to make.
So, if you have never had beer bread before, I encourage you to give it a try. It doesn’t have to be Guinness either. You could try various beers to get different flavours. Once you try, this bread will be in your regular rotation of ‘to-make’ foods!A few weeks after announcing that Uber would implement a panic button feature in its app for users in India after allegations of rape against a driver there, the company now says it’ll be launching the safety feature in Chicago soon as well.
Uber’s Midwest Regional Manager Andrew MacDonald confirmed the button to the Chicago Sun-Times, but didn’t offer a firm time frame on when the feature would be available in Chicago, saying only it’ll happen in the “next several months.”
The news comes after two Uber drivers were charged in Chicago recently with sexually assaulting passengers. Riders can press the button to alert the police in case of an emergency, but that’s about the only detail of how the process will work.
As for whether the panic button will eventually be an option for everyone, Uber General Manager Chris Taylor couldn’t confirm if Chicago is the first U.S. city to test the feature, but said that”as it is perfected, it will become something that is more broadly used.”
Uber’s MacDonald points out that there’s another safeguard in place, mainly that both riders and drivers give personal information to Uber, and the whole trip is tracked by GPS.
“The reality of it is, if you have bad intent, an Uber trip is the worst place to commit a crime,”MacDonald said. “To put it crassly, you’re going to get caught.”
Uber panic button coming to its Chicago mobile app [Chicago Sun-Times]The shoplifter was caught red-handed at the California Walmart and taken to a back room by a store employee. Until recently, the next step might have been a call to the police, but, instead, the shoplifter was offered another option.
This story was published in collaboration with The Nation
He was shown a short video about how terrible a criminal record would be. He was told that if he confessed to his crime and agreed to participate in a privately run diversion program -- six hours of online behavior therapy---he could avoid arrest, a fine or worse. The cost was $400. The shoplifter would be billed. He signed up.
Later, it turned out, he didn’t have the money, not even the $50 minimum installment required to keep his case out of court. And while eventually he did end up in court, it was not as a defendant but as evidence in a 2015 suit brought by the San Francisco City Attorney, who asserted that the tactics used by the company, Corrective Education Company, were illegal. In fact, the City Attorney, Dennis Herrera, equated CEC’s business model with “a Hobson’s choice, which is really no choice at all.”
“This company has set up a private, pseudo-justice system that is based on profit,” he said, calling the program “textbook extortion.”
A Superior Court judge in San Francisco agreed.
In a ruling in mid-August, Judge Harold Kahn, barred CEC from operating in California, where the company has about 20 percent of its business.
The City Attorney’s office says it is in the process of working out an agreement with CEC to continue operations in California but would not disclose details.
Neither CEC nor Walmart responded to requests for comment. In a response to the lawsuit, filed two years ago, CEC issued a statement calling it “without merit.” After Judge Kahn’s ruling, the company posted on its blog that it was “a sad day for Californians” and predicted that “police will be inundated with calls from retailers.”
Walmart, which operates 4,600 retail outlets in the U.S., including Sam’s Club and other stores, says it has placed CEC programs in at least 2,000 stores across the country as a way to decrease losses from shoplifting. The National Retail Association has sponsored studies that indicate shoplifting is a substantial cause of store losses.
CEC does not staff the stores. But Walmart has said in the past that it hoped the diversion program would allow it to gradually cut back on security personnel. It has also said that contracting with CEC was a way for the company to give back to the community by drawing on fewer community resources, namely the police. Wal-Mart representatives say that the programs in its stores have reduced police calls by 35 percent.
CEC has said its business provides “restorative justice for retail theft,” offering a “second chance at accountability.” The company’s motto, emblazoned at the bottom of debt-collection letters, reads, “Together we are building a more responsible society…One individual at a time.”
Commentary Original analysis and perspectives from across the spectrum on criminal justice
While other big box retailers rely on CEC, or its competitors, Walmart remains the largest user of these shoplifting diversion programs at least in part because the chain has suffered from highly publicized increases in crime in and around Walmart locations.
CEC, which was started in 2011, markets itself to many stores as an effective and cost-free way to manage theft, advertising itself as completely “offender funded.” It provides the iPads, video software and scripts that store employees use to recruit shoplifters to the diversionary program. The employees also enter the names of the offenders into a proprietary database. This component of CEC is a big selling point to retailers, because it lets them track repeat offenders, who can then get sent straight to the cops.
The CEC program isn’t correlated to the cost of merchandise, so someone stealing polo shirts and a jacket for work from Bloomingdale’s pays the same as someone lifting a few toiletries from Walmart. The video, according to the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, also fails to properly explain the law. Instead, the City Attorney says, it frightens viewers by talking about the high cost of hiring a defense lawyer and makes no mention of constitutional rights or diversion programs available through county DA offices.
CEC says it has been highly successful, claiming only two percent recidivism among people who complete the program and a 90 percent success rate in getting people to sign up for the service after viewing the video. At the same time, the company acknowledges that the people who enter the program are often the least able to pay for it.
CEC acknowledged in its court filings that the company has never called law enforcement to turn over people who cannot pay or do not complete the program. According to data CEC provided in the course of the lawsuit, about 45 percent of people who sign an agreement with CEC never pay the fees.
Akiva Freidlin, a lawyer at the Southern Center for Human Rights who focuses on profiteering in the criminal justice system, said, “Pay-for-play ‘pretrial diversion’ schemes are one of the many avenues that allow private companies to earn a profit by extracting coerced ‘user fees’ from people ensnared in local criminal justice systems.”
But some groups remain supportive of CEC, including the National Retail Federation, which praises CEC’s program as a good way to solve the problems associated with shoplifting, with an emphasis on the utility of data collection to prevent repetitive thefts and with a nod to the common cause of social responsibility.
Law enforcement, too, is supportive in most states, seeing CEC as an opportunity for it to unload some of the costs associated with criminal justice and crime prevention. Walmart has claimed that there was a 35 percent decrease in police calls after it began the CEC program.
While it’s not yet clear what the effect of the lawsuit will be, there are already other jurisdictions where law enforcement has looked askance at CEC’s business practices. The prosecutor in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Patrick Harrington, told a local newspaper that he strongly disagreed with Walmart’s use of CEC programs, arguing that they are “open to abuse” and should be illegal. Harrington says he asked the State Attorney General’s office to investigate. The Minnesota legislature is considering a bill that would make CEC-type programs illegal in the state.An overwhelming majority of Americans believe undocumented immigrants pose a threat to the American way of life, according to a new poll.
Some 70 percent of Americans and 86 percent of Republicans believe that undocumented immigrants threaten traditional US beliefs and customs, according to an online Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday. Nearly two-thirds of respondents – 63 percent – said that undocumented immigrants place undue burden on the US economy.
Forty-five percent of respondents said that they feel that the number of immigrants allowed to legally enter the country should be reduced; only 17 percent said they thought that number should increase. That's in sharp contrast to opinions expressed six months ago in a February Pew Research Center poll, which found that nearly three-quarters of Americans would support a legal path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
That was before news broke in June that more than 50,000 unaccompanied children, mostly from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala had been apprehended at the border since October. Since then, immigration has leaped to the forefront of the national dialogue in recent months.
Immigration could be a dominant issue in the upcoming midterm elections and could drive more Republican voters to the polls, Ipsos pollster Chris Jackson speculated in a Reuters interview. Immigration is already a contentious issue in Colorado, Arkansas, and Arizona. Even in New England, more than 2,000 miles from the border, Senate candidate Scott Brown has evoked immigration as a key issue. In May, Mr. Brown launched an offensive campaign ad criticizing incumbent Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D) of New Hampshire of “pro-amnesty policies.”
The number of Americans citing immigration as the No. 1 national problem jumped from just 5 percent in June to 17 percent in July, according to a July Pew Research Center poll.
The Obama administration has zeroed in on immigration as a major priority. The president said in June that he would be forced to take executive action if Congress failed to pass meaningful immigration reform by the end of the summer. As of Aug. 1, the day federal lawmakers left Washington for a five-week summer recess; no such legislation had been passed.
One respondent to the new poll, retiree Tom Vanderbur of Denver, expressed frustration with legislators for their inaction but added that he did not think that granted the president license to take unilateral action.
“I don’t think that he has a right to just make those kinds of decisions on his own,” said Mr. Vanderbur, a registered Democrat.
A second poll, released Wednesday by CBS, found that only 31 percent of Americans are satisfied with Obama’s current handling of immigration.
Further executive action could drive Republican voters to the polls this November and fuel impeachment talk, political analysts say.
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“If President Obama issues a jarring set of executive actions on legalization he could be handing the Senate to the GOP,” Republican strategist Ford O’Connell told Reuters.
This report includes material from Reuters.So you’re thinking about using digital currency Bitcoin as part of your business?
The virtual currency founded in 2009 is still too new to benefit most startups, but it is popular enough to attract attention from regulators. So some companies could pioneer a new niche to profit from its potential to ease international payments and online sales.
There is a huge opportunity to design an economy of businesses that accepts payments for goods and services using the virtual coin, which is not controlled by any government and is accepted worldwide, said Patrick Murck, general counsel of the Bitcoin Foundation, which acts as a hub for Bitcoin users. However, there is little need for more Bitcoin infrastructure businesses, such as currency exchanges that transfer Bitcoins into dollars, Murck explained.
“Bitcoin is still an experimental thing, and you should only put into it the time and money you can afford to lose,” Murck said candidly.
The companies best suited for Bitcoin payments are digital content providers, mobile application providers, social gaming companies, and companies that make international payments, Murck said. The reason for this is because one Bitcoin can be divided into fractions much smaller than a penny, allowing users to make small purchases on apps and games without transaction fees, he explained.
Companies that accept international payments can also benefit from Bitcoin use because the digital currency eliminates the red tape of exchange rates, Murck said.
“Bitcoin is the first global currency,” Murck said.
Accepting payments in Bitcoins is also a fast way to get media publicity. New York City bar Evr and San Francisco-based Cups and Cakes Bakery both accept payments in Bitcoins, and have been reported on by media outlets including CNN and Forbes.
Bitcoin is not controlled by any government, but anybody who accepts the digital currency still needs to stay on the good side of regulators. Japan-based Bitcoin exchange service Mt. Gox did not register as a money-transmitting service with the US government, so the Department of Homeland Security cut off its access to one of its US-based accounts.
Regulators at the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) want any business that exchanges Bitcoins for US dollars to register with the government to ensure Bitcoin does not become a venue for money laundering, according to Steve Hudak, chief of public affairs at FinCEN.
If a company accepts transactions for goods and services in Bitcoins without transferring them to US dollars, they “generally do not” need to register with FinCEN, Hudak added.
“Our intention is to focus on where real money is being exchanged for virtual money,” Hudak said. “We are not making statements about the nature of money.”
Even if companies don’t exchange Bitcoins for dollars, they still need to include Bitcoin income on tax statements, said Dan Friedberg, a financial services attorney at the law firm of Graham & Dunn. The Internal Revenue Service has not issued formal guidance on how to file Bitcoins as taxes.
“Even if it is not U.S. dollars, if you are getting something of value, you have to register it as income,” Friedberg said.
Speaking of US dollars, Friedberg said investors should remember that the value of Bitcoin fluctuates constantly. Check the value of the digital currency here on BitcoinWatch. As of June 13, one Bitcoin was worth $109. Bitcoin began 2013 valued at around $13.
Keeping an eye on state regulations is also a good idea if companies want to operate as a currency exchange for Bitcoins, Friedberg said. Fortunately, startups that want to accept payments in Bitcoins can sell their coins to services such as BitPay and CoinBase, which will accept coins and deposit dollars into a bank account, eliminating the need to become a registered currency exchange.
Bitcoin is an evolving currency, and the Bitcoin Foundation is available to answer any questions from entrepreneurs and investors, Murck said.
Guest author Tom Risen remembers LAN parties and custom-building computers before the rise of the smartphone. He started reporting on the tech stock market at the Medill School of Journalism, and has written about the tech industry for Government Executive, National Journal, Slate, Policy and Regulatory Report, and for newspapers in Maryland and California. He’s on Twitter @TomRisen.MEPs can claim £120,000 a year in expenses without providing “real proof" of how the money is spent, because EU officials don't want to saddle them with an "administrative burden" which would hamper their freedom, a court heard.
EU expenses chief Frank Antoine-Poirel said that only on “very limited occasions” would MEPs be asked for “real proof” of where MEPs allowances ended up.
"It would create an administrative burden for members and the consequences on the freedom of actions for the members so we do not want to interfere with their detailed political activities.”
"It would create an administrative burden for members and the consequences on the freedom of actions for the members so we do not want to interfere with their detailed political activities.” Frank Antoine-Poirel, EU expenses chief
Mr Antoine-Poirel, head of the EU’s Parliamentary Assistance and Members' General Expenditure Unit, admitted he had never seen the bank accounts of long-serving Labour MEP Peter Skinner, who is accused of using his expenses to pay £10,000 to his ex-wife.
Skinner, 56, is also alleged to have used some of the cash to repair the gearbox on his ex-wife Julie Skinner's Land Rover Discovery and funded hotel stays, restaurants and jewellery by claiming a maximum £480,000 for support staff over five years.
One member of staff, Karen Forbes, was said to have invoiced the former MEP for the South East of England Region, for more than £122,000 in 2005, but worked at Tesco and was actually paid just £525 a month, Southwark Crown Court has heard.
Mr Antoine-Poirel, a parliamentary ombudsman tasked with establishing the difference between genuine mistakes and misuse of funds, said: "It would create an administrative burden for members and the consequences on the freedom of actions for the members so we do not want to interfere with their detailed political activities.”
He added: “We trust members, so when they declare things have been done according to the rules, it’s our decision to confirm whether the payments have been reasonable.”
Mr Antoine-Poirel told the jury that Skinner had provided all the documentary evidence he had asked for as part of his investigation into his expenses in 2014.
He then produced a letter, signed by a judicial commissioner, stating that all the funds could be traced and there was no outstanding amount to be recovered.
However, he admitted that he never found out what justified payments to Mr Skinner’s former wife in 2006 and acknowledged that she was not a “proper destination” for EU funds.
He said Mr Skinner had told him he had sometimes given advance payments to trainees and so certain payments could be deemed a reimbursement of that expense.
Paulo Campilho, head of the EU budget unit and Mr Antoine-Poirel’s predecessor, said that the specific role of Karen Forbes was of no concern and that they did not take responsibility for checking that salaries and taxes were paid.
As a result, they had not requested evidence from her bank accounts.
Had they had any inkling that the account was controlled by Skinner, an inquiry would have been launched, he admitted.
He told the jury it was not acceptable to give an ex-wife a car as part of a divorce settlement, or to pay for it to be repaired with parliamentary funds.
“We trust members, so when they declare things have been done according to the rules, it’s our decision to confirm whether the payments have been reasonable.” Frank Antoine-Poirel, EU expenses chief
Mr Campilho told the court that EU rules state that a contract must be drawn up between an MEP and anyone working for them, although there was no guidance about how much detail should be provided.
He said the expenses rules had been relaxed after pressure from some MEPs and that since 2007, politicians were not required to submit invoices, just a list of people who had been paid. The expenses unit was told “not to chase the members to comply with the rules”.
But invoices had to be kept in case further investigation was required, he said.
Skinner was entitled to claim a Parliamentary Assistance Allowance (PAA) to cover the costs of any assistants he employed but allegedly misused the allowance over three years by using it to pay for personal expenses.
Between 2004 and 2009 he claimed the maximum possible amount in PAA, claiming it was for his assistants.
Skinner, from Snodland, Kent, claimed in interview the money in his account was being set aside as a "redundancy reserve" in order to protect his staff if they were to find themselves suddenly out of a job.
He denies two counts of making a false instrument, one count of fraud and one count of false accounting. The trial continues.If you typically follow GPU performance as it related to gaming but have become curious about Bitcoin mining, you’ve probably noticed and been surprised by the fact that AMD GPUs are the uncontested performance leaders in the market. This is in stark contrast to the PC graphics business, where AMD’s HD 7000 series has been playing a defensive game against Nvidia’s GK104 / GeForce 600 family of products. In Bitcoin mining, the situation is almost completely |
">
<condition field="destination_number" expression="^(.*)$">
<action application="set" data="domain_name=$${domain}"/>
<action application="transfer" data="1000 XML default"/>
</condition>
</extension>
</include> In order to secure your FreeSwitch it is wise to link your outbound profile to a dialplan context other than 'default', which in the default configuration is the where authenticated users are placed.
Note: The nat.xml file (and profile) have been deprecated. Use the external profile and port 5080.
Scripts can access Freeswitch through its Even Socket Library.
http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/Javascript_Examples
Diaplans
For security reason, it is recommended to link the outbound profile ("External") to its own dialplan, different from the one used for internal calls ("Internal", previously known as "Default").
By default, note that the Internal profile listens for incoming connections on UDP5060 while the External profile listens on UDP5080.
http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/Dialplan_XML
Freeswitch and NAT firewalls
Here are some ports that Freeswitch uses and will have to go through firewalls:
UDP 3478: STUN service; Used for NAT traversal
UDP 3479: STUN service; Used for NAT traversal
UDP/TCP 5060: SIP UAS; Used for SIP signalling (Standard SIP Port, for default Internal Profile)
UDP/TCP 5070: SIP UAS; Used for SIP signalling (For default "NAT" Profile)
UDP/TCP 5080: SIP UAS; Used for SIP signalling (For default "External" Profile)
UDP 16384-32768: RTP/ RTCP multimedia streaming; Used for audio/video data in SIP and other protocols
General NAT example scenarios
Securing Freeswitch
This is especially important if the Freeswitch box is open to the Internet to let remote SIP users connect to FS, or access a web server running on the same box.
Remove any unneeded applications Disable unneeded services Use a NAT firewall, especially one that can capture illegitimate login requests and block those IP addresses from getting into your system Configure SSH and Apache to listen to non-standard ports Create a user account specifically to be used with SSH, and configure SSH to only allow connections from this user (eg. useradd mysshuser; passwd mysshuser; vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config : AllowUsers mysshusers AND PermitRootLogin no AND Port 196; restart SSHd) SIP: Choose secure passwords for accounts, and double-check the SIP profiles that allow dialing out through the POTS
Hardware
Cases
Compact PCs without PCI slot
Sources to check for this type of hardware: www.linuxdevices.com
Compact PCs with PCI slot
Intel Atom-based motherboards
Non-Intel motherboards
Soekris
PCEngines
Gumstix
SheevaPlug
BlackFin (processor)
Asterisk Appliances
AstBoxes (168.00 EUR; 2GB CompactFlash; No FXO port, but room for PCI card at right-angle)
uCpbx (From Rowetel; IP01 $195; IP04 235.00 EUR)
Atcom (IP01 based on design by Rowetel; 256MB flash memory; £160+VAT)
PIKA WARP Appliance $725
http://www.micro-asterisk.com/ $550
Trixbox (formally Asterisk@Home) Price unknown but probably on the pricier side
EdgeBox
Full alternative hardware
Seagate Dockstar
Raspberry Pi
SwitchPi project.
Planex MZK-W04NU
Planex MZK-W04NU
No longer sold in Japan, but still available overseas
60€
Recommended by the OpenWrt community
http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/OpenWrt
SheevaPlug
If based on ARM, FreeSwitch may run on this (doc)
http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Debian-for-NSLU2-and-SheevaPlug/
Linksys WRT54
FritzBox 7270
Linksys NSLU2
Discontinued
Linksys NSLU2
85€
Q&A
In vars.xml, what is default_password used for?
<X-PRE-PROCESS cmd="set" data="default_password=1234"/>
It's the SIP default password if none given in user files under conf/directory/default/:
# cat 1000.xml <include> <user id="1000" mailbox="1000"> <params> <param name="password" value="$${default_password}"/> <param name="vm-password" value="1000"/> </params>
What are the options to connect a FS server to a POTS line?
To act as a VoIP gateway, you can use external solutions like Sangoma's USB device, or Ethernet-based solutions like Linksys' SPA-3102 or GrandStream's HT503.
If you'd rather use a PCI card: As of April 2009, FS' OpenZAP interface can talk to hardware either directly (only Sangoma cards are supported), or indirectly through the Zaptel interface (which isn't available for Windows).
How to configure routers to allow remote IP clients to connect to Freeswitch and/or POTS VoIP gateway?
SIP TCP/UDP 5060 - 5090
RTP UDP 16384 - 32768
? What about the connection between VoIP gateway and a remote SIP client?
How to install FS as a service in Windows?
http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/FreeSwitch_FAQ#Applications
What is mod_spidermonkey?
The Mozilla SpiderMonkey Javascript (ECMA Script) engine
What is mod_sofia?
"This module wraps the sofia SIP library from Nokia."
How to check my voicemail?
Articles to read in the Freeswitch wiki
Other stuff to read
Dial 4000, followed by the extension # and password (with the test accounts, password=extension)
SIP and NAT firewalls
local setup (FreeSwitch and SIP phones)
remote setup (SIP phone + possible utility to check that the firewall is SIP-friendly)
Options: STUN + port maping, UPnP or nat-pmp (to automate port mapping), IAX
ATCOM IAX Hard phones (530P?)
DIAX softphone (looks ugly)
I've used both AT530 and AT530P ip phones, they have good voice quality and somehow resistent to harsh environment like offices ;), except the keypad which after a year or more just sometimes types two digits with one push on a button. The AG188N ATA is also a good choise and we have some installation which work without any problem yet.
http:// www.snomindia.com/snomsoftphone.htm
http://www.zoiper.com
Pika Warp : their support and development enviroment sucks
http://www.pikatechnologies.com
http://pikawarp.org/?page_id=172
http://blackfin.uclinux.org/gf/project/asterisk/forum/?_forum_action=ForumMessageBrowse&thread_id=36059&action=ForumBrowse&forum_id=120
http://www.rowetel.com/ucasterisk/baps.html
http://www.rowetel.com/ucasterisk/
http://forum.voiptel.no/index.php?board=1.0
http://forum.voiptel.no/index.php?board=3.0
http://blog.voiptel.no/
http://www.plugcomputer.org/
http://hackaday.com/2009/02/25/sheevaplug-tiny-linux-server/
http://www.dataevolution.com/dectop %20info%202.htm
http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/1081
http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/D945GSEJT/D945GSEJT-overview.htm
http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/1058
http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/1087
http://www.amazon.com/IEEE802-11N-Wireless-Broadband-MZK-W04NU-Designed/dp/B000YDS0YG
What to Do With a $99 Wall Wart Linux Server
GSM gateways: EdgePBX, PORTech MV-370, OpenVox G400P (+ at least one GSM module + SIM card)
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Greenfield/?p=233
http://robsmart.co.uk/2009/06/02/freeswitch_linksys3102/
http://www.aoakley.com/articles/2008-01-08.php
http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/SPA3102_FreeSwitch_HowTo
ResourcesTALLAHASSEE | A new Florida law that speeds up how quickly the state carries out the death penalty is being challenged in the state Supreme Court.
Lawyers Neal Dupree and Bill Jennings -- who head the state agencies that represent death row inmates after they're convicted -- are leading a lawsuit filed Wednesday afternoon against Attorney General Pam Bondi and the state of Florida. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include more than 100 current death row inmates.
Signed by Gov. Rick Scott earlier this month, the Timely Justice Act of 2013 creates tighter timeframes for appeals and postconviction motions and imposes reporting requirements on case progress. It also re-establishes a separate agency for North Florida to provide appellate-level legal representation to inmates sentenced to death and requires them to "pursue all possible remedies in state court."
Scott said in his signing statement that the state's current death row inmates who have exhausted their judicial appeals have been awaiting execution for an average of 22 years.
The lawsuit claims the new law unconstitutionally usurps the court's powers and violates convicts' constitutional rights to due process and equal protection. The challenge also asks for an injunction to keep the law from going into effect on Monday.
Florida currently has more than 400 inmates on its death row, more than any other state except California.
Two former death row inmates who were exonerated have said they fear the changes could lead to the execution of people who are innocent. Seth Penalver was exonerated after 18 years in prison, while Herman Lindsey was freed after three years in prison.
Twenty-four men have been exonerated from Florida's death row since 1973, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Scott has previously disputed the idea that the new law would increase the risk of the execution of those who were innocent. He also has contended the changes called for in the new law would increase some of the legal protections for inmates.Modeling with a toy potty and a doll is not only funny for some children, it helps get the point across.
Prior to the actual act of potty training talk to the child of what they are going to be learning. Diaper changing times are a great time to enthusiastically share the news. Don't forget YOU will set the tone so be happy and enthusiastic.
Track your child's eating and diaper change habits for one week. Document times. Use these times as your future potty times.
Consider keeping your child diaper-less as you potty train. This will require you to be very vigilant. Many moms swear that this is the surest and quickest way to potty train.
Buy big girl panties or underwear with your child. Be enthusiastic about the purchase.
Have your child help pick out their potty chair from the store. Make this a big event filled with enthusiasm and praise.
Select a wardrobe of easy to remove pants and shorts. You don't want to frustrate your child with busy buttons and zippers.
All of these tips and tricks will help keep potty training on the forefront. You don't want to take your child by surprise. This can immediately lead to a meltdown and delayed success. Be patient and understanding. Children can quickly pick up on your emotions. One of the most important things that I have learned is that although my son did not look at me in the eye he knew my mood. Therefore, plan for the event and make your child a part of the planning. This will help ensure your mutual success.In an apparent attempt to appeal to working class voters, earlier this week the Democratic Party released its new slogan for 2018, “A Better Deal: Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages.” Of course, this slogan sounded very familiar to most. First, it is an extended version of a message Tim Kaine trotted out back in May. And then, of course, there is its striking similarity to Papa John’s slogan. Which led Twitter users to relentlessly mock the Democratic Party for its lack of originality and its inability to interpret the mood and the needs of the country.
What do we want? Better Jobs, Better Wages, Better Healthcare
How do we get it? Better Democrats! — Bad John Brown (@BadJohnBrown) July 20, 2017
But NOT "Better Ingredients" so I'll be sticking with Papa John's thank you very much https://t.co/ewenUZkZuK — Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) July 20, 2017
And my personal favorite:
How about "Democrats 2018: Feed the poor. Heal the sick. Eat the Rich. " https://t.co/XiJ1R5TPFJ — Scott Wooledge? (@Clarknt67) July 20, 2017
Not to be outdone by the Democratic Party’s tone-deafness, on Saturday, Amanda Marcotte penned an article titled, Democrats are Still Chasing Rural White Voters, and it’s a Strategy Doomed to Fail. In analyzing negative reaction to the slogan, Marcotte set out to explain what she considered fundamental errors in the Democratic Party’s strategy. Unfortunately, what she showed is that, similar to the Democratic Party, she just doesn’t get it.
Let me say that I am a white rural voter, I have a graduate school education, and I am also the working poor and uninsured. I am not an anomaly in America today; however, judging by Marcotte’s article people like me are simply a thing that does not or cannot exist. In Marcotte’s opinion, the sheer nature of my white ruralness makes me “committed to culture war” and more interested in using the “Republican Party as a cudgel to beat up the people that threaten [me]” than I am in healthcare, jobs, and wages.
In fact, Marcotte argues that it doesn’t even matter what policies Democrats offer because people like me “aren’t really moved by policy”. We are considered disinclined to vote for Democrats because we perceive them “as snooty, educated, racially diverse city-dwellers.” Marcotte further argues that Democrats should “give up” on people like me, “and instead put their resources towards organizing voters of color, as well as urban whites (particularly women), who embrace these cultural shifts, and try to increase turnout with those groups.”
So there you have it, using the language of the elitist, snooty, educated, city-dweller, Marcotte writes off tens of millions of Americans as not worthy of the Democratic Party’s time. Which makes a grubby little hick like me wonder, does Marcotte not understand that this is the very message the Democratic Party has been sending its voters in neglected rural areas for decades?
Unsurprisingly, Marcotte transposes the cause and the effect. It is because the Democratic Party abandoned rural working class voters that the GOP has been able to effectively use cultural issues to their advantage across the country. What’s worse, it has largely been strategic neglect. For example, in Whistling Past Dixie, political scientist Thomas F. Schaller encourages the Democratic party to completely concede the South to the Republicans, arguing:
If the Democrats can simultaneously expand and solidify their existing margins of control in the Northeast and Pacific Coast states…the Democrats can build a national majority with no help from the South in presidential elections and little help from southern votes elsewhere down the ballot.
While Marcotte believes the Democrat’s new slogan is intended to woo voters like me (i.e. dumb white hicks who hate Democrats for their Democraticness), it misses the point. Contrary to what Marcotte believes, no matter their race, rural voters don’t give a damn about political party slogans. When the country’s economy takes a nose dive, poor and working class voters are the first to feel it, and they are the last to recover from it. The only thing we give a damn about is policy, and policy is how you get us to the polls.
Right now there is one very obvious place to for the Democratic Party to start if it is interested in winning back the country, and that is Medicare For All.
As noted by Sammy Kayes in, Medicare-For-All Can Unite the Left―and the American People:
Healthcare is one of the few issues that has the potential to quickly overcome political ideology. You won’t find many conservatives and neoliberals on their deathbed arguing about the joys of a healthcare free-market. Not any honest ones, at least. Everyone wants healthcare. Nobody wants to lose it. And an issue that is traditionally “left-wing,” and which the entire left can agree on, is the issue of the day. This is our moment to build a people’s movement. Medicare-for-All is the strongest point around which to unite.
This rural voter agrees with Sammy. Of course, Marcotte argues that racism is the driving force behind the white rural voter’s contempt toward ACA. In her misguided opinion, the policy is “a secondary concern to the desire of angry white conservatives to exert or reassert their cultural dominance” and “the loathing of Obamacare: It was the “Obama” part, not the “care” part.” This is, of course, batsh*t. I happen to live in one of the 19 States that did not expand Medicaid, which has left millions without health care coverage, and millions more unable to afford their mandated healthcare coverage under ACA.
Papa John's full motto is actually "Better Ingredients, Better Pizza, Obamacare Is So Bad It Will Bankrupt Me" — Tim (@PapaBearsTweets) July 20, 2017
While Marcotte and Schaller argue that abandoning voters in some of the poorest regions of the country to economically and socially regressive GOP policies is a winning recipe for the Democratic Party, clearly the last 10 years would indicate that they are absolutely wrong. It’s really quite simple, if the Democratic Party actually wants to win, it might want to turn to voters rather than allowing overpriced political consultants to run their campaigns and relying on out-of-touch media elites and academics to forecast the mood of the country. Clearly, most of these individuals have proven to be abject failures in this regard.
Perhaps it isn’t obvious to Democrats yet, but their day of reckoning for decades of neglect came on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. And after months of weasel words, deflections, distractions, and the Democrat’s outright sabotage of California’s Single-Payer bill, support for the party has only further eroded. Unfortunately for establishment Democrats, progressives have witnessed enormous gains in advancing our agenda over the last year. In fact, just this weekend Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that Democrats are now open to Single-Payer health care.
Of course, voters have no reason to put their full-faith behind the words of Democratic Party leadership. Nonetheless, the fact that they have changed their tune on the issue over the last few months indicates that progressive activism is working and Democrats are feeling threatened. So, on we fight, until we have replaced all Democrats who allow special interest groups and industry dictate Democratic policy in this country. There is no better place to start taking this country back than with the very people in those rural and rust belt regions that the Democratic Party abandoned 35 years ago.Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge isn’t due to release for a few more weeks, but it looks like one of the first reviews is already here. The video uploaded by BeginnersTech on YouTube explains the standout “Edge” features of the device, provides a closer look at the hardware/software, and offers some opinions on the new dual-curved device.
We initially went hands-on with the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge at MWC 2015, and while the launch is right around the corner it appears that Ryan from BeginnersTech managed to get his hands on the device early. If you’re curious as to how this device compares to the Galaxy S6, check out our hands-on/comparison video, but you can find the early review video below…
As for specifications, Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge packs a 5.1-inch QHD display with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 (577 ppi), an Exynos Octa-Core processor (quad-core 2.1GHz + quad-core 1.5GHz), 3GB of RAM, 32/64/128GB of internal storage (depending on the model), and a 2,600 mAh battery with built-in Qi/Fast Charge technology. It’s also running the latest version of Android 5.0 Lollipop with Samsung’s TouchWiz overlay.
The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge both feature a 16-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization and the ability to shoot up to 4K/UHD video. Along with that, the front-facing 5-megapixel camera can shoot up to 1080p video. Photo samples are also included in the video below and appear to be crisp and clear, but we’ll put the camera through some additional testing in our full review.
Check out the early review video below:
You’ll still find the heart rate sensor on the back side, but around the front Samsung has greatly improved its fingerprint scanner. This time around, Samsung has completely rethought the inner-workings of the fingerprint scanner and it works much better than the one found on the Galaxy S5, Alpha, Note 4, and Note Edge. In our testing during Samsung’s press event, it was just as functional as Apple’s Touch ID sensor found on the iPhone 6. For a video comparison between those two devices, check out this article.
The video closely examines Samsung’s TouchWiz interface as we saw during our initial hands-on with the device. Not much has changed, but Samsung has cleaned up everything a little bit and pulled back on some of the bloatware that has previously been included on Galaxy devices. It’s hard to say if any carriers will add additional apps and services to the software once the device is officially available, but I guess we’ll have to wait a little longer for that answer.
For more information about the Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge, check out our MWC 2015 coverage for hands-on videos, comparisons, and more. As always, stay tuned for our official review of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge coming up in the near future.Some students of the Google Summer of Code are required to make a weekly report describing their activities. As far as I know, I’m not, but I think it’s a good idea in general, to comunicate to my mentor and other interested folks what I’ve been doing. So I’ll start to do them here.
My project is Implementing the Immix Garbage Collector Algorithm on GHC.
Last week I was most of the time involved in my school activities, so I didn’t have much time to work on the project. I went to the bureaucratic services of my university to get a Proof of Enrollment in English, print/sign/scanned the Foreign Certification Form and sent them to Google on Friday afternoon. I asked them to confirm the receival, which they didn’t. I’m planning to ask again for a confirmal today in the afternoon, if I still get no reply.
I also tried to build the current version of GHC, from the darcs repository. I was getting an error with my old (and updated) repository, so I donwnloaded a new one and could build nicely. Then I noticed that with make distclean I could also build with my older one, so I just removed the new. I downloaded the nofib benchmark suite and made an initial benchmark.
While I was reading the documentation of the build process of GHC, I noticed a bug, and submitted a patch to the cvs-ghc mailing list. The patch was applied, with some changes.
This week I plan to focus more on the project, and spend the weekly 36 hours working on it. I’m planning to start reading the Immix Technical Report to see if there’s anything new there with regard to the article. After that I’ll read the wiki documentation on the GHC current GC, together with the GHC source code. I’ll also experiment with Criterion.
While I was writing this post I noticed that the GC benchmark in nofib is failing:
==nofib== fibheaps: time to run fibheaps follows... /usr/bin/time../../runstdtest/runstdtest./fibheaps -o1 fibheaps.stdout -o1 fibheaps.stdout -ghc-timing 300000; /usr/bin/time../../runstdtest/runstdtest./fibheaps -o1 fibheaps.stdout -o1 fibheaps.stdout -ghc-timing 300000; /usr/bin/time../../runstdtest/runstdtest./fibheaps -o1 fibheaps.stdout -o1 fibheaps.stdout -ghc-timing 300000; /usr/bin/time../../runstdtest/runstdtest./fibheaps -o1 fibheaps.stdout -o1 fibheaps.stdout -ghc-timing 300000; /usr/bin/time../../runstdtest/runstdtest./fibheaps -o1 fibheaps.stdout -o1 fibheaps.stdout -ghc-timing 300000; Command exited with non-zero status 2 0.72user 0.05system 0:00.77elapsed 99%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 277664maxresident)k 0inputs+32outputs (0major+17695minor)pagefaults 0swaps././fibheaps 300000 < /dev/null **** expected exit status 0 not seen ; got 2././fibheaps 300000 < /dev/null expected stderr not matched by reality --- /tmp/no_stderr3559 2010-05-17 07:35:09.000000000 -0300 +++ /tmp/runtest3559.2 2010-05-17 07:35:10.000000000 -0300 @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Stack space overflow: current size 8388608 bytes. +Use `+RTS -Ksize -RTS' to increase it. Command exited with non-zero status 1 0.72user 0.06system 0:00.85elapsed 92%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 277664maxresident)k 368inputs+48outputs (1major+22085minor)pagefaults 0swaps Command exited with non-zero status 2 0.71user 0.04system 0:00.78elapsed 97%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 277664maxresident)k 0inputs+32outputs (0major+17694minor)pagefaults 0swaps././fibheaps 300000 < /dev/null **** expected exit status 0 not seen ; got 2././fibheaps 300000 < /dev/null expected stderr not matched by reality --- /tmp/no_stderr3578 2010-05-17 07:35:10.000000000 -0300 +++ /tmp/runtest3578.2 2010-05-17 07:35:11.000000000 -0300 @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Stack space overflow: current size 8388608 bytes. +Use `+RTS -Ksize -RTS' to increase it. Command exited with non-zero status 1 0.72user 0.06system 0:00.80elapsed 98%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 277664maxresident)k 0inputs+48outputs (0major+22093minor)pagefaults 0swaps Command exited with non-zero status 2 0.72user 0.06system 0:00.80elapsed 98%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 277680maxresident)k 0inputs+32outputs (0major+17696minor)pagefaults 0swaps././fibheaps 300000 < /dev/null **** expected exit status 0 not seen ; got 2././fibheaps 300000 < /dev/null expected stderr not matched by reality --- /tmp/no_stderr3597 2010-05-17 07:35:11.000000000 -0300 +++ /tmp/runtest3597.2 2010-05-17 07:35:12.000000000 -0300 @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Stack space overflow: current size 8388608 bytes. +Use `+RTS -Ksize -RTS' to increase it. Command exited with non-zero status 1 0.72user 0.07system 0:00.83elapsed 96%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 277680maxresident)k 0inputs+48outputs (0major+22095minor)pagefaults 0swaps Command exited with non-zero status 2 0.68user 0.08system 0:00.78elapsed 97%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 277680maxresident)k 0inputs+32outputs (0major+17695minor)pagefaults 0swaps././fibheaps 300000 < /dev/null **** expected exit status 0 not seen ; got 2././fibheaps 300000 < /dev/null expected stderr not matched by reality --- /tmp/no_stderr3616 2010-05-17 07:35:12.000000000 -0300 +++ /tmp/runtest3616.2 2010-05-17 07:35:12.000000000 -0300 @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Stack space overflow: current size 8388608 bytes. +Use `+RTS -Ksize -RTS' to increase it. Command exited with non-zero status 1 0.70user 0.09system 0:00.80elapsed 98%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 277680maxresident)k 0inputs+48outputs (0major+22089minor)pagefaults 0swaps Command exited with non-zero status 2 0.71user 0.06system 0:00.93elapsed 82%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 277680maxresident)k 0inputs+32outputs (0major+17695minor)pagefaults 0swaps././fibheaps 300000 < /dev/null **** expected exit status 0 not seen ; got 2././fibheaps 300000 < /dev/null expected stderr not matched by reality --- /tmp/no_stderr3635 2010-05-17 07:35:12.000000000 -0300 +++ /tmp/runtest3635.2 2010-05-17 07:35:13.000000000 -0300 @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Stack space overflow: current size 8388608 bytes. +Use `+RTS -Ksize -RTS' to increase it. Command exited with non-zero status 1 0.73user 0.06system 0:00.95elapsed 83%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 277680maxresident)k 0inputs+48outputs (0major+22089minor)pagefaults 0swaps make[1]: ** [runtests] Erro 1 Failed making all in fibheaps: 1 make: ** [all] Erro 1
Erro is error in Portuguese. I’ll investigate on that.
Anúncios
Curtir isso: Curtir Carregando... RelacionadoUndated publicity photo of AC/DC. (File)
Malcolm Young, a founding guitarist of the legendary band AC/DC, has dementia, the Sydney Morning Herald reports, and will not return to the band.
The band posted a statement on its Web site ahead of the release of its 17th studio album in December:
“Rock or Bust” is the first AC/DC album in the band’s 41 year history without founding member Malcolm Young on the recordings. Earlier this year AC/DC released a statement explaining that due to illness, Malcolm would be taking a break from the band. Unfortunately, due to the nature of Malcolm’s condition, he will not be returning.
It was reported earlier this year Young had a stroke “which left a bloodclot on his brain.” Now, the Herald is quoting unnamed “sources connected to the Young family” who say the guitarist is still unwell.
“If you were in the room with him and walked out, then came back in one minute later, he wouldn’t remember who you are,” the Herald’s source said. “He has a complete loss of short-term memory. His wife, Linda, has put him in full-time care.”
Young, a native of Scotland, founded AC/DC with his brother Angus in Australia in 1973. The band survived the death of Bon Scott, its hard-living frontman who sang classics such as “T.N.T.” and “Rocker,” in 1980. With replacement Brian Johnson out front, the band found success with the LP “Back in Black” — the second-best selling album of all time, according to the Richest. According to the band’s Web site, it has sold more than 200 million records.
Undated publicity photo of AC/DC. Malcolm Young is at far left, playing guitar. (File)
The band said Stevie Young, a nephew of Angus and Malcolm, would replace Malcolm on tour.
“Malcolm is a big inspiration to me; he keeps me on my feet,” Angus — the band’s flashy guitarist known for playing in a schoolboy uniform — told Guitar World earlier this year. “Even when I’m tired from running around the stage for two hours, I’ll look back at what he’s doing and it gives me that boot up the backside I sometimes need. … Mal’s a very tough critic, and I know that if I can please him, I can please the world. A lot of people say, ‘AC/DC — that’s the band with the little guy who runs around in school shorts!’ But I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without Malcolm and the other guys pumping out the rhythm. They make me look good.”
Here’s the band tearing it up in 1979.Diplomats arriving in Austrian capital warned that failure to agree end to deadlock over Iran’s nuclear programme is not an option
Iran, the US and other world powers meeting in Vienna this week are close to a historic, comprehensive agreement that could bring a permanent end to 12 years of deadlock over Iran’s nuclear programme.
With a deadline for the talks looming in a week’s time, diplomats are converging on the Austrian capital for the last stretch of marathon negotiations beginning Tuesday, with the outcome still in the balance.
Compromises have been found on previously contentious issues, and detailed text for different versions of a final deal has been drafted.
Some diplomats describe their work as 95% done, pending political decisions to be made in national capitals over Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium over the next few years, and the sequence in which international sanctions are lifted.
Several leading arms-control experts have argued that the residual obstacles are more political than substantial, determined by the need of President Barack Obama’s administration and President Hassan Rouhani’s reformist government in Iran to reassure conservatives at home, rather than by the actual requirements of Iran’s nuclear energy programme or genuine nonproliferation concerns.
There are also differences among the six-nation group involved in the negotiations with Iran. France has consistently been more opposed to nuclear concessions than the other five (the US, UK, Germany, Russia and China).
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, flew to Paris on 4 November for talks with Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, seeking assurances that he would not make a public intervention in the last few days of negotiations. In the closing stages of talks over the 2013 interim deal, Fabius warned against western concessions, saying Paris would not play along with a “fool’s game”.
Accounts vary as to whether Kerry was able to secure a guarantee from Fabius not to break ranks in the eleventh hour of talks.
“For Fabius, the ties with the Gulf Arabs – Saudi Arabia and Qatar – are much more important economically, and for French jobs in the next few years, than Iran,” said a French source familiar with the discussions. The Sunni monarchies in the Gulf are as opposed as Israel to western endorsement of an Iranian nuclear programme on any scale.
The consequences of a collapse in the negotiations could be serious and rapid. The US Congress is poised to impose fresh sanctions on Iran, and after the Republican capture of the Senate in this month’s elections it will be hard for Obama to sustain a veto on new punitive measures. In response, hardliners in Tehran are likely to demand an end to the partial freeze on the Iranian programme negotiated in an interim agreement a year ago. Mutual escalation could quickly push the 12-year nuclear standoff back to the brink of war. Israel has repeatedly threatened to take military action if diplomacy fails to contain Iran’s nuclear aspirations.
“I think extension is the least likely scenario because of the domestic political ramifications for all sides,” said Reza Marashi, a former state department official, who is research director of the National Iranian American Council in Washington. “In the words of the negotiators themselves: failure is not an option.”
Given the high stakes, all sides at the Vienna talks will be extremely reluctant to break off negotiations if a complete agreement is not reached by 24 November, the deadline agreed in the interim deal, at Geneva a year ago. One option would be to announce a framework agreement, leaving gaps to be worked out later, or simply extend the talks. But neither option would be politically sustainable for long without proof of genuine progress. Congress is already sceptical of the talks, claiming Iran is playing for time.
“It’s now or never,” said Jim Walsh, an expert on the Iranian nuclear programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “If you put this off six months, does Obama come back stronger, able to deliver a deal? Does Rouhani? No.
“My hope is that, at the last moment, they stare into the abyss and realise the consequences of not doing a deal now are very, very bad.”
Ali Vaez, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, suggested that, at most, the parties would have the remaining two |
make a note of the project for which you wish to earmark your contribution at the time you make the donation.I can't bust heads like I used to. But I have my ways. One trick is to tell stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I caught the ferry to Madison. I needed a new heel for m'shoe. So I decided to go to Carson, which is what they called Madison in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of Dave Castro on 'em. "Gimme five Castros for a quarter," you'd say. Now where were we... oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. I didn't have any white onions, because they aren't paleo. The only thing you could get was those big yellow onesFor a limited period, MSN users can save 10% on the Lumia 950 and 950 XL at the Microsoft Store with voucher code i4heqig6e. Just add the Lumia of your choice (950 or 950 XL) to your basket and enter voucher code i4heqig6e during the checkout process*
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(3) Features vary by device. Office license sold separately on some PCs and Tablets.Commenter numeric writes:
Since you were shilling for yougov the other day you might want to talk about their big miss on Brexit (off by 6% from their eve-of-election poll—remain up 2 on their last poll and leave up by 4 as of this posting).
Fair enough: Had Yougov done well, I could use them as an example of the success of MRP, and political polling more generally, so I should take the hit when they fail. It looks like Yougov was off by about 4 percentage points (or 8 percentage points if you want to measure things by vote differential). It will be interesting to how much this difference was nonuniform across demographic groups.
The difference between survey and election outcome can be broken down into five terms:
1. Survey respondents not being a representative sample of potential voters (for whatever reason, Remain voters being more reachable or more likely to respond to the poll, compared to Leave voters);
2. Survey responses being a poor measure of voting intentions (people saying Remain or Undecided even though it was likely they’d vote to leave);
3. Shift in attitudes during the last day;
4. Unpredicted patterns of voter turnout, with more voting than expected in areas and groups that were supporting Leave, and lower-than-expected turnout among Remain supporters.
5. And, of course, sampling variability. Here’s Yougov’s rolling average estimate from a couple days before the election:
Added in response to comments: And here’s their final result, “YouGov on the day poll: Remain 52%, Leave 48%”:
We’ll take this final 52-48 poll as Yougov’s estimate.
Each one of the above five explanations seems to be reasonable to consider as part of the story. Remember, we’re not trying to determine which of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 is “the” explanation; rather, we’re assuming that all five of these are happening. (Indeed, some of these could be happening but in the opposite direction; for example it’s possible that the polls oversampled Remain voters (a minus sign on item 1 above) but that this non-representativeness was more than overbalanced by a big shift in attitudes during the last day (a big plus sign on item 3).
The other thing is that item 5, sampling variability, does not stand on its own. Given the amount of polling on this issue (even within Yougov itself, as indicated by the graph above), sampling variability is an issue to the extent that items 1-4 above are problems. If there were no problems with representativeness, measurement, changes in attitudes, and turnout predictions, then the total sample size of all these polls would be enough that they’d predict the election outcome almost perfectly. But given all these other sources of uncertainty and variation, you need to worry about sampling variability too, to the extent that you’re using the latest poll to estimate the latest trends.
OK, with that as background, what does Yougov say? I went to their website and found this article posted a few hours ago:
Unexpectedly high turnout in Leave areas pushed the campaign to victory Unfortunately YouGov was four points out in its final poll last night, but we should not be surprised that the referendum was close – we have shown it close all along. Over half our polls since the start of the year we showed Brexit in the lead or tied.... As we wrote in the Times newspaper three days ago: “This campaign is not a “done deal”. The way the financial and betting markets have reacted you would think Remain had already won – yesterday’s one day rally in the pound was the biggest for seven years, and the odds of Brexit on Betfair hit 5-1. But it’s hard to justify those odds using the actual data…. The evidence suggests that we are in the final stages of a genuinely close and dynamic race.”
Just to check, what did Yougov say about this all before the election? Here’s their post from the other day, which I got by following the links from my post linked above:
Our current headline estimate of the result of the referendum is that Leave will win 51 per cent of the vote. This is close enough that we cannot be very confident of the election result: the model puts a 95% chance of a result between 48 and 53, although this only captures some forms of uncertainty.
The following three paragraphs are new, in response to comments, and replace one paragraph I had before:
OK, let’s do a quick calculation. Take their final estimate that Remain will win with 52% of the vote and give it a 95% interval with width 6 percentage points (a bit wider than the 5-percentage-point width reported above, but given that big swing, presumably we should increase the uncertainty a bit). So the interval is [49%, 55%], and if we want to call this a normal distribution with mean 52% and standard deviation 1.5%, then the probability of Remain under this model would be pnorm(52, 50, 1.5) =.91, that is, 10-1 odds in favor. So, when Yougov said the other day that “it’s hard to justify those [Betfair] odds” of 5-1, it appears that they (Yougov) would’ve been happy to give 10-1 odds.
But these odds are very sensitive to the point estimate (for example, pnorm(51.5, 50, 1.5) =.84, which gives you those 5-1 odds), to the forecast uncertainty (for example, pnorm(52, 50, 2.5) =.79), and to any smoothing you might do (for example, take a moving average of the final few days and you get something not far from 50/50).
In short, betting odds in this setting are highly sensitive to small changes in the model, and when the betting odds stay stable (as I think they were during the final period of Brexit), this suggests they contain a large element of convention or arbitrary mutual agreement.
The “out” here seems to be that last part of Yougov’s statement from the other day: “although this only captures some forms of uncertainty.”
It’s hard to know how to think about other forms of uncertainty, and I think that one way that people handle this in practice is to present 95% intervals and treat them as something more like 50% intervals.
Think about it. If you want to take the 95% interval as a Bayesian predictive interval—and Yougov does use Bayesian inference—then you’d be concluding that the odds are 40-1 that Remain would get more than 48% of the vote the outcome would fall below the lower endpoint of the interval. That’s pretty strong. But that would not be an appropriate conclusion to draw, not if you remember that this interval “only captures some forms of uncertainty.” So you can mentally adjust the interval, either by making it wider to account for these other sources of uncertainty, or by mentally lowering its probability coverage. I argue that in practice people do the latter, that they take 95% intervals as statements of uncertainty, without really believing the 95% part.
OK, fine, but if that’s right, then did the betting markets appear to be taking Yougov’s uncertainties literally with those 5-1 odds? There I’m guessing the problem was... other polls. Yougov was saying 51% for Leave, or maybe 52% for Remain, but other polls were showing large leads for Remain. If all the polls had looked like Yougov, and had betters been rational about accounting for nonsampling error, we might have seen something like 3-1 or 2-1 odds in favor, which would’ve been more reasonable (from a prospective sense, given Yougov’s pre-election polling results and our general knowledge that nonsampling error can be a big deal).
Houshmand Shirani-Mehr, David Rothschild, Sharad Goel, and I recently wrote a paper estimating the level of nonsampling error in U.S. election polls, and here’s what we found:
It is well known among both researchers and practitioners that election polls suffer from a variety of sampling and non-sampling errors, often collectively referred to as total survey error. However, reported margins of error typically only capture sampling variability, and in particular, generally ignore errors in defining the target population (e.g., errors due to uncertainty in who will vote). Here we empirically analyze 4,221 polls for 608 state-level presidential, senatorial, and gubernatorial elections between 1998 and 2014, all of which were conducted during the final three weeks of the campaigns. Comparing to the actual election outcomes, we find that average survey error as measured by root mean squared error (RMSE) is approximately 3.5%, corresponding to a 95% confidence interval of ±7%—twice the width of most reported intervals.
Got it? Take that Yougov pre-election 95% interval of [.48,.53] and double its width and you get something like [.46,.56] which more appropriately captures your uncertainty.
That all sounds just fine. But... I didn’t say this before the vote? So now the question is not, “Yougov: what went wrong?” or “UK bettors: what went wrong?” but, rather, “Gelman: what went wrong?”
That’s a question I should be able to answer! I think the most accurate response is that, like everyone else, I was focusing on the point estimate rather than the uncertainty. And, to the extent I was focusing on the uncertainty I was implicitly taking reported 95% intervals and treating them like 50% intervals. And, finally, I was probably showing too much deference to the betting line.
But I didn’t put this all together and note the inconsistency between the wide uncertainty intervals from the polls (after doing the right thing and widening the intervals to account for nonsampling errors) and the betting odds. In writing about the pre-election polls, I focused on the point estimate and didn’t focus in on the anomaly.
I should get some credit for attempting to untangle these threads now, but not as much as I’d deserve if I’d written this all two days ago. Credit to Yougov, then, for publicly questioning the 5-1 betting odds, before the voting began.
OK, now back to Yougov’s retrospective:
YouGov, like most other online pollsters, has said consistently it was a closer race than many others believed and so it has proved. While the betting markets assumed that Remain would prevail, throughout the campaign our research showed significantly larger levels of Euroscepticism than many other polling organisations.... Early in the campaign, an analysis of the “true” state of public opinion claimed support for Leave was somewhere between phone and online methodologies but a little closer to phone. We disputed this at the time as we were sure our online samples were getting a much more representative sample of public opinion.
Fair enough. They’re gonna take the hit for being wrong, so they might as well grab what credit they can for being less wrong than many other pollsters. Remember, there still are people out there saying that you can’t trust online polls.
And now Yougov gets to the meat of the question:
We do not hide from the fact that YouGov’s final poll miscalculated the result by four points. This seems in a large part due to turnout – something that we have said all along would be crucial to the outcome of such a finely balanced race. Our turnout model was based, in part, on whether respondents had voted at the last general election and a turnout level above that of general elections upset the model, particularly in the North.
So they go with explanation 4 above: unexpected patterns of turnout.
They frame this as a North/South divide—which I guess is what you can learn from the data—but I’m wondering if it’s more of a simple Leave/Remain divide, with Leave voters being, on balance, more enthusiastic, hence turning out to vote at a higher-than-expected rate.
Related to this is explanation 3, changes in opinion. After all, that Yougov report also says, “three of YouGov’s final six polls of the campaign showing ‘Leave’ with the edge ranging from a 4% Remain lead to an 8% Leave lead.” And if you look at the graph reproduced above, and take a simple average, you’ll see a win for Leave. So the only way to call the polls as a lead for Remain (as Yougov did, in advance of the election) was to weight the more recent polls higher, that is to account for trends in opinion. It makes sense to account for trends, but once you do that, you have to accept the possibility of additional changes after the polling is done.
And, just to be clear: Yougov’s estimates using MRP were not bad at all. But this did not stop Yougov from reporting, as a final result, that mistaken 52-48 pro-Remain poll on the eve of the vote.
To get another perspective on what went wrong with the polling, I went to the webpage of Nikos Askitas, whose work I’d “shilled” on the sister blog the other day. Askitas had used a tally based on Google search queries—a method that he reported had worked for recent referenda in Ireland and Greece—and reported just before the election a slight lead for Remain, very close to the Yougov poll, as a matter of fact. Really kind of amazing it was so close, but I don’t know what adjustments he did to the data to get there; it might well be that he was to some extent anchoring his estimates to the polls. (He did not preregister his data-processing rules before the campaign began.)
Anyway, Askitas was another pundit to get things wrong. Here’s what he wrote in the aftermath:
Two ways ago observing the rate at which the brexit side was recovering from the murder of Jo Cox I was writing that “as of 16:15 hrs on Tuesday afternoon the leave searches caught up by half a percentage point going from 47% to 47.5%. If trend continues they will be at 53% or Thursday morning”. This was simply regressing the leave searches on each hours passed. When I then saw the first slow down I had thought that it might become 51% or 52% but recovering most of the pre-murder momentum was still possible with only one obstacle in its way: time. When the rate of recovery of the leave searches slowed down in the evening of the 22nd of June and did not move upwards in the early morning of the 23rd I had to call the presumed trend as complete: if your instrument does not pick up measurement variation then you declare the process you are observing for finished. Leave was at 48%. What explains the difference? Maybe the trend I was seeing early on was indeed still mostly there and there was simply no time to be recorded in search? Maybe the rain damaged the remaineers as it is widely believed? Maybe the pour turnout in Wales? Maybe our tool does not have the resolution it needs for such a close call? or maybe as I was saying elsewhere “I am confident to mostly have identified the referendum relevant searches and I can see that many -but not all- of the top searches are indeed related to voting intent”.
Askitas seems to be focusing more on items 2 and 3 (measurement issues and opinion changes) and not so much on item 1 (non-representativeness of searchers) and item 4 (turnout). Again, let me emphasize the that all four items interact.
Askitas also gives his take on the political outcome:
The principle of parliamentary sovereignty implies that referendum results are not legally binding and that action occurs at the discretion of the parliament alone. Consequently a leave vote is not identical with leaving. As I was writing elsewhere voting leave is hence cheap talk and hence the rational thing to do: you can air any and all grievances with the status quo and it is your vote if you have any kind of ax to grind (and most people do). Why wouldn’t you want to do so? The politicians can still sort it out afterwards. These politicians are now going to have to change their and our ways. Pro European forces in the UK, in Brussels and other European capitals must realize that scaremongering is not enough to stir people towards Europe. We saw that more than half of the Britons prefer a highly uncertain path than the certainty of staying, a sad evaluation of the European path. Pro Europeans need to paint a positive picture of staying instead of ugly pictures of leaving and most importantly they need to sculpt it in 3D reality one European citizen at a time.
P.S. I could’ve just as well titled this, “Brexit prediction markets: What went wrong?” But it seems pretty clear that the prediction markets were following the polls.
P.P.S. Full disclosure: YouGov gives some financial support to the Stan project. (I’d put this in my previous post on Yougov but I suppose the commenter is right that I should add this disclaimer to every post that mentions the pollster. But does this mean I also need to disclose our Google support every time I mention googling something? And must I disclose my consulting for Microsoft ever time I mention Clippy? I think I’ll put together a single page listing outside support and then I can use a generic disclaimer for all my posts.
P.P.P.S. Ben Lauderdale sent me a note arguing that Yougov didn’t do so bad at all:
I worked with Doug Rivers on the MRP estimates you discussed in your post today. I want to make an important point of clarification: none of the YouGov UK polling releases *except* the one you linked to a few days back used the MRP model. All the others were 1 or 2 day samples adjusted with raking and techniques like that. The MRP estimates never showed Remain ahead, although they got down to Leave 50.1 the day before the referendum (which I tweeted). The last run I did the morning of the referendum with the final overnight data had Leave at 50.6, versus a result of Leave 51.9. Doug and I are going to post a more detailed post-mortem on the estimates when we recover from being up all night, but fundamentally they were a success: both in terms of getting close to the right result in a very close vote, and also in predicting the local authority level results very well. Whether our communications were successful is another matter, but it was a very busy week in the run up to the referendum, and we did try very hard to be clear about the ways we could be wrong in that article!
P.P.P.P.S. And Yair writes:The Intel Hub
The Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council(EPSRC) in England, is funding a study to gauge new and innovative ways to get the public to accept so called “identify management” techniques.
The study will be carried out at Loughborough University in England and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the United States.
In a world that is increasingly being morphed into a full scale surveillance society, government officials are attempting to find new ways to get the public to accept police state measures such as national biometric id cards and implantable microchips.
Iris and full body scans, and face or voice recognition have already become well-known practice, but innovations like implantable chips, odour scans, online ‘object’-passwords and mobile identity sharing are on the horizon. It is unclear whether and why members of the public will embrace these innovations or reject them.
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“In this project we aim to gain a better understanding of such anxieties and appetites, and understand the way citizens will respond to new identity management technologies, services and practices in order to promote trustworthy and pleasurable processes of identity verification,” said Professor Liesbet Van Zoonen who is leading the study in England.
In other words, the aim of this study is to find actual scientific ways of getting the public to accept their enslavement.
It is also worth noting that most in the media have claimed that the idea of all Americans being forcefully implanted with microchips is a conspiracy theory yet DHS is openly attempting to find ways to get the people of this country to accept them.With the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping more than 800 points Monday as the credit meltdown pushes the world’s economy into a recession, how should prudent investors respond?
More likely than not, the value of the stocks and bonds held in your company’s retirement savings account or your IRA are down.
If you’ve invested in a stock index fund based on the Standard & Poor’s 500, you’ve suffered a loss of roughly 35 percent since last October, the date economists agree the bear market began.
Depending on how long you’ve held your stocks, the average cost of shares in your account may be less than what you paid for them over time (the average cost basis).
That’s enough to make you want to cut your losses now and hold only cash or to cut back on what you’ve been setting aside as tax-deferred for retirement. But before you rush into these potentially disastrous decisions, consider the following:
Risk flattens over time. The worst one-year return for small company stocks over the past eight decades was nearly 60 percent. As you move out 20 years, the worst-case scenario for those stocks is a positive six percent, according to Ibbotson Associates, Inc.
True, although it has taken the S&P 500 on average 13 months to recoup losses completely, you may have to wait as many as three years for stocks to rebound and enter bull territory if past history is any guide.
Even still, over time, those who are willing to commit to a diversified, consistent long-term investment program will see their capital grow.
Why? As in life, so too, with investing. How many times have you been right—even with the most rigorous analysis to support your decision?
Timing the market is impossible. Though many hardcore investors think they can do this, the facts say otherwise. Studies show that investors who bail out of the market and then re-invest when the market recovers to pre-bear market levels do worse than those who remained fully invested.
Given that shares have likely priced in all available information about their worth, it’s unlikely that you have an edge in stock picking. That’s the point Princeton University Professor Burton G. Malkiel makes in his book, A Random Walk Down Wall Street.
Malkiel builds a strong case for index investing. Transactions costs are low, which can cut deeply into returns. All my investments are in index funds because Malkiel’s argument convinced me. The one time I saw an outsized gain with a stock pick was wiped out by a loss from what appeared to be a sure win until a lawsuit hit.
Through dollar cost averaging, too, your costs are spread out over time, benefiting from market dips. You buy more shares when the price is low and fewer shares when the price is high.
Diversification is a hedge against market irregularities. Given the turbulence in the markets, now is a good time to look at your portfolio’s diversity. A general yardstick to determine the percentage of stocks and bonds you want to hold is based on age.
If you’re 25, you may want to hold 75 percent in equities, with a good portion in the more risky small size companies that tend to experience the greatest gains and losses compared to blue chip stocks. Investing a percentage, too, in an international stock fund, will help you to profit from a global economy that is shifting away from the US.
Investment advisers differ about this formula though, with some arguing recently that you may want to hold a disproportionately higher level in fixed-income given the equity markets’ volatility, which one is today above historic peaks (CBOE volatility index).
The mix of stocks and bonds that you’ll choose will depend on your tolerance for risk.
So, looking ahead, here’s a checklist:
Review your holdings now to determine if you are adequately diversified and if your holdings are appropriate given your tolerance for risk and your financial goals.
Don’t give up saving, particularly if your employer matches your contribution to a retirement plan. Your nest egg will likely be your largest source of retirement income.
Resist the temptation to cash out. Stocks over the long term, and I emphasize long, outperform other investments. But you may have several years of a bear market before you see any bounce in your portfolio’s performance.
Seek out advice. Understanding how markets perform over time is important to help you make decisions.
James David Spellman is principal of Strategic Communications LLC based in Washington, D.C. and an adjunct professor at George Washington University.
RelatedThe view of the Tangier water tower from one of the island's crowded cemeteries. Christian Storm/Business Insider If you stand at the end of the dock in Crisfield, Maryland, and gaze out over the water, you might not catch the tiny shape of a water tower barely visible on the horizon. And when you look at a map, you can just as easily miss the tiny island that the tower sits on, 12 miles from either coast in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. Largely unknown, Tangier Island, Virginia, is one of the most isolated and extraordinary places in the continental US.
It's also in danger of disappearing. In 50 to 100 years, the water tower in the center of town may be all that's left of the place.
Many of us have heard about far-off islands, like the Maldives or Kiribati, which are slowly sinking into the ocean because of erosion and rising sea levels. Far fewer know of Tangier, an island right here in the US that's currently only 4 feet or so above sea level at its highest point and that may soon suffer the same fate. One of the seven bridges on Tangier — they are the highest points on the island. Christian Storm/Business Insider
An Island Apart
"Tangier's laid back," says Ricky Laird, the man who became my surrogate tour guide on a recent visit to the island. "It's a nice place and everything's reasonable here," he says as he paints a newly purchased dingy in the yard of his house.
Laird, 44, was born on Tangier, and, after a stint on a farm in Appalachia, he moved back.
"I don't care who the president is — I don't even know who the governor or senator of Virginia is," Laird says. The isolation of the island, an hour-and-a-half ferry ride from the coast, and largely closed off from the rest of the world, makes it unique. Some islanders go years without seeing the mainland, getting the supplies from the trusty mail boat that arrives in the harbor every day, rain or shine.
The men on the island, virtually all of whom work as commercial crabbers and oyster fishermen, or "watermen," pack their catch on a separate boat that makes daily trips to the mainland, further reducing the need to leave. Tangier Island is in the center of Chesapeake Bay. Google Maps/Christian Storm/Business Insider Just 1.2 square miles in all, Tangier Island is home to more than 500 full-time residents whose families have known one another for decades.
"You don't have to worry about traffic jams and murders, child molesters, rapists, and thieves," Laird says. "You can leave your doors open. You don't have to lock anything."
Although he knows pretty much everyone, he doesn't share one of the island's prevalent last names, which include Parks (93 residents had that name in 2009), Pruitt (75), and Crockett (65). Many of these names can be seen on tombstones in the front lawns of the homes on Tangier, placed there out of necessity because of the island's low elevation and lack of space. Because of a lack of space and rising tides that can sometimes sweep bodies out to sea, residents historically bury loved ones in their front yards. Christian Storm/Business Insider Laird speaks in a thick accent native to the island, equal parts Southern twang and English brogue. The traces of Elizabethan English still present in the accent may have been influenced by working-class Brits who came to the island early in its settling. Vowels are extended to multiple syllables, making certain words hard to understand to outsiders.
I was confused when Ricky referred to what I heard as "terrorists" visiting the island. I soon realized he was referencing the "tourists" who flock there every summer.
Europeans, led by Captain John Smith, explored Tangier Island in 1608, though it had been a summer camping spot for the Pocomoke Indians long before that. Legend has it that John Crockett, still a common surname on this island, was the first to inhabit Tangier full time when he and his eight sons arrived in 1686. During the War of 1812, British forces had a base on the island. Christian Storm/Business Insider In the 19th century, Tangier became home to annual Methodist tent meetings, and the island has been a stronghold of religion ever since. The island shuts down every Sunday morning and once denied Hollywood filmmakers permission to shoot the PG-13 Kevin Costner movie "Message in a Bottle" there because of the script's mentions of swearing, sex, and drinking.
Tangier is dry, with booze unavailable for purchase. But don't let that fool you. "Everybody drinks, but they do it inside the house," a man we'll call Mike tells me as he passes a Sprite bottle filled with vodka from the cup holder of his golf cart, the preferred mode of travel on the island (there are few cars). Signs of fervent religious belief are everywhere. Christian Storm/Business Insider Still, while minor transgressions occur behind closed doors, the religious ethos prevails, causing many young people to feel stifled. "When I was a teenager, there was a pool hall, but you had to be 16," Mike says. "Otherwise, there ain't shit to go on for teenagers. When they graduate, that's why they want to move off."
After walking the island and reading the historical signs in the streets, one gets the sense that the heyday of Tangier, once home to movie theaters, factories, stores, and an opera house, is long past. The population has declined from about 1,500 at one point to a third of that today, and the total drops every year.
One of the main reasons for that may be that the island itself is disappearing.
Losing Land And Time
Records indicate that in the mid-1800s, Tangier Island encompassed some 2,062 acres. It was home to watermelon farms, grazing cows, and a variety of plant life. In 1997, the total land mass amounted to just 768 acres, of which just 83 acres are habitable. Today, the island is even smaller.
While Tangier Island has been slowly losing ground to erosion for hundreds of years, the combination of rising sea levels and more devastating weather — both spurred by global warming — have greatly increased the rate of land loss. Until around 1900, sea levels in the Chesapeake Bay rose at an average of 3 feet per thousand years, geologists calculate. However, the rate greatly increased in the 100 years that followed, seeing levels already increase by 1 foot and growing. Research shows that Tangier is now losing nine acres of land a year to erosion and rising tides. The seawall, constructed in 1990, on the western side of the island. VSPYCC/Flickr "It'll be gone. If we don't get a seawall — that's been in the process for years — it's just gonna wash away," Mike tells me when I ask what the island will be like in 50 years.
The proposed seawall, a long rock barricade that would run the length of the eastern shore of the island, is expected to be completed in 2017. A similar seawall to the west was completed in 1990 and now protects that shore, which had previously seen houses falling into the sea. Ricky Laird riding his boat to the Uppards. Christian Storm/Business Insider One of the most striking signs of the rapidly disappearing island is the Uppards, a beautiful area on Tangier's north end, where multiple families once lived year-round. Today, the Uppards has almost completely succumbed to the rising water levels, turning into a marshy, swampy wetland with major portions of it fully submerged.
I ask Ricky Laird to take |
in this regard has been registered at Shaherkotda police station.Notwithstanding widespread criticism of his comment that eight people could have a proper meal for just Rs 20 and the chief minister distancing himself from it, Assam Agriculture Minister Nilomoni Sen Deka today said he would prove it. This despite the Rs 5, Rs 12 meal row having forced Raj Babbar and other senior Congress and allied leaders to beat a retreat and issue apologies.
Related: Farooq Abdullah's rupee one meal comment ridiculed
"I will not apologise for the comment - there is no question at all. Within a week I will call a press conference and explain to everyone how it is possible (meal for eight at Rs 20)," he said here.
Deka, who is also the Horticulture and Food Processing Minister of the state, had earned the ire of the people by saying last week that eight persons can have a proper meal for Rs 20, which means the cost of a single meal is just Rs 2.5.
Related: Full meal available in Mumbai at Rs 12, says Raj Babbar
His comment triggered widespread protests and strong reactions in the state and all major parties cutting across political ideologies had condemned it.
Related: Congressman says can have meal in Delhi for less than Rs 5
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had distanced himself from the comment saying it was Deka's personal view.
"I have never said that I will get a meal for Rs 2.50. I do not know why he (Deka) said it and with what context. This was his personal view," Gogoi had said.
With Deka reiterating his comment, various organisations across the state came out on the streets during the day and protested over the minister's meal remark.
Many even burnt his effigies.
Opposition AGP President Prafulla Kumar Mahanta lambasting Deka's comments termed it as 'rubbish'.
... contd.
Please read our terms of use before posting comments2019 Nationals parking info: Spectator parking: in Lot #20 Fouts Field west of Coliseum Bus Parking: after drop off at coliseum, buses should park in Lot #35 (across I-35 from the coliseum) Use entrance off of North bound I-35 service road. Prop Trailer Parking: after dropping off props on Highland Street (for Coliseum or Bahnsen Gym) you should park in the far West end of Lot #20 (Fouts Field). Use entrance off of North bound I-35 service road. There is a new parking system on campus that will be in affect on Friday since school is in session. All lots ( other than Lot #20-Fouts Field ) are monitored by meters on Friday and will require payment with the Park Mobile app (free download) up until 3:00pm. Parking prices are $5 for a full day or you can enter fewer hour increments for a lesser cost. Lot #20-Fouts Field will be free parking for Friday and Saturday for this event. Layout of UNT and Parking Map
Dressing Tents, RV's & Tailgating 'American Style'
As of 2019, Reserved Tent Space will only be allowed for teams that are
dressing in their tents. This is to help with the shared dressing space
situation in the coliseum. Just as you can pay for a Reserved Private Dressing
in the Gateway Center, you can pay for a Reserved Tent Space in the grassy
space outside of the Coliseum or Bahnsen Gym. Tents must be rented from
an outside source. This is not something that UNT provides to you. In addition
to your dressing tent, you can have pop up canopies/tables/chairs to allow
for eating/tailgating. No open fire on the grass. BBQ pits must stay on pavement!
Please know that tailgating/RV spots are no longer reserved or held through UNT. All RV's must park in Fouts Field parking lot. We welcome you to tailgate and cook out, but you are responsible for getting their early and marking off space for your and your crew.
Tailgating ~ There are areas off of Highland Street near the Tennis Courts
(between Bahnsen Gym and Fouts Parking Lot) that can also be used for team tailgating. This is all first come/first serve and we ask that you bring sand bags or weights to anchor down any pop up canopies. There are sprinkler and electricity lines that run all over campus.
All group tents for dressing must pay a fee for reserved space and complete the online form. Reserved dressing space fills quickly. We will send an email notice to all teams that have pre-registered, as soon as the link is ready.
Rules and Regs for RV's & Tents
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Layout of UNT campusThis article is about the hierarchical system. For other uses, see Pecking order (disambiguation)
Bottom rank hen showing feather damage as a result of pecking
Pecking order or peck order is the colloquial term for the hierarchical system of social organization. It was first described by Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe in 1921 under the German terms Hackordnung or Hackliste and introduced into English in 1927.[1]
The original use of pecking order referred to the expression of dominance in chickens. Dominance in chickens is asserted by various behaviours, including pecking, which was used by Schjelderup-Ebbe as a measure of dominance and leadership order. In his 1924 German-language article, he noted that "defense and aggression in the hen is accomplished with the beak".[2] This emphasis on pecking led many subsequent studies on fowl behaviour to use it as a primary observation, however, it has been noted that roosters tend to leap and use their claws in conflicts.[3]
The term dominance hierarchy is often used for this type of social organisation in other animals.
Pecking order is a basic concept in social stratification and social hierarchy that has its counterparts in other animal species, including humans, although the term "pecking order" is often used synonymously.
Biological theories [ edit ]
Function [ edit ]
The ultimate function of a pecking order is to increase the individual or inclusive fitness of the animals involved in its formation. Fighting to acquire resources such as food and mates is expensive in terms of time, energy and the risk of injury. By developing a pecking order, animals determine which individuals will get priority of access to resources, particularly when they are limited; there is a reduction in aggression when a pecking order has been developed. Therefore, the proximate functions of a pecking order are to reduce the costs of time, energy and risk of injury incurred during resource acquisition and defence.
Mechanism [ edit ]
The basic concept behind the establishment of the pecking order among, for example, chickens, is that it is necessary to determine who is the 'top chicken,' the 'bottom chicken' and where all the rest fit in between. The establishment of the dominance hierarchy may reduce the incidence of conflict and thus reduce the expenditure of energy required for aggressive competition. The dominance level determines which individual gets preferential access to resources such as food and mates.[4][circular reference]
In the wild, pecking order status is inherited along a strict basis, so that the first daughter of the most dominant chicken will inherit that most dominant status, the second most dominant will give second most dominant status to her daughter, etc. unless the most dominant chicken has a second daughter, in which case that chicken will become the second most dominant.[citation needed] Studies of the genetic basis of pecking orders in chickens have indicated that it may largely be determined by the coloration patterns.[5]
It is not necessary for animals to be able to recognise individuals within the group for a pecking order to be maintained. Animal behaviours may be motivated by "rule of thumb". For example, if chickens can predict the fighting ability of others simply by assessing their body size, they will be able to maintain the hierarchy whilst avoiding a fight which could cause injury and will be energetically costly. Using this rule of thumb, if Chicken A sees that Chicken B is larger, Chicken A will defer; if Chicken B is smaller, it will defer to Chicken A. In this way, only chickens of similar sizes will fight and the pecking order of the group overall is maintained without requiring individual recognition.
Wild and feral chickens form relatively small groups, usually including no more than 10 to 20 individuals. It has been shown that in larger groups, which is common in farming, the dominance hierarchy becomes less stable and aggression increases.[6]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]Ville Itala, a centre-right Finnish MEP on the parliament's budgetary control committee, is concerned that the EU assembly is spending money to justify its own existence rather than representing voters.
"I am looking out for the taxpayer and the normal citizen. We must be very careful. We are here to represent citizens, not to justify our positions," he said.
In his draft "discharge" report on expenditure in 2009, Mr Itala has demanded a "detailed explanation of the underlying need" of the parliament's 722 communication posts that cost £70.8 million.
Despite the legions of spin doctors, the Finn noted, "with concern", that a £4.9 million campaign to persuade people to vote in the 2009 European elections had actually resulted in "overall decline in turnout" to its lowest ever level of 43 per cent.
He has singled out "deplorable" spending of £7.9 million a year on EuroparlTV, a television channel, which "cannot be considered to be a success story in view of its very low number of direct users".
The station, which highlights the work of MEPs, is only thought to have around 850 viewers a day, considerably less that the 9,000 people working in the parliament or the 500 million people the EU assembly claims to represent.
"The only people who watch it are in Brussels and they are MEPs or their office staff, not normal citizens. Our job is to be a political and legislative institution not to run our own TV station," said Mr Itala.
Mr Itala, a pro-European MEP, has also been angered over a "paternalist" prize for journalism, worth £17,500 a year, to reward press coverage that "promoted a better understanding of the EU".
"I really don't understand why we are giving money to journalists whose task should be to be critical of EU institutions. It is not my idea of democracy," he said.
The report, to be voted on by the budgetary committee next Tuesday, additionally asks for a review of £37.6 million spent to employ 900 security guards who have failed to prevent three armed robberies within the parliament over the last two years.
Also questioned is the £3.3 million limo service for MEPs at a time when many ministers in national governments are losing their cars.
A European Parliament spokesman declined to comment on a draft report when "MEPs have yet to express a view in a vote either at committee level or in plenary".
Nigel Farage, Ukip's leader, said: "The European Parliament has become a nothing more than a spending machine that lavishes public money on projects that are pointless, useless and turn off voters."
Spending by the parliament is under fire after MEPs earlier this month ignored pleas to respect for Europe-wide austerity measures by voting to increase their personal staffing allowances by £15,336 a year.
In December last year, MEPs increased expenses for "daily subsistence" and "general expenditure" to up to £91,000 a year, without having to provide any receipts or proof of expenditure.When Ryan Pace took over the job of general manager for the Chicago Bears, he took over one of the worst teams in the NFL. However, he has now had three off-season cycles to rebuild the team into his image, and he has done so. For better or for worse, this is now his team. It is probably fair to stop blaming the shortcomings of the team on the prior administration and to admit that (given the length of an NFL career), the Bears’ strengths and weaknesses are his doing. Not many players remain from the 2014 squad, and even those who remain are not solely the responsibility of Phil Emery.
This is a point that is worth repeating. Ryan Pace has chosen to extend Long, Leno, McManis, Jones, and Young. In fact, the only player on the 53-man roster still on a contract provided by the former regime is 6th-round draft pick Pat O’Donnell. This roster—and its results—belong to Ryan Pace. Yes, it might have been nice if Emery had left more talent behind, but if he had done so then the job might not have been open in the first place. Obviously, the win-loss record will ultimately determine how good of a job Pace is doing, but simply comparing the rosters is a good place to start.
I looked at the 2014 Roster and then compared it to what we know of the 2017 roster so far. Holdovers are starred (again, with the caveat that Pace has still made his own decisions on most of them).
Quarterbacks
2014 Roster: Jay Cutler, Jimmy Clausen, and David Fales
2017 Roster: Mitchell Trubisky, Mile Glennon, and Marc Sanchez
Verdict: I’m probably one of the strongest Jay Cutler advocates left in these parts, but even I will state outright that if Mitchell Trubisky does not become a better quarterback than Cutler, then this rebuild has failed. As for the rest, Glennon and Sanchez are clearly superior to Clausen and Fales—even if that is more of an indictment of Clausen and Fales than praise for #8 and #6. This is improvement across the board. Better in 2017.
Running Backs
2014 Roster: Matt Forte, Shaun Draughn, Ka’Deem Carey, Senorise Perry
2017 Roster: Jordan Howard, Tarik Cohen, Benny Cunningham, Taquan Mizzell
Verdict: Forte edges Howard, but then it’s a sweep for 2017. Cohen is obviously an improvement over the next-best back on the 2014 list (Carey?), and I’ll take Cunningham and Mizzell over the majesty of Draughn and Perry, if only because Mizzell (and Cohen, for that matter) adds back in the receiving dimension lost with Forte. Better in 2017.
Fullback
2014 Roster: Tony Fiametta
2017 Roster: Michael Burton
Verdict: Whatever. It’s a wasted roster spot either way. Push.
Wide Receiver
2014 Roster: Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery, Marquess Wilson, Josh Morgan, Michael Spurlock, Santonio Holmes
2017 Roster: Kevin White, Kendall Wright, Markus Wheaton, Deonte Thompson, Josh Bellamy, Tre McBride
Verdict: Yeesh. Where to begin? I’ll call Marquess Wilson the Kevin White analog (an often-injured player with talent but precious little in the way of results), and then I’m trying to pretend that Kendall Wright and Markus Wheaton belong in the same sentence as Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery. Wait, they do, and it’s this sentence: “Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery are clearly superior players to Kendall Wright and Markus Wheaton.” Still, I’ll take Deonte Thompson and Josh Bellamy over 2014 Santonio Holmes and Josh Morgan. Originally, there was no sixth receiver for the Bears in 2017, and that was a pretty good match for Michael Spurlock. Instead, Tre McBride is an unknown, but he could be good. The edge in talent here goes to 2014 without question, even if the depth of 2017 takes out some of the sting. Not really, though. Weaker in 2017.
Tight Ends
2014 Roster: Martellus Bennett, Dante Rosario, Matthew Mulligan
2017 Roster: Dion Sims, Zach Miller, Adam Shaheen, Daniel Brown
Verdict: Bennett is clearly better than Sims, even if Sims is better than expected. However, Miller and Shaheen are improvements over Rosario and Mulligan (actually, Miller and Brown are improvements over Rosario and Mulligan). For the sake of argument, let’s simply call Shaheen a developmental project and forget that he actually caught 75% of his targets in preseason and that he looked surprisingly good in blocking. Call Shaheen an empty roster spot since he has had the gall to drop passes from The Chosen One. As a group, the 2017 unit compared favorably to the 2014 group mostly on the basis of its depth and the weakness of the 2014 group. There is no one weapon like Bennett, but Sims and Miller together are probably of equal merit to Bennett and Mulligan. Push.
Offensive Line
2014 Roster: Jermon Bushrod, Matt Slauson, Roberto Garza, Kyle Long, Jordan Mills, Michael Ola, Brian de la Puente, Charles Leno Jr.
2017 Roster: Bobby Massie, Josh Sitton, Cody Whitehair, Kyle Long*, Charles Leno* Jr., Hroniss Grasu, Tom Compton, Bradley Sowell
Verdict: Massie is an improvement over Mills and Leno is better than Bushrod. Sitton is an improvement over Slauson, but 2017 Long is likely a shell of his 2014 self (yes, I realize that technically I should compare 2014 Long to 2017 Sitton and 2014 Slauson to 2017 Long, but this is already getting confusing). Whitehair is an improvement over Garza. For depth, I’ll take 2014 Leno over 2017 Grasu, but it’s pretty close. Overall, the 2017 line has more talent and better cohesiveness. Better in 2017.
Defensive Line
2014 Roster: Jeremiah Ratliff, Stephen Paea, Will Sutton, Ego Ferguson
2017 Roster: Akiem Hicks, Eddie Goldman, Jonathan Bullard, Roy Robertson-Harris, Mitch Unrein, John Jenkins
Verdict: The different defensive alignments make this difficult, but Akiem Hicks and Eddie Goldman compare favorably to anyone on this list, and Jonathan Bullard and Ego Ferguson might as well cancel each other out. Arguably Robertson-Harris and Unrein add greater depth, but they are using an extra roster spot, so they should. Jenkins is another depth player, but having a fresh defensive line is not bad. Better in 2017.
Edge
2014 Roster: Jared Allen, Lamarr Houston, Willie Young, Trevor Scott, David Bass, Cornelius Washington
2017 Roster: Leonard Floyd, Willie Young*, Sam Acho, Pernell McPhee
Verdict: Leonard Floyd is better than any of the 2014 contenders (let’s call it 2014 Jared Allen), but besides hoping that Pernell McPhee somehow stays healthy enough to match Lamarr Houston’s 8 games and 38% of defensive snaps, the best I have is Willie Young Might be equal to Willie Young and Sam Acho is probably the equal of one of those other guys. Of course, that leaves two depth players on the 2014 roster unaccounted for in this comparison, and no matter how fast he is, Floyd cannot play two positions at once. Weaker in 2017.
Linebacker
2014 Roster: Lance Briggs, D.J. Williams, Jon Bostic, Shea McClellin, Khaseem Greene, Christian Jones
2017 Roster: Danny Trevathan, Jerrell Freeman, Nick Kwiatkoski, Christian Jones*
Verdict: Wow, did the line-backing corps in 2014 reek or what? I mean…let’s remember that this was “8 games and only 24 tackles” Lance Briggs and not the former great. Jon Bostic? Shea McClellin? This list made me a little sick to my stomach, bringing back memories of teams hanging 50 points on the Beloved. All four of the 2017 guys are better than their 2014 comparison points (I’m including comparing 2017 Jones to his inexperienced 2014 self), but depth is again an issue. Even with that loss of depth, I give a slight edge to the 2017 roster. Better in 2017.
Corners
2014 Roster: Charles Tillman, Tim Jennings, Kyle Fuller, Sherrick McManis, Demontre Hurst
2017 Roster: Prince Amukamara, Marcus Cooper, Cre’Von LeBlanc, Bryce Callahan, Kyle Fuller, Sherrick McManis*
Verdict: Tillman and Jennings put any two on the 2017 list to shame, and I don’t believe that 2017 McManis is a better corner than 2014 McManis. Kyle Fuller is better as a corner than his less-experienced self, but who knows what role his injury will play. Demontre Hurst feels like a push with Cre’Von LeBlanc, and Bryce Callahan does not make up the difference even if he claims an extra spot. Weaker in 2017.
Safety
2014 Roster: Ryan Mundy, Danny McCray, Brock Vereen, Chris Conte
2017 Roster: Quintin Demps, Eddie Jackson, Adrian Amos, Deon Bush
Verdict: And, looking at 2014 I just threw up a little in my mouth. Better in 2017.
Specialists
2014 Roster: Robbie Gould, Pat O’Donnell, Brandon Hartson
2017 Roster: Connor Barth, Pat O’Donnell*, Andrew DePaola
Verdict: The squad is weaker in 2017 by one Connor Barth.
Overall
2014 Roster: The last team Emery put together was probably stronger (in general terms) at Wide Receiver, Edge Rusher, Corner, and Specialists.
2017 Roster: The team assembled by Ryan Pace has improved (at least for the long term) in Quarterbacks, Running Backs, Offensive Line, Defensive Line, Linebacker, and Safety.
Verdict: The reality is that the 2017 Bears are better than the 2014 Bears, at least in terms of the potential of their rosters. However, the team is not better in every way, nor are all of the improvements clear-cut and consistent upgrades.
As far as I am concerned, Pace has made real progress in the abstract. However, spreadsheets don’t take the field, and it’s time for the product on the field to start producing results.WASHINGTON — The final text of the Republican tax bill made public Friday largely preserves key tax credits for wind and solar power and electric vehicles, reversing language in earlier versions that could have slowed the growth of renewable energy across the United States.
The last-minute changes, made as lawmakers reconciled the House and Senate versions of the tax legislation, reflect the growing political clout of the wind and solar industries, which now provide more than 7 percent of the nation’s electricity and are two of the fastest-growing energy sources.
“As wind and solar projects have soared in the U.S., in both red and blue states, so has the industry’s influence in Washington, D.C., on both sides of the aisle,” said Dan W. Reicher, director of the Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford.
While some industry groups said they still had concerns about a technical change in the final bill that could negatively affect a key financing tool used for wind and solar projects, they expressed relief that most of the major incentives for renewable energy had survived the negotiations.The clown car of conservatism known as the Faith And Freedom Conference pulled up at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington D.C. this weekend and disgorged its contents of conservatives and evangelicals for 3 days of attacking President Obama and liberals, with some old-fashioned victim-hood wallowing for good measure. The speakers railed against everything and anything that they felt threatened their “freedoms.” That included, of course, immigration and the make-believe oppression of their brand of “Christianity.”
The Faith and Freedom Coalition, the main sponsor of the conference, was created in 2009 by Ralph Reed as a way to bring tea partiers and evangelicals together. The theme this year was “Road To Majority,” (hey, stop laughing – they’re serious!) and they brought in all the big names: Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, Michele Bachmann, Allen West, Mark Sanford, Rick Perry, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush, Herman Cain and E.W. Jackson all preached to the choir over the conference’s three days. Here’s some of the best (?) diatribes, zingers and facepalm moments:
Herman Cain introduced a new shorthand with his “ETA” plan, “enthusiasm, targeted races and activists.” He stressed the need for new faces in the movement: “We have got to stop sending nearly 90 percent of the people in D.C. back to D.C. We should expand what we’ve already been doing. Create a groundswell of activists, and citizens and patriots.” Patriots, eh? It might be good if you stopped using that word since what you really mean by it is “those who agree with my ideology.” I suggest “sycophants.”
E.W. Jackson, the Republican candidate for Lt. Governor of Virginia, let his preacher half take over in his 10 minute speech: “Freedom doesn’t mean ‘Do whatever you want.’ It’s the pursuit of character, integrity, decency, honor. Now we’re being told freedom is license.” Freedom does, indeed, mean that we can do whatever we want… as long as we don’t violate the freedoms of others. And I mean real freedoms, not your fantasy freedom to shove your religion on the rest of us.
Michele Bachmann, who has been screeching about amnesty lately stayed with that theme: “The people who will suffer the most, if we move forward, in my mind, with what is a very foolish action the people who will hurt the most are Hispanics and African-Americans who already suffer very high levels of unemployment.” Oh, please. Like you give a shit about Hispanics and African-Americans.
Jeb Bush, who may be contemplating a 2016 run at the White House (saints preserve us!) also spoke about immigration: “Immigrants create far more businesses than native-born Americans. Immigrants are more fertile, and they love families, and they have more intact families, and they bring a younger population. Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity.” And he’s supposed to be the smart one? Wow.
Rick Perry, the Texas Twit, invoked St. Ronald: “We stand for the principles that made America great. We should exude those principles with joy. Smile when you disagree with a liberal. As Ronald Reagan said, liberals know so much that isn’t so. Our conservative convictions will win this country back if our tone shows we’re comfortable with our own ideals.” Sure, go ahead and smile when you disagree with us – it won’t make you any more correct. Because we know a lot more that is so than you do.
Paul Ryan, still smarting from he and Mr. Plastic’s loss is still blaming President Obama: “We kept sort of shadow-boxing the big government in theory. We had to argue against the promise and the rhetoric of President Obama. The great soaring rhetoric, all of the empty promises. Because remember in his first term, his first two years, he passed his program, but he didn’t implement his program. Now in the second term, we are seeing it implemented, and it is pretty darn ugly.” No, I’ll tell you what’s ugly, Paul. That you can’t accept responsibility for your own words and actions and still need to blame Obama and the poor and unemployed. You asshat.
Allen West, also still sulking over his ass whooping, called Booker T. Washington the “first black conservative” and more: “Some of you maybe will leave this beautiful hotel where you’re having this conference and go into some of the black neighborhoods here in Washington, D.C., and see the decimation of progressive socialist policies that have broken down the family unit in what used to be the strongest family community that this great country ever knew.” Ouch. Word salad with stupid dressing for lunch, anyone?
Which brings us to Sarah Palin. The newly re-employed Fox News pundit had a lot to say, being back in the spotlight again. Her advice on Syria? “We’re talking now more new interventions. I say until we know what we’re doing, until we have a commander-in-chief who knows what he’s doing, well, let these radical Islamic countries who aren’t even respecting basic human rights, where both sides are slaughtering each other as they scream over an arbitrary red line, ‘Allah Akbar,’ I say until we have someone who knows what they’re doing, I say let Allah sort it out.” Ooooh kay. That will end well. Palin also said that we need to “… rededicate the country to our one true heavenly Father…” Because hey, screw the Founding Fathers – what did they know?
The overall message to the attendees seems to be that they know best how to run this country. The Founding Fathers were just a bunch of faithless liberals, I guess, since the Constitution and Declaration of Independence enshrine ideals that these tea party/evangelical chimeras find repulsive. They can’t seem to see the conundrum into which they have painted themselves (or maybe don’t care): they invoke the Founding Fathers as validation of their ideology yet they reject the actual creed those great men espoused and wrote down as the best way they saw in which to run a country. I think they did a pretty good job but the conservative cabal of clownery apparently thinks that they know better. I wish they would just go form their own country somewhere and leave this one to those of us who understand the instructions left for us. I hope they have TV, radio and internet there, though, so we have plenty of comedy coming from Batshitland for our entertainment.The Blocknet will be migrating to its new production blockchain. Blocknet will retain the balance of the addresses of the current "interim" blockchain in the new production blockchain.
The first block to be created after 8:00am PT (3:00pm UTC) on September 1st shall mark the end of the interim blockchain.
Users' Blocknet Bittrex exchange balance totals will reflect the same total that they had prior to the swap in a 1:1 manner. The old Blocknet tokens will no longer be supported or be traded on Bittrex.
Bittrex will re-enable trading Blocknet tokens (BLOCK) when we and the Blocknet team agree that the migration is satisfactory.
Note: Bittrex will be closing our BLOCK wallet and stop trading the token to take accurate snapshots of balances. If any BLOCK deposits you had sent to Bittrex are not settled (e.g. marked as pending) by 6:00 pm PT on 8/31/2017 (1:00 am UTC on 9/1/2017), you may not be credited with BLOCK.
We would like to thank the Blocknet team for working closely with us.
Further information:
Blocknet production walletUnit 2 senior manager of operations Tom Wallace walks up the stairs to the Unit 2 cooling tower of TVA's Watts Bar nuclear plant Wednesday, April 29, 2015, in Spring City, Tenn. TVA plans for the nuclear plant's second reactor unit to come online by the end of the year. Unit 2 senior manager of operations Tom Wallace... Photo by Doug Strickland /Times Free Press.
The Tennessee Valley Authority has successfully completed its testing of key operating equipment for its Watts Bar Unit 2 nuclear reactor, clearing the way for additional tests of safety and containment systems before fuel is scheduled to be loaded in the new reactor this fall.
TVA said today that the latest round of tests, called hot functional testing, demonstrated equipment performed as designed and marks the first time nearly 60 important systems operated together. Over a period of eight weeks, operators used the heat generated by plant equipment to increase the temperature and pressure of systems to normal operating levels. The unit's main turbine was also rolled up to normal operating speed using the plant's steam.
"Successful completion of these tests demonstrates the key operational readiness of Watts Bar Unit 2 in preparation to load fuel," Mike Skaggs, senior vice president for Watts Bar Operations and Construction, said in a statement today. "Good work by our team has brought us to where we are today as we validate the unit's ability to operate safely and the station's readiness for dual-unit operation."
Hot functional testing is a critical pre-operational requirement leading up to TVA requesting an operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That license is required before fuel can be loaded into the reactor.
NRC commissioners have voted to grant TVA an operating license for Watts Bar Unit 2, provided that staff certifies that the plant and its staff are ready. TVA expects to begin generating power from the new reactor by the end of 2015.
TVA officials said the data gathered from the most recent testing builds on information documented from earlier testing milestones open vessel testing, cold hydrostatic testing and secondary hydrostatic testing further ensures that Watts Bar Unit 2 systems will support safe operation as designed and according to established NRC regulations.
TVA will next conduct additional testing focusing on the integrity of primary containment and important safety-related equipment, such as emergency diesel generators.
Located near Spring City, Tenn., Watts Bar Unit 2 is approximately 99 percent complete and remains on target to become the first new nuclear generation of the 21st century. When online, it will produce 1,150 megawatts of carbon-free electricity. Combined with the output of the operational Unit 1, the Watts Bar plant will then meet the power needs of 1.3 million homes.Hey everyone meow here,
We've had a lot of Lunky action this week so let's hop right into it.
falafel_raptor completed two amazing runs this week, coming within a second of a world record. Challenging Kinni with a 2:51.905 Low% No Gold. Falafel is is also on the brink of breaking the sub 4 wall for Max Low% getting a time of 4:05.259. At this rate falafel will take the #10 spot on MossRanking!
Next...the man, the myth, the jup, Kinnijup. Kinni set two world records this past week taking the No Teleporter Max Hell% and Jumbo Money categories with times 4:43.183 and 16:11.648. Not only does the No Teleporter Max Hell beat many peoples normal Hell% with a telepoter but it is also almost a full minute faster than DTea who is in second place with a time of 5:32.891.
Amazing job as always Kinni!
GreatStriker completed three PBs this week, knocking out a No Teleporter Max Hell% in 9:15.226, an Any% run in 3:20.448 and a Max Any% run in 4:58.725. These are all great times Striker! Keep this up and you have top 25 potential!
Buddy7heElf completed an insane No Gold Hell% run clocking in at 5:33.554. This run is 5th place in the category and just beats out Krille's time! Congrats Buddy
I (meowmixmix) completed an Any% run in 2:08.286. which was just enough to push me into Temple Rank which was my long term goal for my Spelunky career! I was also able to improve the Tutorial% world record when messing around with some new strats and came across a teleporter in the 0-3 shop. The final time was 1:15.989.
MikeIsMyIke has been putting in a lot of time recently (and streaming it too! make sure to check him out) and his time and effort have been reflecting in hsi PBs. Mike compled a No Teleporter Max Any% run in 5:04.578 a Big Money run in 10:23.675 and a No Teleporter Hell% run in 7:06.581. Mike's Big Money run beats my time, and he even said he would beat me just an hour or so before he completed this run! Congrats Mike, and keep it up!
SAIBOT has been back doing Spelunky runs for a little while now but is still finishing up some insane times. Sai completed a Low% run, a No Teleporter Any% run, and an All Shortcuts + Olmec run with times of 2:55.466, 2:45.584, 18:53.440 respectively. Each of these times are amazing already but Saibot is pushing harder on AS+O to get sub 18 minutes.
Vlad is another person here who has moved up the leaderboards and knocked out some good PBs this week. Vlad completed an All Shortcuts + Olmec run in 19:30.900 a No Teleporter Hell% run in 6:26.523 and Max Any% run The time was 3:24.852. Awesome job Vlad!
In a recent poll, Spef, was the top voted person that people think will reach the top 10 on MossRanking next, and he is living up to expectations. Spef completed a Low% No Gold run in 3:21.337. This run just beats out my best time even though I've been grinding this for months! He also dipped into a little bit of memery and did a Key to Yama run in 10:32.089 And finally, Spef completed a No Teleporter Any% run in 2:54.996. Awesome job Spef! I hope the votes are right :D
bootsthatshoot has been trying hard to get a sub 3 Low% run and he is getting really close with his most recent Low% pb clocking in at 3:06.708. He also completed a No Teleporter Any% run in 2:55.847. Keep it up Boots, you'll get that sub 3 soon enough!
saturnin55 completed a Max Eggplant% run with a time of 35:48.298. This run was super fun to watch and it was a great experience seeing it live! Awesome job sat!
ix completed a blazing fast Max Hell% run with a time of 6:26.394. Not too long ago this would have beaten out my normal Hell% time! Awesome job ix, and I'm |
is piloting new software that only shows an alert on a generic outline of a human figure if an anomaly is detected. (Editing by Bill Trott)Vice President Pence arrived at the National Governors Association summer meeting with one mission: to revive support for the flagging Republican plan to rewrite the nation’s health-care laws.
He failed.
Instead of rousing cheers on the waterfront in Providence, R.I., Pence was greeted with an icy air of skepticism Friday as he pitched the legislation, which would reduce federal Medicaid funding and phase out coverage in dozens of states.
By Monday evening, when President Trump and Pence gathered a cluster of GOP senators in the Blue Room of the White House over plates of lemon ricotta agnolotti and grilled rib-eye steak, the measure was all but dead.
“The president talked about France and Bastille Day,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said in an interview Tuesday, recalling the president’s tales during dinner of parades and pomp from his recent trip to Paris.
President Trump, flanked by Vice President Pence and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, speaks Tuesday in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Daines described the group’s conversation, which also touched on issues ranging from health care to the debt limit, as loose — as if Trump “sat down and went out to dinner with friends, acquaintances, people you work with. It was just dinner to talk about what’s going on.”
As the dinner ended, reality returned. Two more Republican senators had suddenly bolted from supporting the health-care bill, lifting the total number of Republicans opposed to four and effectively killing it.
“I was very surprised when the two folks came out last night,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. “We thought they were in fairly good shape.”
Yet the dramatic collapse of the GOP proposal in the Senate was hardly a shock to most, especially those intimately involved in a venture that has been stalled and fitful since the House passed its version in May.
The upheaval Monday night was a tipping point after weeks of burbling discontent within the party about whether passing the legislation made sense. Nearly every GOP senator was eager to check the box of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act they had long opposed — but many were also distressed by the possible costs of upending a law that has grown deep roots in states, risen in popularity and is relied upon by some Republican governors.
Moderates were always skittish about the drastic Medicaid cuts opposed by many of their governors. Conservatives were always unhappy with the scope of the Senate’s legislation, which they felt did not go far enough to gut the law.
And Trump was frequently disengaged, sporadically tweeting and making calls to on-the-fence senators but otherwise avoiding selling the bill at the kind of big rallies that he often holds on issues he champions.
1 of 58 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × A look at President Trump’s first year in office, so far View Photos Scenes from the Republican’s first months in the White House. Caption Scenes from the Republican’s beginning months in the White House. Jan. 25, 2017 Trump signs an executive order for border security and immigration enforcement improvements at the Department of Homeland Security in Washington. Chip Somodevilla/Pool photo via Bloomberg News Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
“It has been obvious to me for some time, and likely obvious to the leaders, that up to 10 Republicans were uncomfortable with the bill and were thinking about voting against the motion to proceed,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a critic of the bill, said in an interview Tuesday. “So it’s surprising to me that after the administration failed to win over the governors this past weekend, there wasn’t more of a recognition of the fact that the bill was probably in fatal trouble.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has long cultivated a reputation as a canny operator, found it nearly impossible to wrangle together his conference amid the mounting concerns. He could offer them tweaks and adjustments but not the political cover that they coveted.
Neither could the White House, which kept tabs on GOP senators but did not drive the negotiations at all.
“None of us knew what the meeting was about last night. We just were invited to the White House,” Daines said. “There was no topic given to us.”
Still, a false sense of confidence from the White House and Senate GOP leadership came to define the entire process. Each day seemed to bring a wave of new assertions that Senate Republicans were committed to fulfilling what has been the party’s signature pledge for nearly a decade — and then there would be new twists that threatened that ambition.
With Trump engulfed in the fallout from investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, Pence became the Trump administration’s main advocate for the legislation. He went to Senate lunch after Senate lunch, and eventually to the governors’ meeting.
But Pence, like the bill, never caught on.
While Pence has clout with conservatives nationally, he drew blank stares from those in front of him in Rhode Island — despite being a former Indiana governor. When he targeted Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), who opposed the bill, he sparked outrage for appearing to incorrectly link waiting times for disabled people in Ohio to the expansion of Medicaid.
Kasich was newly furious about the hardball tactics. Other influential GOP critics of the bill, such as Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, also would not budge, in turn keeping Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) almost certainly in the “no” camp.
“This is a dramatic change to what most of us have reacted to within the last four years,” Sandoval told reporters over the weekend. He likened the health-care push to shaking an Etch-a-Sketch.
Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (D), who attended the governors’ conference, summed up the Democratic view in a Tuesday interview: “If he’s treating a Republican governor in Ohio that way, how would he treat me?”
Malloy singled out a private breakfast session Saturday, in which administration officials sought to win over governors on the Senate legislation, as particularly problematic for the White House’s sale. He said one official sought to discredit the Congressional Budget Office; less than a minute later, another official cited a CBO statistic to defend his argument.
“It was heavy handed. It was ham-handed,” Malloy said of the administration’s approach at the summit.
The CBO had been set to release another report as soon as Monday on what the bill would do to insurance coverage levels, premium costs and the federal budget deficit. But it ended up not being released. A CBO report on an earlier version of the legislation projected that it would result in 22 million fewer Americans with insurance by 2026 than under current law.
Delays in the past week gave opponents of the bill more time to protest, over the July 4 recess and again this week due to Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain’s surgery.
Inside the West Wing, Pence and Trump advisers continued to operate as if passage was possible, regardless of the unsuccessful turn in Providence. When the dinner convened Monday, Pence was scheduled to dine at his residence later that week with undecided Republicans.
Regardless of the negative feedback, the White House believed that the NGA meetings went as well as they could have expected considering that the governors were expected to be clamoring for more federal money than the bill would provide. Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price — both former House members — teamed up on the call list, wooing Sunday and Monday by phone.
Among the members who were being monitored closely by Pence was Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), according to a person familiar with the negotiations. In multiple discussions with Pence, Lee indicated that he had reservations but was not a firm “no” and was open to further talks.
But it was Lee and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) who ended up announcing their opposition on Monday night as Pence and Trump dined with other lawmakers at the White House — a final, vivid reminder of how the rosy view among many senior Republicans rarely, if ever, tracked with the actual state of play.
Lee and Moran made it four Republican “no” votes. They joined Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Collins, who had declared their opposition days earlier. With a 52-seat majority, Republicans could afford to lose only two votes to pass the bill since all 46 Democrats and two independents were expected to vote against the proposal, with Pence as the potential tiebreaker.
One sign that the White House and McConnell didn’t see it coming: the senators who were in the Blue Room on Monday night. They were not holdouts but mostly heavyweights of the Republican leadership: Sens. John Cornyn (Tex.), Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), and Roy Blunt (Mo.), among others.
Trump, impatient with the Senate’s glacial pace, asked for a candid assessment of the legislation’s status from the veteran lawmakers, according to officials familiar with the meeting. He implored them to hurry up and get the bill to his desk. But it was Paris and the flag-waving festivities he had witnessed alongside French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday and Friday that occupied much of his attention during the conversation, the officials said.
As difficult as the health-care debate had been, there was a pervasive feeling that McConnell would somehow prevail.
“I wouldn’t put it on him,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said on Tuesday about Trump. “The bottom line is there are members here who understood the president’s preference and were willing to vote against it anyways.”
Some Senate Republicans said McConnell’s strategy of working an inside game and largely leaving Trump to observer-cheerleader status was misguided from the start. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said the public should have been far more informed about the bill.
“We didn’t have the courage to lay out exactly what caused premiums to increase,” Johnson said. “We don’t even have the [CBO] score on this latest version. It’s an insane process. If you don’t have information how can you even have a legitimate discussion and debate?”
Tuesday brought more tension. There was finger-pointing and faction-forming as Pence and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus worked to repair relationships with senators, many of whom saw the president and his team as perhaps well-intentioned but fumbling in their understanding of Congress.
During a Senate lunch, when McConnell broached voting Wednesday on a bill that would simply repeal Obamacare, he was met with resistance, according to aides familiar with the meeting. McConnell had speakers lined up to support his plan, but a number of senators, fuming over the Monday drama and other issues, asked for a pause rather than quick legislative action.
After the lunch, McConnell did not say when a health-care vote would happen, other than the “near future.” By the end of the day, he said it would happen “early next week.”
Abby Phillip, Ed O’Keefe and Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.Before you read this wall of text, keep in mind that I always use the percent after the throw in my notation because uh.... That's the correct way to do it. So yah subtract 7 and that's the percent when fresh.
Alright, so I went back and checked this, and here's the carfax:
Uthrow fsmash works at 83% on neutral and 87% on in DI, 82% on slightly in. Kadano, I might be wrong on this slightly in figure. I used the notch to the left of up, I made an assumption that you were referring to that. Now, when I say "works," what I mean is, it hits them before they can tech and escape via intangibility. HOWEVER, they can technically shine out until 92%. At 92% Uthrow fsmash becomes a true combo, assuming they DI anywhere within range of fsmash. The thing is, if they attempt to shine out before 92, they need to shine literally frame perfectly, and I can tell from experience that this basically never happens. Also, if executed correctly, you will catch any attempt to jump out, making them even more dead.
Now, here's the stun scaling of our throws. This will make it a little easier if you decide to do further testing. I copied it directly from my notes, and I also list every character I double checked it with. Technically, I suppose it's possible that there's some char our throws scale differently on, but I doubt it. Anyways, here you are;
Sheik falcon Marth peach puff ganon fox falco uthrow
7-9:36
10-16:37
17-23:38
24-30:39
31-37:40
38-43:41
44-50:42
51-57:43
58-64:44
65-71:45
72-77:46
78-84:47
85-91:48
92-98:49
99-105:50
106-111:51
112-118:52
119-125:53
126-132:54
133-139:55
140-145:56
146-152:57
153-159:58
Puff peach falcon falco fox Ganon marth sheik dthrow
7-18:33
19-29:34
30-41:35
42-53:36
54-64:37
65-76:38
77-88:39
89-99:40
100-111:41
112-123:42
124-134:43
135-146:44
147-158:45Advertisement
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china is not known for being the most Censorship-free country in the world, but it looks like things are not going to get better for the Chinese people, considering the fact that their government is making maneuvers to further censor the world wide web. This time, they are getting help from an unlikely source -- the American technology giant, Apple.
How do the Chinese bypass censorship?
The Chinese people have found a way to bypass internet censorship and the government has finally caught up to them. The Chinese were using VPN software (virtual private networks -- tools that allow users to hide and spoof their IP address) to access the "forbidden" parts of the web freely. Countless VPN apps were available on Apple's app store, but all of them have since been removed.
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One company, named ExpressVPN, posted a letter from Apple in which the American company stated that their app has been taken down “because it includes content that is illegal in China," the New York Times reports. Another company tweeted that all the VPN apps were removed from the Chinese app store, even though some users paid for annual service:
We just received notice that @Apple removing all the @VPN apps from the @China app store. — Star VPN (@star_vpn) July 29, 2017
A powerful signal
The removal of VPN software from Apple's app store is a powerful signal. To put things into context, the Chinese government began a partial block of one of the most popular instant messaging apps in the world -- WhatsApp -- earlier this month.
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The fact that huge corporations like Apple are working together with governments to promote censorship and invade privacy is more than enough of a reason for concern. What does the future hold? Is the world wide web as we know it going extinct? Will all of us be forced to break the law using different software to access the internet? Who knows? But, one thing is for sure: This will not end well for the people, no matter where they live.
Governments and corporations know very well how important the internet is and this is why they're trying to take it away from us and turn it into an entity they can control, just like they are able to control the media. What will we have left, if they manage to do that? Nothing.
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Similar things are happening all over the world, so this is most definitely not a coincidence. Putin recently announced that VPN software will be banned in Russia and even in the West, in countries such as the United States, our privacy is being invaded and our liberties taken away. Censorship-free internet might become a thing of the past for all of us -- sooner than we think.If you've ever used a face- or body-scrubbing product, it's likely that it contained plastic microbeads. These microbeads work to slough away dead skin, but just like other plastic products they represent an environmental hazard. For this reason, efforts are being made in New York to ban this plastic pollution from products.
Microbeads are tiny spherical beads made out of polyethylene or polypropylene ranging in size from 0.004mm to 1.24mm. They can be found in products including Clearasil, Clean & Clear, L'Oreal and Neutrogena exfoliating face and body washes as well as some toothpastes. A study estimates that nearly 19 tons of microbeads are potentially discharged into the wastewater stream of the State of New York alone each year.
The problem with these microbeads is that they are just washed down the drain. Because they are so small and buoyant, many escape capture by wastewater treatment plants, which tend to filter water through screens that have holes bigger than the microbeads.
The beads go on to act as "sponges for toxic chemical pollutants" and are mistaken for food by aquatic organisms. This means that the pollutants can enter the food chain and contaminate fish that humans eat, as well as birds, turtle,s and mammals.
A 2012 study of the Great Lakes using a fine trawler net found high counts of microplastic pellets, which matched those found in two national brands of facial cleanser. 58 percent of all microplastic less than 1mm collected in the Great Lakes was found to be spherical—a giveaway that it came from cosmetic products—compared with less than one percent of plastic that size found in the North Pacific. Further surveys were carried out in 2013 to confirm high levels of microbeads.
The beads have also been found in the North Sea, where the Institute for Environmental Studies conducted research in 2012 and found that for every 200ml container of scrub product, 21g of microplastics would end up in the sewer system. A study by the UK Marine Biological Association in 2013 found that a third of fish collected off the coast of Plymouth had traces of plastic in them. 504 fish were examined, and 36.5 percent of them were found to have ingested plastic, which researchers said could block their digestive system and lead to contaminant build up.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is calling to pass the Microbead-Free Waters Act, proposed in February 2014, which would ban the tiny beads from products sold in the state. This would be the first piece of legislation of its kind in the United States.
Plastic microbeads were patented for use in cleansers in 1972. However, it was only in the 90s when manufacturers began to replace more natural materials such as ground almonds, oatmeal and sea salt with the plastic microbeads.
In 2011, leading personal care product companies including Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Colgate Palmolive, and L'Oreal pledged to remove microbeads from their product lines, but many lines remain on shop shelves today.
This story originally appeared on Wired UK.CHICAGO -- Maybe it comes down to this: If you follow a team that hasn't won the World Series in 108 years -- let's call them the "Chicago Cubs" -- and even when that team is riding the crest of one of its best seasons ever, you've got to complain about something.
There are internet forums dedicated to deriding the offensive struggles of Jason Heyward. There have been articles pondering whether Heyward should be benched, or at least platooned. There have been boos and catcalls at the ballpark. The eight-year, $184 million contract Heyward signed last winter has been a consistent source of hand-wringing in Cubbie Nation and a punching bag for pundits.
The blare ignores the fundamental reality of free agency: You are not paid for what you've done, but for what you are going to do. On that basis alone, suggestions that Heyward was a bad signing for the Cubs are, frankly, just plain silly. We are four-fifths of the way through the first season of Heyward’s deal, with the most important part still ahead.
"It's really hard to restart during the season," Cubs president Theo Epstein said. "Players, sometimes it takes the offseason to get a sense of renewal and come back anew. Trying to do it during the season is difficult.
"He's been working his tail off all year. For a player who has struggled as he has, he's earned the respect of everyone in the clubhouse with his hard work and team-first attitude, and not backing down from the challenge."
I would go one step further. Not only is it far too early to declare the Heyward deal a bust, but what he has contributed to date has been enough to justify his acquisition. And it's going to get better.
A little thought experiment: What if we were to given two choices to project Heyward's OPS for the next two months? First, we can go with Heyward's 2016 figure of.630. Second, we can go with the aggregate of his previous three seasons,.768. Which would you pick?
Any forecaster worth his salt would opt for the second figure, though his actual projection would have to take into account Heyward's 2016 dip. In other words, given Heyward's track record and the fact he's in the early part of his career prime, his season-to-date performance is not indicative of his true level of talent. That being the case, the Cubs will deploy him like a.768 hitter, not a.630 hitter. And it only makes sense to do so.
"The fact that I've done it, been doing it, and going to continue to do it, that's just something that you know," Heyward said. "The teams we play against know that. At the end of the day, that's what it's all about."
But career regression is not the only thing working in Heyward's favor. There is also the luck factor, something that Cubs manager Joe Maddon has brought up time and again. Heyward seems to have had an inordinate number of hard-hit balls that have ended up as outs.
In fact, there is statistical evidence to back this up. For the season, 22.2 percent of Heyward's balls in play have been line drives. The Cubs' team rate is 20.9 percent; the league figure is 21.4. Heyward's figure is better than that of Anthony Rizzo, though to be fair, Rizzo is a prodigious flyball hitter.
The league OPS on line drives is 1.661. (That's why players try to hit them.) The Cubs' team number is 1.724. Heyward's result? It's 1.300, 431 points lower than the second-worst figure of his career. Heyward's rate of line drives is actually at a career-high level. In other words, never has Heyward hit more hard balls into play, and never have so many of those drives been turned into outs.
So, yeah, Heyward really has been unlucky. The good news is that those things tend to even out in the absence of some underlying cause. And best I can tell, no such cause exists, and already the ship is starting to right itself.
"His swings are better," Maddon said. "His bat is more on time. The contact is harder. It's all over the place, too. Again, he got robbed a couple of times in L.A. I think his confidence is up. I think he thinks he's going to get a hit right now. So there's a lot of good stuff happening right there."
None of this is to say that Heyward's offensive output has not been disappointing. It has. It's only to say that if you think what we've seen from him is what we can expect going forward, you're almost certainly wrong.
Recently, when the Cubs were on the road, Maddon gave Heyward three games off to regroup in the way that Epstein says is tough to do. Lo and behold, entering Tuesday's game, Heyward was riding an eight-game hitting streak, during which he hit.333. His 2016 overall numbers are toast, but that hasn't had an effect on Heyward's work ethic.
"I believe he has one motive, and that's to win every day," Maddon said. "We're all about ourselves to a certain extent. But with him, he's raised properly, man. I believe when he played Little League and eventually got to professional baseball, he's always been that guy that plays to win. The fact that he plays the complete game that he does, he understands that 'I don’t have to hit to help my team win.'"
The other thing that is strange about Heyward complaints is that the Cubs have the best record in baseball. Right? And it's not like he hasn't been a part of that success. After all, this is a team for which defense is the standout attribute, even on a dossier with no real weak spots.
According to baseball-reference.com, Heyward's WAR sits at 1.0 -- a full win above replacement -- this despite having an offensive WAR of minus-0.5, the worst on the team. The reason is simple: His 14 runs saved on defense rank 14th in all of baseball. The defense has been a constant, even as Heyward has struggled to find himself at the plate.
"You're always going to struggle in baseball," Heyward said. "It's happened before. It's happened to all of us here. It's just a part of it, but it keeps you hungry."
There is no real reason to think that Heyward's contract will prove to be an albatross for the Cubs, though you never know what things will look like at the back end of a deal that long. In the short term, the Cubs' best chance to win involves Heyward being on the field. And the best use of their last six weeks this season is to get him in rhythm at the plate, something that might already be happening.
"He's a presence," Maddon said. "I've always been a big believer in the presence of particular people within a group, or within a lineup. When his name is in that lineup, we just look better. We just do."The U.S. Postal Service is allowing salaried supervisors to conduct work set aside for union employees, according to a new report, forcing the agency to waste millions of dollars annually on unnecessary payments.
An agreement between the American Postal Workers Union and USPS in 2014 that settled a 40-year dispute between labor and management capped the number of hours a postmaster or supervisor at certain post offices can spend performing work typically reserved for bargaining unit employees at 15 per week. When the management workers surpass that threshold, the Postal Service is forced to pay the corresponding hourly wages to a clerk picked out by the union.
Even if that employee was on leave or would therefore be collecting overtime, USPS must make the payment.
The USPS inspector general released a management advisory report on Monday that found postmasters and supervisors worked 83,000 hours over the threshold in the first nine months since the agreement was reached in late 2014, which has cost the Postal Service $11.2 million in payments to clerks. The IG said the payments were, in some cases, “unnecessary and fraudulent.”
Individual clerks earned up to nearly $32,000 in hourly pay they did not work, the IG found. The payments occurred in more than 90 percent of Postal Service districts.
The inspector general gave postal management some credit for reducing the overages; supervisors spent 65 percent fewer hours doing bargaining unit work from Oct. 1, 2015 to March 1, 2016.
Still, the auditors said postal management “did not effectively manage workhours for postmasters and supervisors performing bargaining unit work to ensure they complied with the agreement and controlled costs.”
USPS took issue with that suggestion, saying the agency has worked since the days after the APWU agreement to develop processes to ensure supervisors and postmasters stayed within the agreed upon threshold. The IG disagreed, saying management’s initial communication efforts were ineffective and it must monitor staffing, workhours and payments to reduce unnecessary payments.
To that end, the IG recommended the Postal Service fill vacancies so managers are not required to do clerk work and provide clearer guidance to its field network. Even when the supervisors cross the threshold, USPS can in some cases avoid the payments to unionized clerks if it is determined the work was conducted during an emergency -- a provision the IG said USPS has ignored.Following the lifecycle of sulfur from emission, our initial analysis concentrates on the coherence of SO 2 detected by the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) sensor (Supplementary Methods, section M1) with that predicted by the HadGEM3 GCM that is constrained by observed temperatures and winds (that is, ‘nudged’, Supplementary Methods, section M2). IASI retrievals use the discrete spectral absorption structure of SO 2 to determine concentrations30. Comparisons of IASI SO 2 observations from explosive volcanic eruptions against model simulations have proven valuable in the past31,32. The processing procedure for quantitative comparison between IASI and HadGEM3 data uses only data that are spatially and temporally coherent (Supplementary Methods, section M3).
There is considerable uncertainty in the quantitative emission of SO 2 from the 2014–2015 eruption at Holuhraun. A previous study28 assumed a constant emission rate of 40 kt SO 2 d−1 on the basis of initial estimates of degassing. As our standard scenario (STAN) we use an empirical relationship between degassed sulfur, TiO 2 /FeO ratios and lava production derived from Icelandic basaltic flood lava eruptions33, which suggests markedly higher emissions during the early phase of the eruption in September, but we also investigate a simulation where a constant 40 kt SO 2 d−1 is released (40KT scenario). The model simulations and IASI retrievals of column SO 2 are shown in Fig. 1 (40KT emission scenario shown in Supplementary Discussion, section S1).
Figure 1: The column loading of sulfur dioxide. Maps show spatial distribution of SO 2 column loading within the plume produced by the 2014–2015 eruption at Holuhraun; time increases from top to bottom. Left, processed data from HadGEM3 masked using positive detections of SO 2 from IASI and spatially and temporally coherent plume data from HadGEM3. Right, processed data from IASI re-gridded onto the regular HadGEM3 grid. Column loadings (‘SO 2 columnar density’, colour coded) are expressed in Dobson units (DU), with 1 DU equivalent to approximately 0.0285 g SO 2 m−2. For each subpanel, ‘avg’ represents the average columnar density of SO 2 within the plume over the week indicated, with week 1 corresponding to 1–7 September. Full size image Download PowerPoint slide
The distribution and the magnitude of the column loading of SO 2 detected by IASI are similar to those derived from HadGEM3, showing that the GCM nudging scheme and the assumed altitude of the emissions in the STAN scenario (surface to 3 km) reproduces the week to week spatial variability and magnitude of observed column SO 2 (Supplementary Video 1).
While the spatial distribution of sulfate aerosol optical depth (AOD) caused by the eruption can be determined easily in the model (Supplementary Fig. 2.1), detection of the aerosol plume over the North Atlantic Ocean in the MODIS data is hampered by the mutual exclusivity of aerosol and cloud retrievals. The predominance of cloudy scenes makes accurate detection of the aerosol plume in monthly mean MODIS data extremely challenging (Supplementary Discussion, section S2). Nonetheless, despite lacking observations of AOD, we can look for evidence of perturbations caused by aerosols on cloud properties. We examine the perturbation to retrieved cloud-top droplet effective radius (r eff ) in September and October 2014 using Collection 051 monthly mean data from MODIS AQUA (MYD08, Supplementary Methods, section M4) over the period 2002–2014. MODIS AQUA data are not subject to the degradation in performance of the sensors at visible wavelengths that has recently been documented for the MODIS TERRA34 sensor (Supplementary Discussion, section S3). We present a summary of the change in r eff, that is, Δr eff, for October 2014 compared to the long term 2002–2013 mean in Fig. 2a. A full analysis of the year-to-year variability in Δr eff is presented in Supplementary Discussion, section S4.
Figure 2: Changes in cloud properties detected by MODIS AQUA for October 2014. a–d, The mean changes (‘anomalies’) in cloud droplet effective radius, Δr eff (in μm; a), and in liquid water path, ΔLWP (in g m−2; c), with corresponding zonal means; also shown are the probability distributions of absolute cloud droplet effective radius (in μm; b) and liquid water path (in g m−2; d) for the year 2014 (blue) and the 2002–2013 mean (green). Changes correspond to the deviation from the 2002–2013 mean. Stippling in a and c represents areas of perturbation significant at 95% confidence on the basis of a two-tailed Student’s t-test. Grey shading in the zonal means represents the standard deviation over 2002–2013 over the area shown. The area mean represents the spatial average of anomalies over the domain of analysis. Full size image Download PowerPoint slide
There is clear evidence of a signal in Δr eff in October (Fig. 2a) and September (Supplementary Fig. 5.1a). Pixels that are statistically significantly different from the 2002–2013 climatological mean at 95% confidence occur over the entire breadth of the North Atlantic Ocean. The spatial distribution of Δr eff is governed by the prevailing wind conditions that advect the volcanic plume and are quantitatively similar to those noted in Collection 006 MODIS data29.
Figure 3a shows the corresponding Δr eff derived from the model in October (for September, see Supplementary Fig. 5.2a). The observations and modelling show obvious similarities in spatial distribution. In addition to the spatial coherence in Δr eff, the changes in the model of −1.21 μm (September) and −0.68 μm (October) are within 30% of MODIS Δr eff of −0.98 μm (September) and −0.98 μm (October) for the domain shown in Fig. 2.
Figure 3: Changes in cloud properties modelled by HadGEM3 for October 2014. a–d, As Fig. 2 except that in b and d the data for 2014 are shown including (blue) or excluding (gold) the Holuhraun emissions. Full size image Download PowerPoint slide
There are similarities between the MODIS and HadGEM3 probability distribution functions (Figs 2b and 3b) with a shift to smaller r eff for the year of the eruption. Almost all high values of r eff (that is, r eff ≳ 16 μm for MODIS and r eff ≳ 11 μm for HadGEM3) are absent in 2014, suggesting that clouds with high r eff are entirely absent from the domain in both the observations and the model. There are obvious discrepancies in the absolute magnitude of r eff between MODIS and HadGEM3. MODIS retrievals of r eff from the MYD06 product in liquid water cloud regimes have been shown to be markedly larger than those derived from other satellite sensor products, mainly because of the algorithm’s use of a different primary spectral channel relative to other products35,36. Nevertheless, Δr eff is in encouraging agreement as this quantity, along with changes in cloud liquid water path (LWP), needs to be accurately represented if ACI are to be better quantified. As with r eff, there are similarities between MODIS and HadGEM3 for ΔLWP (Figs 2c, d and 3c, d), however, evidence of a clear signal due to the volcano is neither observed or modelled. Additionally, we found that perturbations in the monthly mean cloud fraction from MODIS are negligible, both in September and October as previously reported29.
It is incumbent on any study attributing Δr eff to volcanic emissions to prove the causality beyond reasonable doubt—that is, that the changes are not due to natural meteorological variability. The meteorological analyses in Supplementary Discussion, section S6 suggest that, while in September 2014 the southern part of the spatial domain shown in Fig. 2 is somewhat influenced by anomalous easterlies bringing pollution from the European continent over the easternmost Atlantic Ocean and hence influencing r eff, the perturbations to r eff during October 2014 are entirely of volcanic origin.
MODIS and HadGEM3 show a similar spatial distribution and magnitude for the perturbation in cloud droplet number concentration (ΔN d ) for October, but a smaller ΔN d in MODIS than in HadGEM3 for September 2014 (Supplementary Discussion, section S7.2). Once r eff is reduced, the autoconversion process whereby cloud droplets grow to sufficient size to form precipitation may be inhibited, leading to clouds with increased LWP (ref. 3). The cloud optical depth, τ cloud, is related to r eff, LWP and the density of water (ρ) by the approximation We use HadGEM3 to assess the detectability of perturbations in the presence of natural variability. Two different methods are pursued using the nudged model; first, assessing model simulations with and without the emissions from the eruption for the year 2014 (referred to as HOL 2014 − NO_HOL 2014 ), and second, assessing model simulations including emissions from Holuhraun for 2014 against simulations for 2002–2013 (HOL 2014 − NO_HOL 2002–2013 ). Whereas the former method allows the ‘cleanest’ assessment of the effects of the eruption (as the meteorology is effectively identical and meteorological variability is removed), the second method allows assessment of the statistical significance against the natural meteorological variability. This provides an assessment that is directly comparable to observations and can be used to effectively isolate signal from noise37 (Supplementary Discussion, section S7).
Figure 4 shows that ΔAOD, ΔN d and Δr eff are |
sold its Spice channels to Manwin, but has no interest in them.
Related: The Business of Nudity: The Unlikely Success of Mr. Skin
“To restore the original luster of the brand, we were chipping away those things that we were not,” Flanders reflects. “First and foremost was selling off the adult TV business. Playboy should not have association with being in the sex-act business.”
Last Spring, Playboy recaptured full control of Playboy.com “at significant expense” and relaunched it in August. It’s chock full of a contradictory mix of highly shareable, mostly advertiser-friendly clickbait content, BuzzFeed-style lists, flowchart infographics that help men decide whether or not to catcall a woman in public and a growing crop of articles written by prominent feminists. While the text is mildly toned down -- close to on par with Maxim or GQ -- the visuals are still mainly bare breast and skimpy bikini-centric.
Image credit: Playboy.com
Meanwhile, Flanders says the consumer reaction to the overhauled site has exceeded his expectations. With a healthy bump in traffic from Playboy’s popular Facebook page, the number of unique visitors per month has quadrupled since June, a Playboy representative notes, from a low of 4 million uniques to an estimated 14.5 million last month.
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So far, early as it is, taking some of the dirtier aspects out of Playboy.com seems to be gaining momentum with consumers, at least better than it did with the TheSmokingJacket.com, Playboy’s first and failed 2010 online rebranding attempt. There’s also Playboysfw.kinja.com, launched the same year, a website Jezebel describes as “all writing, no girls.”
Playboy also has a free “SFW” Android app. It recently pulled the poorly reviewed Apple version of it from iTunes, replacing it with Playboy NOW, its new, “sexy, non-nude” free mobile video app.
Looking back, Flanders says he regrets the Manwin agreement because the company used Playboy.com to funnel traffic to its hardcore adult subscription sites, which he thinks was “too off-brand” with Playboy’s shift to a retro-clean rebrand, a return to the classy Playboy your grandfather might recall as a gentleman’s destination. The one he, you know, “read for the articles,” some of the earlier ones by literary greats like Atwood, Updike and Nabokov (the caliber of which you won’t find on Playboy.com).
The essential guide to being the Playboy man. Welcome to The Playbook - http://t.co/vbdEves5je pic.twitter.com/Hr9CVHfh1a — Playboy (@Playboy) November 25, 2014
Still, the Manwin deal was flush with upsides, some that would help Flanders reposition Playboy as less of a lewd publishing outlet and more of a clean-cut brand-management company. Specifically, it afforded Playboy the cash to recruit what Flanders calls a “world-class management team,” kill off 70 brand-weakening licensing deals and relocate from its original headquarters in Hefner’s native Chicago to a glitzy refurbished Beverly Hills office and photo studio (swanky full bar included, of course).
The deal also enabled Playboy to expand what Flanders sees as a rescue cash cow, rather cash rabbit -- exploiting the enduring popularity of Art Paul’s immediately recognizable tuxedo-tied rabbit-head logo outside of the U.S., particularly in censored China. “We generate almost $30 million a year in net licensing profits from China alone,” Flanders says, “a country where we’ve never had a magazine or a website or a TV channel.”
By the third quarter of 2012, consumer licensing -- from rabbit emblazoned apparel to Coty perfume and just about everything imaginable in between -- accounted for 74 percent of Playboy’s profits.
Related: 5 Secrets for Making Your Logo Stand Out
Flash forward to 2013. Playboy, “in the midst of a multi-year turnaround,” was still clawing its way back to relevance in North America under Flanders’ direction, having doubled its global licensing revenue and freshly refinanced $185 million in loans. It was also closing in on a fat stack of more promising licensing deals. But, when those deals didn’t close fast enough, Standard & Poor’s cut Playboy’s corporate credit rating down to a dismal CCC+, and downgraded its senior-secured debt to a B-.
It’s not clear where Playboy stands financially today. The company declined to share its latest earnings metrics with us. We do know, though, that in 2009, when Flanders came aboard, its annual revenue was $240 million. In 2012, it was $135 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Flanders did, however, share that Playboy magazine, the namesake flagship of the brand, is now “breaking even.” It once boasted 7.2 million readers at its peak in 1972, but only has a print circulation of 1.2 million and an estimated 30,000 paying digital subscribers. The glossy was hemorrhaging around $12 million per year back when Flanders took the helm, with a circulation of 2.5 million. He credits the publication’s return to the black to a combination of steady but “flat” ad revenues, licensing earnings from 29 international editions and to its recently modernized photography.
An iconic brand and an uncertain future
Though he claims he has no actual editorial pull, Flanders nudged others within the company to contemporize the overall look and feel of the publication. He felt it had grown “stale,” mostly due to using essentially the same pool of photographers for more than 25 years. Updating the visual aesthetic, he says, particularly the eye candy, of Playboy was far from an easy sell.
“People said, ‘Oh, we know what Hef likes. He likes this type of photography,’ and I said, ‘Well that’s bullshit. That’s like saying he likes the same meatloaf he’s been eating for 25 years. Let’s give him a piece of steak and see if he likes that,’” Flanders says. “And, sure as hell, as soon as they gave Hef more contemporary photography he loved it.”
Related: 20 Brilliant Brand Logos
Cooking up a new, improved visual buffet worked for Hef. But will it attract new readers? It might not matter anyway. Flanders says the circulation of the magazine will only get smaller and smaller in the years ahead. Perhaps it will even go away altogether, like Larry Flynt says Hustler will, thanks to the Internet and its endless supply of free porn of every flavor.
Will floating yet another new “SFW” online presence with buzzy viral content and tamer chic pics work for Playboy’s target market -- 18- to 34-year-olds (though Flanders says it appeals to “13- to 80-year-olds”)? Flanders hopes so.
“We are not aggressively investing to chase that marginal reader,” Flanders says, “because they’re frankly not that valuable to our advertiser. Instead, we’re shifting much of our content investment toward digital, and specifically video. The viewer of our digital content is younger and more affluent and spends more time with the content than our older, less affluent more rural viewer of our magazine.”
Related: Meet the Franchise Bringing Adult Products Out of the Shadows
And therein lies the naked truth: Like all publishers, adult and non, Playboy’s print readers aren’t getting any younger or richer or more attractive to advertisers. Online is where Playboy’s future audience lives, if it can figure out a way to attract them and keep them coming back for more. If it can’t, there’s always the fallback licensing cash rabbit, the bunny that takes a licking and somehow keeps on ticking, at least for now.
Playboys art director, Art Paul, designed the logo in 10 minutes. Today the trademark is known worldwide. #Playboy pic.twitter.com/VpNKsM7Ntr — Patty Farmer (@PattyatthePlaza) October 30, 2014
“Everybody looks at that Playboy rabbit-head logo and it represents something to them,” Flanders says. “They’ve heard of it. They’ve seen it. They have a connection to it and it represents something to them. It’s what we are. It’s powerful and costs hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, to create that kind of unaided awareness on a global basis.”
Related: The 8 Must-Follow Rules for Rebranding Your Company
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated Playboy magazine's financial situation when Scott Flanders took the helm as CEO of Playboy Enterprises Inc. The magazine was losing $12 million per year.Conventional wisdom says America has the best-equipped military in the world. But sometimes you have to wonder. Personnel from Marine Corp Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina recently went to a museum in search a part they needed to get one of their older F/A-18 Hornets flyable, according to a report this week from BreakingDefense.
"We got an email from the military asking if they could have the forward left nose landing gear door hinge from the F/A-18 on the Yorktown's deck."
During a meeting of the House Armed Services Committee last Tuesday which included Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joe Dunford, Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX) mentioned that during a recent visit to MCAS Beaufort he'd heard a story about Marines scrounging parts for an F/A-18 from a museum. Thornberry used the story to illustrate a point about declining military readiness. BreakingDefense provided further detail, explaining that the Marines were in search of a part that was on an F/A-18A that flew in the raid against Libya in 1986.
The part in question was not on hand at Beaufort and is no longer manufactured. The Marines first went to check retired F/A-18s on display at MCAS Beaufort but didn't find it. Then a Marine Lt. Colonel visiting the USS Yorktown (a retired aircraft carrier part of the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum) in nearby Charleston noted a similar vintage F/A-18A on deck and informed the Beaufort contingent about it.
The Marines needed an old landing gear door hinge. Patriots Point
"We got an email from the military asking if they could have the forward left nose landing gear door hinge from the F/A-18 on [the Yorktown's] deck," says Patriots Point spokesman Chris Hauff. "The Hornet, [Bureau no. 162435] is on loan to us from the National Naval Aviation Museum and they asked if the Marines could come out and take a look at it. They sent a team out here and removed the part, but it turns out they weren't able to use it."
Hauff says that the Museum has never had a request like this, but that they were happy to help. "Any way that our museum can help, we will." That's good to know. On the other hand, this story illustrates the state of Marine Corps aviation. The Marines fly some of the oldest fighter aircraft in the military thanks in part to their advocacy of the F-35. The service has forgone modernizing its Hornets and Harriers in order to save money for the F-35B, which can't come soon enough.SFW Are you a pr0n-loving Fandroid who's sick of having to toggle the privacy button every time you view a grumble flick?
There's help, er, at hand, apparently, with the release of the world's first ever smut-focused web browser.
A developer called Steven Goh has designed a new mobile web browser which is unsubtly called Jerky, a name that presumably doesn't refer to the dried meat dish but the sort of physical action he intends men to perform as they use it.
Fresh from the success of his Chrome extension Go Away Cameron, which allowed users to bypass the PM's porn restrictions, Goh has stepped up his pro-porn mission to another level.
He fears that the crackdown on filth is part of a dirty tricks campaign which could have a chilling effect on internet freedom.
"The UK blocked goawaycameron.co.uk less than a month after it launched, even though it is not a porn site," the developer claimed in an email. "Isn't that quite a clear sign?"
"I don't think this movement of internet censorship will cease, let alone slow down. But the people can fight back. There is the dark internet and other mechanisms, but I think we can do better.
"With Jerky browser, plenty of users are using it not because of its porn bypass, but because it is a helluva browser just on its own.
The "porn bypass browser" features password protection and a built-in private proxy bypass to sidestep ISP filters worldwide.
These key privacy features should make sure no throbbing members accidentally pop up on screen as you try to show the family which hotel you've booked for the next holiday.
It will also stop ad-stalkers in their tracks, with a "permanently incognito" system which prevents the storage of cookies, files, history or other data.
The dev said that he wasn't so much interested in helping the world see more porn, as wanting to maintain an uncensored internet.
"The world does not need a porn browser. Rather, the world needs more browsers, which are our gateway to the internet, focusing on privacy," he said.
"Now, it also happens that in some parts of the world, the internet is nannied with censorship. I don't believe that power should lie with the government. With the desktop, we have the option of VPN, and even simple Chrome extensions like Go away Cameron that bypass internet filters. But it isn't that easy on a mobile device.
"This is a personal crusade, it is just that people actually like and want porn. And I happen to have zero awkwardness about this taboo. Personally, beyond porn, I believe that there is a lot of room for innovation in connecting people and websites. The fact the internet is so centralised now has brought about quite a few problems like NSA snooping and sniffing or susceptibility to DDoS attacks."
Of course, even the most inept of web surfers can probably figure out how to protect their privacy (up to a point) while browsing. Just click the privacy button, stupid, and clear the history and cookies before fondling your slab in public.
As for "Cameron's porn filter", tech-savvy onanists have pointed out that it is implemented through "opt-out" controls arranged by the UK's internet service providers, and thus is a problem which does not need an additional solution...
On a thread discussing Jerky, one Reddit user wrote: "There is no 'UK porn filter'. There are instead parental controls implemented by the ISP, which, and this bit is the only thing that is new or has been changed, are now enabled by default for new accounts on several major ISPs. You don't need some dodgy new browser to bypass the parental controls, you just need to disable them in your account settings."
An iOS version of Jerky is currently in development and will be rolled out later this year, depending on whether or not it bypasses Cupertino's own porn filter. ®Eager to see if the rumors of a hidden Banksy were true, he wasted little time.
On the day he got the keys to the site, Mr. Ellis said, he had plywood that had been screwed to the wall removed, but “it wasn’t one of those eureka moments where we pulled the ply off and oh my god there it was.”
Instead, what he saw underneath was a section of white-painted bricks marked with numbers. “Because it had been painted over, we didn’t actually know what was going to be salvageable, or what was left,” Mr. Ellis said. “We were excited to see the wall hadn’t been removed, but at that precise moment didn’t know what we had.”
Mr. Ellis says he believes that the bricks had been numbered by someone intending to remove and reconstruct the potentially valuable stencil brick by brick. Instead, his company removed a whole section of the wall using a power tool.
“We were building there, so we had to explain to the builders — without telling them what was underneath it — that they had to protect this bit of wall,” Mr. Ellis explained. “If you looked at it, it was just a white bit of wall. You would’ve thought we had gone absolutely mental.”
After a wait of about a week, the wall was carted off to the Fine Art Restoration Company in Carlisle, England, in the rural county of Cumbria. (The first van the company sent was too small for all the bricks.)In this undated photo provided by the Bland family, Sandra Bland poses for a photo. The family of Bland, who was found dead in her Texas jail cell, assert that she would not have taken her own life, but authorities are pointing to mounting evidence that they say shows she hanged herself. (Courtesy of Bland family) less In this undated photo provided by the Bland family, Sandra Bland poses for a photo. The family of Bland, who was found dead in her Texas jail cell, assert that she would not have taken her own life, but... more Photo: HONS Photo: HONS Image 1 of / 147 Caption Close Mom: Sandra Bland settlement 'a victory for moms across the country' 1 / 147 Back to Gallery
UPDATE: State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, announced he will file the Sandra Bland Act in the upcoming session of the Texas Legislature to include recommended changes in jails across the state.
"The Sandra Bland Act will include her family's wishes and recommendations that have been discussed at the House Committee on County Affairs oversight hearings that have arisen out of the Sandra Bland case," Coleman said in a written statement.
PREVIOUS REPORT
The mother of Sandra Bland - who died in 2015 in the Waller County Jail - said her tentative $1.9 million settlement with state and county officials is "a victory for moms across the country."
The tentative settlement - reached late Wednesday - calls for reforms in Waller County and improvements at rural jails across the state.
"I believe this is going to be a rippling effect across the country," Geneva Reed-Veal said Thursday. "I'm hopeful there won't be any more unlawful arrests. I'm hopeful with this spotlight and this settlement that others don't have to receive a call from 1,000 miles away that their child is on the way to the morgue."
Reed-Veal, of Chicago, has been outspoken about police abuse and jail reform after her daughter died in an apparent suicide at the Waller County Jail following a questionable traffic stop.
Under terms of the settlement, Waller County would pay $1.8 million and the Texas Department of Public Safety would pay $100,000, according to San Antonio attorney Tom Rhodes, one of three lawyers who represented Bland's mother in the federal lawsuit she filed in Houston.
The settlement needs approval of state officials and Waller County commissioners before being finalized, officials said.
Waller County's attorney Larry Simmons issued a statement Thursday saying that details were still being worked out and that the county agreed all details would be confidential until finalized.
The settlement does not include any admission of wrongdoing, he said.
The tentative settlement calls for jail reforms not just in Waller County but in other rural jails in Texas, a move that would require action by state lawmakers.
The family asked that any bill passed by legislators bear Sandra Bland's name, according to lawyers.
RELATED: Sandra Bland's mother shares emotional message at DNC
In July 2015, DPS Trooper Brian Encinia arrested Bland during a questionable traffic stop, alleging she had assaulted him. Three days later, the 28-year-old woman committed suicide while in the Waller County Jail.
Bland's mother filed the federal lawsuit against Waller County, several county officials and two jailers, and Encinia.
Under terms of the settlement released Thursday, changes would be required for both DPS and Waller County.
The DPS would provide de-escalation training for all current and future troopers statewide.
Waller County would be required to have a nurse or emergency technician at the jail round-the-clock, and would set up a tele-medicine system so inmates could be screened by physicians face-to-face, Rhodes said.
The county also would be required to set up sensors to validate cell checks electronically, he said.
State lawmakers would be asked to work together to draft legislation in Bland's name to require similar changes in other rural jails.
Read Full ArticleSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) with President Trump. (Associated Press/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Opinion writer
Just a few hours ago, President Trump told reporters at the White House that the popular 401(k) tax break just might be up for negotiation as part of tax reform, after all.
What a difference 48 hours makes.
On Monday, Trump tweeted that there would be “NO change to your 401(k),” as a result of the tax reform proposals now working their way through Congress. How seriously did congressional Republican leaders take this? Not too seriously! On Wednesday morning, House Ways and Committee Chair Kevin Brady (R-Texas) told a Christian Science Monitor breakfast this might not be so. “We are continuing discussions with the president, all focused on saving more and saving sooner,” he said.
Now Trump has agreed. When asked Wednesday afternoon if the the 401(k) was up for grabs, he responded, “Maybe it is and maybe we’ll use it as negotiating.”
Is your head spinning? It should be. The problem isn’t just that Trump’s position on this one issue is shifting along with his whims. It’s also what this tells us about how Republicans are generally handling this whole process, and what it means for the likely outcome. It’s already hard enough to make the American system of saving for retirement more difficult, confusing or disadvantageous for lower- and middle-income savers. But Republicans just might be on the verge of accomplishing this — all in an effort to game the budget process.
Here’s the background.
Late last week, word went out that the Republicans, seeking a way to pay for tax cuts, were casting a covetous eye on the money Americans are able to save in their 401(k) workplace retirement accounts. As of now, Americans under the age of 50 can put $18,000 of their earnings annually on a tax-deferred basis into their workplace 401(k), while those older get to put in an additional $6,000. The money goes in on a tax-deferred basis, and you pay taxes on it when it is withdrawn in retirement.
But if you put the money in something called a Roth Individual Retirement Account or Roth 401(k), the rules change. The process works in reverse. You put the money in on an after-tax basis. If you take the sums out in retirement, you can withdraw it tax-free.
According to figures provided by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation to the New York Times, the regular 401(k) break when combined with other individual retirement set-asides results in a $115 billion in lost revenue for fiscal year 2018. In other words, the proposed change will bring in some tax revenue now, while costing the government money more than a decade off in the future.
As it is, many Americans are on the verge of living through a retirement crisis. According to Fidelity, Americans, on average, put $5,850 into their 401ks on an annual basis. The average account holds less than $100,000. No one thinks this is adequate in terms of saving for retirement.
No surprise, Democrats are pouncing on the Republican retirement moves. “Families today are already not saving enough for retirement, and we are concerned that mandating Roth savings will diminish their ability to save even further,” read a letter sent last month from five Democratic senators to congressional leaders.
Now, to be fair, there is debate over this. At least one paper has found people don’t really change how much they save for retirement based on how money is taxed. As Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at New York’s New School and a long-time critic of the 401(k) put in an email to me this afternoon, “The Republicans are right about one thing — 401k and IRA — tax incentives probably don’t do much to encourage savings overall.”
But that’s not to say Ghilarducci thinks the Republican 401(k) grab is a good idea. She doesn’t. “The Republican Plan takes retirement tax breaks from middle-class workers to pay for tax cuts for billionaires,” she continued. “It makes how half of the middle class saves for retirement more expensive while lowering taxes on the rich and not materially changing tax benefits rich people get for saving for retirement.”
The Roth, you see, favors people who can afford to pay an upfront bill so they can save more money further down the line — the wealthy, in other words. It’s more expensive initially because the saver is paying the tax in advance, reducing the amount initially going into the account.
And now Donald Trump wants to make a deal over it. That’s bad. Even worse: the tax plan is supposed to debut shortly, and it still isn’t clear if the Republicans in Congress or the White House even know what’s going to be in it. This, to use a favorite Trump word, promises to be a big mess.Expediency council approves plan for new capital – which could be a new or existing city – amid earthquake fears over Tehran
It has witnessed some of Iran's most tumultuous events: the fall of the shah, the return of Ayatollah Khomeini and the transformation from pro-western monarchy to revolutionary Islamic republic.
Now Tehran's days as the Iranian capital appear numbered after a powerful state body approved a plan for a new principal city. The idea was proposed by the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and rubber-stamped by the expediency council.
Seismologists have warned that Tehran is liable to be struck by a catastrophic earthquake in the foreseeable future. It is not clear whether a new capital will be built from scratch or sited in an existing city.
Iran has had numerous capitals during its history, including Isfahan, Qazvin, Shiraz, Mashhad and Hamedan. Since the Qajar king Agha Mohammad Khan declared it capital in 1795, Tehran has become the country's political, social, economic and cultural centre.
Its infrastructure has been left creaking by rapid population growth that has seen it become home to 12 million people, up from 250,000 at the start of the 20th century.
A mass influx from the countryside under the last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, fed the social discontent unleashed by the 1979 Islamic revolution. The population has continued to spiral since then, with unregulated development creating a traffic-clogged and polluted urban sprawl.
Most recently, Tehran was the centre of mass street protests triggered by the disputed re-election of the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which opponents insist was achieved through fraud.
Plans for a new capital were first drawn up 20 years ago, but officials only gave them serious consideration after the 2003 earthquake that devastated the south-eastern city of Bam and killed an estimated 40,000 people. Experts warn that Tehran sits on at least 100 faultlines – including one nearly 60 miles long – and that many of its buildings would not survive a major quake.
Professor Bahram Akasheh, a seismologist and dean of the faculty of basic sciences at Tehran Azad University, said the city had been chosen as capital "by mistake" and its north-eastern suburbs were vulnerable to an earthquake measuring eight on the Richter scale.
"I warned of this 40 to 50 years ago and if they had listened to me then, Tehran wouldn't have grown into a macro-city, but now control is lost over it. The city is growing bigger and bigger every day and so are the poor suburbs around it," he told the Guardian.
He said a new capital should be built between Qom – home to the country's clerical establishment – and Delijan, in Markazi province, an area that has not seen an earthquake in 2,000 years.This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: A year ago yesterday, on November 6, 2012, tens of millions of Americans went to the polls to re-elect President Obama. On that same day, thousands of miles away, a 39-year-old Afghan farmer named Mohammad Qasim disappeared after being arrested by U.S. Special Forces. He was never heard from again.
Months later, an Afghan shepherd saw a feral dog digging at human remains now believed to be the farmer’s. His decaying body was found just outside a base used by a team of U.S. Special Forces known as “the A-Team.” The body was found just weeks after U.S. Special Forces were compelled by the Afghan government to leave the base amid allegations of torture and murder.
More and more bodies were soon found just outside the base located in Wardak province, west of Kabul. In total, Afghan officials say they have uncovered the bodies of 10 Afghan men, all of whom disappeared after being arrested by U.S. Special Forces. Eight other Afghans were killed by the Special Forces during operations.
AMY GOODMAN: The mystery behind the killings is the center of a shocking new article published by Rolling Stone magazine, which reports the disappearances and killings could amount to some of the gravest war crimes perpetrated by U.S. forces since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said any U.S. personnel who participated in or were otherwise responsible for the abuses should be criminally prosecuted. So far only one person has been arrested: an Afghan translator who went by the name Zikria Kandahari, who had been working for the American team. He was arrested in July by the Afghan government. Rolling Stone reports the U.S. military opened a criminal investigation into the killings in July; however, none of the witnesses and family members who were interviewed by Rolling Stone in Afghanistan during five months of reporting say they’ve ever been contacted by U.S. military investigators.
To talk more about this story, we’re joined by Matthieu Aikins, an award-winning investigative journalist based in Kabul, Afghanistan. His article is titled “The A-Team Killings.” It was just published by Rolling Stone magazine.
Welcome to Democracy Now!
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Thanks.
AMY GOODMAN: Why don’t you start off by just laying out your findings?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Well, essentially, what we did was we interviewed dozens of witnesses, family members of the victims, officials who had investigated—there was investigations done, confidential ones, by both the U.N. and the Red Cross, as well as the Afghan government—and laid out what had happened in this isolated valley, because, you know, even though these allegations emerged last winter and continued into the spring and were quite controversial, led to local demonstrations, no one really knew who this mysterious unit was, if they were CIA, if they were some sort of Special Forces team. The military had, right up until they opened this criminal investigation, categorically denied any responsibility.
So, what we did is we laid out a timeline of what happened, and we discovered who this unit was. We established conclusively that these men who disappeared were picked up by American forces, often in these mass roundups in villages in broad daylight. So it’s not a question of whether they were picked up by them; it’s a question of what happened to them afterwards. And then, in the end, we were able to actually identify the unit and even get in to see this translator, Zikria Kandahari.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Now, long before the American military launched its investigation, this had become a major issue in Afghanistan, with President Karzai actually demanding that the U.S. troops on that base be removed. Could you talk about that? And when did that happen?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: The—as you mentioned, these incidents started in November, but they really reached a sort of fever point in February, when a body of a student named Nasratullah was found, you know, with his throat slit under a bridge.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: This was in February of this year.
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Of this year, that’s right. So, the family claimed that he had been picked up by the Special Forces. It’s not clear exactly what happened, but it had been bubbling in local politics and press for a while. So mass demonstrations erupted in Wardak. And Karzai, who had previously ordered an investigation into the allegations, just demanded that the team leave, the Special Forces leave Wardak province, where they were based, this valley called Nerkh. So, that’s really when it reached a crisis point. There was talks between Karzai and the American-led ISAF, and—
AMY GOODMAN: ISAF being?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: The International Security Assistance Force, which is the U.S. and NATO military mission in Afghanistan. So, what had ended up happening is this became a kind of political point, because right now, as you know, the U.S. and Afghanistan are locked in these negotiations over the future of American forces in Afghanistan. And one of the main sticking points is the legal status of U.S. forces post-2014. The U.S. is adamant that they should have legal immunity from Afghan law for its forces, and of course the Afghans are reluctant to grant that. Now, as you know as well, in Iraq, this is what led to the so-called “zero option,” the sudden withdrawal of U.S. forces, something that no one really predicted, just a couple years before. And there is some speculation that if they can’t reach a negotiation over the—that will provide legal immunity of U.S. forces, they could have to pull out.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But now the troops pulled out in April from that base, but it wasn’t until July that the United States actually began a formal investigation of the charges?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Yeah, absolutely. And there’s something that’s really troubling raised by this timeline, because if you—if you look, the allegations are first reported—and the U.S. military has acknowledged this—they were first reported to a U.S. Army officer by the victims in November, right? Right at the beginning of all these killings. And yet, even as the allegations mounted, even as investigations were done by the U.N., the Red Cross and the Afghan government, that all found the witnesses’ testimony credible of—that there were war crimes being committed by this U.S. unit, even as the bodies came out of the ground in April, May, the U.S. military stuck to its denial, saying there had been three investigations that had cleared them of all wrongdoing.
AMY GOODMAN: A spokesperson from the ISAF, the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, told Democracy Now! no one was available to join us for the show to respond to your new report, but he provided this statement: quote, “We are aware of the recently published Rolling Stone article which repeats prior allegations concerning ISAF personnel. Allegations arising out of incidents in Wardak in 2012-13 have been turned over to the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. According to officials at CID, they will not release information on this matter at the present time to protect the integrity of this ongoing investigation. ISAF takes all allegations of detainee abuse seriously and we will continue to cooperate with the Afghan government in regard to any issues involving the conduct of coalition forces.” Matt Aikins, your response?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Well, they did turn it over to the Army Criminal Investigative Command in July, and they say that that was because they received new information from the Red Cross, which—this is according to the American military—had given them new evidence that led them to open—to request that investigation be opened. Now, the Red Cross investigation happened much earlier on. It was essentially completed by the time the bodies came out of the ground, from what I understand from speaking to officials who were familiar with that report. The Red Cross doesn’t speak directly to its own confidential investigations.
But the question really is: Who else knew about these incidents beforehand? How is it possible that at least one level in the chain of command above this unit could not have known that there were war crimes? There was serious evidence of war crimes in Wardak province. And if they weren’t involved in a cover-up, then they must have at least been willfully blind.
AMY GOODMAN: And the A-Team is from?
MATTHIEU AIKINS: The A-Team is from Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to—we’re going to continue the discussion after break. Matthieu Aikins is with us. He is the author of “The A-Team Killings.” It’s just come out in Rolling Stone magazine. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Our guest is Matthieu Aikins. He’s an award-winning investigative journalist based in Kabul, Afghanistan, has just published the piece in Rolling Stone magazine, “The A-Team Killings.” Juan?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Matt, you were talking how the military has now begun its own investigation, but you have discovered, so far, that they haven’t interviewed any of the witnesses that you—that you talked to. So this appears to be almost like a phantom investigation. Have you been contacted, for instance, by the military, maybe asking you, “Well, can you could give us the names of some of the folks that you talked to, how we might be able to reach them?”
MATTHIEU AIKINS: Well, I hope they will, because they haven’t. And it really was baffling to me how I could spend five months digging into this story, and I’ve interviewed all the key witnesses and gathered all the key evidence myself, and not have somehow run into this investigation which was taking place. So it really raises the question of whether this investigation is being taken seriously, whether it’s being properly resourced. And, of course, you have to see it in the context of the very poor track record the U.S. military has in reviewing, you know, allegations of abuse in custody and other incidents like that in the past and bringing the culprits to justice.
AMY GOODMAN: So let’s talk about some of the people who were killed, whose bodies were found. One of the Afghans who died after being detained by U.S. Special Forces was a university student named Nasratullah. In February, his mother recalled how she was woken up at night by men she called Americans, who burst into |
1951.
Following Kuhn’s arrest, the Bund slowly withered away, until its dissolution on 8 December 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the United States declared war on Germany, federal officials began to arrest Bund officials. Kuhn’s successor Gerhard Kunze was captured in Mexico and sentenced to 15 years of prison for “subversive activities”. Twenty-four other officers were convicted of conspiracy to violate the 1940 Selective Service Act and served prison time. Some other Bund leaders committed suicide before the FBI caught up with them. Although some Bund members had their naturalization revoked and some spent time in prison camps, most members were left alone after the organization was disbanded.
There is a reason George Washington is up there and not Thomas Jefferson or James Madison Jr. Fascism was an ideology that emphasized action and heroism over intellectualism and philosophy. This is why Hitler’s ideal Aryan concept was a strong, handsome, and physically fit person rather than someone with a mind for civics. Men of action were the ideal example figures. The other part of fascism was extreme patriotism, which is why each nation/group had its own fascist symbolism and mythology. It wasn’t like communism where concepts were supposed to transcend ethnic boundaries, but an ideology where each nation had its own flavor. Washington, as a military leader, patriotic father, and someone whom a legend of heroism and virtue has grown up around, was the ideal figure for fascist groups looking to pull a symbol out of American history.developer Hothead Games has announced that it is developing a game based on the Douglas Adams' book seriesAnnounced on Towel Day, a day celebrated by fans of the late author and his work, the game will be published by Megadodo Publications. There are no details regarding release platforms or dates yet.Hothead's game technology director Joel DeYoung explained, "We�re super excited to be involved with such a legendary creation as.""The quirky and hilarious universe that Douglas Adams created became an instant classic for so many. All the hoopiest froods here at Hothead jumped on the chance to work on the project."A website called The New Hitchhiker's Guide is now live, where those interested in following the game's progress can sign up to the newsletter.Hothead Games released its twogames on both Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network last year.Hip-hop heads, do you know the backstory behind the infamous Jay-Z line on “Takeover”?
In a shot at Nas’ street credibility during their beef, Jay-Z claimed the first time Nas saw a Tec was when the pair were on tour with Large Professor.
According to Extra P, Main Source were touring with the Ultramagnetic MCs and Jaz-O in Washington D.C. when some shit went down with the crowd, forcing Jay-Z to step up with the heat.
We were figuring we were gonna have to knuckle down,” explains LP of the incident, which Jay has used to attack Nas. “Jay came outta nowhere, reachin’ in his gym bag like, ‘Don’t even sweat these niggas. I got that.’ He didn’t show [Nas] the gun like, ‘I’m gonna shoot you,’ but we were all just like, ‘Whew!’ – Large Professor (March 2002)
Source: Large Professor Feature for XXL (March 2002)Tim Adams: Explain the motivation behind the Richard Bachmann books.
SK: I wanted to see what was in the name, but I also wanted to publish those books. They thought I would clog the market. They weren't really Stephen King books as it was then understood, they were short for a start.
TA: Do you worry that there is an element of chance in your success?
SK: Not worried, but curious. Curious to know whether there's something in me, or whether I just won the publishing lottery. And I guess its both. But primarily a lot of things came together for me at around the time of Carrie. The book, and the film that was successful. But even then I was not the blue-eyed boy of the season. Peter Benchley was. And where is he now?
TA: Did you feel a pressure to repeat the success, after your career took off?
SK: No it was always a pleasure to write. I can never think of a time when I just hacked something out to fulfil a contract or meet a deadline. I might have hacked things out, but it was always stuff I loved.
TA: Did the alcohol ever get in the way?
SK: With alcohol I was just an alcoholic personality. But it was a slow growing thing, compared to the drugs, that is I drank x amount in 1975 and in 1976 it was maybe x plus 20.
TA: And always beer?
SK: Well, beer was what I wanted, but if I couldn't get beer, I'd drink anything else really. The drugs were different. With cocaine, one snort, and it just owned me body and soul. Something in my system wanted that, and once cocaine was there it was like the missing link: click. Like when you turn on lights it's on or off, there's no half way. Cocaine was like my 'on' switch. I started in 79 I guess. Did it for about eight years. Not a terribly long time to be an addict I guess, but it is longer than World War II. [Laughs] And that's how it felt a lot of the time. I didn't really hide my drinking, but I hid my drugs because I knew right away it was a problem. Nobody lives one day at a time like a drug addict. You don't think yesterday or tomorrow. You just think now, where is it. I was high much of the eighties, and I'm not a very reflective person, so it never crossed my mind that it was an existential thing, or that it was wasteful or anything else. It was just what I was doing that day
TA: In your book you talk about the effect drinking had on the books. What effect did it have on family?
SK: It's tough to say. I hid it pretty well, in that they never really knew what was distorting my mood. The tide goes in, the tide goes out and if you don't know that its the moon pulling those tides you still know when its safe to go to the beach.
TA: Were you lucid most of the time?
SK: My wife has told me since that I was hungover every mornng until about two in the afternoon, and from five until midnight I was drunk out of my mind. So she says there was this period of about three hours when she could talk to me like a rational human being...
TA: That must have been pretty tough on her and the kids?
SK: Well, I suppose it must have had an effect. I was never the guy who said 'lets have a gin and tonic before dinner.' I'd have to have like twelve gin and tonics and then I'd have to say 'fuck dinner' and have twelve more. So I guess that was difficult to live with from time to time.
TA: Why did she stay with you?
SK: Well she stuck. But she made it clear that she wouldn't stick if I didn't clean up my act... But that was after maybe twenty years. I mean the first time we ever went out I got loaded.
TA: What kind of a drunk were you. Was Jack Torrance [of The Shining] for example, ever close to home?
SK: It never about swinging from the chandeliers or throwing people through the window, or getting laid, or partying. I didn't go to bars much. One drunken asshole was all I could handle and that was me. I wrote. I don't remember a lot of it. The kids accepted my drinking as a part of life. Not a particularly pernicious part. I didn't beat up on them. Basically I don't think I was so different from a lot of dads who have three or four martinis when they get in from work, wine with dinner and so on.
TA: Well, maybe a little different...
SK: There's a story I loved about this big blizzard in 76, much worse than the perfect storm, it paralysed everything. The outside world looked like fucking Venus or something: no houses, just snow. Boston was shut down for 12 days and the commuter trains were stranded, and the commuters were taken to school gymnasiums. And that night, the police were forced to break into liquor stores, no word of a lie, because these businessmen were getting delirium tremors, they were scaring the children, because they were not used to life where they couldn't get a shot of whiskey at five or six o'clock. So its a fairly oiled society. And I wasn't much more out of control than anyone else.
TA: What about your health... have their been lasting effects?
SK: I like to think my coke addiction was a blessing in disguise, because I think without coke, I'd have gone on drinking until about the age of fifty-five and it would have been in the New York Times, 'writer Steven King dies of stroke'. Once you add the coke, you eventiually tip over, because I know from experience that stuff eats you from the inside out...
TA: When that point came, when your wife emptied all your empties and crap on floor in 1987, did you clean up straight away?
SK: Not really... At that time I was this very successful author, and that kind of success does not really lead you humbly to say 'yeah, I guess you're right. I'm an asshole.' It rather leads you to say 'who the fuck are you to tell me to settle down. Don't you understand? I'm king of the fucking universe, you know. So it took me about a year to get my shit together, get back on track. The worst of it was 87 to 88 when I was looking for a detente, a way I could live with booze and drugs without giving them up altogether. Needless to say I was not successful in this.
TA: But the writng stayed constant throughout this time?
SK: There were nine months when I was out of gas, depressed. And despite what some people say depression is not conducive to good writing or to bad writing. But then it came back. When I gave up dope and alcohol, my immediate feeling was 'I've saved my life, but there'll be a price because I'll have nothing that buzzes me any more. But I enjoyed my kids. My wife loved me and I loved her. And eventually the writing came back and I discovered that the writing was enough. Stupid thing is that probably it always had been.
TA: After the accident were you tempted to back to drinking?
SK: Nah never. If that guy had hit me in 1986 he'd have killed me on the spot because my body was already fucked then, but I was in pretty good shape when he hit me, I exercised a lot. You come out of something like that and you don't think about alcohol. You think about how you hurt like a bastard all the time.
TA: When you are fit I understand you plan to take it out on the truck that hit you. Do you feel the same way about its driver?
SK: Well, this is a guy who only has a little bit of brains. I can't blame the guy. If he'd hit me on purpose sure. I mean I sometimes have fantasies about confronting the guy. But Brian Smith is like Gertrude Stein said about LA: 'There's no there, there'.
TA: It almost seemed scripted, the whole accident in a grim kind of way. Has it changed your ideas of fate?
SK: That a big question, Tim. I don't know. I lean more toward the idea that some force is running things than not. Call it fate, call it god. There are so many things: if I'd left the house five minutes later, or if Tabby had come along as she often did, and maybe I'm then walking a little further out on the shoulder; you go on with the variables. So what you're left with is this guy who hits me on an empty road when say NASA can't get a missile to land on Mars with all the brains and technology in the world, then maybe you think there's something going on. Or maybe NASA should just hire Brian Smith.
TA: Has the accident given you a new subject?
SK: It's given me new things to write about, sure. Gruesome though it is to say. you have to put it to work for you. Otherwise it doesn't mean anything. And jeez I could probably walk a mile wihtout the crutch. So that's OK. I'm fine.
TA: You must feel differently about death too?
SK: In a way you sort of feel like you have a free pass. the number next to yours came up. You missed the draft.
[Break. King goes to next door office to answer phone]
TA: What made you want to publish yourself on the internet?
SK: I did it once before with 'Riding the Bullet'. That had 500,000 hits but in some cases they gave the thing away, trying to pump e-book readers. It was encrypted, but it broke down under the weight of the encryption. It was like a fucking dinosaur. And that drove me crazy. But the publisher loved that part. They say, like a rallying cry, "Don't get napstered". Don't let the fruits of your artistic endeavour, ie our money, get stolen. You know as well as I do that publishers, music publishers, studio heads, they could not give a shit for the writer, the creator. They care about their bankbooks and that's about all they care about.
TA: Have you been frustrated over the years with the way you have been published?
SK: Ohhh. The short answer is no. I've tried in a polite way to work against that. If I see the red gels and the underlighting come out when someone comes to photograph me, I walk out these days. All that shit to make me look spooky. I ask them if when they are photographing a black writer they bring a watermelon and a barrel for him to sit on, you know. It's degrading to be treated as someone who's one dimensional. But you've got to be careful if you go down that route. Once they decide you're a whore, they want to put you in a skirt don't they?'
TA: So The Plant was a response to that?
SK: I thought I'd just put it out on the website. Marsha [his assistant] is coming along in a moment to help me put the first chapter on just now. Can you steal it? Yes. Do you have to lie to steal it? Yes. So if you feel good about cheating me out of a buck go ahead. I'm as nervous as I was before we did the serial novel The Green Mile... Its been a headache and a hassle for me because there's a lot of people on the publishing side who hope I will fail.
TA: Do you see the era of the book coming to an end?
SK: I like books, and I think publishing is vital and that books will continue to be the most important cultural touchstone of our society for years. There's all these guys, these Kingsley Amis kind of guys, who for years have been saying, you know: 'books are dead, society going down hill, blah blah, cultural wasteland, idiots, idiots, TV, pop music, degradation' and then something comes along like Harry Potter, fucking thing is 734 pages long, and it sells five million copies in twelve hours. That's up there with Britney Spears and Eminem. So the only recourse these people have is to say [Kingsley again...] 'well, JK Rowlings or Stephen King is not Literature.' Well, I'm sorry! It may not be Literature in their terms but it's sure as hell a few rungs up from 'The Real Slim Shady', and that's from someone who loves that Eminem album... The age of the book is not over. No way... But maybe the age of some books is over. People say to me sometimes 'Steve, are you ever going to write a straight novel, a serious novel and by that they mean a novel about college professors who are having impotence problems or something like that. And I have to say those things just don't interest me. Why? I don't know. But it took me about twenty years to get over that question, and not be kind of ashamed about what I do, of the books I write... There'll always be a market for shit, of course. Just look at Jeffrey Archer! He writes like old people fuck doesn't he?Stream Information
Update: Melee Top 48 will be on Sunday instead of Melee Top 32
The Final Showdown
The Up-and-Comers
Hugo " HugS " Gonzalez: The neutral-heavy Samus main who won Battlegrounds 3 two weekends ago.
" Gonzalez: The neutral-heavy Samus main who won Battlegrounds 3 two weekends ago. Kelly " Kels " Smith: Illinois' defender who has come close to top 32 finishes at EVO 2016 and The Big House 6.
" Smith: Illinois' defender who has come close to top 32 finishes at EVO 2016 and The Big House 6. Andreas " Android " Lindgren: Armada's younger brother and teammate who made his American return at The Big House 6 and finished at 25th place.
" Lindgren: Armada's younger brother and teammate who made his American return at The Big House 6 and finished at 25th place. Abhishek " Prince Abu " Prabhu: Michigan's resident Puff main who has recently seen good performances at Shine 2016, The Big House 6 and Canada Cup 2016.
" Prabhu: Michigan's resident Puff main who has recently seen good performances at Shine 2016, The Big House 6 and Canada Cup 2016. Justin "Syrox" Burroughs, David "4%" Long, Erik "Rik" Gerlitz, Charlie "AbsentPage" Mckinley, Brandon "HomeMadeWaffles" Collier and more.
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2016 has been an incredible year for competitive. The year has been filled with periods of dominance, numerous breakout performances and a never ending stream of surprises, with every major event managing to deliver the hype. As the year comes to a close, one major tournament remains beforebegins to enter a pseudo off-season and panelists for MIOM's SSBMRank submit their ballots:. Taking place in Collinsville, Illinois from December 2-4, the stakes will be high as 16 of the top 30 from the 2015 SSBMRank, including 5 of Melee's "Big 6", and more compete for $15,000+ in prizes for singles.at the UGC Smash Open will be streamed on two channels:as the main stream and MeleeEveryday as the secondary stream, on Saturday/Sunday only. The powerhouse commentator lineup at UGC includes Brandon “” Collier,DeBerry, D'Ron “” Maingrette, Arian “” Fathieh, Michael “” Weber and Josh “” Fendrick.Here is the stream schedule, with the corresponding tournament schedule, in Central Time:After a drought of tournament wins spanning from EGLX to The Big House 6, Adam “” Lindgren has finally found his groove back. Since winning Canada Cup 2016, Armada has been dominating Melee with very convincing victories at Smash Summit 3 and DreamHack Winter, beating Hungrybox, Leffen and Mew2King – three of his biggest threats at UGC. With his #1 spot on the SSBMRank arguably locked in after his DreamHack performance, a win at UGC would be the icing on the cake for Armada; given his remarkable consistency, don’t be surprised if the Swedish star continues his winning streak this weekend if he can win the battle versus Mango.Since his disappointing run at The Big House 6, Juan “” DeBiedma has slowly been making his way back up to the “Mount Everest” of Melee. Though he has been unable to match his dominance from the first half of 2016, Hungrybox has remained consistent with consective 2nd place finishes at Canada Cup 2016, Smash Summit 3 and DreamHack Winter. Hungrybox’s largest hurdle at UGC will be his close rival Armada, who has won six out of their last seven sets. With the right mindset and the polished play he showcased at EVO 2016, a big win at UGC would give Hungrybox the momentum he needs going into 2017.Joseph "" Marquez has had his ups and downs in the past few months. At The Big House 6, he finally brought it together to win his first supermajor tournament of the year. Since then, he has struggled to get in that same mindset, underperforming at Smash Summit 3 and DreamHack with two 4th places. Mango clearly has the potential to win UGC seeing as how he still has a winning against Armada this year and he can dominate Hungrybox, Mew2King and Leffen on a good day -- now it's just a question of whether or not he can stay in focus to reach his peak form.While a tournament victory for Jason “” Zimmerman at UGC is fairly unlikely, his results since Shine 2016 show that he has a fair chance at making a splash. He performed well under the conditions of the Smash Summit last month where he defeated Leffen and Mango, but that may not be enough to break new grounds this time around; Armada, who he may face if he makes it into top 8 through winners side, has been Mew2King’s kryptonite for the past few years. Regardless, if he can keep up the mentality and grit that has led to multiple losers runs recently, Mew2King could shake things up.William “” Hjelte will be competing in his first serious non-invitational American tournament of the year this weekend. Although the Leffen that stole the stage at GOML 2016 has yet to be seen since his formal return, it’s crucial not to count out the godslayer at UGC despite his weak showings at Eclipse 2 and Smash Summit 3, where he lost to the likes of Axe and Ice. Leffen recently placed at a solid 3rd at DreamHack Winter by sweeping Mango and bringing Hungrybox to game 5, and with more practice and experience under his belt, expect to see improvement from him at UGC.Zac “” Cordoni will be looking to once again prove himself as a top 7 player after his uncharacteristic Smash Summit 3 showing, where he lost to Duck and The Moon. With the player field at UGC comprised of players he has historically done well against such as Axe and Shroomed, as well as top 6 players he has beaten before such as Mango, Hungrybox, Mew2King and Leffen, SFAT has a good chance to quickly get back on track.Fan favorite Jeffrey "" Williamson is hot off his Smash Summit 3 run, where he put on a show by taking down Leffen and Shroomed. However, Axe isn't without his inconsistencies -- just before Smash Summit 3, he finished at a disappointing 65th place at The Big House 6. If he can get in "the zone" that has produced the world's greatest Pikachu plays over the years, Axe could end off 2016 with a bang.Consistent as always, DaJuan "" McDaniel netted another top 8 placing at Smash Summit 3. His record against the players outside the top 6 is solid, making him a top 8 favorite at UGC. Despite this, Shroomed has yet to take a set from the top 6 this year -- could UGC be the time Shroomed breaks through to the upper echelon?Similarly to Shroomed, Tristate native James "" Liu will be looking to rise up at UGC by repeating his Smash'N'Splash 2 success. Swedish Delight's consistent and efficient Sheik has recently had a string of mostly 9th place finishes at majors, something that could very well be changed with the right bracket this weekend.Ever since he broke his "9th place curse" at EVO 2016, Kevin "" Toy has showed no signs of stopping with a win at SSS: Blood for Blood and top 8 performances at The Big House 6 and Super Smash Con 2016. Additionally, his 3-0 win over S2J at Smash Summit 3 shows that he has become stronger in the Captain Falcon matchup, one of the major factors that led to his relatively poor results earlier in the year. Expect big things from PewPewU at UGC.Up until October, Mustafa "" Akcakaya's narrative generally stayed the same -- he was seen as a very technical Fox with high potential that often choked in high pressure situations. However, Ice broke out in October with two extremely impressive performances at The Big House 6 and Eclipse 2, where his new and improved mental game led to wins over Leffen, SFAT and more. Though he went out at 7th place at DreamHack Winter last weekend losing to Professor Pro, Ice still has a good chance of duplicating his October results this weekend.Midwest defender James "" Ma is looking great going into UGC. Not only has he been scarily consistent at majors this year, almost always finishing at 7th to 13th place, but Duck is also hot off his top 8 finish at Smash Summit 3, where he beat SFAT and Westballz. Moreover, his improved approach to his historically weak Captain Falcon matchup will only help Duck end off his great year this weekend.Johnny "" Kim will be aiming to replicate his historic EVO 2016 performance this weekend. Since EVO, S2J has frequently underperformed at majors, placing 17th at Super Smash Con 2016, 33rd at The Big House 6 and 13th at Smash Summit 3. Nevertheless, the rest of the competition at UGC better make sure not to sleep on S2J -- when he's on point, all it takes is one Johnny Stock to take the set.Also representing Southern California is McCain "" LaVelle, who has had his fair share of outlier performances after skipping out on EVO 2016. He has seen mixed results a majors, finishing 7th at Shine 2016 while also going out at 33rd at The Big House 6 and 17th at DreamHack Winter. MacD can bounce back this weekend as long as his aggressive Peach stays focused the entire time.Officially now a signed player, Ryan “” Coker-Welch will be looking to continue his great results under the Misfits banner. Ever since GOML 2016, The Moon has shown why he’s one of the best Marth mains in the world, lately beating SFAT at Smash Summit 3. With his confident mindset and Summit practice under his belt, The Moon has a good chance at ending 2016 on a high note.Although his tournament attendance has been fairly minimal this year, Daniel “” Rodriguez is still a force to be reckoned with many years out of his prime. At the tournaments he has attended, ChuDat has pulled off wins against players such as SFAT and Axe while rarely being receiver of upsets. Though he didn’t manage to take any big names at The Big House 6, ChuDat’s smart style has proven catch competitors off guard in the past, and UGC could be no different.Canadian and Nicaraguan representative Edgard “” Shelby put on a show at Super Famicon two weeks ago by 6-0ing DruggedFox in grand finals after months of average results. n0ne’s explosive and creative Captain Falcon can be hot or cold, and judging by his Super Famicon win, peak n0ne may be back to play this weekend.Kyle “” Athayde is one player everybody should look out for this weekend. This year, he has evolved from the “wobbler” stereotype to one of the most fearsome players around. Furthermore, Dizzkidboogie has a significant amount of momentum going into UGC after his big win at Olympus where he beat The Moon twice, Lucky and Professor Pro, so keep an eye out for this rapidly improving ICs main.Sami “” Muhanna has quietly been coming into his own as a Fox player, though he still hasn’t reached the peaks his Sheik did. However, DruggedFox has consistently shown up at majors such as CEO 2016, EVO 2016 and Super Smash Con 2016, giving proof that you can expect another deep run from him at UGC.“Beat who you are expected to beat and lose to who you are expected to lose to” has been the name of the game for Colin “” Green in 2016, though his losses to ycz6 and Taj at The Big House 6 show that there are still exceptions to the rule. Nonetheless, Colbol has still managed to remain consistent at majors this year, and as long as he can get through his shaky spacies matchup, yet another solid placement will be in store for Colbol this weekend.One of SoCal's many rising stars, Michael "" Pulido has consistently been placing high at nationals throughout the year. His clean Fox has yet to make top 16 at a national -- could this finally be the time Mike Haze causes a huge upset and mixes up the bracket?Speaking of Fox mains, Britain's #1 player Aaron "" Thomas has quietly been putting himself on the map. Between beating The Moon at Shine 2016, placing 4th at Olympus and beating Ice last weekend at DreamHack Winter, his technical Fox has a strong chance adding another top player to his list of notable wins at UGC.Some more players to look out for at UGC include:Excited for the UGC Smash Open? Tweet out your thoughts with the hashtag #UGCsmash and stay tuned for our upcoming doubles preview.An online petition is calling for a Netflix reboot of the Showtime original series, which wrapped up its final season in 2009.
On one hand, there are quite a few reasons to bring back our favorite ladies – 17 reasons, to be exact.
Television has been making strides with lesbian characters while Netflix gave us all new hope with the ladies of "Orange Is the New Black." And yet, here we are — still waiting for the second coming of The L Word.
There hasn't been a show since that even comes close to The L Word.
If The L Word returned to our lives, so would the gift of Bette Porter's profanity-dropping rage:
6. If The L Word returned to our lives, so would the gift of Bette Porter's profanity-dropping rage:
It would be as if Shane's face, and her poetic insights, never left us.
But, those are also reasons why The L Word really shouldn't come back.
4. Maybe it's time to simply appreciate the show for what it was and let it go.
5. That way we can focus on the real problem, the fact that we are pining over a show that ended five years ago. We don't need The L Word to come back, we need a new show to step up and take its place.Google's SVP of product, Sundar Pichai. Screenshot There weren't many shocks at Google's annual developer conference, but the company did remind us of one area where it's blowing the competition away: teaching machines how to think.
Arguably the most exciting announcement at Google I/O was the introduction of Google on Tap: A more advanced version of Google Now that can actually anticipate what you need before you ask.
It does this by assessing the information on your phone to pull up relevant bits of data, such as locations, definitions, reviews, and more. And it accomplishes this through machine learning.
Machine learning refers to computer algorithms for learning to do things. A lecture from Stanford University's Rob Schapire explains it quite well: "In other words, the goal is to devise learning algorithms that do the learning automatically without human intervention or assistance."
Based on early impressions from the media, it sounds like even the unfinished version of Google on Tap is pretty mind-blowing. Google claims you can speak to it just like you would a friend — the natural language processing is supposedly that advanced. All signs are pointing to a super powerful virtual assistant coming to Android, and a big part of that is Google's machine learning and artificial intelligence division.
Microsoft has been a pioneer in this area as of late, too. Its Skype voice translator — which can translate speech in real time — showcased how impressive the company's machine learning technology has become. Microsoft's virtual assistant, Cortana, also learns more about you and your habits the more you use it.
Apple's Siri has gotten smarter and faster over time, but it's not contextual like Google on Tap, or even the current version of Google Now and Cortana. It's quick, and sufficiently accurate most of the time, but it can't anticipate my needs or learn who I am.
"I think Google is way out in front of everybody, including Microsoft, but probably furthest out in front of Apple," Van Baker, a Gartner research analyst, said to Business Insider when asked about Google's accomplishments in machine learning. "Microsoft is going in that direction, and I think calling [Apple] behind is very fair."
Google
A big part of that is Google's powerful search engine — machine learning and understanding patterns are a big part of why Google's search results are so accurate and timely. So, it makes sense that the biggest search company in the world would be miles ahead of the competition in terms of machine learning.
Apple isn't in the search business — and it doesn't need to be — so machine learning isn't as big of a priority.
Machine learning is a part of nearly all of Google's core products: Google Maps, self-driving cars, and even ads. Matthew Zeiler, the CEO of Clarifai who previously interned at Google, even told Wired last year that Google isn't really a search company, but a machine-learning company.
"Everything in the company is really driven by machine learning," he told Wired.
Screenshot
Google is applying that concept to its new Photos app, too, which will use machine learning to make your image albums just as searchable as web links.
The reason we are able to do all of this is because of the investments we have made in machine learning," Google's senior vice president of product, Sundar Pichai, said on stage at the event. "Machine learning is what helps us answer the question 'What does a tree frog look like?' from millions of images around the world."Success! U.S. doctor removes 198lb tumour from Vietnamese man’s leg in 12-hour operation
A Vietnamese man has come through a 12-hour operation to remove a 198lb tumour from his right leg
Nguyen Duy Hai, 32, is said to be in a stable condition after the surgery at the France-Vietnam hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.
Leading U.S. surgeon McKay McKinnon led the eight-strong team who began operating on Mr Hai's leg at 8.55am local time this morning.
It worked! Vietnamese man Nguyen Duy Hai, 32, seen with his mother, survived the operation to remove the 198lb tumour on his right leg
Long haul: Leading U.S. surgeon McKay McKinnon, right, and his eight-strong team spent a gruelling 12 hours removing the tumour
They didn't finish until 9.15pm.
Dr McKinnon, who has successfully removed other large tumours in his 30-year career, had been positive about the surgery despite it carrying just a 50 per cent success rate.
Speaking to Tuoitrenew s, a Vietnamese website, before the procedure, he said it was essential for his team to take out the 'nidus' or origin of the tumour to stop the growth returning.
Mr Hai suffers from 'neurofibromatosis' a disease that causes disfiguring tumors to form on nerves throughout the body.
Prep: Dr McKinnon and his patient in the hospital shortly before the surgery
Gruesome: The surgery was broadcast live to a room of press, family and curious medical staff
OPERATION TIME LINE:
6.30am: Nguyen Duy Hai sent to theatre. 6.40am – 8.50am: Mr Hai anaesthetised.
8.55am: Dr McKay McKinnon begins operation.
10am: Doctors remove a 50cm long by 5 - 7cm deep part of the tumour.
11am: Mr Hai ’s family told first phase of the operation is a success.
1.30pm: The surgery team stops for a quick break and to wash medical equipment.
7pm: The tumour is finally removed and operation announced a successful.
9.15pm: Mr Hai sent to recovery room.
The tumour began growing when Mr Hai was a boy and is thought to be the biggest ever recorded in Vietnam.
Over the year it has grown from the base of his spine, snaking up his back and around his thighs.
It is intertwined with bloody vessels making cutting it away potentially deadly.
The strain on Mr Hai's already weakened heart was also a risk. To combat this the team decided to keep him upright throughout the operation.
While the tumour is not cancerous, its sheer mass means it absorbs vital blood and nutrients from Mr Hai’s body, making it weak.
Dr McKinnon agreed to waive his fee for the operation while the remaining costs of around VND 252million (around $12,000) has been raised by family and well wishers at home and abroad.
Mr Hai's family wept after being told he had survived the operation.
They had been anxious after an attempt to remove the tumour in 1997 was unsuccessful. Doctors had been forced to amputate Mr Hai's right leg below the knee.
Speaking before the operation Mr Hai told Tuoitre News, a Vietnamese website: 'It's common for people to fear death, and I’m no exception.
'But when I heard Dr McKinnon had decided to come back to Vietnam one more time to give me a new life, I became more hopeful.'
Gruelling: Mr Hai had been afraid he would die. The operation carried only a 50 per cent success rate
Disability: Mr Hai's tumour began growing when he was a little boy. An operation to remove it in 1997 was unsuccessful leading to his lower leg being amputated
Dr McKinnon successfully operated on a similar size tumour growing out of a Michigan woman in 1999.
He said this patient was older and in worse shape than Mr Hai, but came through the operation and is now leading a normal life.
'She survived that surgery after |
ing system and closed the overhead doors in that section of the museum. “We used a sound blanket to build a small room around ourselves,” he said.
Rogers e-mailed the digital audio file to Burtt, who that same day added it to his sound edit for the film. The carriage shown in the film is a reproduction.
Rather than creating sounds in a studio, Burtt seeks to capture the real thing — sounds that Lincoln actually heard on historical artifacts from that era. “I love American history and I’ve always been a student of it,” Burtt said in a recent interview on National Public Radio.
Those artifacts include the Lincoln carriage, Civil War-era church bells in Washington, D.C., and a ticking pocket watch that belonged to the 16th president.
To see the complete NPR report and hear the audio, visit: wdiy.org/post/hearing-history-sounds-lincoln.
“Lincoln,” directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, stars Daniel Day-Lewis as President Lincoln and Sally Field as his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. It dramatizes the final four months of Lincoln’s life.
Burtt has won numerous Oscars for his work. He’s the same guy who, using a projector and the buzz of a TV set, invented the “swoosh” sound of light sabers for the Star Wars movies.
The Lincoln carriage was made in the early 1860s by Wood Brothers of New York, an upscale carriage manufacturer of that era, museum archivist Andrew Beckman said. The barouche has a collapsible leather hood and fabric-covered padded seats. It is believed to have been a gift to Lincoln.
After the president’s death, the carriage was sold to a physician, Dr. F.B. Brewer of New York, who traveled in it for years as part of his medical practice.
Clement Studebaker, one of the founders of the Studebaker Corp. wagon, carriage and (later) automobile company, bought the carriage from Brewer in about 1890. For many years, the Lincoln carriage was displayed at the Studebaker Carriage Repository in Chicago and later at Studebaker Corp. headquarters in South Bend. It occasionally was driven in parades.
It’s in fragile condition. In 2008, the carriage returned to Studebaker National Museum after a yearlong conservation project at B.R. Howard & Associates of Carlisle, Pa. The carriage went through a careful process designed to stabilize its condition to assure it can remain on public display.
During conservation, workers discovered the carriage originally wasn’t black, but rather painted dark green with burgundy, gold and white details.
The conservators also uncovered an elaborate cursive presidential monogram — A.L. — on each door. The monograms had been painted over.
The carriage is owned by the city of South Bend — part of a collection of Studebaker-owned vehicles presented to the city in 1969. The museum has a contract to manage the city’s collection.
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Staff writer Margaret Fosmoe: mfosmoe@sbtinfo.com 574-235-6329'He burns my private parts. He won't let me eat or drink. He beats me. He's going to kill me,' shouted Blair
Blair, 43, then began to cry and scream about being physically abused by a man
The actress was allegedly mixing wine and pills on the plane according to eyewitnesses
Selma Blair was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital on Monday after being met by paramedics on a flight home from Cancun
Selma Blair was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital on Monday after she reportedly mixed alcohol and pills on a flight home from Cancun and began to scream about a man physically abusing her.
'He burns my private parts. He won't let me eat or drink. He beats me. He's going to kill me,' shouted Blair, who broke down in tears fellow passengers told TMZ.
She was travelling home from Cancun with her 4-year-old son Arthur and his father, her ex Jason Bleick. Blair had surprised Bleick with a trip to the Mexican resort city as a Father's Day gift.
The two exes were seen getting close at one point over the weekend as they sat with their son at the beach.
Bleick posted a photo of himself and Arthur on their flight home shortly before Blair's episode, writing: 'On our way back from Fathers Day in Mexico. #arthursaintbleick
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Pill scare: Selma Blair was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital on Monday after being met by paramedics on a flight home from Cancun (Blair above over the weekend with son Arthur and ex Jason Bleick)
Traveling partners: She was flying home from a Father's Day weekend trip with her ex Jason Bleick and son Arthur (above), who were both with her on the plane
Feeling the pace: Selma Blair looked exhausted when snapped on the beach in Mexico on Sunday
Tired: It appeared Selma was somewhat exhausted during her getaway
A source familiar with the situation told People: 'She was met by paramedics at LAX as soon as her plane arrived. It looks like she had taken a combination of prescription medication with alcohol. We don't know what sort of prescription medications.'
Prior to landing the pilot got in touch with air control and told them she had been mixing alcohol and an unknown medication.
Two nurses were also on the flight and went through the actress' belongings to try and determine what sort of pills the actress might have taken during the trip.
The 43-year-old People V. OJ Simpson star seemed to be enjoying her time in Cancun over the weekend according to fellow guests at the Hard Rock Hotel in Riviera Maya.
'She was happy and healthy the entire trip,' one onlooker told People.
'Arthur was so happy to spend the weekend with his family, giving his mom lots of hugs and kisses on their beach getaway.'
Blair did however look tired on Sunday when she was photographed on the beach in a white bikini while her son and Bleick played in the water.
In one photo the actress is hunched over and appears to almost be in pain with here eyes closed.
She and Bleick seem to have gotten closer in recent months, with the actress posting a a photo of the two of them taken while she was pregnant with Arthur in honor of Bleick's birthday in April.
'Happy birthday @jasonbleick. This picture, taken just a few months into my pregnancy, and we were so much in love,' wrote Blair.
'Thank you for the sweetest memories of that time and for our son, that unconditional love. Happy birthday dad.'
Getting close: The exes were seen getting close over the weekend as they posed for photos at the resort
Baby boy: Blair and Bleick have remained close despite their split as they co-parent 4-year-old Arthur
Great time: 'She was happy and healthy the entire trip,' one onlooker at the resort said of the actress
Drained: 'Somehow, I was just hanging on. But then it caught up with me - totally - and, since then, I've just fallen apart,' she told TV Week in 2012. I need to get myself back together so I can go back to work so I can pay for a house for this baby.'
Blair posted a photo as she and Arthur made their way down to Cancun last week on Instagram for the trip.
She captioned the image: 'We're leaving on a jet plane. Dad is already asleep. Not for long. Bwahahahha. #fathersdayweekend.'
Representatives for Blair have not responded to multiple requests for comment from DailyMail.com.
Selma and Bleick dated between 2010 and 2012, but they have appeared to maintain an amicable relationship since their split.
On numerous occasions, they have been spotting stepping out together with their son to enjoy a variety of family days out.
Take that daddy: Meanwhile Arthur was having a ball in the water splashing his father Jason Bleick
Close: Blair and Bleick seem to have gotten closer in recent months, with the actress posting a a photo of the two of them taken while she was pregnant with Arthur in honor of Bleick's birthday in April.
While the Cruel Intentions star and her heavily tattooed ex seem to make co-parenting look easy, Selma admitted that she barely held it together when their two-year relationship first broke down and she had a young child to take care of.
'Somehow, I was just hanging on. But then it caught up with me - totally - and, since then, I've just fallen apart,' she told TV Week in 2012. I need to get myself back together so I can go back to work so I can pay for a house for this baby.'
The actress also admitted she was exhausted because adorable Arthur was not sleeping well at the time, explaining: 'I'm seriously sleep-deprived; I can barely put a word together. I have not functioned.
'I'd go to these "Mommy & Me" classes and they'd be like, "Oh, my God, my kid still wakes up twice a night or once a night," and I'd just burst into tears, thinking, "Oh, I wish! I wish my child woke up twice a night!".- After years of darkness, hope has returned to Telekuf-Tesqopa. Located just 17 miles from Mosul, the village is rebuilding after being liberated from ISIS.
As a visible sign of the rebuilding, a giant cross was erected on a hill, marking the victory of the Christian faith against the darkness of the jihadists.
On Feb. 18, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Baghdad, Louis Sako, visited the village, where he blessed the large cross and participated in the celebration of the first Mass after two and a half years in Saint George Church.
According to the website of the Patriarchate of Babylon, the authorities and officials of the region were present at the celebration.
In his homily, Patriarch Sako said that this event is “the first spark of light shining in all the cities of the Nineveh Plain since the darkness of ISIS, which lasted almost two and a half years.”
“This is our land and this is our home,” he told the faithful. He also said that now is the time to regain hope and for the people to return to their towns to begin a new stage of life.
The patriarch said that Christians will thus demonstrate to the world that the forces of darkness, which wreaked havoc and ravaged their land, are ephemeral and that the Church of Christ, although it suffers, is built upon rock.
When the Mass was over, everyone went out to a hill located on the outskirts of the city. There Patriarch Sako blessed the huge cross which was raised amid fireworks and with cries of “Victory! Victory! Victory! For those who chose the faith and those who return!”
The Catholic Patriarch said that this cross will announce “to the world that this is our land, we were born here and we will die here. Our ancestors were buried in this pure land and we are going to remain to preserve them with all our might and for future generations.”
“It is a sincere and great call to return and rebuild. We are joined to our land, to our future on the land of our ancestors. Here we can be proud of our history and here we can obtain the granting of all our rights,” Patriarch Sako said.
Before the celebration of the Mass, a delegation came to Telekuf-Tesqopa to assess the state of damage and to thus ask for the support of international organizations for reconstruction. Saint George Church was cleaned by volunteers from the French aid organization SOS Chrétiens d’Orient. (SOS Christians of the East).
The placement of crosses has become a recurring gesture since the Iraqi Army began the offensive to recover the city of Mosul, the ISIS stronghold in Iraq.
In every village liberated on the Plain of Nineveh, Christians have made wooden crosses and have placed them on the roofs of churches and homes.
Muslims have also participated in these events. Last week, a group of Muslims youths joined those cleaning a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary located in east Mosul, liberated by the Iraqi Army.
This action is part of a campaign that seeks to remember the religious coexistence that was present in the city before the jihadists occupied it in 2014.Has there ever been an industry more unwilling to make its customers happy than publishing? Simon & Schuster and Hachette have (independently) decided they’re going to hold back the ebook releases of some titles. Not all of course. Most likely just the ones they paid far too much for anyway. They’re taking a stand by creating marketplace confusion…some books yes, some books no. Consumers will need to guess.
Gee, that’s a good idea. But not a problem for me. If the book isn’t available, I’ll buy something else. I won’t be checking back in three or four months, because, well, clearly the publishers don’t want my money. And the chances of me remembering? Going with nil to nada. And even if I do, what bright and shiny new books will capture my attention…?
This new delay relates to windowing, the concept of moving a product through specific retail channels for specific periods of time. Windowing is a concept that works really well in the motion picture industry, though studios are trying to compress those windows, while the music industry (another business prone to overpaying advances) works with simultaneous release of formats.
[Part One: Response to Nat Sobel]
The window argument, as practiced by the motion picture industry, is often cited as justification for withholding digital books (and even trade and mass market paperbacks). To me, this represents a flawed understanding of how money flows in the motion picture industry. Books and movies are not comparable.
But first, let’s talk about rebellion. Nat Sobel used the window argument with an unconvincing twist. He chose Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs as an example. Despite being pulled early by a number of [unnamed] exhibitors, it grossed, am I reading this right?, $30.1 million on 3,119 screens. I haven’t seen this film, so I don’t know if the sub-Pixar numbers are warranted, but I can tell you this: with that many screens reporting for opening week (generally the most lucrative; mama didn’t raise no stupid exhibitors!), the protest was, at best, muted. Like books, movies suffer from the limited marketing attention, though motion picture awareness and dollars are much higher. New titles are constantly displacing old, to the point where a release from a month ago is largely forgotten.
(Engrave that thought on your brain.)
Yes, motion pictures (a category that includes feature films, television series, and made-for-video/DVD) cycle through a series of windows. Those windows are growing ever-tighter, especially the one between theatrical release and home entertainment. It’s a money thing. The difference between books and motion pictures is this: a revenue continuum with direct, indirect, and sometimes repeat consumer sales.
Say that three times fast!
So what do I mean by “revenue continuum with direct, indirect, and sometimes repeat consumer sales”? Good question. Let’s walk through an oversimplified (ha!) feature film lifecycle. I think it’s instructive to dissect if this what publishing thinks it wants. Note: I am purposely leaving out some, mostly ancillary, revenue streams (this is not a master class), and there may be steps skipped in real life. Also, I am leaving out marketing costs associated with trade shows.
Theatrical : Movie is shown in a theatrical setting. It’s generally the first time people interact with the film, and if it’s good, they might pay two or three (or more) times to watch it again. Popcorn and really huge sodas are often involved. The money split is interesting, with studios getting decreasing returns the longer the film is in the theater (90/10, 80/20, 70/30, and so on; unless it’s an art house film, which plays out differently). Marketing costs are largely borne by studios (big, huge marketing costs) with co-op between studio and theater also in play. Consumer sales: direct.
: Movie is shown in a theatrical setting. It’s generally the first time people interact with the film, and if it’s good, they might pay two or three (or more) times to watch it again. Popcorn and really huge sodas are often involved. The money split is interesting, with studios getting decreasing returns the longer the film is in the theater (90/10, 80/20, 70/30, and so on; unless it’s an art house film, which plays out differently). Marketing costs are largely borne by studios (big, huge marketing costs) with co-op between studio and theater also in play. Consumer sales: direct. Non-Theatrical : This is a pretty big market with not a lot of dollars. It’s all showings outside the traditional theater setting (prisons, schools, boats). Airline sales are generally lumped into this group. Some consumers may be watching the film for the first time; others caught it in the theater. Most marketing costs are borne by the third party, though some co-op comes into play in “theatrical non-theatrical” settings. Consumer sales: direct (ticket, pay-to-view) and indirect (streaming on airplane).
: This is a pretty big market with not a lot of dollars. It’s all showings outside the traditional theater setting (prisons, schools, boats). Airline sales are generally lumped into this group. Some consumers may be watching the film for the first time; others caught it in the theater. Most marketing costs are borne by the third party, though some co-op comes into play in “theatrical non-theatrical” settings. Consumer sales: direct (ticket, pay-to-view) and indirect (streaming on airplane). Pay-Per-View : A television-based market. Consumers pay to access a movie. First-timers and repeat viewers are engaged. New models are emerging. Marketing mostly a function of the third party, though, again, possibility for third party. Consumer sales: generally direct.
: A television-based market. Consumers pay to access a movie. First-timers and repeat viewers are engaged. New models are emerging. Marketing mostly a function of the third party, though, again, possibility for third party. Consumer sales: generally direct. Home Entertainment : Right now, this is mostly DVD, and for a long time, it was the golden egg. Home entertainment covered that awful gap between production, marketing, and print costs and, oh, profitability. People have largely finished with building their libraries, and now purchase more selectively. At its most basic, the home entertainment market breaks down into three areas: sell-through (consumer purchases product), rental/premium (Blockbuster, Netflix), and streaming (models emerging all the time). Again, first-timers and repeat customers. Marketing has trended toward the theatrical model. Consumer sales: direct and indirect.
Pay Television : In this instance, we’re talking about the premium pay channels like HBO and Showtime. Big bucks are paid by premium channels for the privilege of an exclusive television window (U.S. only) starting about 12-13 months after theatrical release. First-timers and repeat customers tune in; people who paid in the theater or own the DVD are funding the license fee if they’re also premium pay subscribers. Marketing mostly borne by the third party. Consumer sales: indirect (money not associated with a specific product).
: In this instance, we’re talking about the premium pay channels like HBO and Showtime. Big bucks are paid by premium channels for the privilege of an exclusive television window (U.S. only) starting about 12-13 months after theatrical release. First-timers and repeat customers tune in; people who paid in the theater or own the DVD are funding the license fee if they’re also premium pay subscribers. Marketing mostly borne by the third party. Consumer sales: indirect (money not associated with a specific product). Network Television/Basic Cable : Other stuff is happening between Pay and Network, and it’s discussed below. Once upon a time, the network debut of a motion picture was a big deal (and reasonably lucrative). It’s less so now. Basic cable has picked up some of the slack here. First-timers and repeat customers. Marketing largely borne by network/cable channel. Consumer sales: indirect.
: Other stuff is happening between Pay and Network, and it’s discussed below. Once upon a time, the network debut of a motion picture was a big deal (and reasonably lucrative). It’s less so now. Basic cable has picked up some of the slack here. First-timers and repeat customers. Marketing largely borne by network/cable channel. Consumer sales: indirect. Syndicated Television : This is the never-ending revenue stream (or seemingly never-ending). International sales do kick in earlier in the lifecycle (and are a mix of pay and free, depending on the country), and domestic syndication happens after the network window. Films are syndicated like crazy. In a 24-hour programming world, there is always time to be filled. First-timers and repeat customers. Marketing largely borne by individual stations, though some additional dollars may shake loose, especially if a barter arrangement is employed. Consumer sales: Direct and indirect (mostly indirect, as a lot of this activity is ad supported in free television markets).
: This is the never-ending revenue stream (or seemingly never-ending). International sales do kick in earlier in the lifecycle (and are a mix of pay and free, depending on the country), and domestic syndication happens after the network window. Films are syndicated like crazy. In a 24-hour programming world, there is always time to be filled. First-timers and repeat customers. Marketing largely borne by individual stations, though some additional dollars may shake loose, especially if a barter arrangement is employed. Consumer sales: Direct and indirect (mostly indirect, as a lot of this activity is ad supported in free television markets). Wash, Rinse, Repeat: In addition to the ongoing television sales, home entertainment sales continue. Sometimes a film will get be reissued theatrically, sometimes an older title will show up on an airplane (crazy, but it happened to me on a flight!). As long as a product can be sold, it will be sold. Marketing: situation dependent. Consumer investment: ditto.
So that’s what I mean about the revenue continuum. So how do books fit into this model? Well, let’s see. Gifts aside, books are generally a one time sale (more if that consumer suffers from my particular form of insanity and poor library management). As you can surmise from above, there is never an actual gap in the windows. Ever. Okay, books can do that.
And, as you can surmise from above, there is a marketing continuum. Studio and theater advertising leads to airline advertising leads to retailer and studio advertising leads to premium pay advertising leads to network advertising leads to endless commercials in the free television space. Well, I guess books can do that. I mean, it’s gonna take some work to keep titles in the minds of readers, but, sure, I’ll play along. The key to success here is constant marketing. Luckily the costs are spread among players. This stuff gets expensive. Trust me. I’ve been there.
Note: without this ongoing effort, all hope is lost.
Differences. “Windows” in books don’t have that lovely mix of direct and indirect money. They don’t have that revenue continuum. Authors only get paid on that first sale. Actors, directors, and other get residuals and participations, whether the sales are direct or indirect. A hardcover window doesn’t protect hardcover sales from anything but people who want to buy the book in another format (the horror, people who want to buy books!).
I’ll be absolutely frank about one thing: publishers have already lost the pricing battle. They’re being subsidized by Amazon and Barnes & Noble now, but if they cannot figure out how to make their business work in a consumer-friendly way, well, we saw how ugly it got for the music business. I love that some publishers argue that it’s for the authors, because we all know how many authors actually earn a living wage from their writing. It’s a business thing, I get that, and there is definitely concern for authors. There’s just as much concern for the bottom line.
No shame there. Truly.
Publishing has, I’d guess, a year, maybe two, to figure this out. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but protecting the current business model — especially since publishers have done nothing to justify any aspect of their ebook pricing stance — is a zero sum game. You’re losing me and others as customers. How do you recover from that?
Personally, I’d look to another industry for guidance. In music, multiple formats have, with some blips, had simultaneous releases. In some cases, that lead to multiple sales. Yes, consumer behavior has changed, but it’s clear two separate formats can co-exist without diminishing the value of either. Look at how people can — with some teeth-gnashing on the part of the music industry! — move their music from CD to portable audio player of choice back to CD.
I would also look at the motion picture tradition of skipping theatrical releases when it’s clear some films are better as direct-to-video (sadly, a decision sometimes made after expensive production).
I get that this is hard. I’ve watched it happen in other industries. It’s been painful every time, but if you want to succeed, you make it work. If you want to go down with the ship, I have a lovely window seat for you….The game of marketing has changed fundamentally. Taking out uninspiring, run-of-the-mill print and TV ads doesn’t fly any more. Marketing a brand effectively requires exceptional ideas and concepts that are entertaining and unusual enough to capture the imaginations of today’s cynical, ad-wary consumers. Our advice is to go beyond the traditional media to capture your audience in other platforms as well – offline brand experiences that DEMAND consumer attention.
Brave, new, exciting, entertaining offline experiences are talked about, blogged about and spread through social media. This is viral marketing at its best and most effective. If the idea is good, nothing can stop its spread. We spend all of our waking hours evaluating and creating such ideas. We see more innovation and ideas and concepts each day than we ever thought possible and the ideas we’ve created have achieved incredible attention. We have access to a global roster of creative talent of all disciplines whom we can tap for our projects. For more info contact our marketing agency ACCESS – Bill TikosPhoto: Alex Brandon
The Washington Capitals have one of the most prolific goal scorers in NHL history in Alex Ovechkin. One of the main ingredients in Ovechkin’s success is his ability to generate an insane amount of shots. Since entering the league, Ovechkin has 2252 shots on goal during 5v5 play, 553 more than the next player, Rick Nash. In terms of shot attempts, Ovechkin has 4326, which is 1,479 more than the next closest player. Here’s one stat I can’t wrap my mind around:
Since 2005-06, if you rank 1,371 forwards by 5v5 shot attempts, and only count SOG for Ovechkin, he'd rank 20th with 2252. WHAT. — Pat Holden (@pfholden) March 15, 2015
This season is no exception. Ovechkin is once again pacing the league in shot attempt rate.
But here’s the problem: After Ovechkin, the 2014-15 Caps’ forward corps struggles mightily to generate shot attempts.
The Caps have 13 forwards who played 500+ 5v5 minutes this season. Here’s how they do in generating individual shot attempts. In parenthesis is the players rank among the 323 forwards that have crossed the 500 minute threshold this season.
Player Individual Shot Attempts/60 Ovechkin 22.03 (1) Fehr 12.70 (138) Burakovsky 12.34 (153) Kuznetsov 12.28 (155) Johansson 11.95 (172) Chimera 11.62 (182) Laich 11.43 (191) Wilson 11.10 (201) Beagle 10.97 (208) Brouwer 10.36 (234) Ward 10.36 (235) Glencross 10.17 (244) Backstrom 9.85 (252)
Yes, you read that correctly. Three-hundred twenty three forwards have played 500-plus minutes in the NHL this season, and the Caps have just one forward in the top 137 in terms of individual shot generation.
For the sake of comparison, let’s look at the other top eight teams in the East. Here’s how many players they each have in the top 137 in terms of shot generation.
Team Players in top 137 in iSA/60 NY Islanders 9 Detroit 7 Tampa Bay 6 Montreal 6 Pittsburgh 5 NY Rangers 3 Boston 3 Washington 1
The Caps have a shot-generation problem.
The way the Caps have been deployed recent only serves to exacerbate this problem. The Caps top five are Ovechkin, Eric Fehr, Andre Burakovsky, Evgeny Kuznesov, and Marcus Johansson. Two of these guys, Fehr and Kuenzetov, play center. Another, Burakovsky, has primarily been in Hershey lately, only up intermittently on an emergency recall basis. Ovechkin and Johansson have played on the same line for much of the time since early February. This means that the Caps wingers on lines two through four all rank 182nd or below in individual shot attempts/60. This is cause for concern, and good evidence for the popular sentiment that the Caps have too many redundant pieces at forward, particularly on the wing.
This isn’t to say that individual shot attempt generation is everything. Nick Backstrom, an elite forward, ranks last among all Caps forward. But Backstrom’s skill set includes All-World level passing, playmaking, and vision that partially explains, and more than makes up for, his lack of individual shot generation. Suffice to say, the same is not true for the rest of the Caps forward whose shot generation leaves so much to be desired.
The Caps’ main weakness right now is at forward. One of the primary concerns among the current group is the meager shot generation from everyone not named Ovechkin. GM Brian MacLellan is a smart man, likely well aware of this issue. The fact that the Caps have been linked to Evander Kane and Patrick Sharp, both in the top 15 in individual shot attempts per 60 this season, in trade rumors, shows that the Caps are likely to address this issue moving forward.
But any potential changes obviously have to wait until the off-season. The lack of creativity and shot generation from their forwards will likely be one of the primary reasons that the Caps off-season is unlikely to include a Stanley Cup parade.
All stats from Hockey Analysis and War on Ice
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PinterestAfter standing down from defending Donald Trump on the Sunday shows, with Rudy Giuliani as her replacement, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway was back at it after Sunday's debate, and again on Monday morning.
It didn't go that well. Conway lodged a serious accusation against unnamed Republican politicians and, at one point, sounded like she wasn't fully committed to the Trump campaign. She also otherwise seemed to fumble her messaging for Trump on the video and his debate performance.
1 of 28 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Here are some of the Republicans who cut ties with Trump after lewd remarks View Photos Following a Friday report by The Washington Post on a 2005 video of the GOP presidential nominee, various Republicans have said they no longer plan to vote for him and some call for him to drop out. Caption Following a Friday report by The Washington Post on a 2005 video of the GOP presidential nominee, various Republicans have said they no longer plan to vote for him and some call for him to drop out. Sen. John McCain Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) joined the cavalcade of Republicans withdrawing their support for Trump. “There are no excuses for Donald Trump’s offensive and demeaning comments in the just released video; no woman should ever be victimized by this kind of inappropriate behavior. He alone bears the burden of his conduct and alone should suffer the consequences,” McCain said in a statement. Susan Walsh/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
If anything, it was a reminder that the damning new Trump video and Trump's increasingly combative reaction to it are making life very difficult — yes, even more difficult than usual — for his surrogates.
So far, Conway has:
1. Accused Trump's opponents of making unwanted sexual advances themselves
Appearing on MSNBC on Sunday night, Conway accused some of those denouncing Trump's hot-mic comments of their own lecherous behavior.
But she didn't say who.
"I would talk to some of the members of Congress there when I was younger and prettier, them rubbing against girls, sticking their tongues down women's throats who were uninvited, didn't like it," she said, adding: "And some of them, by the way, are on the list of people who won't support Donald Trump because they all ride around on their high horse."
This is a very serious charge, and it harks back to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who wrote in her 2014 book about an unnamed male colleague who sexually harassed her. “Don’t lose too much weight now," the senator told her, in Gillibrand's recounting. "I like my girls chubby.”
There was plenty of pressure on Gillibrand to name the senator she accused of such misdeeds. Eventually, the New York Times reported that it was the late senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii).
Conway is apparently accusing GOP politicians of even more aggressive behavior — "sticking their tongues down women's throats who were uninvited." It would seem as though Conway may be asked to elaborate on this, as well.
2. Said she wouldn't leave the campaign — "unless..."
Here's another exchange from MSNBC on Sunday night:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: So you’re with the campaign till the bitter end? CONWAY: I’m with the campaign until the bitter end, unless... (PAUSE) MATTHEWS: Unless what? CONWAY: Who knows? But I’m sitting here as his campaign manager. I’m sitting right here with you in the debate hall where he just performed beautifully. MATTHEWS: So you’re worried about more shoes dropping? CONWAY: No, I didn’t say that. No, no, no. No. What I — no. I made a commitment, and I believe he would be a much better president.
And later:
RACHEL MADDOW: We don't know what the "unless" means. CONWAY: I know. I didn't mean to alert the breaking news again, Rachel. The "unless" is very simply; it's unless someone in my household needs me or unless something changes in my own life.
It's true that you can never tell precisely what career-altering twists and turns life can take over the course of... 29 whole days. But the "unless" was a truly weird moment that is hard not to read into — as is Conway citing the "commitment" she made to Trump. That makes it sound like she's not overjoyed to be doing all of this.
Conway copped to the fact that she had just messed up, but still...
3. Left open the possibility there could be more embarrassing tapes
Asked on "CBS This Morning" about whether there could be more tapes or reports of Trump saying such sexually aggressive and lewd things, Conway didn't dispute it.
“There’s no way for me to know that, Charlie," she said. "I’m just very happy that Donald Trump said that he was embarrassed and apologized and then said that this is not who he is — and that over the last year and a half as he’s been running for president, he’s met millions of Americans who have inspired him to soldier on, to fight for the issues that they care about that he's trying to articulate and show a real contrast with Hillary Clinton."
Conway may just have been totally honest here; there literally is no way for her to know if there are more reports to come. But as Trump's campaign manager, she has surely asked him whether there might be other, similar instances to defend. Yet she didn't feel comfortable saying there weren't.
4. Downplayed Trump's "You'd be in jail" comment — after the campaign played it up
Trump shot back at Clinton during Sunday night's debate that "you'd be in jail" if he were president. It was a remarkable thing for a presidential candidate to say — and one that Conway sought to suggest wasn't as serious as it sounded.
The problem: The campaign isn't downplaying it at all. In fact, it's promoting it.
“That was a quip. And I saw in NBC’s own reporting it was referred to as a quip, so I'll go with NBC on it," Conway told "Morning Joe." "He had already finished his statement. She said something like, ‘That's why you'll never be president,’ and he said, 'You’d be in jail.’ And so that was his answer."
But if it was just a "quip," why did Trump social media director Dan Scavino tweet it out at 2 a.m. Eastern?
"It's a good thing Trump isn't in charge of the law in this country."
-Hillary Clinton "Yeah, because you'd be in jail."
-Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/UPiBLaknVG — Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) October 10, 2016
And VP pick Mike Pence on Monday morning told MSNBC it was "one of the better moments of the debate last night."
Mike Pence tells @MSNBC he thought Trump's threat to jail Clinton was "one of the better moments of the debate": pic.twitter.com/uJBrF3aeJl — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 10, 2016
The Trump campaign is all over the place on messaging right now. So is the person running it.National Park Service via AP In this photo provided by the National Park Service, a sign on the Yosemite valley floor points to the newly named Majestic Yosemite Hotel and the Yosemite Valley Lodge on Tuesday, March 1, 2016, in Yosemite National Park, California. The prices of Yosemite National Park souvenirs have been slashed in half, and road signs directing visitors to iconic attractions have been switched. The changes took place at midnight Monday amid a bitter legal dispute between government officials and Delaware North, which operated many of the popular attractions |
cutter. Sheets of bread automatically drop between two rollers, which cut 112 standard Communion wafers from each sheet in about one second, while simultaneously indenting a cross or a lamb shape into each wafer. The wafers and the chaff left over from the cut are spun are in perforated tubes, which shake the chaff into waste barrels. A local pig farmer feeds the waste to his hogs. “Holy pigs, we call them,” said Luke.
The same family makes separate wafers for other faiths:
The Cavanagh Co. also provides wafers for other denominations, such as Lutheran and Episcopal churches, the family said. They bake an entirely different style of altar bread for Southern Baptist churches. Those breads are small white squares. “They probably would double as a great soup cracker,” said Andy.
So if you don’t buy the whole Jesus thing, just use the crackers in your soup. No difference.
Just a reminder: Catholics make up one-sixth of the world’s population. You figure most of them actually believe they are eating Jesus…Even though it launched his career, and even though all signs point to him reprising his role as Han Solo in J.J. Abrams’ Episode VII, Harrison Ford’s never been a big fan of getting asked questions about Star Wars. It’s easy to understand why. Harrison Ford has been asked questions about Star Wars every day of his life for 35 years. It probably gets a little old.
Apparently, it doesn’t get old for the nerds at Comic-Con, though. They took the opportunity of an Ender’s Game panel featuring an appearance by Harrison Ford to ask him a bunch of questions about—what else?—Star Wars. Now, Harrison Ford probably wouldn’t be super-excited to field even smart, insightful Star Wars questions. So you can imagine his reaction to the doozy:
“If Han Solo and Indiana Jones were to meet, what would be their first words to each other?”
Actually, you don’t have to imagine, because someone uploaded the whole exchange to YouTube. Watch as Star Wars fans drive Harrison Ford to the brink of madness starting around 0:58 of the clip below. And stay tuned, because there’s also a question about whether Han Solo would be a good soldier for Colonel Graff’s army in Ender’s Game, and at that point I think Ford's soul actually tries to escape his body.
Harrison Ford: barely tolerating your obsession with that one guy he played since 1977.Speaking as a former right wing Evangelical who helped organize the Religious Right in the 1970s and early eighties, nothing instills conviction like believing you're on a mission from God. If you're going to fool others, you have to fool yourself.
It takes sincerity to tell a series of barefaced lies with enough conviction to carry the day. As we close in on the 2008 election, the increasingly desperate Republicans will do what they have learned to do best: court the sincere but misinformed Evangelical voters by lying to them.
Let me explain...
The Evangelicals live in a resentment-fueled, inward-looking subculture. They are convinced that the world is out to get them and put them at a perpetual disadvantage. They equate knowledge, facts and education with an elite that they feel belittled by.
The Evangelical "base" have unwittingly become the enemy of democracy. They are democracy's enemy because a grossly misinformed Evangelical public that celebrates its ignorance is the antithesis of an informed people who can manage their own affairs. Bush was their boy... twice! Enough said.
It is to the white ghetto of willfully ignorant Evangelical Americans to whom Sarah Palin is aiming her smears and lies (and not so subtle racism) about Senator Obama and his "terrorist connection" and his being "not a real American like us." Palin's lies depend for their success on those who are willfully blind to facts. It's the same obdurate blindness that allows a segment of the American public to still believe that Saddam Hussein was behind the attacks of 9/11. But it goes further than that.
The Republican leadership and John McCain are counting on Palin's grass roots sincerity that most Republican leaders no longer have. Palin is a true believer. And true believers put the mission they sincerely believe in -- that God has "laid on their hearts" -- above mere details such as truth or honesty, let alone honor. They also speak with conviction.
Palin doesn't actually believe the rehearsed smears she's telling about Obama, but she does believe that she is morally right in lying.
If lies will help her win, Palin believes God's will is being done. McCain just wants to win an election. Palin has bigger fish to fry. Her "call" is to restore America to its "Christian heritage." In that sense Palin is the product of my late father Francis Schaeffer, who helped politicize the Evangelicals into the Religious Right through his incendiary books such as A Christian Manifesto (1980) wherein he called for the takeover of America in the name of Christ if, need be, by force if all else failed.
You can't understand Palin without understanding her movement's mentors that crafted the modern Evangelical involvement in politics "for the cause of Christ." These mentors include my late father and also the so-called Dominion Theology movement, led by people even more radical than my father was. Dominion Theology is a subset of Dominionism and Christian Reconstructionism or the "Theonomy" movement. Followers believe that the God revealed in the Bible is the sole source of all human law, and that "God's law" must be established in America. This is the American version of the Taliban.
The key Dominionist leader, the late Rousas John Rushdoony, said that Christians should have "dominion" over the earth and every nation in it in the name of not just Jesus Christ but also in the name of the God of the Old Testament. Thus in the best of all worlds we'd be enforcing Old Testament law. We'd be the new version of Calvin's harsh Reformation Geneva wherein heretics were burned and women with illegitimate pregnancies were drowned along with their unborn babies.
The Dominionists have a wide and under-the-mainstream-media radar following in many Evangelical circles. Palin is an ardent Dominionist. I know what her agenda is because I know who shaped the theology of Evangleical political movement she is a product of.
I remember sitting down with Dominionism leader Rushdoony (over 30 years ago) and him telling me this:
"Frank, we must establish God's kingdom by degrees. We can't start by saying that God demands that we put homosexuals to death!" (He laughed heartily) "We need to begin with things like helping form home schools and electing our people. Someday we'll be in a position to establish biblical law in America."
McCain and Palin are two very different people. McCain was never able to energize the Evangelical base because the base knew that as a world-weary, philandering, gambling-addicted, hard-living fly boy, politician McCain lacked the sincerity of fundamentalist conviction. When trying to speak their language of absolutist morality McCain's words rang hollow. But Palin is the real thing.
Palin is by the very nature of her beliefs a born, in fact eager, liar. She can do no other. She must lie or admit she is wrong, about just about everything she believes in, from a young earth, to dinosaurs roaming the planet alongside men, to the nature of global warming, to Israel's place of primacy in the prophetic "End Times" and, lately, as to the causes of the economic meltdown. Get inside Palin's head and you'll hear a little girl telling herself biblical stories where she's always the hero. Palin's fantasy world is about being "called" -- Esther-like -- to "save" her people. And lying for God is okay, in fact it's good. Her biblical heroes (King David, Samson, Queen Esther...) all lied for God when they needed to in order to defeat God's enemies.
Palin is the female version of Bill Murray in the movie Caddyshack fantasizing... "A hush falls on the crowd..." about her destiny of insane godly glory. Only it's not insane, but real, real as McCain's calculated I'll-win-at-all-costs ploy in choosing a fanatic as a running mate.
The election of 2008 is best be understood as (what I and all sane Americans hope) is the last gasp of the desperate born-again religious movement that that has been running America into the ground for the last eight years. A pessimist might see it otherwise. Maybe it's the first shot in the next phase of our internal wars of religion, otherwise known as the culture wars, wherein an ignorant hate-filled, frightened American minority is trying to impose on the United States its own version of religion, in the same way that Saudi fanatics have imposed strict Islam on their unfortunate fellow citizens.
Palin was actually correct when, in her debate with Senator Biden, she said we need to stand up and "fight for freedom." What she didn't mention was that the greatest threat to American freedom is coming from the unhinged religious fanatics who are feeding on her poisonous lies, re-energized by a vision of overt "he's not like us!" racist politics on behalf of their God.The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, often shortened to Buckaroo Banzai, is a 1984 American science fiction action/adventure film produced and directed by W. D. Richter and written by Earl Mac Rauch. The premise centers upon the efforts of the polymath Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, a physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot, and rock musician, to save the world by defeating a band of inter-dimensional aliens called Red Lectroids from Planet 10. The film is a cross between the action/adventure and sci-fi film genres and also includes elements of comedy and romance.
After screenwriter W. D. Richter was introduced to novelist Earl Mac Rauch and hired him to develop a screenplay of Mac Rauch's new character Buckaroo Banzai, Richter teamed with producer Neil Canton to pitch the script to MGM/UA studio chief David Begelman, who took it to 20th Century Fox to make the movie. Box office figures were low and less than half of the film's production costs were recovered. Some critics were put off by the complicated plot, while others like Pauline Kael enjoyed the film, with Vincent Canby calling it "pure, nutty fun." Buckaroo Banzai has been adapted for books, comics, and a video game and has attracted a loyal cult following.
Plot [ edit ]
Buckaroo Banzai and his mentor Dr. Hikita perfect the "oscillation overthruster", a device that allows one to pass through solid matter. Banzai tests it by driving his Jet Car through a mountain. While passing through it, Banzai finds himself in another dimension, and on returning to his normal dimension, he discovers an alien organism has attached itself to his car.
News of Banzai's success reaches Dr. Emilio Lizardo, currently held at the Trenton Home for the Criminally Insane. In 1938, Lizardo and Hikita had built a prototype overthruster, but Lizardo tested it before it was ready, and became stuck between dimensions. Though freed, it caused him to go insane. Aware that Banzai has succeeded, Lizardo breaks out.
Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers are performing at a night club when Banzai interrupts their musical intro to address a depressed and suicidal woman, Penny Priddy, in the audience. During a performance he gives especially for her, she attempts suicide, which is mistaken for an assassination attempt upon Banzai. After bailing her out of jail, he finds she is the long-lost twin sister of his late wife. Later, Banzai holds a press conference about his rocket car experience, the overthruster, and the specimen of alien/transdimensional life he obtained while traveling through the 8th dimension. Strange men disrupt the event and kidnap Hikita. Due to an electrical shock from an unknown source, Banzai sees these men as reptilian humanoids and gives chase, managing to rescue Hikita before being discovered. Banzai manages to evade the men long enough to be rescued by his allies.
While planning what to do next, Banzai and the Cavaliers are met by John Parker, a messenger from John Emdall, the leader of the peaceful Black Lectroids of Planet 10, currently in Earth's orbit. Emdall explains that they have been at war with the hostile Red Lectroids for years, but had managed to banish them to the eighth dimension. Lizardo's failed test of the overthruster in 1938 allowed the Red Lectroids' leader, John Whorfin, to take over Lizardo's mind and enable several dozen others to escape. Now that Banzai has perfected the overthruster, Emdall fears Whorfin and his allies will try to acquire it to free the other Red Lectroids. Emdall had shocked Banzai previously to allow him to see the Lectroids for who they are, and now tasks him with stopping Whorfin, otherwise the Black Lectroids will fake a nuclear explosion in Russia to start World War III that will annihilate the Earth and the Red Lectroids with it. The Cavaliers track down the Red Lectroids to Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems in New Jersey, finding that their arrival in 1938 was told by Orson Welles' broadcast of The War of the Worlds until the Lectroids forced him to state it was a work of fiction. Yoyodyne has been building a spacecraft to cross over to the eighth dimension under the pretense of a new United States Air Force bomber.
The Red Lectroids invade Banzai's headquarters and kidnap Penny and, unbeknown to the Red Lectroids, the overthruster, which was in her possession. Banzai and the Cavaliers set off and confront Whorfin at Yoyodyne. At Yoyodyne, Penny refuses to tell the Lectroids where the overthruster is, and they start to torture her. Banzai arrives and battle off the Lectroids, though Penny is wounded and unconscious. While the Cavaliers tend to her, Banzai and Parker sneak into a pod on the spacecraft. Without Banzai's overthruster, Whorfin insists they use his imperfect model, which fails to make the dimensional transition and instead breaks through the Yoyodyne wall, flying off into the atmosphere. Banzai and Parker are ejected in the pod from the main craft, but manage to activate it and use its weapon systems to destroy Whorfin and all the other Red Lectroids. Banzai parachutes back to Earth while Parker returns to his people. With the situation resolved and war averted, Banzai finds Penny didn't survive her injuries. When he goes to give her a final kiss, Emdall causes another brief shock between Banzai and Penny, reviving Penny.
The end credits announce an upcoming sequel called Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League, but this was never produced.
Cast [ edit ]
Production [ edit ]
Development [ edit ]
In 1974, W. D. Richter's wife read a review of Dirty Pictures from the Prom, the debut novel from Dartmouth College graduate and writer Earl Mac Rauch, and recommended it to her husband. Richter, also an alumnus from the college, read the book, loved it, and wrote Mac Rauch a letter.[5] The two men began corresponding. When the writer told him about his interest in becoming a screenwriter, Richter offered him an open-ended invitation to visit him in Los Angeles where he was attending the University of Southern California[6] and working as a script analyst for Warner Bros.[7]
Screenplay [ edit ]
Years passed and Richter became a successful screenwriter. Mac Rauch took Richter up on his offer and arrived in L.A. Richter proceeded to introduce the writer to producer/director Irwin Winkler who gave Mac Rauch rent money for the next six months.[6] Over several dinners, Mac Rauch told Richter and his wife of a character named Buckaroo Bandy about whom he was thinking of writing a screenplay. Richter and his wife liked the idea and paid Mac Rauch $1,500 to develop and write it. According to Mac Rauch, his script was inspired by "all those out-and-out, press-the-accelerator-to-the-floor, non-stop kung fu movies of the early '70s".[8] Richter remembers that Mac Rauch wrote several stories about this character, then he "would get thirty or forty pages into a script, abandon its storyline and write a new one".[5] Mac Rauch recalled, "It's so easy to start something and then—since you're really not as serious about it as you should be—end up writing half of it... You shove the hundred pages in a drawer and try to forget about it. Over the years, I started a dozen Buckaroo scripts that ended that way."[7]
Mac Rauch's original 30-page treatment was entitled Find the Jetcar, Said the President - A Buckaroo Banzai Thriller.[7] Early on, one of the revisions Mac Rauch made was changing Buckaroo's surname from Bandy to Banzai—but he was not crazy about it. Richter convinced him to keep the name.[6] The Hong Kong Cavaliers also appeared in these early drafts, but, according to Richter, "it never really went to a completed script. Mac wrote and wrote but never wrote the end".[6] Another early draft was entitled The Strange Case of Mr. Cigars, about a huge robot and a box of Hitler's cigars.[7] Mac Rauch shelved his work for a few years while he wrote New York, New York for Martin Scorsese and other un-produced screenplays.[7]
In 1980, Richter talked with producers Frank Marshall and Neil Canton about filming one of his screenplays.[9] Out of this meeting, Canton and Richter formed their own production company and decided that Buckaroo Banzai would be the first film. Under their supervision, Mac Rauch wrote a 60-page treatment entitled, Lepers from Saturn.[7] They shopped Mac Rauch's treatment around to production executives who were their peers, proposing that Richter direct it, but no one wanted to take on such unusual subject matter by two first-time producers and a first-time director. Canton and Richter contacted veteran producer Sidney Beckerman at MGM/UA, with whom Canton had worked before.[9] Beckerman liked the treatment and introduced Richter and Canton to studio chief David Begelman. Within 24 hours, they had a development deal with the studio.[7] It took Mac Rauch a year and a half to write the final screenplay; during this time, the Lepers from the treatment became Lizards and then Lectroids—from Planet 10.[9] Much of the film's detailed character histories were taken from Mac Rauch's unfinished Banzai scripts.[10]
The 1981 Writers Guild of America strike forced the project to languish in development for more than a year. Begelman left MGM as several of his projects had performed poorly at the box office; this put all of his future projects, Buckaroo Banzai included, in jeopardy.[7] Begelman formed Sherwood Productions and exercised a buy-out option with MGM for the Banzai script. He took it to 20th Century Fox who agreed to make it with a $12 million budget.[11] Mac Rauch ended up writing three more drafts before they had a shooting script.[8]
Casting [ edit ]
When considering the role of Buckaroo Banzai, Richter wanted an actor who "could both look heroic with grease all over his face, and project the kind of intelligence you would associate with a neurosurgeon and inventor".[12] The studio wanted a recognizable movie star, but Richter and Canton wanted to cast a relatively unknown actor.[7] Richter looked in New York City because he assumed that an actor with experience on stage and small films "would be able to completely interact with props".[12] He had been impressed by Peter Weller's performance in Shoot the Moon and met with him.[9] At first, the actor was hesitant to take the role because he was unclear on the overall tone of the movie. "Would it be campy? Would it be a cartoon? Or would it be the sort of wacky, realistic film that would catch people sideways—and not be a cartoon", Weller remembers thinking.[7] Richter told Banzai's story to Weller and convinced him to do the film. The actor stated that he based his character on Elia Kazan, Jacques Cousteau, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Adam Ant.[9]
For the role of Dr. Emilio Lizardo, the studio wanted to cast an unknown actor, but Mac Rauch had written the role with John Lithgow in mind. Like Weller, Lithgow was not sure about the character, but Richter convinced him by "claiming what a real feast for an actor this wonderful Jekyll and Hyde character was", Lithgow later said.[7] He told an interviewer, "I have had roles where I came very close to going over the top. In Twilight Zone I almost went over the top several times. But this role is completely over the top. It makes the role in Twilight Zone seem like a model of restraint. I do it in a wild, red fright wig and rotten false teeth with a thick Italian accent. It's wild."[13] For Lizardo's accent, Lithgow spent time with an Italian tailor at MGM and recorded his voice. He changed his walk to that of an "old crab, because my alien metabolism is supposed to be messed up".[9] Lithgow said of his character, "playing Lizardo felt like playing the madman in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari."[9]
Ellen Barkin, who played the romantic interest "Penny Priddy", describes the film as "if Terry Southern had written Star Wars. None of the characters are quite what they should be—just my kind of thing."[9] Richter's only choice to play John Bigbooté was Christopher Lloyd, who agreed to the role. Richter first met Jeff Goldblum on Invasion of the Body Snatchers and wanted him to play the character New Jersey; the actor admired the script and was eager to work with the cast the director had assembled. Lewis Smith was asked to dye his hair blond; it took eight hours, and he saw it go from red to orange to fluorescent yellow to white.[9] Clancy Brown said that his character is "very common sensical. He's the everyman of the film".[9] Robert Ito was so determined to get the role of Dr. Hikita, that he disguised himself as an old man, designing his own makeup job to age himself 30 years.[9]
Production designer J. Michael Riva had worked with Richter before and spent two years working on the look for Banzai.[9] He and Richter studied many kinds of art and literature for the film's look, including medical journals, African magazines, and Russian history. The inspiration for the look of the Lectroids came from Riva sporting a lobster on his nose. He based the Lectroids' alien form on a Canadian anthropologist's extrapolation of what dinosaurs might have evolved into if they had survived, but modified the concept because it would have required prosthetics that would have immobilized the actors.[14] Their makeup consisted of 12 separate pieces of latex appliances per alien. Each actor's makeup was unique, with casts taken of their faces.[14] For the Red Lectroids, Riva consulted Russian history to give them a "baggy-suited, Moscow bureaucrat sort of image";[14] their outfits were influenced by contemporary Russian lifestyles and they went with greens, blues and yellows because, according to Riva, they are "sick and anemic."[9] Richter wanted the Black Lectroids to have a "warrior-like demeanor, but in an elegant, not fierce fashion";[14] their costumes came from African tribal markings. For Buckaroo's and his Cavaliers' look, the costume designer gathered Gianni Versace, Perry Ellis, and Giorgio Armani sports jackets, suits, and ties.[9]
Richter and Riva did not want metal spaceships and opted for a more organic look like a deep sea oyster shell.[9] Gregory Jein, Inc. and Stetson Visual Concepts built the spaceship models and worked off sketches by production illustrator Tom Cranham and used seashells as guides.[9] Richter purposely wanted the film to have an unpolished look because the "real world appears ramshackle—because people constantly repair whatever's around them".[15]
Principal photography [ edit ]
By the time of filming, Richter had a 300-page book called The Essential Buckaroo[6] that consisted of notes and had every incomplete script Mac Rauch wrote over the years.[7] Principal photography began during the second week of September 1983 on locations in and around South Gate, an industrial suburb of L.A.[7] Buckaroo's neurosurgery scene with New Jersey was shot at the Lakeview Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley.[9] The jet car sequences were shot in October on a dry lake north of the San Bernardino Mountains. The vehicle was designed and built by Riva, art director Stephen Dane, and Thrust Racing owners Jerry Segal and George Haddebeck. Segal started with a Ford F-350 truck, reinforced the frame assembly, added the front end from a Grand National stock car, borrowed air scoops from a DC-3, and a one-man cockpit modeled after a Messerschmitt fighter plane.[9] Under the hood, Segal modified the Ford engine with an oversized carburetor and nitrous oxide injectors. Northrop University loaned the production a working GE turbojet engine.[16] The oscillation overthruster was created by Riva and visual effects supervisor Michael Fink out of a gyroscope to which a metal frame, wires, circuits, and tiny strobe lights were added.[9]
Cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth was initially hired as the film's director of photography but, halfway through production, producers replaced him with Fred J. Koenekamp.[17] Several scenes shot by Cronenweth, including the iconic nightclub scene, are included in the final cut, though Cronenweth goes uncredited.[18][19]
The Banzai Institute exteriors were shot in Rustic Canyon, Los Angeles, with the interiors filmed in an Art Deco house designed in 1931 by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons for his wife, Dolores del Río.[9] Deserted rooms at Brentwood's V.A. hospital were used for Dr. Lizardo's room at the Trenton Home for the Criminally Insane. Lizardo's 1938 laboratory was filmed at a deserted industrial site, Alpha Tubing. The set decorators rented a collection of 1930s electrical props originally used in the original Boris Karloff Frankenstein films.[9] The interiors of Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems were shot in the abandoned Firestone tire factory. Wilmington's Department of Water and Power provided the location for Dr. Lizardo's shock tower and served as the Yoyodyne exterior, while the Armco Steel Plant in Torrance housed the Lectroid launch hangar.[9] Weller remembers that during the scene where his character is tortured by Dr. Lizardo, "I was laughing at the banter between [Christopher] Lloyd and [John] Lithgow... I never laughed so hard in my life! They had to stop takes over and over on that segment."[20] Finally, 12 weeks of filming were done on the backlot and soundstages at MGM.[9] The film's closing scene, in which the characters join each other to walk as the credits play, was shot at the Sepulveda Dam, adjacent to the concrete LA River bed.[9]
Soundtrack [ edit ]
The film's music coordinator and sound designer Bones Howe began working with musician Michael Boddicker on the film's theme music and sound effects, as they had worked together on the soundtrack for Get Crazy.[9] Boddicker was Howe's first choice to write and perform the film's score. Boddicker had just won a Grammy for his song "Imagination" on the Flashdance soundtrack. In addition to composing the score, Boddicker also produced the alien sound effects, while Alan Howarth was hired to create the sounds of the 8th Dimension.[9]
Howe selected the source music for the club scene and put together a special arrangement of "Since I Don't Have You" that Buckaroo sings to Penny Priddy. Weller, an accomplished musician, played the guitar and pocket trumpet, did his own vocals, and learned to mime piano playing. Howe and the filmmakers decided not to go with a rock music score for the film and opted for an electronic one instead. Howe wanted to "integrate music and sound effects so that everything would merge on the soundtrack with no distinction between music and sound."[9]
Reception [ edit ]
Release [ edit ]
Fox hired Terry Erdmann and a team of publicists including Blake Mitchell and Jim Ferguson to promote the film at Star Trek conventions with a few film clips and free Banzai headbands, which have since become highly sought-after collector's items by fans of the film.[7] The studio made no attempts to sell the film to a mainstream audience with traditional promotion, although there was some magazine advertising (primarily in Marvel Comics) and related licensing which served as viral advertising in limited venues. Studio publicist Rosemary LaSalmandra said, "Nobody knew what to do with Buckaroo Banzai. There was no simple way to tell anyone what it was about—I'm not sure anybody knew".[7] Lithgow said, "I've tried to explain the story line to people and it takes about an hour. I mean it; it's that complicated. But it's terrific. Every time I tell people about it, I get so excited that I end it by saying, Buckaroo Banzai, remember where you heard it first!"[13]
Buckaroo Banzai was originally scheduled to be released on June 8, 1984 but was pushed back to August 15. It opened on 236 screens and faced stiff competition against the likes of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (also featuring Banzai co-star Christopher Lloyd), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Ghostbusters. It made US$620,279 on its opening weekend before finally grossing $6.2 million in North America, earning back less than half of its production costs.[4]
Critical response [ edit ]
Although reportedly "dismissed by many critics as'strange' and 'unintelligible'" at the time of its release,[7] the film received positive reviews from 71% of 34 surveyed critics on Rotten Tomatoes.[21] Bill Cosford of The Miami Herald praised it as "an unusual film": "Its comedy springs from that odd combination of self-effacement and self-absorption... [it] is basically a comic strip, relentlessly hip... an adventure in the Buck Rogers mold."[22] Dave Kehr, in the Chicago Reader, wrote, "Richter seems to have invented an elaborate mythology for his hero... but he never bothers to explicate it; the film gives you the mildly annoying sensation of being left out of a not very good private joke".[23] In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote that Buckaroo Banzai "may well turn out to be a pilot film for other theatrical features, though this one would be hard to top for pure, nutty fun".[24] Richard Corliss, for Time, wrote, "its creators, Earl Mac Rauch and W.D. Richter, propel their film with such pace and farfetched style that anyone without PhDs in astrophysics and pop culture is likely to get lost in the ganglion of story strands. One wonders if the movie is too ambitious, facetious and hip for its own box-office good".[25] In The New Yorker, film critic Pauline Kael wrote, "I didn't find it hard to accept the uninflected, deadpan tone, and to enjoy Buckaroo Banzai for its inventiveness and the gags that bounce off other adventure movies, other comedies. The picture's sense of fun carried me along".[26]
Danny Bowes, writing a retrospective in 2011 for Tor.com, said that the film "is paradoxically decades ahead of its time and yet completely of its time; it's profoundly a movie by, for, and of geeks and nerds at a time before geek/nerd culture was mainstreamed, and a movie whose pre-CG special effects and pre-Computer Age production design were an essential part of its good-natured enthusiasm. What at the time was a hip, modern take on classic SF is now, thirty years later, almost indistinguishable from the SF cinema that inspired it in terms of the appeal to modern viewers: the charmingly old-fashioned special effects, and the comparatively innocent earnestness of its tone."[27]
Home media [ edit ]
Buckaroo Banzai was first released for home media on VHS in 1985 by Vestron Video, in 1990 by Video Treasures, and in 2001 by MGM Home Entertainment. The movie was released on DVD in January 2002 by MGM. Entertainment Weekly gave the DVD release a "B+" rating and wrote, "Fans will drool over the extras, including some illuminating deleted scenes (of particular note is an alternate opening detailing Buckaroo's tragic childhood, featuring Jamie Lee Curtis as Banzai's mother) and director Richter's commentary, which reveals some colorful behind-the-scenes battles with studio execs."[28] IGN gave the DVD their highest rating and was "thrilled by the special edition treatment that this landmark cult film has received at the hands of MGM. The video is great, the sound is great, there are tons of extras".[29] For the Blu-ray format, the movie was featured as part of Shout! Factory's Shout! Select Blu-ray line in August 2016; the Shout! Factory release contains a two-hour retrospective documentary featuring interviews with Weller, Lithgow, Brown, Serna, Smith, Vera, Lloyd and director W.D. Richter, among others. A Blu-ray was also released in the United Kingdom by Arrow Video.[30]
Legacy [ edit ]
Buckaroo Banzai has since attracted a loyal cult following and has been quite popular on home video.[31] Richter said, "It has had the most dramatic reactions of anything I've worked on. Some loathe it and others are willing to die for it".[31] The director feels that the film failed commercially because the narrative was too complex. He would like to have had more coverage for certain scenes. He could have edited the film better and there were too many master shots and two-shots that left little for the editor to work with.[31]
Wired Magazine, in 2009, celebrated "the 25th anniversary of the release of a film near and dear to many geeks who came of age in the '80s. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension was a great, adventurous, geeky movie, with enough silly science fiction and great characters to fill any three lousy summer blockbusters these days... and it gave us so many great, geeky lines to quote."[32] Cosford, in his 1984 review: "I suspect that Buckaroo's odd musings, particularly the one about being there no matter where you go, are about to enter the popular argot on the scale of "Where's the beef?";[22] his prediction has been proved right.[32][33][34][35][36][37] Entertainment Weekly ranked Buckaroo Banzai as No. 43 in their Top 50 Cult Movies.[38] The film was also ranked No. 21 on the magazine's "The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits Since '83" list.[39] The Guardian has also cited Buckaroo Banzai as one of their "1,000 films to see before you die".[40]
The current incarnation of the comic strip Dick Tracy has seen two subtle references to the film in the storyline. In a strip dated October 22, 2013, there is a reference to a business named "Emilio Lizardo Crematorium".[41] In a strip dated November 7, 2013, Dick Tracy's granddaughter Honeymoon tells him she will be attending a Hong Kong Cavaliers concert with the hope of getting Perfect Tommy's autograph.[42]
Other media [ edit ]
Books [ edit ]
The movie was novelized by creator Earl Mac Rauch in 1984 titled Buckaroo Banzai, published by Pocket Books and released in conjunction with the movie. It was reprinted in 2002 to coincide with the release of the movie on DVD. In the foreword, Mac Rauch mentions that the Buckaroo Banzai series would be continued in a series of novels.[citation needed]
Comics [ edit ]
Also in conjunction with the movie's 1984 release, Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation by writer Bill Mantlo and artists Mark Texeira in Marvel Super Special No. 33.[43] The adaptation was also released as a two-issue limited series.[44]
Moonstone Books began publishing comic books in 2006 depicting earlier and further adventures of Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers. The first story, Buckaroo Banzai: Return of the Screw, was written by creator Earl Mac Rauch. The black-and-white preview edition of the comic was released in February 2006, featuring a behind-the-scenes article by Dan Berger regarding the transformation of the rejected Buckaroo Banzai television pilot script Supersize those Fries into the present comic book limited series. The three issues of this comic have been collected into a trade paperback.[45] In December 2007, Moonstone released a new Banzai comic story "A Christmas Corrall" in the Moonstone Holiday Super Spectacular compilation, also written by Rauch and drawn by Ken Wolak. A two-issue prequel to the movie was released in early 2008 called Of Hunan Bondage. It was written by Rauch with art by Superman Returns storyboard artist Chewie. Moonstone released Big Size in early 2009, a special oversize one-shot comic written by Rauch with art by Paul Hanley.[citation needed]
Video games [ edit ]
Again, in conjunction with the movie's 1984 release, The Adventures of |
central Manhattan and consolidate services in the main branch, at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. That building would undergo a radical transformation by the British architect Norman Foster, who called it "the greatest project ever." It wasn’t until 2011, when I first reported on the plans in The Nation, that scholars realized the project’s full scope and radical nature. Foster’s renovation called for the creation of new rooms for children and teenagers, more computer work stations, and the demolition of seven levels of historic book stacks — containing 98,000 adjustable shelves and built by Carrère & Hastings in the first decade of the 20th century. The three million books in the stacks were to be sent to an off-site storage facility near Princeton, N.J. Library officials insisted that the plan would cost $300 million and was essential to the institution’s fiscal health.
Three factors gave rise to the central plan: The library was under severe financial pressure, the value of real estate in Manhattan was soaring, and the Board of Trustees was controlled by business leaders at the highest echelons of Manhattan real estate and finance, who believed that the market could ameliorate the complex, longstanding troubles. In 2005 the trustees sold the library’s most precious painting, Asher B. Durand’s "Kindred Spirits," for a reported $35 million. Critics howled.
By 2007 there were no more valuable paintings left to sell, so the trustees, with the backing of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, decided to put the library’s own real estate on the market. The high-wire plan that emerged was a mystifying combination of consolidation and devil-may-care overreach. Foster demanded $9 million for his fee, a huge expenditure for a sprawling urban library system that has difficulty keeping toilet paper, soap, and hand towels in the restrooms of its 88 branches.
A transformation of the library’s internal culture made a radical plan possible. A democratic thread runs through NYPL’s history. In the 1890s the 42nd Street Library was designed in a strikingly transparent way: The architectural plans for the new building were given to local newspapers, which sparked an animated public discussion. Similarly, senior librarians and curators always had a voice in decision making.
That began to change under the leadership of Paul LeClerc, a French-literature scholar who headed the City University of New York’s Hunter College and became NYPL’s president in 1993. Staff members gradually found themselves excluded from high-level strategic discussions; consultants from McKinsey & Company and Booz Allen Hamilton filled the void. In June 2007 the central plan was ratified by the trustees behind closed doors. The trustee meeting’s minutes, which I obtained under the Open Meetings Law in 2013, show that the board chairman, Catherine C. Marron, who has given some $25 million to NYPL, "reminded all in attendance of the importance of maintaining confidentiality." Staff members learned of the plan four months later.
A veteran NYPL librarian told me in 2012: "We were made to feel old and against change. A few trustees did call for open discussion at the start, but they were greatly outnumbered. The mission was to stifle discussion and get this thing done before anyone could stop them."
The central plan was derailed by the recession of 2008, but was quietly being revived by 2011. In early 2012, Joan Wallach Scott, a historian at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, was shaken by what I had reported. My article, she recalled in 2014, "was an invitation to act" in defense of an institution "that matters to me more than almost anything else."
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In the 1950s the library had helped to ignite Scott’s interest in French history; she would spend her vacations from college at the 42nd Street building, where staff members would allow her to read newspapers that appeared in Paris during the Revolution of 1848. Some were in fair condition; others turned to dust in her hands. She still remembers "the sheer excitement of touching real paper from ages gone by." Scott went on to become a leader in her field and in feminist scholarship.
She told me that in 2012 she found herself "feeling angrier and angrier about — I don’t know what to call it — neoliberal capitalism and feeling powerless to affect it." For decades her activism — building women’s-studies departments, defending academic freedom — had been confined to the university. But as she learned more about the New York Public Library plan, she found herself ready — and eager — to venture off campus.
Scott phoned an old friend, Stanley N. Katz, who was down the road at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. In the realm of higher education, Katz wears many hats (though he prefers elegant bow ties): elder statesman, power broker, commentator, activist, maverick. A member of Harvard’s Class of 1955 and an ardent old-school liberal, he has numerous friends in the highest echelons of journalism, philanthropy, and politics, and he maintains a punishing schedule that would challenge a person half his age.
Katz is not only an esteemed legal historian but also an expert on the nonprofit sector, and he was curious about NYPL’s trajectory after LeClerc’s departure. Indeed, Katz had known the library’s new president, Tony Marx, who took over in 2011, when the latter was a graduate student at Princeton and had extolled Marx’s accomplishments as president of Amherst College, from 2003 to 2011.
Like Scott, Katz had an emotional attachment to the library at 42nd Street. As a graduate student and young professor, he had relied on its resources — especially the old American History Room, which was abruptly shuttered in 1980 over the objections of scholars like Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who complained about a "rather mysterious" decision-making process at NYPL. The loss of that intimate room, with its open shelving and camaraderie, is still keenly felt by Katz: "It was a refuge, a haven, an incredible resource," he says. "I could be sure that every reference work that existed was there and available."
Scott and Katz decided to write a protest letter: "We are alarmed by the Central Library Plan, which seems to us to be a misplaced use of funds in a time of great scarcity," they said. Scott didn’t know how to create an online petition, so the letter was dispatched from her personal email account.
Uncertainty hangs over the New York Public Library, and discussion about its fate must continue.
A few dozen scholars, she hoped, would sign it. Indeed, the first people to respond were old friends and former students. A week later, the Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, who had researched several of his novels in the Rose Reading Room at 42nd Street, emailed her from Peru and asked that his name be added. Soon there was another email: "Please add my name to your good letter. Many thanks, Salman Rushdie." Tom Stoppard signed, as did other major writers, including Donna Tartt, Colm Tóibín, Jonathan Lethem, Peter Carey, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Ann Patchett, and Amitav Ghosh. Leading historians also joined the protest: Anthony T. Grafton, Jackson Lears, Natalie Zemon Davis, and Ramachandra Guha.
Scott was waking up each morning to hundreds of messages. The protest letter would ultimately generate about 2,000 signatures. The petition was soon covered by the Times. A campaign was born.
For the next two years, Scott and Katz worked closely with a small but indefatigable group of grass-roots activists and historical preservationists in New York City that eventually became the Committee to Save the New York Public Library, led by the architect and writer Charles Warren.
Katz knew NYPL’s leaders and in the early days of the controversy urged them to change course. In May 2012 he had lunch in Philadelphia with the board chairman, Neil L. Rudenstine, a former president of Harvard University, who had replaced Marron. Katz and Rudenstine had a warm friendship in the 1950s, when they were both graduate students at Harvard and shared a passion for England in the 16th and 17th centuries. But in 2012 they found themselves on opposing sides. During their lunch, Rudenstine insisted that the central plan was the only way forward for the library.
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When the controversy became news, in the spring of 2012, Marx emailed Katz and Scott. "I clearly need more advice," he wrote, "on how to decide and adjust plans going forward." They met in Marx’s office. It was not a productive session, but Scott and Katz did convince the library’s president that it should participate in a debate about the central plan, organized by the online magazine n+1 at the New School. Library officials had initially declined, but thanks to Katz and Scott’s prodding, Marx and Robert Darnton agreed to the invitation. Darnton, a longtime NYPL trustee, then director of the Harvard University Library, had just published a defense of the central plan in The New York Review of Books.
David Nasaw had been using NYPL for decades and knew that it was the principal research library for faculty members and graduate students at CUNY, where he is a professor of history. Nasaw had written a celebrated biography of Andrew Carnegie, who paid for the construction of 30 NYPL branch libraries in the first decade of the 20th century, and it was his remarks on the panel that would be featured in an account of the debate in the next day’s news media.
"We are being told," Nasaw said, "that the only way to save the library is to rip out its innards and transport millions of books to New Jersey." He dismissed Marx’s pledge of 24-hour delivery of books from the off-site storage facility: "If for the past 10 years the library has not been able to provide reliable 24-hour service, why are we to believe that with additional books moved there it will be able to do this? Is the traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike going to decrease?"
Nasaw was unsparing: "I’m enough of a New Yorker to understand how the city works, and how decisions are made, and what sort of voices speak loudest when large-scale, multimillion-dollar projects like this are formulated behind closed doors." He went on:
I’m not talking about Tony Marx or Bob Darnton, who were given this plan. But I would not be shocked to learn that among the voices that were heard loudest were the city’s real-estate interests, deputy mayors, offices of the New York State Economic Development Corporation; politicians who will be running for office and politicians who want to leave behind legacies; architects who seek out large-scale campuses for their work, engineers who believe they can do the impossible, planners and number crunchers and traffic consultants and hedge-fund managers and wealthy New Yorkers who want their names on buildings … and some donors, who, motivated by a 21st-century social Darwinism, believe that having made money or being born with it renders them more fit than the rest of us to make decisions about the urban landscape.
By mid-2012 critics had formulated a list of demands: Preserve and renovate the 42nd Street stacks; cancel Foster’s $300-million renovation and use the money to rebuild the library’s decimated staff of librarians, curators, and archivists; and retain and renovate the decrepit but highly popular Mid-Manhattan Library, on 40th Street and Fifth Avenue, which occupied prime real estate and whose sale was a cornerstone of the central plan.
But Marx continued to insist that the stacks had an outdated climate-control system, jeopardizing three million "rotting" books. A new system, he said, would be too expensive to install. Demolition of the stacks was the only option. And so he ordered the removal of three million books from the interior of the 42nd Street Library. The public was never told of the decision. By the spring of 2013, the vast heart of the building was empty, and the space emitted a dank stench — the climate-control system was turned off after the last book was sent away to off-site storage.
Staff members reported to me that many books and photographs were damaged when the stacks were emptied. The NYPL spokesman Ken Weine denied those allegations to me.
Another New York-based historian was also livid about what was happening. David Levering Lewis, born in 1936, is grave, formal, carefully spoken, and thoroughly old-fashioned. He’s an enormously productive New York University scholar who has written books about the Dreyfus Affair, Harlem, Martin Luther King Jr., and African resistance to European imperialism. For Parts 1 and 2 of his biography of W.E.B. Du Bois, he was awarded Pulitzer Prizes. By and large, his books were researched and written in the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library, both of which Lewis cherished.
Lewis and Marx knew each other. Prior to the controversy, their relationship, says Lewis, was "distantly congenial" and "mutually admiring." Indeed, Marx’s 2003 book Faith in Nation: Exclusionary Origins of Nationalism had sparked an intuition that helped Lewis conceptualize his own 2008 God’s Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215. When it was published, Lewis sent Marx an inscribed copy; Marx responded from Amherst with a cordial, handwritten letter.
In my 2011 Nation story, I quoted Lewis’s views about the removal of millions of books from the stacks at 42nd Street: "We would need to review that very carefully, and perhaps resist it." A few hours after Marx read those words, he emailed Lewis: "Hi David. Hope this finds you well. Meanwhile, we are enjoying beautiful bookshelves at home built by the person you suggested … I was wondering if we might get together at some point to catch up and to talk about the future of the Library (including this building — I heard you!)." But for Lewis, the 42nd Street renovation was a "cultural atrocity." He tartly replied: "Maybe we should confer with Sir Norman about bookshelves."
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They soon met for breakfast at the Metro Diner, on 100th Street. Marx told Lewis, as he had recently told others, that the 42nd Street Library was intimidating to much of the public (especially younger people and new immigrants) and had to be transformed and modernized. He then spoke feelingly of his boyhood in the NYPL branch libraries, and his desire to invigorate those facilities, which needed $500 million in renovations. Lewis asked where the money for the branches would come from, if $300 million was about to be spent on an extravagant architectural project at one facility on 42nd Street. "I will raise the money, I can do it," Lewis recalls Marx said. "You are deceiving yourself," Lewis replied.
They stayed in touch. In May 2013, Lewis complained to Marx in an email that scholarly services would erode under the central plan and likened Foster’s design to a suburban mall. Marx riposted: "I really object to the notion of a great circulating library as a mall. That seems rather elitist to me."
Lewis was finished with email; it was time to find a lawyer. Scott, Katz, Nasaw, the historians Edmund Morris and Blanche Wiesen Cook, and several others were about to file a lawsuit in New York state court. But Lewis and several friends wanted their own lawsuit. So in July 2013, there were two well-publicized filings. Katz was pessimistic about the chances in court. But a judge issued a temporary restraining order that read: "NYPL shall not undertake and/or continue any construction work … relating to the seven stories of iron and steel book stacks …."
The ruling was a devastating blow to Marx and library trustees, who were ferociously determined to break ground on the renovation while Bloomberg was still in office, because — as Marx had admitted at the New School debate — the next mayor would have the authority to redirect the $150 million in city capital funds allocated to the project. The judge’s decision emboldened the critics and gave them time to organize. The election of Bill de Blasio as New York City’s mayor, in November 2013, created further headaches for the library, as de Blasio had opposed the central plan when he was campaigning for mayor. A third lawsuit was filed by critics who alleged that the Bloomberg administration had mishandled the environmental-impact assessment for the renovation.
The New York Public Library abandoned the plan on May 7, 2014. The "greatest project ever" never came to fruition. Weeks later, library officials acknowledged that the Foster renovation would have cost $500 million, not $300 million, and that $18 million had already been spent on it. (The actual losses are probably much higher.)
But the finale proved bittersweet for the critics: Marx announced that the stacks would remain empty. "Stacks without books?" Lewis asked in The Wall Street Journal. "Isn’t that pretty Kafkaesque?" A few days later, Katz wrote to me: "The empty stacks are the lasting image of the controversy … ‘take that, wise guys’ is what I fear they are saying to us."
Staff members tell me that the trustees are fully devoted to the library’s special collections — the manuscripts by Beethoven, Joyce, and Whitman, the rare photographs of Jorge Luis Borges, and Virginia Woolf’s cane, to name just a few items — but are ambivalent about scholarly research. That fact is plain to see: NYPL intends to sell its Science, Industry, and Business Library, on 34th Street and Madison Avenue; the performing-arts library at Lincoln Center has seen the departure of most of its skilled staff of librarians and curators, and the facility itself has eroded, prompting Edmund Morris to call it a "dump." The staff of librarians, archivists, and curators at 42nd Street has been cut to the bone.
Marx has articulated a populist vision for NYPL. He told me in July 2011, months before the controversy erupted: "In the back quarter of this iconic building are stacks of books that are rarely used. We can store and get access to those books without having to take the prime space in a prime location of New York City. To the degree that we can make that space available, and replace books with people, that’s the future of where libraries are going." In 2014, while reporting my book on the NYPL wars, I requested an interview with Marx; he declined.
The role of research has yet to be clearly defined. In 2011 a librarian told me about the experience of a researcher who had come to 42nd Street for scholarly reference books. The books, it turned out, were in the Princeton storage facility. "She didn’t want to go to the trouble to call the whole set from off-site, and to renew it every week, and this and that." Columbia University’s library had those books on the shelf, so she went there. "I think her experience counts for exactly zero with the current library administration," the librarian said. "That is not the kind of reader they want."
Uncertainty hangs over the New York Public Library, and discussion about its fate must continue. But one thing is clear: A quartet of historians, allied with grass-roots activists, played a very significant role in halting a $500-million construction project in the heart of Manhattan, saving the Mid-Manhattan Library, used by 1.5 million people a year, and preserving the architectural integrity of what is perhaps New York City’s finest building.
Scott Sherman is a contributing writer to The Nation and the author of Patience and Fortitude: Power, Real Estate, and the Fight to Save a Public Library, just published by Melville House.The Crack in the Code
Episode Summary
blowfly eggs in the eye orbits, Hodgins puts time of death at 2 days prior. Brennan notices something odd about the vertebral column: the vertebrae are out of order, yet all the associated ligaments have been reattached with a kind of string made out of human guts. The killer is clearly leaving a message: one for the public and one for the Jeffersonian team. At the Washington Monument, a skull and spinal column are found at the base of a statue of Abraham Lincoln, on whom the words "Where is the rest of me?" are scrawled in human blood. Based onin the eye orbits, Hodgins puts time of death at 2 days prior. Brennan notices something odd about the vertebral column: the vertebrae are out of order, yet all the associated ligaments have been reattached with a kind of string made out of human guts. The killer is clearly leaving a message: one for the public and one for the Jeffersonian team.
nuchal crest indicate the victim was a Caucasian female, and the incompletely erupted wisdom teeth put her in her early 20s. Serological analysis shows that the blood at the scene, in addition to the victim's, comes from five other people, so Saroyan rushes a DNA analysis of it. Back at the lab, Brennan notes that the small skull andindicate the victim was a Caucasian female, and the incompletely erupted wisdom teeth put her in her early 20s. Serological analysis shows that the blood at the scene, in addition to the victim's, comes from five other people, so Saroyan rushes a DNA analysis of it.
Booth finds videotape from the monument, but the killer used a laser pointer to wipe out the video. Sweets thinks the killer is highly intelligent and very good at killing people. They bring in Sam Sacks, a night janitor who has a raging nicotine addiction and history of crime. He didn't do it, but he knows where the blind spot on the camera is (which never seems to come into play again).
Admiral Nimitz. Angela gets no hit in the missing persons database from the facial reconstruction, but Saroyan finds out that all five blood samples are from FBI field agents in the DC office. Wendell and Hodgins try to figure out the code in the rearranged vertebrae, which start off with C1, T9, C2, C5, T1 (which has both transverse processes removed), T7, C4 (with the right transverse process removed), but they get nowhere, even though Hodgins' grandfather was a codebreaker under. Angela gets no hit in the missing persons database from the facial reconstruction, but Saroyan finds out that all five blood samples are from FBI field agents in the DC office.
Washington Standard, who seems to know more than he should about the case. After re-canvassing the scene, Booth finds a homemade laser pointer made out of an off-brand Altoids tin, a diode from an old DVD player, and a switch from a toaster. Booth checks out the officers, but they are all alive and had all donated blood two weeks prior at an FBI blood drive. He and Miss Julian get harassed by Ezra Krane, a reporter at the, who seems to know more than he should about the case. After re-canvassing the scene, Booth finds amade out of an off-brand Altoids tin, a diode from an old DVD player, and a switch from a toaster.
strontium isotope analysis on the victim and finds that she was from Denmark. Wendell finds a particulate embedded in the anterior portion of the T4 vertebra, as well as hairline fractures on the neural arches and pitting on the vertebral body, which he and Brennan think are consistent with a high velocity injury. Brennan decides to run aon the victim and finds that she was from Denmark. Wendell finds a particulate embedded in the anterior portion of the T4 vertebra, as well as hairline fractures on theand pitting on the vertebral body, which he and Brennan think are consistent with a high velocity injury.
hacktivist" and insists he broke into the DoD network in order to expose the lack of security in their system and that the company that set up the network got the contract through corrupt, shady dealings. Sweets and Booth go through Miss Julian's records of high-IQ people the FBI has arrested and zero in on Christopher Pelant, a socially-marginalized computer geek who once took down the Senate's website and the Department of Defense's network. He was put on house arrest after multiple charges of wire and computer fraud. Pelant's house, though, has no computers save an old one with vacuum tubes, and he's on house arrest. His ankle monitor pings the company every 38 seconds. Pelant calls himself a "" and insists he broke into the DoD network in order to expose the lack of security in their system and that the company that set up the network got the contract through corrupt, shady dealings.
20166 (571) 418-5247 3117 C 353 5291 - which is a zip code, phone number, address of the Justice Department on C street, room number, and pass code. When Booth and Sweets check out the location, they find the rest of the victim's body in addition to a box of files about the FBI's CI (confidential informants). Back at the Jeffersonian, Hodgins and Angela finally figure out the code in the vertebrae. By reducing the vertebrae to numbers (and then reversing the string, I guess?), they get3117 C 353 5291 - which is a zip code, phone number, address of theon C street, room number, and pass code. When Booth and Sweets check out the location, they find the rest of the victim's body in addition to a box of files about the FBI's CI (confidential informants).
camphor residue on it, which may have been from fireworks, but his experiment with Wendell - in which they load a wetsuit with meat - backfires. Booth meanwhile tracks down Sophia Berman, head of IT at a local hospital, whose father committed suicide in front of her because he was defrauded by Daniel Kassudo, one of the FBI's CIs. She puts Booth and Sweets back on the trail of Ezra Krane, the reporter. The bones from the Justice Department show pitting and microfractures to the posterior of the ribs and the sternum - basically, damage to the front and the back. Hodgins notes that the particulate hadresidue on it, which may have been from fireworks, but his experiment with Wendell - in which they load a wetsuit with meat - backfires. Booth meanwhile tracks down Sophia Berman, head of IT at a local hospital, whose father committed suicide in front of her because he was defrauded by Daniel Kassudo, one of the FBI's CIs. She puts Booth and Sweets back on the trail of Ezra Krane, the reporter.
Brennan's contacting of the Danish embassy yields a hit for a missing person: Inger Johannsen, who was housesitting in the area. Booth and Sweets check out the house and find the jacuzzi full of blood and offal, with the words "This Won't Stop" written on the side of the pool. Based on the remains in the jacuzzi, the murder occurred Sunday night. Miss Julian tells Booth to bring in Ezra Krane for questioning, and he has no alibis for the time of the murder or the placement of the remains in the monument.
bang stick, which divers use to ward off sharks. Angela's computer, on the other hand, was brought down by malware that shut off all the fans, causing her computer to overheat and catch fire. Since Angela hadn't downloaded anything to her computer, only uploaded it, she thinks that the virus may have been in the bones somehow. Wendell didn't find any computer chips, but Brennan brushes the edge of the ribs with edicol dye and notices a fractal pattern etched into them. The Jeffersonian team goes back to suspecting Pelant, a computer genius who doesn't need a computer to bring down $1 million worth of computers. Angela decides to scan Inger's bones to find out more about cause of death. After scanning the images, her computer program computes trajectories of the projectile consistent with a gunshot, but not with a bullet. Soon, Angela's computer notes "System Failure", and a bunch of stuff catches fire. The weapon, Hodgins finds out, is similar to a, which divers use to ward off sharks. Angela's computer, on the other hand, was brought down by malware that shut off all the fans, causing her computer to overheat and catch fire. Since Angela hadn't downloaded anything to her computer, only uploaded it, she thinks that the virus may have been in the bones somehow. Wendell didn't find any computer chips, but Brennan brushes the edge of the ribs withand notices apattern etched into them. The Jeffersonian team goes back to suspecting Pelant, a computer genius who doesn't need a computer to bring down $1 million worth of computers.
thallium dioxide in the skull wound, likely from an old vacuum tube. Booth and Saroyan are called to the scene of another murder: a victim hanging upside down from a flag pole. Powder burns at the base of the skull are consistent with a bang stick. The victim's wallet IDs him as Ezra Krane, and he's been dead under 4 hours. Booth instructs that the body be brought to the Jeffersonian, but the coroner's van with Metro PD escort was diverted to the Medical Examiner's Office, where the body was supposed to be transferred to DC Memorial Hospital, where there were records waiting noting the autopsy was complete and infectious tissue was found. Once autopsies are complete and there's infectious tissue, Saroyan explains, the body is cremated. So Wendell gets stuck sifting through cremains for clues, while Hodgins finds out from a swab at the scene that there wasdioxide in the skull wound, likely from an old vacuum tube.
not a virus but a worm. There's no evidence, though, tying Pelant to the crime - his ankle monitor shows that he was at home at all times. The episode ends with Pelant back at home, clearly planning his next move - that seems to involve Booth and Brennan - and our heroes finding a skeleton of a house formerly owned by a criminal. Booth and Sweets bring Pelant in to the FBI for questioning. He admits to the murder and notes that his fractal bone program was. There's no evidence, though, tying Pelant to the crime - his ankle monitor shows that he was at home at all times. The episode ends with Pelant back at home, clearly planning his next move - that seems to involve Booth and Brennan - and our heroes finding a skeleton of a house formerly owned by a criminal.
Bad Things - So Many Bad Things - Wrong with This Episode
So, the forensics this week weren't horribly bad, but the police work was terrible and the computer parts hysterical. Let's start with forensics...
How does one reattach all the vertebral ligaments in a dead body?
The size of the skull and the nuchal crest alone cannot give anyone an ancestry estimation of Caucasian.
Sr isotopes are not some magic bone-GPS device. They cannot tell you that someone came specifically from Denmark.
As usual, the radius and ulna are switched from standard anatomical position in the lab.
The police work is... odd.
A person confesses to a murder, and the FBI can't do anything to him? Not even, like, make a cop watch his house for when he escapes?
Most annoyingly, Pelant is billed as an evil computer genius. And yet thinks that no jury would believe he could get around his ankle monitor? Seriously? The ankle monitor is his only alibi. Freaking House got around his ankle monitor in one of the first episodes of the season, and he's just an evil doctor genius.
And for the computer part, I spoke with my very own resident computer genius (otherwise known as my husband), who laughed at the following ridiculous bits:
A fractal etched into bone sounds pretty snazzy, but this would not harm any computer in existence. There is no way that a picture of something could magically form a virus or worm and harm a computer (unless the picture itself, that is, the.jpg file or whatever, was corrupted). But Angela's taking a picture/scan of bones could not infect her computer.
Computers don't catch fire if they overheat. A processor might catch fire, but microprocessors are very, very small and make very, very little fires for a second or two before melting. There's no way Angela's computer would have been set ablaze (even if the whole fractal-in-bone thing were plausible).
He did like the idea of MacGyvering a laser pointer and suggested the Bones writers used the first google hit for "homemade laser pointer." I want to know why Pelant couldn't just, you know, order a laser pointer from Amazon. I think felons can still have laser pointers.
And he pointed out that the best way of getting around an ankle monitor is to have it affixed to your prosthetic leg. :)
. :)
Also, I learned that "hacktivist" is a real word.
Dialogue
I always like conspiracy-theory-Hodgins. This episode: the Vatican, John Wilkes Booth, and Admiral Nimitz.
Brennan: "When the Dani of New Guinea defeated the Umumi(?) tribesmen, the Dani valued the huts of their vanquished enemies as a symbol of their mightiness."
defeated the Umumi(?) tribesmen, the Dani valued the huts of their vanquished enemies as a symbol of their mightiness." Brennan: "I don't know anyone smarter than I am." (And yet she then talks about "primitive hunters" - I know some ANTH 101 students smarter than that, Brennan.)
Sweets: "You did it, but you couldn't have done it. That's quantum indeterminacy." (Husband: It is not. It's not even a proper paradox, although it's closer to a paradox than to quantum indeterminacy.)
." (Husband: It is not. It's not even a proper paradox, although it's closer to a paradox than to quantum indeterminacy.) Pelant: "Trying to make the system secure, we make it more complex; but the more complex we made it, the more insecure we really are." Ratings
Forensic Mystery - A. I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for serial killers, especially the "clever" ones. This episode was chock full of interesting tidbits, and everyone had something to do. Sure, the writers threw many more red herrings than necessary, but I'll allow it.
Forensic Solution - B-. Points deducted for handwaving about Sr isotopes and Caucasian ancestry.
Drama - B+. There was too much going on most of the time for any drama to kick in, until the end when it's revealed that Pelant is setting his sights on Booth and Brennan next. But points were taken off here because the FBI is being stupid for not monitoring Pelant, so it's their own fault if Booth gets in trouble.
Let's hope the rest of the season includes more of this evil-genius-computer-hacktivist. I'd love to mock some more ridiculous computer nonsense. In the meantime, you'll find me in the bioarchaeology lab, carving a Mandelbrot into a manubrium.
Well, folks, I seem to have completely missed the fact thatwas new last Thursday. (And by "last" I mean the 12th.) It was the first new episode since early December, was supposed to air in mid-December, but was bumped to mid-January. And the show is on hiatus again (it's a disjointed season because of Emily Deschanel's real-life pregnancy). So, apologies for the oversight. Here's your surely long-awaited review...With any major OS release, in spite of rigorous testing and numerous developer previews, it's not uncommon for random issues to arise. Some users who've updated their Pixel or Nexus devices to Oreo have discovered an annoying bug whereby the alarm in the Google Clock app simply isn't going off. And that's a pretty big problem if it's the only alarm app you use.
A reader emailed us to say that their Pixel alarm clock has been inconsistent since updating to Oreo, with alarms set to less than an hour ahead sometimes going off and those set further ahead never going off. It seems they are not the only one. Here are some recent reviews from the Play Store listing:
This was great until it stopped working 3 days ago. Suddenly my morning alarm doesn't go off anymore and I was late for work for 3 days running. Thanks for not setting my God damn alarm off. Now I'm going to have to explain to my boss why I missed work today. Hello iPhone X! Since the last update, the clock app has been dismissing the alarms as soon as they start to go off. I have noticed if a set an alarm a minute from now it works. When I set an alarm for tomorrow morning it dismisses itself. Crashes every time the alarm goes off. After Oreo update alarms no longer go off!!!
I won't bore you with too many of them (there are at least 20 more) as they're all saying basically the same thing: since updating to Oreo my alarm isn't working. A number of users are saying they've been late for work because of it, too, which is no small matter. There's chatter about it on Reddit as well.
None of the AP staff have noticed this issue so far, but it does appear to be fairly widespread. There's nothing much you can do about it for the time being, except wait for Google to acknowledge the issue and work on a fix. In the meantime, you'll have to install a back-up alarm app clock and carry on. My personal favorite for several years has been Sleep as Android, which I use in conjunction with the stock Android app to be extra certain I won't oversleep (although I still do). There are plenty of other good options on the Play Store, too.Sun Country Airlines will fly nonstop between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Portland, Ore., for seven months out of the year, the company announced Tuesday.
It’s a new route and new destination for the Mendota Heights-based airline, which has been adding markets to its network recently.
The flight, which will operate from June 9 through Jan. 3, offers Minnesotans an alternative to Delta Air Lines, which dominates at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Alaska Airlines also flies nonstop seasonal service on the route.
“Our hometown shares so much of the vibrancy and culture that makes Oregon great, so it feels natural for the Twin Cities’ airline to serve Portland International Airport (PDX),” Zarir Erani, Sun Country’s chief executive, said in a statement. “We are excited to continue to expand our list of cities |
of the Kurdish minority in south-eastern Turkey, where the party polls the highest.
Political parties [ edit ]
Kurds in Turkey are represented by the political parties of Rights and Freedoms Party, Communist Party of Kurdistan, Islamic Party of Kurdistan, Peoples' Democratic Party, Kurdistan Democratic Party/North (illegal), Revolutionary Party of Kurdistan (illegal). Defunct parties include Democracy Party (DEP; 1993–94), Democratic People's Party (1997–2005), Democratic Society Party (DTP; 2005–09), Freedom and Democracy Party (ÖZDEP; 1992–93), Kurdistan Islamic Movement (1993–2004), Peace and Democracy Party (2008–14), People's Democracy Party (HADEP; 1994–2003), People's Labor Party (HEP; 1990–93), Workers Vanguard Party of Kurdistan (1975–92). Banned parties include HEP, ÖZDEP (1993), DEP (1994), HADEP (2003), and DTP (2009).[64][page needed]
Kurdish rebellions [ edit ]
According to human rights organisations since the beginning of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict 4,000 Kurdish villages have been destroyed and some 40,000 people have been killed.[65] In December 2015, Turkish military operation against Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey has killed hundreds of civilians, displaced hundreds of thousands and caused massive destruction in residential areas.[66]
Culture [ edit ]
Music [ edit ]
Between 1982 and 1991 the performance or recording of songs in the Kurdish language was banned in Turkey, affecting singers such as Şivan Perwer, Mahsun Kırmızıgül and İbrahim Tatlıses. However a black market has long existed in Turkey, and pirate radio stations and underground recordings have always been available. Although there was no ban on performing Kurdish language music, it was effectively prevented from being broadcast on radio or television through censorship.[67]
Şivan Perwer is a composer, vocalist and tembûr player. He concentrates mainly on political and nationalistic music—of which he is considered the founder in Kurdish music—as well as classical and folk music.
Another important Kurdish musician from Turkey is Nizamettin Arıç (Feqiyê Teyra). He began with singing in Turkish, and made his directorial debut and also stars in Klamek ji bo Beko (A Song for Beko), one of the first films in Kurdish. Arıç rejected musical stardom at the cost of debasing his language and culture. As a result of singing in Kurdish, he was imprisoned, and then obliged to flee to Syria and eventually to Germany.[68][69]
Literature [ edit ]
Some sources consider Ali Hariri (1425–1495) as the first well-known poet who wrote in Kurdish. He was from the Hakkari region.[70]
Film [ edit ]
In 2011, Kanal D, Turkey's largest television station, began filming Ayrılık Olmasaydı: ben-u sen in majority-Kurdish Diyarbakir. The show, written by a Kurdish screenwriter, professed to be the first in the popular genre to portray the Kurds in a positive light. The show was set to debut in early 2012, but suffered numerous delays, some say because of the controversial subject.[71]
Population [ edit ]
Turkish Kurdish girl.
Demographics [ edit ]
[72] Percentage of Kurdish population in Turkey by region
[73] 4-5 3-4 2-3 1.5-2 1-1.5 Turkey Total fertility rate by province (2013). Kurdish majority provinces have a higher fertility rate than Turkish majority provinces.
Most Kurds live in Turkey, where their numbers are estimated at 14,000,000 people by the CIA world factbook (18% of population).[74] A report commissioned by the National Security Council (Turkey) in 2000 puts the number at 12,600,000 people, or 15.7% of the population.[4] One Western source estimates that up to 25% of the Turkish population is Kurdish (approximately 18-19 million people).[5] Kurdish nationalists put the figure at 20,000,000[75] to 25,000,000.[76] All of the above figures are for the number of people who identify as Kurds, not the number who speak a Kurdish language, but include both Kurds and Zazas.[77] Estimates based on native languages place the Kurdish population at 6% to 23%; Ibrahim Sirkeci claims the closest figure should be above 17.8%, taking into account political context and the potential biases in responses recorded in surveys and censuses.[78] The population growth rate of Kurds in the 1970s was given as 3.27%.[79] According to two studies (2006 and 2008) study by KONDA, people who self-identify as Kurdish or Zaza and/or speaks Kurmanji or Zazaki as a mother tongue correspond to 13.4% of the population. Based on higher birth rates among Kurdish people, and using 2000 Census results, KONDA suggested that this figure rises to 15.7% when children are included, at the end of 2007.[80]
Since the immigration to the big cities in the west of Turkey, interethnic marriage has become more common. A recent study estimates that there are 2,708,000 marriages between Turks and Kurds/Zaza.[81]
A research by Mete Feridun of University of Greenwich seeks to explain the possible role of the regional underdevelopment of South Eastern Turkey in the ensuing terrorism in the country. The article also aims at making a contribution towards a better understanding of some economic conditions that are related to terrorism.[82]
Turkish government statistics show that Kurdish women in Turkey give birth to about four children, more than double the rate for the rest of the Turkish population. The Kurdish population is growing, while the rest of the country has birth rates below replacement level.[83][84][85] In some Kurdish dominated provinces women give birth to 7.1 children on average.[86] Women in Kurdish dominated provinces of eastern Turkey also have an illiteracy rate about three times higher than men, which correlates with higher birth rates. In Şırnak 66 percent of 15-year old girls could not read or write.[86]
Census results (1927–1970) [ edit ]
Year Total Kurdish speakers[87] % Note 1927 7006118444600000000♠ 1,184,446 7000870000000099999♠ 8.7% L1: 1,184,446
No numbers on L2 1935 7006159470200000000♠ 1,594,702 7000990000000000000♠ 9.9% L1: 1,480,246
L2: 114,456 1945 7006159369200000000♠ 1,593,692 7000850000000000000♠ 8.5% L1: 1,476,562
L2: 117,130 1950 7006206992100000000♠ 2,069,921 7000990000000000000♠ 9.9% L1: 1,854,569
L2: 215,352 1955 7006194228500000000♠ 1,942,285 7000810000000000000♠ 8.1% L1: 1,679,265
L2: 263,020 1960 7006231713200000000♠ 2,317,132 7000830000000000000♠ 8.3% L1: 1,847,674
L2: 469,458 1965 7006281731300000000♠ 2,817,313 7000900000000000000♠ 9% L1: 2,370,233
L2: 447,080 1970 7006322579500000000♠ 3,225,795 7000910000000000000♠ 9.1% Numbers published by major newspapers
Tribes [ edit ]
Linguistic groups [ edit ]
Central Anatolia [ edit ]
Map of Kurds of Central Anatolia
The Kurds of Central Anatolia[88] (Kurdish: Kurdên Anatolyayê/Anatolê, Turkish: Orta Anadolu Kürtleri[89] or İç Anadolu Kürtleri[90] are the Kurdish people who have immigrated and been in Central Anatolia (present day Aksaray, Ankara, Çankırı, Çorum, Eskişehir, Karaman, Kayseri, Kırıkkale, Kırşehir, Konya, Nevşehir, Niğde, Sivas, Yozgat provinces) since about 16th century.[91][92] They number between 50,000 to 100,000 people. The core of the Kurds of Central Anatolia is formed by Tuz Gölü Kürtleri (Kurds of Lake Tuz) who live in Ankara, Konya and Aksaray provinces.[93] Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) mentioned them as "Konya çöllerindeki Kürtler" (Kurds in the Konya deserts) in the interview with Ahmet Emin (Yalman) dated January 16/17, 1923.[94]
According to Hermann Wenzel, the original breeders of the Angora goat were the Kurds of Inner Anatolia.[95][96]
The largest tribes of the Kurds of Central Anatolia are the Bazaini or Shaikh Bazaini, Judikan, Saifkan, Chelebi, Janbeki, Jehanbegli, Khallikan, Mutikan, Hajibani, Barakati, Badeli, Ukhchizhemi, Rashvan, Sherdi, Urukchi, Milan, Zirikan, Atmanikan, and Tirikan. Formerly, some of the Janbegli, Rashvan and Milan tribes were of Alevi origin and followed Alevism.[97]
Two or the four primary dialects of Kurdish are used by the Central Anatolian Kurds. These are Kurmanji and Dimili/Zaza. Generally, their mother languages are Kurdish (Kurmanji) and Kurmanji-speaking people have difficulty to understand the language spoken in Haymana where Şeyhbızın (Şêxbizinî) tribe members live.[98] It is said that the new generation of Kurdish people in some settlements no longer speak Kurdish.[99]
List of villages [ edit ]
Villages of Aksaray [ edit ]
Human rights [ edit ]
For example in Aksaray there are 68 Kurdish Villages
Since the 1970s, the European Court of Human Rights has condemned Turkey for the thousands of human rights abuses.[101][102] The judgments are related to executions of Kurdish civilians,[103] torturing,[104] forced displacements,[105] destroyed villages,[106] arbitrary arrests,[107] murdered and disappeared Kurdish journalists.[108] The latest judgments are from 2014.[103]
The European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) reports that (as of April 2010): "The public use by officials of the Kurdish language lays them open to prosecution, and public defence by individuals of Kurdish or minority interests also frequently leads to prosecutions under the Criminal Code."[109] From the 1994 briefing at the International Human Rights Law Group: "the problem in Turkey is the Constitution is against the Kurds and the apartheid constitution is very similar to it."[110]
In 1998 Leyla Zana received a jail sentence.[111] This prompted one member of the U.S. House of Representative, Elizabeth Furse, to accuse Turkey of being a racist state and continuing to deny the Kurds a voice in the state". Abbas Manafy from New Mexico Highlands University claims "The Kurdish deprivation of their own culture, language, and tradition is incompatible with democratic norms. It reflects an apartheid system that victimizes minorities like Armenians, Kurds, and Alevis."[112]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]The beginning of March means the beginning of a special focus for Gov. Rick Snyder: government reform. Snyder has set up monthly themes to help fulfill his pledge to reinvent Michigan, but government reform is likely to draw it TMs critics like the wide range of other issues Snyder has outlined, more specifically in his February 17th Executive Budget Presentation before state lawmakers.
Central to his plan is his endorsement of legislation working its way through the legislature that gives the state more flexibility in the financial crisis management of government bodies like the City of Pontiac and the Detroit Public Schools.
Snyder said the goal is to give state managers more options to deal with financial problems before it TMs too late. The way I view it is, the most successful emergency situation to have is the one that didn TMt happen, Snyder told NBC25.
However, one of the most controversial parts of the legislation gives financial managers the power to scrap existing contracts.
Related to the issue is Public Act 312 of 1969, which protects the rights of police and firefighters to engage in binding arbitration to resolve labor disputes. Snyder would not comment in-depth but would only say he TMs monitoring the progress of lawmakers on the issue.
Revenue sharing changes
Snyder TMs push for government reform extends to local communities. In February, he proposed eliminating the near $100 million that goes to several local governments; money that helps pay for police and fire protection. Flint has $8.1 million tied to that fund that it will lose if Snyder TMs proposal is adopted.
The governor did say he reorganized a $200 million fund of revenue sharing dollars; putting it up for grabs by incentivizing municipalities to adopt best practices that state officials would find attractive.
Be sure to read our story on defense on the pension tax and big business tax breaksStochastic program optimization
Stochastic program optimization Schkufza et al., CACM 2016
Yesterday we saw that DeepCoder can find solutions to simple programming problems using a guided search. DeepCoder needs a custom DSL, and a maximum program length of 5 functions. In ‘Stochastic program optimization’ Schkufza et al. also use a search strategy to generate code that meets a given specification – however, their input is a loop-free fixed-point x86_64 assembly code sequence, and the output is optimised assembler that does the same thing, but faster. There are almost 400 x86_64 opcodes, and the programs can be much longer than five instructions! The optimiser is called STOKE, and it can create provably correct sequences that match or outperform the code produced by gcc -O3 or icc -O3, and in some cases even expert handwritten assembly. (-O3 is the highest level of optimisation for gcc/icc)
Whereas a traditional optimisation phase for a compiler factors the optimisation problem into small subproblems that can be solved independently, STOKE can consider the whole program and find solutions that can only be obtained through, for example, “the simultaneous consideration of mutually dependent issues such as instruction selection, register allocation, and target-dependent optimisation.”
Here’s an illustration of STOKE at work, the output of gcc -O3 is shown on the left, and the STOKE optimised assembly on the right. In addition to being considerably shorter, it runs 1.6x faster. The original input to the optimisers (not shown) was a 116-line program produced by llvm -O0.
Optimisation approach
Because we’re not just trying to generate a correct program, but also a fast one, the problem can be framed as a cost minimisation problem with two weighted terms: one term accounting for correctness, and one for performance.
The simplest measure of correctness is functional equality. Remember that we’re given the assembly output of llvm -O0 as input, and this defines the target behaviour. So we can do black-box equality tests: consider both the target program and a candidate rewrite as functions of registers and memory contents, if they produce the same live outputs for all live inputs defined by the target then they are equal. When two programs are equal the cost of the equality term is zero (remember we’re minimising).
An optimisation is any rewrite with zero equality cost and lower performance cost (i.e., better performance) than the target.
Discovering these optimizations requires the use of a cost minimization procedure. However, in general we expect cost functions of this form to be highly irregular and not amenable to exact optimization techniques. The solution to this problem is to employ the common strategy of using an MCMC sampler.
Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling draws elements from a probability density function such that regions of higher probability are sampled more often than regions of lower probability. When used for cost minimisation then in the limit most samples should be taken from the minimum (i.e., optimal) values of a function. The eagle-eyed reader may have spotted a small problem here – we don’t have a probability density function! But the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm will let us obtain samples from an approximate cost probability density function given that we can measure cost.
Given an overall computation budget, the algorithm maintains a current rewrite (initially equal to the target) and repeatedly draws a new sample, replacing the current rewrite with this sample if it is accepted. The acceptance criteria come from the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm: if the new sample has a lower cost (higher probability) it is always accepted, but if the new sample has a higher cost it may still be accepted, with a probability that decreases according to how much worse it is. Thus we hope to avoid the search becoming trapped in local minima.
Application to x86_64 assembly
When we come to apply this general approach in the context of x86_64 we have to make three key decisions: (i) how to efficiently test equality, (ii) how to efficiently measure performance, and (iii) how to implement MCMC sampling.
For equality, we could use a symbolic validator, but his turns out to be too slow (less than 1000 evaluations a second on modestly sized code sequences). Instead, an approximation to full equality is used. A number of test cases are evaluated, and the cost term is actually defined based on how closely the output matches the target for each test input, based on the number of bits that differ between the outputs. This is much faster than using a theorem prover, and also gives a much smoother cost function than the stepped 1/0 (equal/unequal) symbolic equality test. Test case evaluations can be done at a rate of between 1 and 10 million per second.
Performance is also approximated, based on a static approximation of the cost of each instruction. (This is faster than compiling and then executing a program multiple times in order to eliminate transient effects).
For sampling, rewrites are represented as loop-free sequences of instructions of length l, with a special ‘unused’ token used to represent unused instruction slots. Starting with the target program, one of four possible moves is made:
An instruction is randomly selected, and its opcode is replaced by a random opcode.
An instruction is randomly selected, and one of its operands is replaced by a random operand.
Two lines of code are randomly selected and interchanged.
An instruction is randomly selected and replaced either by a random instruction or the UNUSED token. (Proposing an UNUSED token amounts to deleting an instruction, and replacing an UNUSED token is like inserting one).
The approach is also therefore a little reminiscent of evolutionary algorithms (but with a population of one!).
STOKE
STOKE implements the above ideas. It runs a binary generated by a standard compiler under instrumentation to generate test cases (using Intel’s PinTool) for a loop-free target of interest, and then runs a set of synthesis threads. From the validated rewrites, the top 20% by performance are then re-ranked based on actual runtime (not the approximation used during generation), and the best is returned to the user.
As well as measuring the actual runtime of the top results, we also want to know that the rewrite is truly equivalent to the target:
STOKE uses a sound procedure to validate the equality of loop-free code sequences. Both target and rewrite are converted into SMT formulae in the quantifier free theory of bit-vector arithmetic used by Z3, producing a query that asks whether both sequences produce the same side effects on live outputs when executed from the same initial machine state. Depending on type, registers are modeled as between 8- and 256-bit vectors, and memory is modeled as two vectors: a 64-bit address and an 8-bit value (x86_64 is byte addressable).
STOKE can generate code that lies in an entirely different region of the search space to the original target code (and it differs from standard optimisers in this respect). This enables it to generate expert-level solutions, but in the original formulation it only does so with low probability.
Dividing the cost minimisation process into two distinct phases helps to discover solutions in very different parts of the search space. In the first synthesis phase, code sequences are evaluated solely based on correctness, and then a subsequent optimization phase searches for the fastest sequence within each of the correct sequences.
Results
STOKE was evaluated on benchmarks from the literature and from high-performance code, the results are summarised in the table below. Benchmarks p0 – p25 are from “Hacker’s Delight.”
For example:
The results shown in this CACM update improve on those in the original paper (3 years prior) by an order of magnitude or more.
Synthesising controllers…
Before we close, I’d like to give a quick mention to ‘Sound and automated synthesis of digital stabilizing controllers for continuous plants,’ which looks at the generation of stable controllers for digital control systems. It turns out these are far from easy to write by hand given the challenges of time discretization, the noise introduced by A/D and D/A conversion, and the use of finite word length arithmetic. DSSynth can efficiently synthesize stable controllers for a set of intricate benchmarks taken from the literature, often in under a minute. To give you an idea of the kind of thing we’re talking about, one of the examples in the paper is a cruise control system.
… we leverage a very recent step-change in the automation and scalability of program synthesis. Program synthesis engines use a specification as the starting point, and subsequently generate a sequence of candidate programs from a given template. The candidate programs are iteratively refined to eventually satisfy the specification. Program synthesizers implementing Counter-Example Guided Inductive Synthesis (CEGIS) are now able to generate programs for highly non-trivial specifications with a very high degree of automation. Modern synthesis engines combine automated testing, genetic algorithms, and SMT-based automated reasoning.§Times Free Press photo Times Free Press photo
At age 96, Dorothy Cooper is the new poster child for what's wrong with the state's photo ID voter law. A retired domestic worker living in Chattanooga, she never had any trouble voting even in the Jim Crow era and missed only one election in her entire adult life. But when she went for one of the state's new free photo IDs last month so she could keep voting, they turned her away. Why? Her maiden name, Dorothy Alexander, is on her birth certificate, and she didn't have her marriage license. Her story is on the front page of the Chattanooga Times Free Press today.
It's beginning to dawn on some Republicans that they might have overreached just a tad bit with this photo ID law. Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, is one of the main proponents, and even he is backpedaling. Yesterday, as liberal groups launched a petition drive against the law and the Senate held hearings into whether it's disenfranchising voters, Ketron introduced a bill to let anyone over the age of 60 vote by absentee ballot without a photo ID.
Ketron said he doesn't understand why anyone wouldn't want a photo ID. "They make you proud," he said.
An absentee ballot is the solution that's been offered Dorothy Cooper. But as she told the Times Free Press' Ansley Haman, she prefers to actually go to the polls, even though she has to do it in a walker. That's what makes people proud, not photo IDs. Here's a woman who has gone to her voting precinct to do her patriotic duty her whole life, even when the segregationist laws were intentionally aimed at preventing it. And now they tell her no.
We imagine the network TV reporters will arrive on Mrs. Cooper's doorstep sometime soon. If they don't want to be held up to ridicule around the country, state election officials should go there ahead of time to deliver her photo ID.Despite failures with its West Coast system, lawmakers offer Pentagon more money to build an extra missile interceptor. By Rachel Oswald
A key House panel on Thursday approved a bill that would increase funding by at least $60 million for a homeland missile defense system.
The chamber’s Armed Services Committee in a unanimous vote just after midnight approved annual defense authorization legislation that included a number of missile defense-related measures, such as $20 million in funding to begin constructing a third domestic interceptor site. The bill also includes an extra $40 million for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system.
The Defense Department did not seek funding in its fiscal 2015 budget request for construction of a third interceptor site. The Pentagon is currently studying possible locations for the site on the East Coast. The department has not yet decided if it will move forward with building the facility, which is a favored defense project for Republicans who are concerned about a possible missile attack by Iran.
The two existing interceptor sites in the country are located in Alaska and California and are part of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system, which is under heavy scrutiny due to a string of expensive intercept test failures. The Pentagon had requested just over $1 billion for the program for the coming fiscal year. However, the Republican-led HASC panel chose to boost that figure by $40 million, according to the draft bill text.
The legislation also includes language that would hasten the deployment of U.S. missile defenses in Poland. An amendment introduced by U.S. Representative Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and approved by the committee would require the Pentagon to activate no later than the end of 2016 an Aegis Ashore system in the Eastern European country. Poland has already agreed to host an Aegis interceptor facility as part of the Obama administration’s “Phased Adaptive Approach” for European missile defense, but that site is currently not planned to go online before the 2018-to-2020 timeframe.
Republicans in the Senate have introduced their own bill that would require the administration to study options for speeding up activation of the Polish missile interceptor site by the end of 2016.
But 2016 is not soon enough for Turner for achieving an operational antimissile capacity in Poland. In addition to accelerating the timetable for standing up the planned Aegis site, his amendment would require the U.S. military by the end of this year to field a “short-range air and missile defense capability or terminal missile defense capability, or both, and the personnel required to operate and maintain such [a] system” in the NATO-allied nation.
The House floor is anticipated to take up the defense authorization bill during the week of May 19, according to the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, which tracks congressional actions related to nuclear weapons and missile defense. The Senate Armed Services Committee plans to begin writing its own version of the bill on May 20.S
tart with the FedEx packages. Follow the trail. That’s what police in Colorado did. They wanted to learn how the gunman got his bullets, how he accumulated an arsenal of more than 6,000 rounds before he walked into an Aurora, Colo., movie theater last July, where he fatally shot 12 people and wounded 58. Where did that ammunition come from?
The answer appeared to be an online company in St. Louis, a detail widely reported one year ago. But recently released search warrants and additional reporting by the Post-Dispatch have shed new light on the path traveled by those thousands of rounds.
The trail leads not to St. Louis but to Knoxville, Tenn., and on to Atlanta, to a secretive 4-year-old company considered to be among the nation’s top online ammunition dealers. Its founders — a pair of former real estate developers — sell bullets using far-flung P.O. boxes, different corporate identities and online marketing tactics that have offended even some firearm enthusiasts. By last summer, these entrepreneurs stood perfectly positioned to close on a quick, legal sale to a deranged killer.
The story of how the Aurora gunman got his 170 pounds of ammo — a transaction that received far less attention than how he obtained his firearms — is a journey into the divisive debate over gun violence, about how guns and ammo flow through the nation and the companies that profit along the way.
Each shooting briefly revives talk about banning certain guns or magazines while another often common feature goes overlooked: the ammo stockpiles. In Newtown, Conn., authorities are looking into how the gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School acquired more than 1,600 bullets. A thwarted plan by a former student to shoot up the University of Central Florida in Orlando earlier this year led police to 1,000 rounds of ammunition. And then there’s the 6,000 rounds in Aurora.
It wasn’t always possible for someone to buy so many bullets so quickly, with so little scrutiny. And it wasn’t always so difficult to track where those bullets came from.
It can feel like chasing a ghost.
Just try to follow the trail.
■ ■ ■
It begins with an FBI agent.
After the shooting, the agent found a black iPhone in a white Hyundai parked by the theater’s rear door, according to search warrants. The phone and vehicle belonged to James Holmes. Holmes, now 25, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to 166 counts of murder, attempted murder and other crimes. His attorneys said in a court filing last week that Holmes committed the shooting during “a psychotic episode.” He is undergoing a mental health evaluation.
The phone was handed off to an Aurora police detective. He pulled digital photos from the device showing Holmes with wild orange-dyed hair. He also found mobile tracking data for a FedEx package. He called FedEx. Were there other shipments?
The detective got a tracking number. It still works today. Punch it in online. It shows that six boxes weighing a total of 170 pounds were shipped from Atlanta on June 29, 2012, and arrived in Aurora four days later. “JHolmes” signed for them. The boxes came from BulkAmmo.com, according to search warrants. Investigators also found BulkAmmo.com packing slips in the trash outside Holmes’ apartment.
At a press conference after the shooting, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said the suspect had purchased online more than 3,000 rounds of.223-caliber rifle ammunition, 3,000 handgun rounds and 300 shotgun shells. Those numbers alone generated headlines.
The gunman assembled his arsenal over several weeks, police said, and all the purchases were made legally. He started with tear gas canisters online and then a Glock handgun at a sporting goods store in Colorado. Days later, a 12-gauge shotgun and some ammo at another store. Then an AR-15 assault-style rifle. On June 28, he placed his order from BulkAmmo.com. He ordered a SWAT-style vest and magazine pouches from Chesterfield-based Tacticalgear.com. He then bought a second Glock.
On July 20, 2012, he burst into theater No. 9 during the midnight première of “The Dark Knight Rises.” Details about that night, limited by a court-imposed gag order, briefly emerged at a preliminary hearing in January.
Holmes carried an AR-15 with a 100-round drum magazine. He fired seemingly at random inside the darkened auditorium. His rifle jammed. He also had a shotgun and a handgun. Investigators would find 76 used ammunition casings and 224 live rounds inside the theater. It was not clear what happened to the rest of the stockpile. Police have not publicly identified the specific origin of the ammo Holmes used that night. The shooting was rapid. One 911 call from a moviegoer recorded 30 gunshots in 27 seconds. The AR-15 was loaded with special steel-core bullets, explaining how shots tore through seats and walls and multiple victims, authorities said.
The dead included Jessica Ghawi, 24, an aspiring sportscaster. And there was Jesse Childress, 29, a member of the Air Force hit when he dived in front of a friend. And Gordon Cowden, 51, who had taken his two teenage daughters to the movies that night. His daughters escaped unharmed.
Four shots struck little Veronica Moser-Sullivan. She was 6, the youngest victim. Her mother, Ashley Moser, who was pregnant, also was shot multiple times. She suffered a miscarriage and was paralyzed. Veronica’s funeral was delayed for three months until her mother was able to attend.
■ ■ ■
Bulkammo.com issued a brief statement after the shooting that it was “actively assisting in the investigation.” That was its last public comment.
BulkAmmo.com certainly gives the impression of being based in St. Louis. Its website lists a P.O. box in the city. So does its Facebook page. A press release announcing its opening in August 2010 carried a St. Louis dateline. The website has a “frequently asked questions” page that explains customers can’t pick up orders in St. Louis because “our warehouse is not set up to process walk-in orders or pickups.” Call the company’s 800 number and ask if BulkAmmo.com is based in St. Louis, and the customer service rep says, “Correct.”
But there is no St. Louis warehouse or office. A visit to the St. Louis mailing address takes you downtown, to the sprawling main post office on Market Street. Mail for Box 66738 is held in back, says a postal worker.
Box 66738 is rented by Earth Class Mail, according to a company representative. The Beaverton, Ore., firm has addresses in 19 cities where users can direct their mail, which is then picked up, scanned and posted online. This allows customers to have a “virtual presence,” the company says.
The Missouri secretary of state has no record of BulkAmmo.com. But Tennessee does. State records there show BulkAmmo.com is registered to a company that also operates under the names LuckyGunner.com, Ammoforsale.com and Ammo.net, among others.
These entities all sell ammunition online. Each deploys different online store layouts and often different prices. Each lists a business address that leads to an Earth Class Mail box in a different city, including St. Louis, Atlanta and Richmond, Va.
But records show these ammo retailers all are owned by one company — LuckyGunner LLC. Its mailing address is an Earth Class Mail box in New York City. The office address is in Knoxville.
Its annual report, filed with the state, lists two managers: Jordan Mollenhour and Dustin E. Gross.
Mollenhour, 31, a graduate of the University of Tennessee, is listed as LuckyGunner’s president. But his ties to the ammo business are harder to discern anywhere else. On his LinkedIn profile, he describes himself as a private investor. He lists his current employer as Business Services & Solutions LLC, another company he runs.
Gross, 32, also a University of Tennessee grad, does the same.
The two Knoxville residents registered LuckyGunner in Tennessee in March 2009, according to records. For several years before that, they ran Mollenhour Homes. A subdivision in south Knoxville bears the name Jordan Mollenhour. But the business seems to have slowed considerably. The homebuilder’s state registration expired in 2010. Mollenhour still has his real estate agent’s license. Gross’ license expired.
The pair have shifted from selling homes to selling ammo. Some staff joined them. For example, a woman who has identified herself online as handling marketing for LuckyGunner previously did the same thing for Mollenhour Homes.
Mollenhour and Gross, along with several others connected to LuckyGunner, did not respond to the Post-Dispatch’s calls for comment over several weeks. Messages also were left with representatives answering the retailers’ phones and with a company attorney.
Jordan Mollenhour’s father, Mike Mollenhour, a Knoxville attorney, promised to pass along a message to his son. No one called back.
But unlike his son, Mike Mollenhour has been vocal about his feelings about firearms. He once pushed for the repeal of a gun ban in Knoxville’s public parks. He writes a gun-rights blog, which until this month was hosted on LuckyGunner.com. (It’s now at virtualmilitia.com.) Go online and find it. Scroll back to an entry from July 20, 2012. It was written just hours after the slaughter in Aurora.
In the blog post, Mike Mollenhour decries the culture that allows “these murderous rampages” to occur. Stop looking to the failed institutions of power to keep you safe, he writes. Instead, arm yourself and practice head shots. Experts do not have the answers, he writes, challenging his readers to explain “what just happened out there.”
Maybe answers can be found in Knoxville.
■ ■ ■
Knoxville is an old city of 180,000 in a valley west of the Smoky Mountains. It lacks Nashville’s claim to music or Memphis’ barbecue. But it rallies around the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee. Even the city’s parking tickets are printed on paper of Volunteer orange. And the city’s skyline is defined by the Sunsphere, a giant gold ball built for the 1982 World’s Fair.
LuckyGunner’s business address on state paperwork is 448 North Cedar Bluff Road. That’s also the address provided to business directories and the Better Business Bureau, which gives the company an “A” rating.
The address leads to a UPS store in a strip mall, between a payday loan shop and a Subway. LuckyGunner rents box No. 201, top row, middle of a lobby wall. A clerk says he can’t reveal anything about who gets mail there.
A few miles up the road is the popular gun shop Coal Creek Armory, where firearms are displayed in glass cases like jewelry. The dull thud of gunshots can be heard from an adjoining firing range. Ask a salesman if he knows anything about LuckyGunner.
“I’m aware of them,” he says. He met one of the owners a couple of years ago. Jordan, maybe. But that’s it. “As far as figuring out where they are located, they don’t have that on their website. And I don’t know.”
The city and county government have no record of LuckyGunner or its affiliated names. The company doesn’t have a business license, officials say. The Knoxville Chamber has no record. LuckyGunner advertises job openings (a recent one: purchasing manager, up |
able. There’s the state government and hospitals, but major employers are more limited.”
The city itself is pushing for retail in upcoming projects, most notably the old West Publishing site, the vacant Macy’s building and the Seven Corners Gateway site.
WHO’S BEHIND ALL THIS?
Here’s a look at some of the biggest private stakeholders in the downtown area:
James Crockarell: A Tennessee transplant, his company, Madison Equities, is now the largest building owner in downtown St. Paul. And not just in flat acreage.
He’s bullish on residential development: “The biggest motor driving the prosperity of St. Paul is housing.”
George Sherman: He’s a longtime developer who’s been focusing on residential properties in downtown St. Paul for decades — though the capital city contains only a fraction of his properties.
He noticed early in his career a major difference between St. Paul and Minneapolis when it came to development: “St. Paul spends a lot more concentrated effort on design, fitting in their master plan.”
David Brooks: Brother to famed Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks and born on St. Paul’s East Side, he’s spent nearly a lifetime retrofitting St. Paul buildings. And he says St. Paul’s time has come.
“I love St. Paul. I’ve spent millions here. I can really feel the town, after all these 40-some years, developing.”
Ted Bigos: Chances are if you you live in downtown St. Paul, there’s a good chance you live in one of his buildings. The rental housing tycoon owns five apartment buildings boasting more than 1,300 units in the capital city’s urban center.
He says the light rail and Saints stadium have helped transform the area: “In all the years I’ve been in St. Paul, it’s never felt as good as it feels today.”
Still curious about downtown St. Paul? Of course you are.
We did a bunch of research to find out where the coolest/most expensive spots were downtown, including:
Most expensive condo (With an insane view)
The tallest building (Think you know it?)
The oldest building (Might surprise you)
Oldest bar (Probably won’t surprise you)
And the biggest, newest and most expensive properties
Dan Bauman, Sarah Horner and Tad Vezner contributed to this report.I play league since season 4 and took some breaks from about a month in this time. So i have already spend a ton of time playing this awesome game. Today i did the math about how much ip it is going to cost me to unlock all champs there are. Currently i need 66 more to have them all. It would cost me 283800 IP on the cheapest way to have them all (using shards for 6300 champs) On a tempo of 500 IP a day it would take me 568 extra days to get al champions (+- 2 seasons) We have to add an extra 18 runepage to this + any icon i may like to buy to this and we are pretty fast at (500 000 ip that i need extra to unlock everything) In the time of unlocking all of this new champions will come out and we have to add that to the bill too... This is insane.... For all champions alone a player need to play 4 seasons of league of legends I don't think this is quite good cuze every champion opens a different angle to play the game. After all these thing we get in the situation where the season 1 players are now they have a lot of ip but can't do anything with it. In my opinion the lvl 6 and lvl 7 champion mastery icon were great to get them something to do with the ip aswell. But more is needed for sure. Proposals: -I think ip shoud be easier to get or champs should be cheaper. A weekly Sunday party bonus would be pretty nice to do to get people IP faster. It would also make people play more with friends so there would be less toxicity. - Make a place where people can bet there IP on lcs matches. This would make more people follow the lcs scene. Make IP more viable for some people and make people with tons of ip also do something with it for fun. -Make a kind of honor button at the end of each game that rewards the player with 100 IP (player 1 ip -100 player 2 ip + 100) like this people with tons of ip can be nice to people who are nice ing that dont have enough IP. This type of honor would aslo remove toxicity at least with people that dont have enough ip because this type of honor would mean more then a stupid message. - You could release skin shards or icon shards for a price of 2500 IP like you did with the champion shards. -Give the tier 3 runes also a lower cost ( between 1 and 200 ip each) - Let people pay IP on the site to vote how many % of the time there favorite temporaly gamemode will be the temporaly gamemode that month. (You can do like 2 of the gamemodes of the month are voted for the others choosed by you guys) Like this people who have tons of IP can use their IP aswell. -Give players IP when they level up their champ, this doesnt have to be much but would make the level up system even nicer to do. -Give players a daily comeback bonus like many other games do. (e.g. first day 20 IP second day in a row you log on 40 IP third day 60 IP and on) This would encourage people to play more and would create a great extra IP income for people who play a lot. -Make it that you can rent skins for 7 days with IP e.g. you pay 6300 IP to be able to play with gravelord azir for 7 days. This would be very nice for the people that have unlocked everything and make it possible for people to test skins before buying them permanent. I think these things would have a great impact on the game and the IP system even if not all of them happen. sorry for my bad english and please vote this poste up so a riot employee sees this.7 Thanks for reading jere1223
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SaveTEHRAN (IQNA) – The Saudi-led restrictions on Yemen’s airspace and the closure of its main airport in Sana’a have led to the deaths of over 10,000 people in the impoverished Arab nation over the past year, a rights group said.
On Wednesday, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) along with 14 other aid organizations called on warring parties in Yemen to reopen Sana’a International Airport, warning that the year-long closure hinders the flow of humanitarian aid and prevents thousands of patients from flying abroad for life-saving treatment.
"Denial of access to travel has condemned thousands of Yemenis with survivable illnesses to death,” the NRC’s Director in Yemen Mutasim Hamdan said in a statement, Press TV reported.
"Without access to safe, commercial travel, Yemenis are left with no way to access critical medical care,” further said the statement. "The result is devastating. Thousands of women, men and children who could have been saved lost their lives.”
The Saudi-led coalition has imposed a no-fly zone over Yemen amid its deadly bombing campaign against the country, which began in March 2015.
Riyadh’s warplanes heavily bombarded the Sana’a airport in April that year, causing severe damage to the facility’s only runway and passenger terminal.
On August 9, 2016, the Saudis shut down the airport in an attempt to tighten the noose on their opponent, the Houthi Ansarullah movement, which is based in the capital. The move has left many Yemenis with no safe means of transport in or outside of the country.
Referring to UN figures, the NRC estimated that before the conflict, 7,000 Yemenis went abroad for medical treatment from Sana’a every year.
Over the past two years, the number of people in need of life-saving healthcare has increased to nearly 20,000 due to the ongoing conflict, the group noted.
Riyadh and its allies have been blocking aid delivery to Yemen. In July, the UN said the coalition prevented deliveries of jet fuel to UN planes carrying desperately needed humanitarian aid to Sana’a.
"Yemen’s public services are crumbling under the pressures of war,” said the NRC’s Hamdan.
"Hundreds of thousands more people are sick, injured or in need of services, but there are drastically reduced resources to meet them,” he said.
"It is critical that all channels of domestic and international air movement are reopened so Yemenis can get help, and help can get to Yemenis,” the activist added.
The Saudi-led war is aimed at reinstating the former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, and undermining the country’s Houthi Ansarullah movement.
The Houthi movement has been running state affairs since 2014, when Hadi resigned and fled to Riyadh before returning to Aden later. The movement has also been defending the country against the Saudi-led offensive on the country.
The protracted war, which has also been accompanied by a naval blockade, has already killed over 12,000 Yemenis.
The relentless bombardment of the impoverished country by Saudi Arabia’s warplanes has brought Yemen’s healthcare system on the verge of total collapse, destroying hospitals and health facilities, among other civilian targets.
According to the World Health Organization, Yemen is currently coping with the "world’s worst cholera outbreak,” which has claimed the lives of at least 1,800 people and infected more than 370,000 others.WASHINGTON, D.C. — Less than two minutes into the Warriors’ Tuesday night game in the nation’s capital, Zaza Pachulia was fouled on a rebound attempt and went tumbling backward. On the way down, Pachulia fell into Kevin Durant’s left knee. The result could have massive implications for the this Warriors season.
As Pachulia made hard contact, Durant immediately grabbed at that left knee, limping away in obvious pain. He did not return to the game. The team is calling it a hyperextended left knee. An MRI has been scheduled. The tenor of this NBA season hinge on the results of the scan. Here’s the play.
Here's the play that Pachulia fell back into Durant's left knee pic.twitter.com/1E7eOULNnc — Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) March 1, 2017
Durant initially tried to stay in the game, jogging gingerly back upcourt toward the Warriors bench and lasting one more offensive possession. But the pain, apparently, was too much. The team called timeout and Durant met with the team trainers before heading back into the locker room, limping and looking very frustrated.
Kevin Durant heading back to the locker room, holding left knee pic.twitter.com/l6zsUxY5Ky — Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) March 1, 2017
Durant has never had knee issues in the NBA before. He missed 55 games a couple seasons back after three surgeries to repair a foot fracture. He missed seven games last season after tweaking his left hamstring, coincidentally, during the first half of a game in Washington, D.C.
Reading this on your phone or tablet? Stay up to date on Bay Area sports news with our new, free mobile app. Get it from the Apple app store or the Google Play store.Today's ImageMagick lesson covers how to resize images, change case on file extensions, convert file formats, construct a proof sheet of thumbnails, and search and sort photos by their Exif data.
The ImageMagick suite of image processing and manipulating commands has been around forever, and lurks in all kinds of places: it is the image-processing backend in Drupal, Lyx, OpenShot, and many more. ImageMagick is über-powerful, and because it is a command-line program you can build clever scripts with it and automate routine tasks. You can flip, mirror, resize, distort, shear, and rotate images; do special effects, edit colors, and draw lines and shapes; create thumbnails, galleries, and proof sheets. It supports a skillion image formats and has APIs for a horde of programming languages, such as MagickCore (C), MagickWand (C), Magick++ (C++), JMagick (Java), RMagick (Ruby), TclMagick (Tcl/TK), and several more.
The most worthy use of ImageMagick I have ever seen is to manipulate images for the Upside-down-Ternet, which is a slick script that uses iptables and ImageMagick to have fun with freeloaders who poach your wi-fi. It re-directs pages to Kittenwar! and mangles images on other pages.
man imagemagick lists all the commands. There is no imagemagick command. The display command opens a graphical editing interface (fig. 1).
The original image was too large, so I resized it with convert :
$ convert fig-1.png -resize 550x fig-1-s.png
The resize value is the width in pixels. Width always comes first, and you can make sure by putting an x after the value, with no space. When you specify only the width then your new image will be exactly that width, and the height will automatically be in proportion. When you want to specify the height, give the height value prefixed with an x, like this:
$ convert fig-1.png -resize x250 fig-1-s.png
One thing you have to watch with the various ImageMagick commands is overwriting your original images. With convert you preserve your original and create the new file by giving it a different name.
Stop Shouting
Windows and a lot of cameras are like old people on Facebook: they shout at you in uppercase. My Canon camera writes filenames in uppercase, so they look like WP7_4117.CR2. You can easily make all file extensions lowercase with this Bash one-liner:
$ for file in *.CR2; do mv $file ${file%%.CR2}.cr2; done
Convert Formats
The convert command converts image file formats. You can modify the upper-to-lowercase incantation to batch-convert formats, like this example that converts.png to.jpg:
$ for file in *.png; do convert $file ${file%%.png}.jpg; done
This preserves your originals and creates new images in the new format with the same filename, like this:
$ ls bittersweet.jpg bittersweet.png juniper-berries.jpg juniper-berries.png
The default quality level for.jpg files converted from other formats is 92. You can control it with the -quality option with values from 1 to 100, with 1 being maximum compression and crappiest quality, to 100 which is best quality and least compression. This example uses 75, which is a decent level for Web images:
$ for file in *.png; do convert -quality 75 $file ${file%%.png}.jpg; done
Proof Sheet
Now that you have a nice batch of images to admire, make a proof sheet so you can admire them all in a single.jpg:
$ montage -label '%f'-geometry 350x+7+7 '*.jpg' proof-sheet.jpg
This results in something like figure 2, with each image 350 pixels wide, borders of 7 pixels, and the filenames of each image. If you like a nice frame instead of a plain border, -frame [value in pixels] creates a border around each image, and -mattecolor [color] lets you select the border color if you don't like the default meh gray. Color Names tells you the color codes.
As with all ImageMagick commands there are a squillion options. Use -pointsize 12 to set a font size of 12 points, or other sizes as you desire, and these options let you fine-tune the labels:
%b -- file size on bytes
%m -- file format
%G -- image dimension in pixels
%Q -- image compression level.
There are way more, and you can find them all at ImageMagick Escapes.
Extracting Exif
The identify command reads the Exif data of photographs. You can easily view a basic set of information:
$ identify kitten.jpg kitten.jpg JPEG 3648x2736 3648x2736+0+0 8-bit DirectClass 4.402MB 0.000u 0:00.000
Want to see everything there is to know about your photos? Try this:
$ identify -verbose kitten.jpg
That is a deluge of data, so you can fine-tune it to look for specific information, like which photos with the.cr2 extension in the current directory were taken with a flash:
$ for file in *.cr2; do identify -format '%[exif:flash] [%f]' $file; done 16 [WP7_4272.cr2] 16 [WP7_4273.cr2] 9 [WP7_4274.cr2] 9 [WP7_4275.cr2]
So...9 and 16. Okay. What do those mean? The Exif flash tags are combinations of the following values:
0: FlashDidNotFire 1: FlashFired 2: StrobeReturnLightDetected 4: StrobeReturnLightNotDetected 8: CompulsoryFlashMode 16: AutoMode 32: NoFlashFunction 64: RedEyeReductionMode
So 16 means the camera was in auto flash mode, but the flash did not fire. 9 means compulsory flash mode, and it did fire (8 + 1). So you can add an egrep incantation to find only the images where a flash was fired:
$ for file in *.cr2; do identify -format '%[exif:flash] [%f]' $file | egrep ^'1 |9 |17 |65'; done
Note the spaces after each number in the egrep search pattern. That limits your search to those exact numbers, and filters out larger numbers like 11 and 9897 and such.
You can dig up any Exif tag you want with identify, and ImageMagick Escapes describes dozens of escapes to use. But it's not a complete list, so the quickest way to see what tags you can search on is to run identify -verbose [filename], and then look at the output. It's going to be different for different image file formats, and it's going to differ according to whether the images have been edited, and the software used. Here is an abbreviated example:
$ identify -verbose WP7_4275.cr2 date:create: 2014-01-29T16:35:34-08:00 date:modify: 2014-01-29T16:35:34-08:00 dng:Aperture: F5 dng:FocalLength: 28.0 mm dng:ISOSpeed: 640 dng:Lens: Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS dng:Model: EOS 7D exif:DateTime: 2013:12:25 15:59:28 exif:Flash: 9
So you could extract some of these this way:
$ identify -format '%[exif:datetime] %[dng:aperture] %[dng:lens] %[dng:model]' WP7_4275.cr2 2013:12:25 15:59:28 F5 Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS EOS 7D
This gives you a powerful way to find photos with particular traits, such as lens, camera, flash or no flash, date, focal length, size, bit depth...if it's in Exif you can find and sort it.
One more fun Exif tip: if you're going to post photos online, you might want to strip the Exif data so you don't give away too much information. You can do this with the mogrify command:
$ mogrify -strip kitten.jog
Or strip a whole directory of photos:
$ mogrify -strip /imagesforweb/*
Weird and true Exif fact: Even though it is a widely-used standard, it is not maintained by anyone. The current version, 2.3, was released in 2010 by Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) and Camera and Imaging Products Association (CIPA). Since then it has been orphaned.MIKA BRZEZINSKI (CO-HOST): We also have -- some men who are willing to face the music, who are willing to face the facts, who are willing to admit to their actions 10, 20 years ago, even five years ago. Mark Halperin is more than willing to meet with his accusers and apologize with them face-to-face. I've actually tried to offer him to them. They don't want to talk to him. They don't want to talk to him. There are some -- there are some hypocrisies here. When things happen and men actually want to validate that truth, that's important that we actually allow that, if we want to grow as a society and learn from each other. If we just want to strike people down for political motivation or for anger, we're not going to get anywhere. And I know I said something incredibly -- what's the word -- explosive.
JOE SCARBOROUGH (CO-HOST): Truthful? Truthful.
BRZEZINSKI: But I have been pouring through these case, they're all different. They all involve people, they all involve people who have had terrible experiences in some cases, and some of them involve men who have sought counseling and who want to apologize, who may not ever come back to their careers in full form. But the question is, should they be allowed to apologize? Should they show that they know that things have changed, that perhaps maybe they want to actually come forward and talk about this? I'm not sure what we're doing here, I really don't know. And what happened with Al Franken doesn't feel right. It feels political.Image caption Hoverflies are harmless but have evolved to look like wasps to avoid being eaten by birds
It is a clever trick if you can pull it off - mimic another, more dangerous animal and so avoid being eaten.
Many insects try it, but it has been a long standing puzzle why some of the worst mimics in Nature can still seem to escape becoming a meal.
Now, Canadian scientists tell Nature journal they can answer that one.
Larger animals, they say, make for more substantial meals, and so their mimicry needs to be spot on. For small prey, a great performance is not so essential.
"Mimicry of harmless species pretending to be dangerous ones in order to avoid being eaten is one of the best celebrated examples of the outcome of evolution by natural selection," says Professor Tom Sherratt, of Carleton University in Ottawa, who led the research.
"Good examples of mimicry are highlighted in biology text books, but many mimics are poor and their emergence remains something of a puzzle."
Mimicry is common among plants and animals.
Species of snakes, spiders and butterflies have all evolved to look like other species to ward off predators. But one of the great mysteries in biology is that most of this copy-cat behaviour is not very good, and bad impersonators seem just as abundant as the good ones.
A simplistic interpretation of Darwin's theory of natural selection would suggest that it would be better for all mimics to closely resemble the species they are trying to impersonate.
One explanation for why some might not achieve this is the "eye of the beholder" theory.
Darwinian discord Listen to the sound of a wasp, followed by a hoverfly trying to sound like a wasp. Darwinian selection would suggest that over time, hoverflies that sounded most like wasps would be preferentially selected until a species emerged that sounded very nearly, if not exactly, like the creature it was trying to impersonate. In contrast, lineages that were poor mimics would all be eaten and die out. The new Canadian research suggests why this hasn't happened.
This states that although the mimicking species aren't convincing to humans, they do fool their predators whose senses are quite different to ours.
Darwinian selection would suggest that over time the hoverflies that sounded most like wasps would be preferentially selected until a species emerged that sounded very nearly, if not exactly, like the creature it was trying to impersonate.
In contrast, the species that were poor mimics would all be eaten and die out.
The new Canadian research suggests why this hasn't happened.
Another theory is that poor mimics are an amalgamation of unappetising species and so, although they don't resemble any one of them to a predator, they do represent the worst possible combination.
To probe the conundrum further, researchers at Carleton University studied 81 different species of hoverfly, which to varying degrees mimic bees and wasps.
Hoverflies are harmless flies and yet many have evolved a resemblance to wasps and bees to avoid being eaten by birds.
Some species of hoverfly look very close to the bees and wasps they are supposed to resemble, and other species only bear a passing resemblance.
The team began by quantifying how close each species was to the bee or wasp it was trying to impersonate.
They did this by showing photographs to people and asking them to give each species a score out of 10.
Image caption A moth that looks like a wasp. Mimicry has evolved in many animal and plant species
The team then combined these results with an objective score obtained by comparing measurements of the body parts of each species and their bee or wasp counterpart to obtain an overall score for similarity.
The scientists found that the larger the hoverfly species, the closer it resembled the emulated wasp or bee. They also found that the smaller species were not very good mimics at all.
"If you are a small hoverfly then birds are not going to be very interested in you," Prof Sherratt explained.
"You are a relatively unprofitable meal and so the selection on mimicry is relatively weak.
"All you need to do is vaguely look like a wasp, and a bird will be sufficiently deterred to leave you alone because it's just not worth taking the risk if it turned you were a wasp because the benefit is that much smaller.
"But if you are a nice fat juicy hoverfly, you are a substantial meal to a bird, and in those cases you might experience even stronger selection to resemble something like a wasp or bee and therefore gain protection from predators."
Follow Pallabon TwitterWelcome to the 4th #IDARBeSports tournament, this tournament will be DE bo1, so bring your "A" game right off the bat! The tournament will be seeded based on past performances, but if you haven't played don't worry! Plenty of newcomers come out and compete in every tournament. No hashbombs or fizzics, and make sure to check in an hour before the start time. THE SEED CLOSEST TO 0 MUST HOST IN THE WINNERS BRACKET, AND IN THE LOSERS BRACKET THE HIGHER/WORSE SEED HOSTS. in a bo3, the seed that is supposed to host will host games 1 and 3, and the person who wouldnt normally host if it was a bo1 hosts game 2. For the Grand finals which are bo3, the person in the winners bracket hosts games 1 and 3, and the person in the LB hosts game 2. If they LB wins the first game, the roles reverse with the person in the LB hosting 1 and 3. Any questions please don't hesitate to ask me on Twitter at IDARBeSportsHello reader!
It is time for another blogpost! This time it is about a bug I found and I believe it could be quite useful for you someday. It is worth mentioning it affects all versions of IE (tested on win 7, win 8.1 and win 10). It does not affect Edge.
Ok what is the bug about?
When server sends back response there are several headers included. One of them is content type. This header tells browser what media type is being returned. MDN has detailed description with examples. The thing which happens quite often when we do pentesting is that we encounter some pages which lack input validation and output encoding. This means we found XSS right? Well not really.. Because Content-Type returned says “text/plan”. This is where the fun ends, because according to these RFC, RFC and this draft, as soon as Content-Type is returned with value text/plain then agent (browser in this case) should jump into binary processing mode. There is no fun in binary mode because it is not scriptable. Let’s illustrate it with an example. Let’s have this file called plain.php:
<?php
header("Content-Type: text/plain");
echo "Hello: ".$_GET["name"];
?>
As you can see it is super easy example which just takes one parameter. It could be used as playground for xss vulnerabilities, right? Not really! There is first line which says server should return Content-Type header with value “text/plain”. Lets check whether we can inject some harmless HTML.
As expected, we can inject whatever we want, but browser will not render/execute it. Reason is obvious, response is of a type text/plain.
The bug
I found out if you open.eml file IE will perform mime sniffing and if HTML/JS is recognized in the response it will be rendered/executed. First of all what is EML? It is “Microsoft Outlook Express mail message”. This format allows email messages to be saved into file (for example for purpose of archivation). I will not dig deep into this format, if you wanna know more, just check this RFC. This is example of.eml file which you can use for testing:
root@kali:/var/www/html# cat testeml_1.eml
TESTEML
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
=3Chtml=3Ethis=20is=20test=3C=2Fhtml=3E
You can save content of this file on your web server and access it with IE (please mind two new lines at the end of the file!). You will see it is rendered properly. BTW pay attention to “Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable” – to make it short it is similar to URL encoding except it uses equal sign instead of percentage.
Does not work for you? Haha that is because wrong Content-Type 😉 Correct Content-Type for.eml is “message/rfc822”. You can use following.htaccess file:
root@kali:/var/www/html# cat.htaccess
AddType message/rfc822.eml
Screenshot below shows testeml_1.eml returned with correct Content-Type.
Finally give us the bug!
Ok, Ok, from here it is pretty easy to achieve execution of text/plain responses. Let’s use files from previous examples. The file we are attacking is still plain.php. For attacking purpose we will modify testeml_1.eml. The payload:
<iframe src=’plain.php?name=<HTML><h1>it works</h1>’></iframe>
Which looks like this after encoding:
=3Ciframe=20src=3D=27plain.php=3Fname=3D=3CHTML=3E=3Ch1=3Eit=20works=3C=2Fh1=3E=27=3E=3C=2Fiframe=3E
This is how the final file looks like:
root@kali:/var/www/html# cat testeml_1.eml
TESTEML
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
=3Ciframe=20src=3D=27plain.php=3Fname=3D=3CHTML=3E=3Ch1=3Eit=20works=3C=2Fh1=3E=27=3E=3C=2Fiframe=3E
And this is the result of accessing it in IE:
You see? Exploitation is sucessful! Although we are framing file with content-type “text/plain” we force IE to perform mime sniffing (that is why <HTML> should be presented in the request/response) and render our payload.
Defense?
Best defense is to prevent framing, if you edit the sample file and add header(‘X-Frame-Options: DENY’); exploit will fail.
I would like to warn about following: setting header(‘X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff’); will NOT prevent this attack (good move IE, why would you follow RFC, right?). This cannot be reproduced anymore.
Conclusion
I believe conclusion is very important in this case – follow defense in depth principle! Yes it does not only apply to infrastructure but also web applications. What defense in depth means? It basically says you should not rely only on one layer of protection but rather apply as many layers as possible. For example when you are securing your windows server you don’t just install AV and call it a day. You make sure all patches are applied, proper rules are applied through local policies (or domain), default accounts and disabled, etc.
You should take the same approach when securing your web application. Do not only rely on one layer of protection (in this case broken promise that text/plain is not executable) but rather also implement proper input validation and output encoding. Following this approach will minimalize the chance that your whole application will be exposed to major risk in case one layer of protection breaks.
Thank you for reading this post!
JanDeathwing the Destroyer,[1] formerly known as Neltharion the Earth-Warder, was one of the five Dragon Aspects and leader of the black dragonflight. Thousands of years ago, Neltharion was empowered by the Titans with dominion over the earth and the deep places of Azeroth. However, driven mad by the Old Gods, he turned against the other Aspects during the War of the Ancients. Among both mortals and dragons his name became one whispered with a feeling of fear and contempt.
My blessing upon you will seem humble compared to those which have been bestowed upon the others: the managing of time, of life, of dreams and magic. I offer you the earth. The soil, the ground, the deep places. But know that the earth is the basis of all things. It is where we are rooted. Where you must come from, if you are to go to. Here is whence true strength comes. From deep places...within the world, and within oneself. - Blessing of the Black Aspect, given by Khaz'goroth
Neltharion was originally the mighty black wyrm chosen by the titanKhaz'goroth to be one of the five Dragon Aspects, with domain over the earth and the deep places of the world. He was chosen as the caretaker of the continents of Azeroth, and he used his power to forge mountains and rivers for the benefit of mortal races.[3] In peaceful times, Neltharion was renowned for his wisdom and power, and he became known as Neltharion the Earth-Warder, a great protector of the land. Malygos the Spell-Weaver, the Aspect of magic, was his closest friend.
Then came the madness that destroyed Neltharion's mind, changing him and his kind forever and leading to the creation of the powerful item known as the Dragon Soul, later the Demon Soul. The inner-voices of the Old Gods convinced him that he could have power beyond his imagination if he served them. The voices made him paranoid of even his own black dragonflight. Neltharion began to yearn for a world dominated by his black dragonflight — a world in which the other dragonflights ceased to exist and Ysera and Alexstrasza would be his petty slaves for mating.
The Old Gods convinced Neltharion to create the Dragon Soul. With the help of goblins, Neltharion created a simple golden disc made of his blood and forged in the goblins' cauldrons and anvils deep beneath the earth. Empowered by Neltharion's magic, the simple disc was magically shielded so that the other Dragon Aspectscould not see within it. There was an evil within the disc, some taint of the Old Gods, though what exactly it is not known.MONTREAL — The NDP’s Karl Bélanger has, in his own words, “done basically everything that possibly can be done in this party.” In his 19-year political career, Bélanger — one of the Hill’s best-known and most-respected figures — worked as Tom Mulcair’s principal secretary and the party’s executive director, among other things. He was one of the cogs in the party machinery that helped the NDP break into Quebec and brought it to within striking distance in the last two elections. Bélanger spoke to the Post’s Marie-Danielle Smith about how the party has evolved, and — amid faltering fundraising and polling numbers and a leadership race with no declared candidates — what lies ahead for the NDP.
How has the NDP changed over the course of your career?
There’s been a fundamental shift in the way Canadians perceive the NDP that certainly wasn’t there when I joined the party in the ‘90s. Canadians now see the NDP as a viable, reliable political vehicle to form government. It is a possibility in their mind.
Before 2011, the party was always seen as, you know, more of a party of principle, yes, but also a party that did not really aspire to power. And we worked really hard, especially in the Layton years, to change that and to establish a relationship with Canadians that would make them see us and think about us as a party but also as a potential government.
That’s a major shift, because once you’ve achieved that, Canadians will be able to reopen that door when the opportunity comes. Because that step has been taken.
How does the current situation compare to the party’s ups and downs from the past?
Never before, except in 2011, did we have this number of MPs. So in that sense I’m quite optimistic about the future of the party because we have something very solid.
Mulcair had some kind words for @KarlBelanger. that he has class, that he’s brilliant. #cdnpoli —
Marie-Danielle Smith (@mariedanielles) September 15, 2016
We broke through in Quebec and retained a significant amount of seats there in 2015, against all odds. People, they never believed we could break through in Quebec. But we did. We are now part of the landscape as a party that can speak on behalf of Quebecers. And that’s true in other parts of the country as well.
Fundraising is a cycle. It comes and goes |
idea - a kit containing clothes, nappies, bath products and other supplies - would be a practical solution to the problem of Indigenous women not accessing antenatal clinics in the early stages of their pregnancy.
The baby bonus... provides a perverse incentive that isn't actually producing the outcomes that could be there. Professor Sven Silburn, director of the Menzies Centre for Child Development and Education
"I think it's a terrific idea and particularly if it could replace the baby bonus, which at the moment provides a perverse incentive that isn't actually producing the outcomes that could be there and could be offered by what the baby box project offers," Professor Silburn said.
Similar boxes are offered to women by Aboriginal health services in Cape York and Alice Springs, and for a long time have been available in Scandinavia.
In Finland, the baby boxes have been offered to women since the 1930s, when they were introduced to combat high rates of infant mortality.
Mr Forrest's Creating Parity report - commissioned by the Abbott Government and released a week ago - recommended the boxes be offered as an incentive to encourage women on income support to access antenatal services.
"A local community nurse or health organisation can then monitor and support the pregnancy," the report suggested.
Professor Silburn said he was in favour of the introduction of the boxes.
"It's the kind of practical intervention that makes good sense and it actually delivers what Indigenous young women particularly need," he said.
The Forrest review used the Finnish program as a case study and said mothers would be offered a choice of a payment or the box - with the majority choosing the box.
Professor Silburn said the incentive could go a step further and replace the Federal Government's baby bonus payment, which became subject to a means test in March, restricting payments to only those mothers whose household income is under $75,000 dollars a year.
He said the baby bonus did not always go towards expectant mothers and their babies.
"The Northern Territory has a network of Aboriginal medical services. It's the kind of practical intervention that makes good sense and it actually delivers what Indigenous young women need," he said.
The Apunipima Cape York Health Council had been distributing similar so-called baby baskets, which included food vouchers to mothers since 2009.
The baskets were being delivered in the first trimester, immediately prior to and after birth.
An evaluation of the program by the Lowitja Institute this year said it was likely the program had contributed to improvements to attendance at antenatal and postnatal clinics.
The Forrest review also provided recommendations on Indigenous training and employment, but went much further to include early childhood and welfare.
Professor Silburn also said negative reaction to ideas like the so-called healthy welfare card had overshadowed promising health initiatives.
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion would not be drawn on whether the baby box would be a better alternative than the baby bonus.
But he said the Government was looking at all aspects of Mr Forrest's report, except for how many people he suggested be put on the healthy welfare card.
"The only thing in the Forrest report that I think we've been a bit nervous about was the figure 2.6 million," he said.
"It's a fantastic report. It sets out a very tough but reasonable framework for the future.
"There's a lot to take into consideration but I don't think there's any element we're not taking into consideration."
Topics: infant-health, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, nt, qld, finland
First postedMark Levin calls it: Mueller is being used to impeach Trump
Thursday, Conservative Review Editor-in-Chief Mark Levin was back on the radio. In hour two of his program, Levin gave some thoughts on the revelation that special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating President Trump and claims that the president obstructed justice.
“There’s absolutely no reason to have a special counsel, but it’s something the Democrats want and something the Republicans capitulated to,” Levin said. “So now we have this roving prosecutor whose subject of investigation is whatever subject he decides to investigate.”
“Is that what constitutional government is about, ladies and gentlemen?” Levin asked.
Listen:
“We now have a federal prosecutor, independent of every branch of the federal government, who has as his objective to take down the president of the United States,” Levin declared.
“Mr. Mueller may be investigating individuals and so forth, but his purpose for being unleashed against the president of the United States is to make the case for impeachment, not indictment,” Levin said. “This is very, very important to understand.”
Don’t miss an episode of LevinTV. Sign up now!An increasing number of people are having children later in life, but how does it feel to grow up with an older mum or dad? Six sons and daughters reflect on having a parent who looks more like a grandparent
For many years, my parents didn’t want kids: they were having too much fun. They came round to the idea, but after a few years of trying were referred to a fertility consultant. My mum hadn’t yet booked an appointment when she realised her period was late. She went to see my dad in his pharmacy after closing time, and took a pregnancy test from the shelves. A few minutes later she was holding her breath, watching him climb on to a chair, as he held the test up to the light to make sure. Then he made her take another one. It was positive – and the GP’s letter was still in her bag. My mum, 39 when I was born, was classed as an “elderly primigravida” and he, at 51, was delighted to call himself an “elderly primigravidad”. Last October, we celebrated his 80th birthday.
My dad is an old dad. He was born 26 years before my partner’s dad, the same year as his grandmother. That’s pretty old – though nothing on Donald Trelford, the former Observer editor, who recently wrote about becoming a father again in May last year. He was 76 and a half when his daughter Poppy was born, and is proudly laying claim to the (unverified) title of “Britain’s oldest new father”.
Men having children at 75 and over is still rare – there were 15 cases in 2013, according to the Office for National Statistics – but older fathers are becoming less unusual. In 2002, 3.4% of babies in England and Wales were born to fathers aged 45 or over; a decade later, it was 4.8%. In 2013, there were 9,374 babies who, like me, were born to dads over 50. And, judging by population trends, there will be plenty more where we came from.
I wonder what life will be like for these children. When I was growing up, I never really noticed that my dad was older than everybody else’s, or that my parents’ friends all had kids who were at least 15 years my senior. I didn’t know it was unusual for dads to spend so much time at home with their children; it was my normal. He wasn’t an older father, he was just my Pops. When I was a little girl, he amazed me and my friends by wiggling his ears. On holidays, he taught me an old Hungarian Jewish card game he had learned as a boy. At weddings, I would drag him on to the dance floor and refuse to let go as we danced, song after song, my feet planted firmly on top of his freshly-polished shoes.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Moya Sarner and her father on holiday in France in 1995, when she was nine.
These days, I speak to him nearly every day. He’ll describe a lampshade he’s got his eye on in the local charity shop, or remind me of the time he saved my life when I was a baby, by taking a semi-deflated balloon out of my mouth, or come up with names for the salt beef bar he’d set up if he had his time again. He does make very good salt beef.
But in the spaces between these memories and calls and salt beef sandwiches, I have always been haunted by the shadow of his death. His age brought health problems that began when I was seven, when he had a heart attack on New Year’s Day. I don’t remember much about what happened, except for the excitement of eating dinner in Pizza Express on a school night, after visiting him in hospital. I do remember, a few years later, waking up in a hotel room in France in the middle of the night to see a group of men standing around my parents’ bed. My mum rushed over and told me to put on my slippers, and held my hand as we ran through the lobby in our nighties and out into an ambulance. My dad, lying on a stretcher, recited the names of all the tablets he was taking, my mum studiously noting them down. It was a false alarm, but every couple of years he has another scare and I rush to join him and Mum in hospital, preparing to say “I love you” for the last time, again. The anxious feeling fades, but it never really goes away.
I was 12 when he had an extreme reaction to medication he took for his heart condition. Overnight, he lost 80% of his sight, and it never came back. He says he sees the world as if it’s an impressionist painting, which I suspect is less pleasant than that sounds. His heart, his blindness and each new birthday have shaped our family dynamic. As a teenager, I was not just his daughter but his eyes, too, and I grew fiercely protective of him. When we fought, I wouldn’t argue back, I’d just cry. I never rebelled, I just worked as hard as I could and worried about how much cheese he was eating. The boundaries became blurred; I was never his carer, but I did become more caring.
When school friends called him my grandad, I lied and took 10 years off his age. I feel ashamed about it now
We see each other about once a week, most often for a walk. We used to walk around the block seven times, which would take one hour and six minutes – we’d time ourselves. It was good exercise, and a chance to put the world to rights. It’s true that age brings wisdom; his advice is always canny. Not that I’m any more likely to follow it, of course. Sometimes, the cold air makes his chest hurt, so we cut our walks short, but the wisdom still comes strong and true. People often ask whether my father played sports with me as a child, but a long walk is as physically demanding as it gets for us. It wasn’t something I ever missed as a kid. Striding out arm in arm or hands loosely swinging by our sides, choreographing the perfect about-turn at the bottom of the hill, we felt the closeness others get from the rough and tumble of a football match.
Colin Perry, 35, from Edinburgh, did play football with his father, Walter, who was 57 when he was born, and who died in 2003. But only once. There was a 25-year age gap between his parents, and as well as an older brother and younger sister, Colin has three half-brothers from his father’s first marriage. “My dad did a lot of good-time living when he was young,” he says. “He was known for his poker exploits, fond of a gin or two, a heavy smoker.” But by the time Colin came along, his dad was winding down: “He would sometimes phase out of conversations, but he was still switched on when he wanted to be. He was always the smartest guy in the room.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Colin Perry’s father was 57 when he was born.
By the time Colin was a teenager, his father was very frail. He had muscle wastage in one leg, which meant he couldn’t get around the golf course any more. Colin says, “As I grew up, he had to walk slower and slower. I’d slow down, too – I didn’t want him to feel bad – but we reached a point where, if I slowed down any more, I would have been standing still. And there was no disguising that. Once, he said to me, ‘Do you think I’m decrepit?’”
It’s not that Colin felt he was missing out, but he was aware that other dads were more physically active. One weekend when Colin was 12, playing football by himself in the garden, his dad decided to join in. “I saw him shuffling up the path to the house, then he stopped in his tracks and turned to me with a curious look on his face. He took a few tentative steps towards me, and for the first and only time in my life took a few shots at me in goal, before shuffling wordlessly back inside. There was a lot going on in those few minutes.”
Livia Kent with her dad, Charles.
Perhaps as children of older fathers, we learn to be receptive to emotions expressed in different ways. Like Livia Kent, 37, whose father, Charles, was 62 when she was born, in Washington DC. “My dad wasn’t physical like my friends’ dads, who were all big bear hugs and basketball games,” she says, “but his affection came through in the stacks of articles he’d leave by my breakfast plate – cuttings he’d clip from the newspaper about things he thought I should find interesting.”
Her dad was born in 1915, in Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic, and lived in Paris and London before moving to the US. “He had an old-school European sensibility about him,” Livia says. “He was never concerned with American notions of modesty and wore Speedos at our local pool without a second thought. Since he was retired, he spent a portion of each day walking around the neighbourhood, book in hand, with nothing on save a pair of short shorts and a beret. ‘I saw your dad walking around,’ friends would often report. ‘Yep,’ I’d respond. What else could I say? I found it terribly embarrassing as a child, but it’s something I remember with great fondness now.”
That sense of embarrassment is shared by many of the people I spoke to about their older fathers, including Caroline Welling, whose dad, Peter, was 60 when she was born. As well as a sister who is a year older, she has three half-siblings from her dad’s first marriage, who are closer to the age of her friends’ parents. “I never thought of my dad as being older until primary school friends started calling him my grandad,” she says. “I felt embarrassed, so I lied and took 10 years off his age. I did that until I was 13, when I realised it really didn’t matter. I feel ashamed about it now.”
Caroline Welling, above and below, with her dad, Peter, who was 60 when she was born.
Caroline’s feelings changed when her class was doing a project on the second world war and her father came to talk about his time as an evacuee. He explained how, at eight, he was evacuated to Cornwall, then, when he was mistreated, brought back to London in the middle of the war. “He told us what it was like running into air raid shelters, and how his school was bombed and his two best friends blown to bits. I realised then how amazing my dad is and felt incredibly proud of what he’s gone through and accomplished in his life.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Photograph: Suki Dhanda
My father was also evacuated during the war. As a child, he would play with the service medal his father was given after the first world war, aged 24. My father and Caroline’s were raised not in the 60s, like our friends’ parents, but in the 30s – and a gap of two generations creates a real cultural gulf. I was told children should be seen and not heard, which seems Victorian to me now – though when Dad was born, George V was on the throne.
For Hemal Rajani, from Bolton, the gulf was far more complex. Hemal was born 22 years after his older brother, when his dad, Ratilal, was 45. His childhood was shaped by loss; his mother died from a brain tumour when he was seven, his brother from a heart attack two years later. Father and son grieved separately. “He never spoke to me about them, never showed his feelings,” says Hemal. “On birthdays, he’d give me a card and say happy birthday, and that was it – he never liked a fuss. He had a very traditional, old-fashioned view of parenting. He saw his role as a provider.”
My parents' relationship was strong, because they had been together longer. I won't rush into settling down
Hemal’s father worked night shifts in a cotton factory in Bolton, the first and only job he had after coming here from India, via Kenya, in the early 70s. Hemal spent a lot of time with his extended family and is still close to many of them. Now married with two boys of his own, aged five and seven, Hemal is a very different father: he never went to a single football match with his dad, even though they are both Manchester United fans; Hemal has already taken his boys to see their team play. He is hands-on, involved in every aspect of his sons’ upbringing. And they have brought out a different side to their grandfather: “He cuddles and kisses them all the time – he was never like this with me. Often he says, ‘I saw my grandchildren today, you’ve made me happy.’ It is quite something to see these emotions in him.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hemal Rajani, 38, with his father, Ratilal, who was 45 when he was born. Photograph: Suki Dhanda
Hemal will be passing on to his sons some important lessons he learned from his father. “My dad taught me I had to be independent and fend for myself. He made me hard-working, confident, driven.” Hemal had a part-time job throughout his education and that helped in his career, as well as his approach to life: “I’ve learned that nobody else can give me the things I want – I’ve got to do that. Two or three times a day, I look at where I am, where I’ve come from, the family I love, and I know it’s thanks to my dad. He made me the man I am.”
***
None of us can claim to speak for all children of older fathers, and I would not want to suggest that older fathers are better than younger fathers; but there has long been an assumption that the reverse is true. The first result that pops up on Google when you search for “older fathers” is an article dispiritingly titled Children Born To Older Fathers Are More Likely To Be Ugly. But it gets more serious than that. Before Caroline Welling was born, her parents struggled to conceive and decided to adopt. Her father was 60, and the only country that would allow them to adopt was Peru. As soon as the adoption went through and baby Luisa moved in, her mother became pregnant naturally with Caroline.
Although there is no upper age limit for adoption in the UK, guidance says that agencies will not usually consider an age gap of more than 45 years between child and adoptive parent. Of course, all children need stability – and this goes for adopted children perhaps more than for others – but for all the fuss about older parents, age is just one risk factor when it comes to life and death. No parent can honestly promise to be there for his or her child, regardless of when they conceive. I watch my cousins and friends who have lost fathers younger than mine, and I feel guilty, and grateful, that he is still here. I think my dad does, too. But they also show me that the relationship between father and child cannot be measured in years spent together. That’s not how love works.
When I was a child, he never showed his feelings. Now he kisses and cuddles his grandsons all the time Hemal Rajani
Headlines tend to focus on older mothers rather than on older fathers, because while the average age continues to rise, they are more unusual: 0.3% of babies born in England and Wales in 2013 had mothers 45 and over, whereas 4.8% had fathers of the same age.
Ben Elphick is 15. His mum was 47 when he was born, his dad 51; he is an only child. His mother, Lucie, suffered five miscarriages before having him. Ben says, “When I started at primary school and I saw my friends being picked up by their mums at the school gates, I noticed they did look a bit younger than mine.” His mum once got mistaken for his grandmother on a school trip – she laughed it off, and it didn’t bother Ben. “I don’t think her age affects her,” he says. “I can talk to her about my life, and that’s the biggest factor that influences a child growing up, I think.” The experience hasn’t put him off older parenthood. “I’ve got a sense that my mum lived a full life before she had me – she doesn’t want to go on holidays without me or do stuff just with my dad, because they’ve done that already.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lucie Elphick and her son, Ben. She was 47 when he was born.
While Ben’s friends say they want to start a family when they are in their 20s, he’d rather wait: “I’ve seen how important it is to get out and do stuff before you settle down. I want to go travelling and have adventures and different jobs before starting a family. My parents were more financially stable, and their relationship was stronger because they had been together longer before they had me – I think it’s been a good thing.”
I, too, would like to follow in my parents’ footsteps and make the most of my time with few responsibilities. But my father once told me he regretted having me so late in life, because he will know me for a shorter time. And I’m very aware that, should I wait as long as my parents did, my dad would never meet his grandchild. That makes me very sad, and there is no answer to it. I sometimes feel compelled to speed life up, to do it all right now, just to make sure my dad is there to see it happen. I resist – I don’t want to rush things – but ever since my dad’s heart attack, I have felt that we are living on borrowed, or bonus, time, our happiness balancing on the edge of a cliff, out of our control. When my mobile rang at work last week and I saw it was my mother calling, I panicked. She would never do that unless it was an emergency. I held my breath as I picked up the phone – but she had just called me by mistake.
I know these thoughts are circling around my father’s mind, too. He often talks about what I should do with their house when he and Mum are gone – “Never sell it, it’s a good investment” – and last year I went round to find a workman in their bathroom. He was taking out the shower door, which you would push in to enter, and putting it back the other way round, so it opened outwards. Dad told me, “Every morning I get in that shower and I think, if I collapse, I’ll fall and block the door, and no one will be able to get me out. It will be easier this way.” It was such a morbid explanation that I had to laugh, but the fact that he thought this every morning made my heart hurt. I hope that, when his health does deteriorate, I’ll be as gracious and caring as Livia was for her father. “It was a blessing and honour to take care of him in his last years,” she told me. He died aged 97.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ben Elphick, 15: ‘Mum had a full life before she had me.’
In spite of all my worrying and last I-love-yous, here Pops is, still cracking jokes, still making salt beef and still falling asleep on the sofa at 80. But I know our luck won’t last for ever. I often think of the words of the Queen following 9/11, quoting psychiatrist Dr Colin Murray Parkes: “Grief is the price we pay for love,” she wrote. It’s a high price. But, as my dad would say, it’s a good investment.A one-man dynasty
Analysis
Thirty years ago, on January 14, 1985, Hun Sen was appointed prime minister of Cambodia. He has been in charge ever since. In remaining at the helm of the country’s turbulent politics for so many years, Hun Sen now sits alongside the world’s longest-serving political leaders, men like Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Paul Biya of Cameroon. The Phnom Penh Post surveys a remarkable and controversial career.
Prime Minister Hun Sen gives a speech to graduate students in Phnom Penh last year. Pha Lina
On September 3, 1997, Thomas Hammarberg, the UN secretary-general’s special representative for human rights in Cambodia, was invited to a meeting with the country’s second prime minister, Hun Sen.
Hammarberg had good reason to expect a tense reception. Two months earlier, security forces loyal to Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) had launched lightning strikes against the private army of the first prime minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh of the royalist Funcinpec party, killing dozens of key commanders and driving many more opponents into exile.
In the aftermath, Hammarberg and staff at the UN Centre of Human Rights got to work documenting the violence. The UN’s 50-page report, released that August, outlined the campaign of executions, torture and disappearances that accompanied the July 5-6 fighting. Particularly, it named 41 Funcinpec figures who had been killed following their arrest by CPP forces and recommended the government conduct a “serious criminal investigation” into each.
Hun Sen wasn’t pleased. His government had defended the CPP strikes as a pre-emptive law-and-order operation, and he had always bristled at the UN’s “interference” in his country’s affairs.
The Swedish diplomat and the Cambodian politician were a study in contrasts. The 55-year-old Hammarberg had dedicated his career to the advancement of human rights and a more just international order. His CV included stints as head of the Swedish branch of Save the Children and as secretary-general of Amnesty International, on whose behalf he had received the 1977 Nobel Peace Prize.
His blond hair now fading to white, Hammarberg cut a patrician figure next to the boyish Hun Sen, 10 years his junior. Largely self-taught, with his rough peasant edges only partly smoothed down by a well-cut suit, Hun Sen had known little but war and political struggle. Since being appointed foreign minister after the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime in January 1979, he had clawed his way to the peak of Cambodian politics, where he was now determined to remain.
Hun Sen (front right), other Cambodian officials and Prince Souphanouvong of Laos (front left) pay their respects at the Independence Monument in Phnom Penh during Souphanouvong’s visit to Cambodia in 1980. AGENCE KAMPUCHEA PRESSE
As Hammarberg remembered it, this meeting of opposites in September 1997 got off to a surreal start. As soon as he had arrived and was seated, Hun Sen motioned to an aide. A door opened, and about 20 uniformed soldiers filed into the room. Here, Hun Sen announced, were the men listed as killed in the UN’s report into the July 1997 clashes. Hammarberg recalled Hun Sen’s sarcastic response: “They look very much alive, don’t they?”
The Swede was taken aback. But he was also confident of his research. The UN team had probed each case in painful detail, exhuming blindfolded corpses and conducting dozens of interviews. Only those allegations that had been fully verified were included in the final report. As he went through the report with Hun Sen, Hammarberg realised these “dead men walking” were an elaborate bluff. Once he made this clear to Hun Sen, the Cambodian politician “sort of lost face”, Hammarberg recalled. “His way of handling the meeting just collapsed.”
While Hun Sen was forced to back down, it wasn’t long before he resurrected the stunt. In early 1998, Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, arrived in Cambodia on a much-publicised visit. During a meeting with Robinson on January 23, Hun Sen surprised the former Irish prime minister by producing four men – again, very much alive – whom the UN had supposedly declared dead. Hun Sen then paraded the men during a joint press conference with Robinson, condemning the UN and warning that his government would refuse to cooperate with “people who violate us, who abuse us, or distort us”.
Prime Minister Hun Sen and opposition politician Sam Rainsy shake hands in December 1997 after a three-hour meeting at Hun Sen’s residence. AFP
Again, it was a bluff. Hammarberg later clarified that none of the men were listed as killed in the report – the first didn’t appear in it at all; the second and third had been reported missing (but not killed); and the fourth was the brother of two who had been killed in July 1997 – and was now being used in an attempt to exonerate the party responsible for his siblings’ deaths. The press conference was staged on a Friday afternoon; by the time the story could be corrected, it had already been parroted widely in the Khmer-language press.
The cosmopolitan Hammarberg recalled being flummoxed by Hun Sen’s theatrics. “Not only had he pulled the trick again, but he had also pushed relatives of those who had been killed to be witnesses to undermine the report,” he said. “That was his style.”
In truth, Hammarberg and his Cambodian interlocutor represented radically divergent world views. Where Hammarberg was an idealist, Hun Sen understood reality and the ways in which it could be bent to his will. Where the Swede envisioned a world governed by universal norms, the Cambodian bristled at any suggestion that the same standards should apply in Phnom Penh as in New York or Stockholm or Geneva.
In place of the enlightened deliberation represented by the UN, Hun Sen inhabited a world of zero-sum political struggles. A former soldier, he saw power not as a matter of principle, but as a function of force and interests. Everything else, whether human rights or democratic norms, was window-dressing – of little consequence to whom ultimately came out on top. “What are international standards?”
Hun Sen was fond of asking. “I don’t understand. International standards exist only in sports.”
Hun Sen talks to soldiers at a military installation in 1983 during an inspection of the site. AGENCE KAMPUCHEA PRESSE
Enlightened or not, Hun Sen’s political intuitions have proved remarkably durable. Thirty years ago today, the Cambodian National Assembly voted to appoint Hun Sen as prime minister, at the age of just 32. Since then, his Machiavellian political style has seen him through repeated cycles of the country’s turbulent history, through three decades of civil war and political upheaval, the collapse of communism, and the country’s transition to democracy.
Now 62, Hun Sen stands as one of the great political survivors, the longest-serving non-monarch in Asia, and one of the longest-serving prime ministers in the world. With about 65.3 per cent of Cambodians today under the age of 30, according to the UN, the majority of the population now has no memory of anyone else.
Over the course of his career, Cambodia’s prime minister has played many roles: communist soldier, socialist apparatchik, international statesman, free-market reformer, demagogic demigod. But if Hun Sen’s career has had one constant, it has been his ideological flexibility.
“He is not hard-headed,” a CPP insider said this week, on condition of anonymity. “He knows how to move in accordance with the situation, like a boat sailing on the Mekong River.”
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The village of Peam Koh Snar stretches out along a wide brown bend of this same great waterway, about 40 kilometres northeast of Kampong Cham city. It is peaceful and orderly. The houses are wooden with tiled roofs, lined by tobacco fields and rice paddies. The village has a well-sealed road that runs over a small steel bridge flanked by seven-headed concrete nagas. Not far away, there is a new pagoda dedicated by Hun Sen’s relatives and a primary school named after his brother, the former provincial governor Hun Neng: over the years, Peam Koh Snar has been a special subject of strongman charity.
On August 5, 1952, Cambodia’s future leader was born here in a brown stilt house just off the main village road. Locals still express affection for the local boy who conquered the heights of Cambodian politics. “All the villagers are proud of him,” said Nin Kimsoeun, 31, a second cousin of Hun Sen who looks after the prime minister’s childhood home, welcoming curious visitors. “He has helped a lot of people here.”
Down the road, 68-year-old Ros Thorn sat on a concrete table under a tree at Wat Botum Kesor. Brown cupping marks covered his forehead, and a light blue towel lay draped around his neck. Thorn recalled the skinny youth before he was sent by his parents to study in Phnom Penh in 1965, at the age of 13. “Hun Sen was not only a good student; he was good at everything,” he said.
Prime Minister Hun Sen and Prince Norodom Sihanouk walk through Beijing Airport before Sihanouk’s return to Phnom Penh in November 1991. AGENCE KAMPUCHEA PRESSE
Not long after leaving Peam Koh Snar, Hun Sen was swept up in the tumult of modern Cambodian history. Sometime in the late 1960s – it is unclear exactly when – he left school and joined the communist insurgency opposing the government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk. Throughout the 1970s, Hun Sen fought for these “Khmers Rouges”, as Sihanouk dubbed them, losing an eye to a piece of artillery shrapnel as the communists closed in on Phnom Penh in April 1975.
Hun Sen has since claimed he was shocked by the radical experiment set in motion by the new leaders of “Democratic Kampuchea”, and had no hand in atrocities committed by the regime, which led to the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians. In mid-1977, after rising to the rank of deputy regimental commander, Hun Sen defected to Vietnam to escape the regime’s purges.
When the Vietnamese army overthrew the Khmer Rouge in January 1979, Hun Sen became foreign minister in the socialist clone administration they installed in its place. Closely mentored by Ngo Dien, Vietnam’s ambassador in Phnom Penh, he quickly evolved into a loyal and reliable ally. In late 1984, when Prime Minister Chan Si died in Moscow, Hun Sen was the obvious choice as successor.
He took the reins in a turbulent period. Throughout the 1980s, his People’s Republic of Kampuchea, supported by a Vietnamese occupation force and millions of rubles in Soviet aid, fought a bitter Cold War proxy conflict against a Chinese- and US-backed resistance coalition, which included the Khmer Rouge. In a cruel twist of Cold War realpolitik, the Khmer Rouge continued to represent Cambodia in the UN, while the PRK and its Vietnamese patrons were subject to a Western embargo. For a young Hun Sen, the decade would leave a deep impression. It instilled a conviction that for superpowers like the US, human rights and democratic norms were very often simply means to a political end. Why should those same norms bind him?
Hun Sen laughs after missing a putt during a round of golf in January 1998. AFP
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and the paralysing polarities of the Cold War gave way to a new era of promise. In Cambodia, the end of the Cold War led to the withdrawal of Vietnamese forces from the country and the signing of the Paris Peace Agreements on October 23, 1991. The treaty created the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) of 1992-93, which had a mission to end the civil war and hold democratic elections. With the UN’s arrival, Cambodia became a laboratory of the post-Cold War international order. Phnom Penh went from being an impoverished socialist capital to a postmodern treaty port city, forced open not by colonial gunboat diplomacy but by international aid and the wave of foreign consultants and NGO workers that followed.
The leaders in Phnom Penh saw the arrival of the UN and its civil war-era enemies as a hindrance and a threat. But Hun Sen quickly saw through the triumphalist language of the age to the brittle political commitments that lay beneath. Despite all the talk of bringing democracy and international norms to Cambodia, foreign governments had crafted the Paris Peace Agreements in order to detach them from the country’s political squabbles, not to deepen their involvement. This was illustrated starkly in the aftermath of the UN-organised 1993 election, which the CPP lost to Prince Ranariddh’s Funcinpec.
In the days following the election, CPP figures threatened violence, announced a secession of the country’s eastern provinces, and thus strong-armed their way into an equal share of power. In an undemocratic arrangement that could only have been cooked up by Cambodian politicians, Hun Sen became “second” prime minister to Ranariddh’s “first”. There was nothing much the UN could do.
Having already declared the election a success, it packed up and left.
The next four years were marked by intrigue and political struggle as the two prime ministers vied for supremacy – a struggle that eventually came to a head in July 1997 in the streets of Phnom Penh. Despite initially protesting the violence, most foreign governments accepted the status quo when a chastened Ranariddh returned to contest a new election in July 1998. This time, the CPP won.
Prime Minister Hun Sen shows his ballot paper to a media scrum before voting in Takhmao during the national election in July 2013. Pha Lina
The election was flawed, but it was enough for most foreign governments to resume their aid. Once again, Hun Sen ruled alone.
There he has remained ever since, using guile and threats to neutralise his remaining opponents and consolidate his control over the courts, parliament and armed forces. According to Human |
may be strong resistance to acknowledging the evidence for a claim perceived as too new, too radical: think of Darwin’s wry comment that admitting he had come to believe that species aren’t fixed and immutable was “like confessing a murder,” or of the strongly skeptical reaction when it was first suggested that stomach ulcers might be caused, not by stress or a too-spicy diet, but by a bacterium. An individual, or a team, may have so much influence in a field, or so much control over funding or publication, that their approach continues to prevail even if the evidence is weak, as was perhaps the case with Cyril Burt’s work on the heritability of intelligence. And sometimes an unfounded idea somehow takes such firm root that everyone in a field just assumes it’s true: think of the “tetranucleotide hypothesis”—Phoebus Levine’s conjecture that DNA is a “stupid,” monotonous molecule in which the four base pairs occur in a regular sequence—which, though it was nothing more than a conjecture, was once widely taken for granted by molecular biologists. Indeed, its grip was so strong that, even after he’d completed his experiments subjecting the “hereditary principle” to every known test to discriminate the two substances, which clearly pointed to this conclusion, Oswald Avery dared not say in print that DNA, and not protein, is the genetic material.
The sciences have achieved remarkable things; but there can be no guarantee that they will always advance, let alone that they will always advance at a brisk pace; and no guarantee that there won’t be setbacks, wrong turns, and false starts. As I said, progress has been ragged, uneven, and unpredictable. Sometimes scientific advance is cumulative; sometimes it involves big upheavals—I would say, “revolutions,” except that I intend no Kuhnian implications —when a key new idea emerges, or a central old idea is discredited; and sometimes, if a really bad idea takes hold, a field may go backwards before the bad idea is dropped and progress can again be made.
And neither, of course, are the sciences complete. It’s not just that, in any scientific field, there are questions yet to be answered. It’s also that, as scientific work proceeds, new and unanticipated questions—sometimes, even, whole new fields or sub-fields of inquiry—will emerge; and, most importantly, that the competence of the sciences is limited. Not every kind of question is susceptible to scientific inquiry; even the most comprehensive future science imaginable wouldn’t explain everything.
Moreover, while those technical helps to scientific inquiry (the instruments, computer programs, statistical methods, and so on) usually get better and better over time, it’s very clear that by now the social mechanisms for sustaining honesty and encouraging evidence-sharing (peer-reviewed publication, assignment of research funding, professional certification and standards, and so forth) are under considerable strain. As science grows bigger, more expensive, politically more consequential, and potentially more profitable, things can go badly wrong. The peer-review system, for example, always flawed, is by now seriously dysfunctional —to the point where William Wilson writes despairingly that “if [it] is good at anything, it appears to be preventing unpopular ideas from being published.” It is, as Wilson continues, truly ironic that a newly aggressive scientism—he goes so far as to say, a Cult of Science—should be on the rise precisely as careerism and a bloated bureaucracy threaten to undermine the ideals and the integrity of the sciences.
2. Spotting the Signs: The Many Manifestations of Scientism
Against this background, the distinctive characters of scientism and of anti-science come into sharper focus. As we shall see, however, both are manifested in many and various ways.
Anti-science comes in a whole variety of shapes and guises, not always mutually compatible. So far, my focus has been on the cynical strain encouraged by rivalry between traditional philosophers of science and the ambitious radical sociologists and historians who, in the latter part of the twentieth century, began to turn their attention to the sciences—a great, noisy chorus of academics proclaiming that the sciences are shot through with sexism, racism, and colonialism, that science is driven by power, politics, rhetoric, negotiation, not evidence, that supposedly “objective” facts and supposedly “objective” reality are man-made, scientists’ own creation, even that the concepts of inquiry, evidence, truth are nothing but ideological humbug. (Of course, if there really were no objective truths, it couldn’t be objectively true that science is shot through with sexism, racism, etc.; and if there really were no objective standards of better and worse evidence, there couldn’t be objectively strong evidence that what scientific theories get accepted primarily depends, not on the evidence, but on scientists’ class interests.) But the anti-science camp also includes religious fundamentalists who reject modern cosmology and the theory of evolution, as well as ordinary, non-partisan people disillusioned after reading too often of scientific fraud, of science distorted by politics, of corruption in the scientific peer-review process, or of large grants for what seem to be banal or incomprehensible projects.
Not surprisingly, scientism is no less complex, no less various, and no less rife with internal tensions than anti-science is. Some in the scientistic camp are simply so impressed by the remarkable achievements of the sciences that they are ready to accept any and every scientific claim unquestioningly, the wildly speculative no less than the well-established; to believe the pronouncements of well-known scientists even on matters far outside their professional competence; and to resist all criticism of the sciences or of current scientific orthodoxies. But, like anti-scientific dismissiveness, scientism also has its academic wing.
This academic wing has long included those who insist on criteria by which to distinguish real science, the genuine article, from “pseudo-science”; propose formal-logical or probabilistic models of scientific reasoning; and—relegating potentially awkward sociological and psychological factors influencing scientific work to the “context of discovery”—offer bromides about the “rationality” and “objectivity” of science. But now there is, besides, a great noisy chorus of academics newly energized by the rise of evolutionary psychology and neuroscience, the boom in evangelical atheism, and the scientism at work in our culture at large, urging that such hitherto-uncivilized disciplines as jurisprudence, art criticism, philosophy, etc., look to the sciences for answers to their questions. Others, going even further, proclaim that it’s time to abandon these outdated, pre-scientific disciplines altogether, and to pursue genuinely scientific projects instead. “Neurolaw,” we’re told, promises to transform or even displace the outdated field of jurisprudence, “neuroart” the outmoded fields of aesthetics, literary criticism, and such, and “neurophilosophy” such primitive, pre-scientific disciplines as ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, and the like.
And, just like anti-scientific cynicism, scientism can harbor contradictions. The earliest advocates of neurophilosophy, hoping to understand human cognitive processes on the model of the workings of the nervous system of the sea-slug, proclaimed—no, like those postmodernist science critics, they boasted—that their approach undermined the legitimacy of core logical and epistemological concepts. (Of course, like the all-too-similar claims of anti-scientific cynics, this is self-defeating: if it were true, the neuroscientific discoveries on which they based their extravagant claims couldn’t be well-warranted by strong evidence, and neither could they be true.) And, as we’ll see in the next lecture, by now some self-proclaimed supporters of scientism boast of an even more sweeping nihilism that repudiates every kind of value—the moral and the aesthetic, for example, as well as the epistemological.
If it is evolutionary psychology and neuroscience that have played the largest role in shaping the character of scientism today—its manifestation in, as Raymond Tallis puts it, “Darwinitis” and “neuromania” —it seems to be the new atheism that has most marked its tone. Of course, there have long been, and still are, religious people who reject cosmologists’ theories about the origin of the universe and evolutionary biologists’ theories about the origin of mankind because they are at odds with scriptural accounts; and for as long as there has been science, probably, there have been atheists who have welcomed scientific discoveries as confirming their position—though it’s salutary to remember that there were atheists long before modern science got on its feet, and that religious people sometimes welcome scientific theories as confirming their position—stressing, for example, the supposed “fine-tuning” of the earth to human life.
So what’s new, you might ask, about the “new” atheism?—less its content, it seems, than its style, its swagger. Taking for granted, what is a long way from obvious, that by now science has shown that religious claims are groundless, the new atheism often calls on evolutionary or neurophysiological accounts of the religious impulse to explain it away; perhaps more importantly, assuming that religious people are either scientifically ignorant or willfully blind, it seems to pride itself on its intellectual superiority. We, the new atheists proclaim, are the “Brights” —which, intentionally or not, inevitably suggests that religious people are, well, dim. This adds a new layer of confusion: with the new atheists acting as cheerleaders for the revival of scientism, it can come to seem that anyone who resists scientism must, overtly or covertly, have a religious agenda. But this is a serious misperception; as we will see, there are good and sufficient reasons for resisting scientism quite independent of any religious assumptions.
* * *
Of course, there’s no simple formula to determine when the line between appropriate respect for the achievements of the sciences and inappropriate deference to science has been crossed. There are, however, some characteristic indicators, among which I would include:
Forgetting fallibility: i.e., being too ready to accept anything and everything bearing the label “science,” or “scientific,” and to believe any and every claim made by scientists of the day.
Excessive readiness to believe in the absence of good evidence is the epistemological vice of credulity. This vice comes in many forms: some people are too ready to believe bizarre Hollywood gossip, others the something-for-nothing promises made by aspiring politicians, others again the advertisements for miraculous dietary aids and other medical quackery, etc. And some—including not a few of those who, priding themselves on their “scientific” skepticism, scoff at claims about the Loch Ness Monster, haunted houses, fringe medical treatments, and the like—are too ready to believe any and every claim made by scientists, including the latest headline-catching study or speculation that will, more likely than not, turn out to be just plain wrong. They forget that science is an ongoing enterprise, and that much scientific speculation won’t survive the test of time. This kind of credulity about science is the simplest and most straightforward sign of scientism.
Such credulity naturally encourages what is by now a very common and familiar phenomenon, the use of “science” and its cognates as a kind of shorthand for “good, solid stuff.” This is another sign of scientism:
Sanctifying “science”: i.e., using the terms “science,” “scientific,” etc., honorifically, as terms of generic epistemological praise meaning something like “strong, reliable, good.”
There’s a real irony here: as we saw, “science” originally meant simply “systematic knowledge,” but gradually became restricted to physics, chemistry, biology, etc.—as we would now say, “the sciences”; but those who turn “science” and “scientific” into honorific terms are in effect restricting the meaning of “knowledge” so as to coincide with the newer, narrower meaning of “science.”
As they become honorific terms, “science” and “scientific” soon lose descriptive content and become near-vacuous expressions of approval. Advertisers urge us to buy their new, scientific detergent or to try their new, scientific dietary supplement; a historian criticizes a rival on the grounds that he has no scientific evidence for his claims; phrenology or the phlogiston theory are dismissed as pseudo-sciences; and so forth. This honorific usage even entered our jurisprudence when, in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, the U.S. Supreme Court’s first-ever ruling on the standard of admissibility of expert testimony, Justice Blackmun argued for the majority that, in determining whether such testimony is sufficiently reliable to be heard by a jury, judges should determine that it is genuinely “scientific … knowledge.” And, inevitably, as “science” becomes an honorific term, practitioners of other disciplines begin to describe their fields as sciences: “Management Science,” “Library Science,” even “Mortuary Science” —and, of course, “Creation Science.”
When “scientific” is used as equivalent to “epistemologically strong,” of course it seems enormously important to find some way to distinguish genuinely scientific, epistemologically strong work from epistemologically weak “pseudo-science”—i.e., to find some criterion by which to demarcate real science from pretenders. Hence the third sign of scientism:
Fortifying the frontiers: i.e., insisting on a strong, sharp line of demarcation between genuine science and pretenders.
Karl Popper, most famous of twentieth-century demarcationist philosophers of science, thought he had a simple way to distinguish work like Einstein’s (which he deemed good, genuinely scientific) from Marx’s “scientific socialism” and Freud’s and Jung’s psycho-analytic theories (which he deemed bad, pseudo-science at best): the mark of a genuinely scientific claim or theory is that it is falsifiable. This idea is at work in Justice Blackmun’s first, vaguely Popperian “Daubert factor,” suggesting that, in assessing whether expert testimony is really scientific, and hence reliable enough to be admitted, judges ask: “can it be (and has it been) tested?”; and in those constitutional cases where judges reach for vaguely-Popperian criteria to argue that creation science, or Intelligent Design Theory, isn’t really science at all.
The demarcationist impulse often manifests itself in the form of what you might call “methodism,” the idea that real science, the genuine article, can be identified by means of its distinctive method or procedure of inquiry. Hence the next sign of scientism:
Mythologizing “method”: i.e., supposing that what’s distinctive about the sciences, what qualifies them as genuinely scientific, is their method—a supposedly uniquely-scientific way of going about inquiry.
Philosophers argue about whether the Scientific Method is deductive, inductive, probabilistic, Bayesian, game-theoretical, error-theoretical, or what; scientists themselves, if put on the spot to say something about how they do what they do, sometimes parrot some half-understood idea from this tradition—most often, something vaguely Popperian in tenor. Textbooks (and scientific organizations) tend either to offer cook-book, step-by-step instructions so formulaic that they tell you nothing of substance—e.g., “make a hypothesis; design an experiment; conduct the experiment; write up the results; submit the results for peer-review”; or else describe the specialized procedures or techniques gradually developed over the years in their particular field of scientific work, so specific that they simply don’t apply in other fields.
The idea that there is some distinctive method of inquiry used by all scientists and only by scientists inevitably encourages some to adopt what they take to be scientific methods, tools, and techniques as if this were sufficient by itself to make their work rigorous, “scientific” in the honorific sense. All too often, the result is—well, in Bentham’s phrase, it’s “nonsense upon stilts,” work lacking in real rigor but disguised in the technical trappings of science. This is another sign of scientism:
Dressing up dreck: i.e., adopting the tools and trappings of scientific work not to advance inquiry, but to disguise a lack of real rigor or seriousness.
Scientists themselves are not immune to this kind of scientism. For example, one of Merrell Dow’s epidemiological studies of Bendectin, the morning-sickness drug at issue in Daubert, though decked out with all the usual statistical apparatus, failed to distinguish women who took the drug during the period of pregnancy when fetal limbs are forming from those who took it at other stages—and then, predictably, concluded that there was no evidence that Bendectin caused limb-reduction birth defects; Merck’s VIGOR trial of the arthritis drug Vioxx, as a result of which the FDA approved it for sale in the U.S., though also dressed up with all the standard statistical apparatus, tracked gastro-intestinal effects for longer than it tracked cardiovascular effects; as a result of which the several subjects who died of heart attacks and strokes after taking the drug could be excluded from the results, since their deaths occurred outside the study period.
Dressing up dreck is even commoner, probably, in the social sciences, where lengthy introductory chapters on “methodology” are sometimes only window-dressing, and graphs, tables, and statistics sometimes focus attention on variables that can be measured rather than those that really matter, or represent variables so poorly defined that no reasonable conclusion can be drawn. David Abrahamson’s Second Law of Criminal Behavior, “C = (T+S)/R,” is a classic: “[a] criminal act is the sum of a person’s criminalistic tendencies plus his total situation, divided by the amount of his resistance.” The forensic sciences are also susceptible to this kind of thing. The “ACE methodology” for fingerprint identification, for example, is little more than a list of steps—analysis, comparison, evaluation; and the addition of “V,” for “verification” is much less reassuring than it sounds, since all it means is “get another fingerprint examiner to check.” “The scientific approach of the ACE-V process was detailed in [a 2009] article by the FBI,” write the authors of a recent report on the accuracy of fingerprint identifications; but when you look closer you find that this FBI report simply parrots a completely unhelpful textbook understanding of “scientific method”: make an observation, generate a hypothesis, conduct tests, generate conclusions, confirm through replication, record or present the conclusions.
And now for my last two signs of scientism:
Colonizing culture: i.e., attempting to take over non-scientific disciplines and replace them by scientific substitutes.
Because the sciences have made many true discoveries, they enjoy considerable prestige. So, not surprisingly, some people come to imagine that science could solve virtually all our problems—for example, that it could provide well-founded responses to vexing questions of public policy. Moreover, it’s second nature for scientists to press outward, to tackle the new questions that inevitably arise as older ones are answered, to explore hitherto-unexplored phenomena, to try out tools and techniques that have proven useful in one area to see if they can also be helpful in others. So, not surprisingly, some begin to aspire to take over work hitherto left in the hands of less-prestigious non-scientific disciplines, and do a proper job of it. And some in those less-prestigious fields, feeling themselves the poor relations in the academy and aspiring to share in the prestige of the “scientific,” begin to call on one or another of the sciences to solve the problems with which they’ve been wrestling unsuccessfully—to provide evolutionary answers to questions of ethics, for example, or neuroscientific answers to puzzles in philosophy of mind.
Again not surprisingly, these scientistic efforts to colonize other areas of culture often fail. And when they do, many respond, not by acknowledging frankly that the sciences have overreached, but by casting aspersions on the questions that prove recalcitrant and the fields that resist colonization. Hence the last sign of scientism on my list:
Devaluing the different: i.e., denigrating the importance, or even denying the legitimacy, of non-scientific disciplines and activities.
This takes many forms: from government efforts to focus resources on science education at the expense of other fields, through dismissive attitudes to the study of aesthetic, ethical, or other values recalcitrant to scientific explanation, to outright denial of the legitimacy of whole fields of human endeavor.
These seven signs of scientism roughly parallel the many and various manifestations with which I began this section; and, as we have seen, they are intimately interconnected—the honorific use of “science” and its cognates leading very naturally to a preoccupation with finding a criterion of demarcation of the genuinely scientific, this in turn to a preoccupation with identifying some method distinctive of the sciences, and so on. Of course, these signs also reflect some of the tensions within scientism: e.g., between the concern to fortify the frontiers of genuine science, the real thing, and the hope of extending the domain of science to previously-unoccupied territories; between attempts to colonize other areas of culture, and the impulse to denigrate whatever falls outside the scope of the sciences; and so on. But the key point, as we’ll soon see, is that every one of them betrays some misunderstanding of the scientific enterprise.
3. Mapping the Misunderstandings: The False Presuppositions of Scientism
There’s some temptation simply to point out that, since what the word “scientism” means is excessive or undue deference to the sciences, it’s trivially true that scientism is undesirable. So it is; but this doesn’t get us very far. It may alert us to the need to understand why scientism is a bad thing, but it doesn’t, by itself, throw any light on the matter. There’s some temptation, also, to rely on pointing out that, no less than anti-scientific cynicism, scientism poses real dangers: it threatens to cloud our appreciation of our distinctively human mindedness and of the extraordinary array of intellectual and imaginative artifacts this mindedness has enabled us to create, and even to lead to its own kind of nihilism. But just stressing that scientism is a threat to the health of our culture, or even explaining why it is, doesn’t do the whole job, either. No: we can get to the root of problem only by identifying the false presuppositions on which scientism rests; which is what I shall try to do.
(i) As my phrase “forgetting fallibility” suggests, credulity about scientific claims betrays a serious misunderstanding of how the sciences advance: not infallible step by infallible step, but by fits and starts, with numerous wrong turns and missteps along the way. Plenty of scientific studies and experiments are poorly-conceived, poorly-conducted, or both; and the results even of well-conceived and well-conducted studies and experiments can be misleading. While work on a scientific question is ongoing, capable scientists in a field may quite reasonably disagree about which of the rival approaches is likeliest to work out—and the rest of us just have to wait and see. The sciences have made many true discoveries, yes; but it obviously doesn’t follow that every claim made by a scientist, or every claim made by a scientist in his own field of expertise, let alone every pronouncement of a well-known scientist on whatever subject, will be true. Far from it: most scientific conjectures will probably turn out to be false, many will be found to be only partially or approximately true, and many will prove to be misleading; and of course nobody is an expert outside his own field.
(ii) The honorific use of the words “science,” “scientific,” etc. as generic terms of epistemological praise betrays a similar blindness to the often fumbling and always fallible character of scientific work. True, over many generations the sciences have found ways to inquire better, to overcome or mitigate some natural human cognitive limitations and weaknesses. But this doesn’t justify using “scientific” as shorthand for “strong, reliable, epistemologically good”; and neither does it justify pretending that bad science—poorly-conceived or poorly-conducted scientific work—isn’t really science at all.
The sciences have devised sophisticated tools and techniques to bring previously-inaccessible evidence within their reach, found ingenious ways to design more-informative experiments, devised mathematical and other methods to appraise evidence more scrupulously, and so on. But it by no means follows that all or that only scientists are good, careful, thorough inquirers; and of course it isn’t true. Even with all these remarkable tools, scientific work is sometimes weak—relying on careless or biased observations or badly-designed experiments or studies, for example, or on botched statistical calculations, or trimmed or fudged results. Indeed, as I suggested earlier, nowadays the severe pressure on scientists to get grants and to publish, along with a burgeoning scientific bureaucracy and a badly broken peer-review system, positively encourage weak, flawed, and even fraudulent work. Moreover, plenty of excellent scientific work has been done without the benefit of sophisticated tools: think of those astronomers in ancient China, who managed without radio-telescopes; or of Charles Darwin, who sometimes checked the size of specimens against his handkerchief.
(iii) Once you recognize that there can be poor scientific work as well as good, not to mention strong non-scientific work as well as weak, the “problem of demarcation” loses much of its urgency. This is just as well; for the task of identifying the frontiers to be fortified has proven quite intractable.
Popper’s idea that a claim or a theory is scientific just in case it is falsifiable has been enormously influential not only in philosophy of science but also among scientists themselves and even, as we saw, in the U.S. legal system; nonetheless, it is a badly confused idea. Popper purports to offer a theory of “objective scientific knowledge” based on the bold thesis that, while scientific theories can’t be shown to be true, they can be shown to be false; but what he actually gives us is nothing but a thinly-disguised skepticism. Why so? A theory is falsified, he tells us, when a basic statement with which it is incompatible is accepted. But he goes on to insist that what basic statements are accepted and what rejected is entirely a matter of convention, a “decision” on the part of the scientific community. So the fact that a theory has been “falsified,” in Popper’s sense, doesn’t mean that it is false; and Popper’s account implies that scientific theories can no more be shown to be false than they can be shown to be true. No wonder he couldn’t decide whether the theory of evolution is or isn’t science, and vacillated over whether the problem with “scientific socialism” is that it isn’t falsifiable, or that when it was falsified, its proponents didn’t give it up; no wonder, either, that by 1959 he had decided that his criterion of demarcation was itself nothing but an optional “convention.”
Others have suggested that the distinguishing mark of real sciences is that they involve controlled experiments, that they make successful predictions, that their theories are well-tested, that they grow and progress, or …, etc. But astronomy doesn’t make controlled experiments; evolutionary biology makes no predictions; many scientific claims are not, as yet, well-tested; and not all scientific fields are always growing or progressing.
Larry Laudan writes that demarcationist projects “served neither to explicate the paradigmatic uses of ‘scientific’ … nor to perform the critical stable-clearing for which [they were] originally intended.” True enough; but I would stress, rather, that the preoccupation with demarcation betrays a seriously oversimplified conception of what is really a dense, complex mesh of similarities and differences among the disciplines we count as sciences, and of continuities and discontinuities between these disciplines and others not so classified. It loses sight of the elements of historical accident and of convention in our classification of disciplines, of the fuzzy, shifting, and contested boundaries of science, and of the sheer variety of the category “non-science.” And it tempts us to forget that “not science” includes many legitimate and valuable enterprises: writing fiction or making art, for example—excluded because they aren’t kinds of inquiry; pure mathematics, legal or literary interpretation, inquiry into moral, aesthetic, or epistemological values—excluded because are aren’t descriptive but normative; not to mention historical research or metaphysics—both, again, by my lights anyway, legitimate and valuable kinds of inquiry but not, in the modern sense, sciences.
Demarcationists often emphasize the importance of distinguishing science from pseudo-science. But this idea obscures more than it illuminates. It uses “pseudo-science” and “pseudo-scientific” as terms of generic epistemological disparagement, in much the same way that “science” and “scientific” are nowadays often used as terms of generic epistemological praise; but what we really want to know is what, specifically, is wrong with the work in question. Calling it “pseudo-science” is no help at all.
You may object that sometimes, e.g., in legal contexts, we really need some way to discriminate genuine science from pretenders. Perhaps the first thing to say is that, even if the law really did need to do this, that wouldn’t mean that the boundaries of science really are sharp and clear; after all, the law really does need to adopt precise definitions of, say, “adult,” or “drunk,” but that doesn’t mean that there really is a sharp line between adolescents and grown-ups, or between someone who’s drunk and someone who’s a bit tipsy. But, in any case, it’s not clear that the legal system really does need to distinguish genuine science from pseudo-science.
The serious issue in those cases about the standard of admissibility of expert testimony should have been, not how to tell whether expert testimony is genuinely scientific, but how to tell whether it’s reliable enough to be presented to a jury. The apparent need for a criterion of demarcation of science arose only because Justice Blackmun’s ruling in Daubert confused “reliable” and “scientific.” Similarly, the serious issue in those constitutional cases over the teaching of creation science or Intelligent Design Theory in public high-school biology classes should have been, not whether these are scientific theories, but whether they are religious. The apparent need for a criterion of demarcation of science arose only because one prong of the Lemon test for constitutionality under the Establishment Clause requires that a statute have a secular purpose, prompting proponents to argue that teaching creation science or IDT does have such a purpose—namely, improving science education; and it was this that obliged their opponents to argue that creation science and IDT simply aren’t scientific theories, and obliged judges to determine whether they are or not.
(iv) “Make an informed guess about what might explain a puzzling phenomenon; figure out what the consequences would be if this conjecture were true; check out how well those consequences stand up to any evidence you have and whatever further evidence you can lay hands on; and then use your judgment whether to accept the conjecture provisionally, modify it, drop it and start over, or just wait until you can get more evidence.” Fair enough; but this methodological advice, if you can call it that, applies no less to historical research, legal scholarship, detective work, or serious everyday inquiry than it does to inquiry in the sciences. “Design a randomized, double-blind, controlled study with a large-enough number of subjects and controls to compare the effects of drug X with the effects of a placebo; use these statistical techniques to calculate the results, those to check for statistical significance; …, etc.” Fair enough—for epidemiologists conducting clinical trials; but this methodological advice is no help to an astronomer, a molecular biologist, a sociologist, or an anthropologist.
And this pattern is no accident: contrary to what methodism assumes, there is no method used by all scientists and only by scientists. Rather there is, on the one hand, the familiar procedure of conjecture and checking common to all serious empirical inquiry; and, on the other, the myriad specialized techniques and procedures devised by scientists in various fields to get more evidence of the kind they need and a subtler sense of where it points. But those underlying procedures aren’t used only by scientists, and those special techniques, which are constantly evolving and often local to a specific field, aren’t used by all scientists.
(v) Those specialized tools and techniques have helped the sciences advance; and they have also sometimes been borrowed and put to good use by inquirers in other fields—such as the historians who borrowed medical-imaging techniques to distinguish traces of writing from the effects of weathering on the lead “postcards” Roman soldiers used to write home. But when scientific tools and techniques don’t make the work more rigorous but only disguise its lack of rigor, the trappings of science are mistaken for its substance. Of course, the idea that tables, graphs, mathematics, statistical and other technical jargon, etc., will somehow magically make what you do precise, rigorous, and accurate is an illusion. Borrowing the trappings of serious scientific work doesn’t, by itself, make your work serious—any more than getting your citations in perfect BlueBook form, by itself, makes you a serious legal scholar. Dressing up dreck in scientific trappings is, in short, the pretense of serious intellectual work, without the substance.
But, it may be objected, isn’t this exactly why we need the concept of pseudo-science, which you dismissed earlier as unhelpful? I don’t think so. After all, while it’s quite common for people in non-scientific fields to dress up dreck in hopes of making it look more rigorous than it really is, scientists themselves sometimes do the same thing. And a bad epidemiological study where elaborate statistical apparatus serves only to distract attention from a biased design is an epidemiological study nonetheless, albeit a poor one. It doesn’t, as the phrase “pseudo-science” suggests, falsely pretend to be science; it is (bad) science. The problem is pseudo-rigor, not pseudo-science.
(vi) By now, many questions once thought beyond the scope of the sciences have been found to be within their competence after all. In the seventeenth century philosophers debated whether a man born blind, if he were made able to see, would immediately be able to distinguish between a sphere and a cube, previously known to him only by touch, simply by looking at them; now, we see this as the kind of question to be settled by medical scientists. But it doesn’t follow that every kind of question is, or will eventually be, susceptible to resolution by the sciences, that the sciences can colonize every area of culture. The mistake here is to suppose that, because the sciences have made so many remarkable discoveries, there are no limits to their reach. To be sure, we can’t know now what future scientific work might be able to achieve; nevertheless, it’s clear enough that certain kinds of question are simply not susceptible to resolution by the sciences. Even though, as I argued earlier, the boundaries of science are fuzzy, shifting, and contested, not every legitimate kind of question falls within those fuzzy, shifting, contested boundaries.
This thought, however, needs careful handling. Religious people sometimes say that science can explain how things happen, but not why: how species evolved, for example, but not why, not for what purpose. Aggressive atheists predictably respond that these supposed why-questions aren’t really legitimate questions at all. I would put it differently: the theory of evolution is by now very well-warranted by a dense mesh of tightly interlocking lines of evidence, and provides an explanation of the origin of species entirely in terms of past causes, without postulating any purpose, plan, or goal. So in this instance, the answer to “for what purpose?” is: not for any purpose. Similarly, when religious people ask, as some did in the aftermath of hurricane Andrew, “why did the storm destroy their church, but not ours?” my answer would be: presumably there is a meteorological explanation of why the hurricane hit there rather than here; but there was no reason why it hit this church rather than that—that was coincidence. More importantly, whatever your view about the legitimacy or otherwise of the kinds of question to which theology offers answers or the legitimacy or otherwise of the kinds of answer it offers, there are many other kinds of legitimate but non-scientific question.
Take a question of public policy, such as whether we should dam this river at this place. Quite properly, we want such decisions to be made on the basis of the best information available. So we look to specialists in hydro-electric engineering to tell us how much electricity we can expect the dam to supply; we look to environmental scientists to tell us what the effects on the ecology of the region would be; perhaps we ask economists or sociologists to estimate costs and benefits to local communities. The scientistic mistake is to imagine that this could be sufficient to tell us whether or not we should build the dam. It couldn’t; even if we had that hypothetical best account of the benefits and the costs, there would still be something left over: whether the benefits outweigh the costs—and this is a matter of judgment, not to be settled by additional factual information or, for that matter, by any decision-theoretic algorithm.
Or take efforts by evolutionary psychologists or neuroscientists to colonize ethics. Evolutionary psychology may be able to explain why altruism has survival value, or to teach us something about the biological origins of what are sometimes called the “moral sentiments”; neuroscience may be able to teach us something about what’s going on in the brain when we feel disgust, righteous indignation, empathy, envy, guilt, remorse, pride, etc. But none of this could tell us whether helping others is morally desirable or, if so, why it is, or how to weigh it against other morally-desirable things; nor could it tell us which of our hard-wired moral sentiments are truly morally desirable and which not—or, again, why.
(vii) When colonizing efforts fail, as inevitably they sometimes do, those of a scientistic turn of mind—perhaps on the principle that the best defense is a strong offense—may respond by denigrating the fields that resist colonization, suggesting that they are inherently inferior, that they are luxuries we really can’t afford, or even that they aren’t really legitimate fields at all. And sometimes, I suspect, scientistic disdain for the different really is little more than a matter of temperament. At any rate, some of those who look down on non-scientific endeavors seem to feel, consciously or otherwise, that making music or art, telling stories, dancing, and the like are—dare I say it?—effete, inherently inferior to the more manly task of forcing nature to give up her secrets. All I can say to this is that, as I see it, our culture, and my life, would be much poorer without the work of scientists, and much poorer, also, without the work of playwrights, poets, novelists, composers, artists, etc |
public calls for harsher sentencing and more surveillance.
“A lot of these attitudes we see now are reflections of the terror event,” she told Reuters, referring to the VG poll.
“I don’t think the politicians will change legislation on this point as a spontaneous reaction. It may be considered, but there will be a broad debate first.”
“In 2001 it was as though someone had declared war against the U.S., which Al Qaeda and those groups had actually done.” she added.
“This by contrast appears to be the act of one person who is sick or has his mind in a bubble. You can’t really do legislation based on events like we have had in Norway.”
She said public opinion has long favored stricter punishment for violent crimes while the parliament has resisted cracking down.
Norway’s parliament was holding a rare summer session attended by the king and the prime minister at 1000 GMT on Monday.
Per Sandberg, chairman of the parliament’s Justice Committee, said stiffer sentencing will be on the agenda when party leaders resume debate on August 15.
“I am sure when we come to August 15 the political discussion will be about sentences, searches by the police and everything else around this case,” Sandberg told Reuters.
“My party has always wanted that. I believe there will be new measures.”
Sandberg’s right-wing Progress Party is an anti-immigration, anti-tax party that favors stricter prison terms for violent crimes.Ah, thought you'd get to creep out the door of 2017 without having to read Taylor Swift's name again, did you? Afraid not. The so-called "downfall"' of the country teen star turned pop overlord in the past year may not have exactly been edifying, but is illustrative of a problem – and, hopefully, a change – in the way people talk about pop.
The release in August of Swift's single 'Look What You Made Me Do' was a gala day for those who would claim that social media brings out the worst in people, as tweeters competed for the best snarkily dismissive line. Swift, already maligned as duplicitous and ruthless after the kerfuffle over Kanye West's 'Famous', tried to reclaim the advantage by acknowledging her own vengeful dark side. In a bizarre backfire, she ended up accused of dogwhistling Nazis, and has become such a byword for baddie that she was an inspiration for Luv, the groomed replicant villain from Blade Runner 2049 and was last week castigated for being“a musical envoy for Trump’s values” in a Guardian editorial. Yes, an editorial.
These are scenes scarcely imaginable on the release of Swift's last album1989, when the internet groaned under the weight of headlines such as "A Reasonable Conversation About Taylor Swift's New Album Which Is The Best Album Ever", or "21 Reasons Why Taylor Swift Owned 2014".
I've no intention of defending Swift's honour; terabytes have already been written on her wrongs and rights, and I'm pretty sure a 27-year-old multimillionaire Nashville graduate can weather a bit of social media pushback. I'm more interested in the backlash itself: the shift, in three years, from almost unbearable critical adoration to a point where no one's got anything nice to commission about her – apart from, of course, the album reviews, which have in general, conceded that her songs are still quite good.
But why take issue with a few daft articles, with a little overexcitement, overthinking and overreaction? Pop is all about mania, obsession and hype, no? Hyperbole is built into its structure.
The problem for me is that breathless, brainless language – and in case you think this is just killjoy sneering at other people's enthusiasm, here is my capslocky tweet from the day I attended the London premiere of Katy Perry's 3D film Part Of Me – infects what we expect of pop music. Swift's journey from messiah to monster demonstrates that uncritical adulation, quite apart from how boring it can be to read over and over again, is unsustainable; hot air creates a bubble that can only ever burst, and when it does, it's not good for anyone involved.
This vicious new iteration of the old build-'em-up, knock-'em-down cycle seems like an unfortunate side-effect of poptimism, at first a fringe school of thought championed by the likes of Popjustice in the early 2000s, but now taken as read at most music publications. The movement asserted, in the words of Slate’s Jody Rosen that "pop (and, especially, hip-hop) producers are as important as rock auteurs, Beyoncé is as worthy of serious consideration as Bruce Springsteen, and ascribing shame to pop pleasure is itself a shameful act."
I wrote a piece a while back about the tendency of poptimism to assume that pop was automatically more progressive than rock, but when it began, the shift in thinking was both necessary and a cultural inevitability: the rise in great pop at the turn of the millennium demanded to be taken seriously, and the shifting commercial power of the genres – with pop and rap now often outselling rock – demanded recalibration. Though it's not purely a new phenomenon – rock and indie publications and websites have long covered mainstream pop that strayed into their world or was just too good to ignore – thanks to poptimism there's now more really great, in-depth, interesting pop writing out there than ever.
But still it feels like the zeal with which indie nerds lately reconverted to the cause of pop, as many poptimists are, demand equal respect for pop music leads them to talk about it in a register so self-consciously superlative, jokey and artificial, that it doesn't actually sound like respect at all. In the enthusiasm arms race, a new Rihanna single can't just be really good, but OMG the best thing ever, I am dead, gif gif, unnecessary inverted commas and CAPS LOCK TO FADE. If we believe that pop isn't just for tweens – and that the tastes of tweens are as valid anyway – why do critics so often do bad impressions of them when writing about it?
Of course, there's an understandable element of épater le £50-quid man in forcefully celebrating pop, rather than waste your breath explaining its value to the benighted for the millionth time.You don't need to stray far beyond the safe circle of those who can appreciate the glory of Dua Lipa's New Rules to find others who still think Beyoncé is a talentless tart who needs other people to write her songs for her, that pop music is plastic commercial trash, and that Dave Grohl is a holy saint working miracles in the church of Joe Strummer. Stray into any newspaper comment section on a story about Swift, Rihanna, Gaga, whoever, and you'll find such sage observations as "I'd trade all of the Saylor Twits and her ilk just to have Leonard Cohen back", or indeed, still on the subject of Swift, this classic: "What she actually needs to do is to get far away from the teeny boppers she's been embracing for so long and find herself a earthly man of 30 who has NO ties to entertainment whatsoever and NOT make her private life a song and a dance." They're all there, typing away, waiting to send you screaming back into the arms of poptimism's shock troops, beginning for another Rihanna reaction gif to cleanse your mind.
And it is, talking of Rihanna, mainly the women of pop who attract this hyperinflation of praise. She and Beyoncé are in a different league to Swift, of course – much of their adoration relates to their increasingly daring and complex articulation of black women's experience within the pop form; Lemonade and Anti are a class above anything Swift is ever likely to achieve. To expect the addictive, euphoric songs of 1989 to carry the cultural expectation that was placed on them was, frankly, a category mistake. But if Beyoncé and Rihanna are worthier of worship, and their pedestals rest on stronger foundations, they'll still have to be incredibly sure-footed to stay up there. The poptimist pantheon, the volte-face on Swift suggests, is a zero-sum game: you're either a paragon or a pariah.
The intense adulation of pop women is doubtless well-intentioned; there's a growing din of antifeminist voices out there, and the world is in general, an utter state. You can understand why so many long to throw themselves beneath the chariot wheels of a pop goddess in imperial phase, yelling "KWEEN! SLAY!" with their dying breath. But heaven help the deity who proves their humanity by erring. The New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino wrote a great piece last year about the intense discourse surrounding famous females, writing "it's clear that women still attract a certain kind of heated veneration that can't yet be entirely separated from hate. The process of anointing an idol is dangerous to our idols, and perhaps to our own psyches, even when conducted on the best of terms."
Idols always fall, and it always gets ugly: it's a surety that when these women fail to live up to ludicrous expectations, those who formerly praised them (or commissioned praise) will seek to save face by overcorrecting their overestimations with a new raft of negative hot takes. (And all the while, editorial time and space are being detracted from other, smaller acts, who would be happy with just one little tepid take.) There was great critical writing about Swift: Ellie Woodward's Buzzfeed article painted a powerful picture of her as calculated, always playing the victim while manouevring for the upper position, Devon Maloney's Medium essay invited us to look behind the veil and see a cynical, self-serving manipulation of her fanbase, masquerading as girl-next-door niceness, and Laura Snapes provided a lucid overview of the madness in the Guardian. Such articles are necessary: as one of the highest-earning musicians in the world, Swift's business practices should be scrutinised every bit as much as a multinational CEO, and if she did need defending, most would struggle when it came to her embarrassing and tiresomely half-arsed public tit-for-tat with Katy Perry or worse, her Verified Fan scheme, which encourages loyal Swifties to do promotional work for her in order to be able to buy tour tickets. (There’s something too, in the criticism that she chooses only the parts of feminism that are easy, fun and make her look good, like the ideological equivalent of a Halloween sexy witch; though taking a groper to court can’t be that fun, no matter how good your one-liners on the stand are.)
But salient points about Swift’s mistakes were caught up in a weirdly vehement wave of dross such as articles debating whether Beyoncé and Gaga were a better example of female friendship than Swift's "squad" based on a couple of Instagram posts, and in familiar-feeling misogynist narratives: the hidden ugliness behind the beauty, the hypocrisy of the "Nazi cheerleader" to borrow Camille Paglia's dreadful phrase, who presented herself as an average, good-hearted goof while all the time being a mercenary snake. Her fuckups and failings were presented not as missteps or flaws, but revealing indications of the evil that we all should have seen behind her new-best-friend facade back in 2014.
But maybe whether, in the parlance of poptimists, you are Team Taylor or Team Not Taylor, we should have our eyes open from the start when it comes to pop stars. We're all grownups, no matter how many firework emojis we deploy, and we all know how the pop business works – all music that's sold for consumption must find a balance between art, fan community and profit, and commercial pop is termed such because it tends to skew more towards the latter. Poptimism encourages us, rightly, to see the art in pop as we see the art in big-budget movies - but with both, we should be mindful of the business end too.
And there's the rub. Taylor Swift is, as Noisey’s Sarah MacDonald amusingly observed, too big to fail. Her album Reputation was the biggest-selling of the year in the US, and topped the UK chart. Snake emojis cannot strike at her heel, catty tweets cannot scratch her. Her downfall was far more damaging for pop fans than it was for her, not least because bullying behaviour – and yes, snarky tweet-offs are bullying behaviour – is bad for the bully even if the blows don’t land on the would-be bullied.
Plus, talking about pop in this boom-and-bust way devalues it, playing into the hands of those who view it – sexistly, rockistly, yes – as hysterical, superficial, empty. Appraisal of pop, or any music, shouldn’t be sober and serious-faced – it should fizz with excitement, but one finger at least should remain on planet Earth. We undersell the magic of pop when we talk about it as if its brilliance has shorted out most of our language circuits. And we often undersell other genres, too – analysis consistently tells us that we are past the age of musical tribalism, yet I still frequently see people setting exciting, shiny pop music against boring, hoary old rock as if they are rivals. Pop has, in commercial and critical terms, if not out there in the wilds of Below The Line, already won; it can afford to be a beneficent, live-and-let-live ruler, and its courtiers can surely relax a little. In 2018, let’s take a lesson from the less-than-surprising notion that one of the richest and most successful young women in the world is not only funny, smart and a good songwriter, but – shock – driven, fallible and occasionally as much a bit of an arse as most of us. Pop songs might occasionally feel like magic, but there are no real unicorns.A few weeks ago, devoted listeners of National Public Radio * were treated to an episode of the award-winning radio series The Infinite Mindcalled”Prozac Nation: Revisited.” The segment featured four prestigious medical experts discussing the controversial link between antidepressants and suicide. In their considered opinions, all four said that worries about the drugs have been overblown.
The radio show, which was broadcast nationwide and paid for in part by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, had the air of quiet, authoritative credibility. Host Dr. Fred Goodwin, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, interviewed three prominent guests, and any radio producer would be hard-pressed to find a more seemingly credible quartet. Credible, that is, except for a crucial detail that was never revealed to listeners: All four of the experts on the show, including Goodwin, have financial ties to the makers of antidepressants. Also unmentioned were the “unrestricted grants” that TheInfinite Mind has received from drug makers, including Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of the antidepressant Prozac.
We don’t know just how much funding or when the show last received it, since neither Goodwin nor the show’s producers responded to repeated requests for interviews. But the larger point is that undisclosed financial conflicts of interest among media sources seem to be popping up all over the place these days. Some experts who appear independent are, in fact, serving as stealth marketers for the drug and biotech industries, and reporters either don’t know about their sources’ conflicts of interests, or they fail to disclose them to the public.
Take the November 2006 NBC Nightly News story that asked, “Can lung scans really prevent cancer death?” Reporter Mike Taibbi, a former smoker, underwent scanning by Dr. Claudia Henschke, a professor of radiology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. Henschke claimed on the show that early detection with lung scans could prevent 80 percent of deaths from lung cancer. Although Taibbi included another expert who said that Henschke’s claim was “outrageous,” viewers were left with little way to evaluate the two conflicting viewpoints. And Taibbi himself concluded that early detection was his “best chance.” At no point did viewers learn that Henschke’s research was funded by a tobacco company, which has an investment in making the risks of smoking appear to be manageable—or that many experts warn that more research is needed to determine whether the potential benefits of scanning outweigh its harms.
How frequently are journalists glossing over such conflicts? Gary Schwitzer, a professor of journalism at the University of Minnesota, is the publisher of HealthNewsReview.org, a Web site that reviews health care news for balance, accuracy, and completeness. Schwitzer and his team of reviewers have looked at 544 stories from top outlets over the two-year period from April 2006 to April 2008. Journalists had to meet several criteria in order to receive a satisfactory score, among them: They had to quote an independent expert—someone not involved in the relevant research—and they had to make some attempt to report potential conflicts of interest. Half the stories failed to meet these two requirements, Schwitzer says.
Conflicts of interest abound even in unexpected places. A recent survey of academic medical centers published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 60 percent of academic department chairs have personal ties to industry—serving as consultants, board members, or paid speakers, while two-thirds of the academic departments had institutional ties to industry. Such ties can be extremely lucrative. And according to these articles in the medical literature, researchers who receive funding from drug and medical-device manufacturers are up to 3.5 times as likely to conclude their study drug or medical device works than are researchers without such funding.
An equally clever way for companies to get out their marketing messages is to go through a consumer group. Drug companies often seed “pharm teams,” consumer groups that start out as legitimate advocacy organizations and are subtly manipulated by funding from pharmaceutical companies to convey the desired talking points. Unless reporters ask where groups and individual researchers get their money, they have no idea that their sources may be biased—and neither do their readers, viewers, and listeners.
Which brings us back to TheInfinite Mind and “Prozac Nation: Revisited,” a show that may stand in a class by itself for concealing bias. In addition to the show’s unrestricted grants from Lilly, the host, Goodwin, is on the board of directors of Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, an industry-funded front, or “Astroturf” group, which receives a majority of its funding from drug companies. CMPI President Peter Pitts was one of Goodwin’s three guests for “Prozac Nation.” We don’t know which companies fund his group because when we asked him, Pitts said, “I don’t want to go into that.” But CMPI took in more than $1.4 million in 2006 and, according to its tax forms, spent $210,000 to influence the media through a large conference, a blog the group maintains, op-eds published in major newspapers, and multimedia programs and podcasts. Pitts has another title that might have been relevant to The Infinite Mind; he is the senior vice president for global health affairs at the PR firm Manning Selvage & Lee, which represents Eli Lilly Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, and more than a dozen other pharmaceutical companies. Yet on the show, Pitts was identified only by his title as “a former FDA official.”
The second guest on “Prozac Nation,” Andrew F. Leuchter, is a professor of psychiatry at UCLA who has received research money from drug companies including Eli Lilly Inc., Pfizer, and Novartis. The third guest, Nada Stotland, president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association, has served on the speakers’ bureaus of GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. None of Leuchter and Stotland’s ties to industry was revealed to listeners—instead, each was introduced as a prominent academic.
TheInfinite Mind’s Web site states, “Our independence is perhaps our greatest asset.” Perhaps, indeed. Neither Goodwin nor the show’s producers responded to our repeated requests for interviews and queries about their funding. Pitts, who to his credit did give us an interview, said he didn’t know why his ties to industry weren’t revealed on the show. Curious, we tried to learn more about the funding for TheInfinite Mind—and could discover only that the show’s award-winning production company, Lichtenstein Creative Media, was dissolved by the state of Massachusetts on March 28 for failing to file a single annual report since its establishment in 2004.
Some reporters and producers argue that they can’t be expected to ask every source whether he or she gets money from the drug industry. But there are obvious first steps to take. A list of academic researchers who are known to have financial ties to the drug and medical-device industries is available through the Center for Science in the Public Interest. (Yes, the name is a lot like the Astroturf group we mentioned earlier—coincidence?) To be fair, the list is inevitably incomplete, and Astroturf groups and academics with undeclared financial ties can make it difficult to ferret out their financial conflicts.
In hopes of making reporters’ jobs a little easier, we’ve created for journalists an international list of prestigious and independent medical experts who declare they have no financial ties to drug and device manufacturers for at least the past five years. We have nearly 100 experts from a wide array of disciplines. E-mail us at Brownlee.Lenzer@gmail.com, and we’ll be happy to name names.
Correction, May 9, 2008: After this piece posted, Slate posted a correction saying that the piece had incorrectly stated that The Infinite Mind is carried on National Public Radio, rather than public radio stations. We now understand from NPR’s ombudsman, Alicia Shepard, that it was the correction that was wrong. In fact, NPR has a contractual relationship with The Infinite Mind to run the show on two Sirius channels. The show also runs on NPR member stations. Return to the corrected sentence.)14-bis The 14-bis in its final form in November 1906, with octagonal-planform interplane ailerons Role Experimental/Pioneer aircraft Manufacturer Alberto Santos-Dumont Designer Alberto Santos-Dumont First flight September 7, 1906 Number built 1
The 14-bis (Quatorze-bis), also known as Oiseau de proie ("bird of prey" in French),[1] was a pioneer era canard biplane designed and built by Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont. In 1906 near Paris the 14-bis made a manned powered flight that was the first to be publicly witnessed by a crowd and the first by an aeroplane outside the U.S.[2]
Background [ edit ]
In June 1905 Gabriel Voisin flew a glider which was towed by a fast boat on the River Seine, making a flight of over 150 m (500 ft). The glider's wing and tail were made up of Hargrave cells, a box kite-like structure that provided a degree of inherent stability. This established the Hargrave cell as a configuration useful not only for kites but also for heavier-than-air aircraft.[3] Santos-Dumont was living in Paris at the time, and was one of the most active "aeronauts" in Europe, having developed a series of non-rigid airships that displayed unparalleled agility, speed, endurance, and ease of control. Santos-Dumont met Voisin at the end of 1905, and commissioned him to help him construct an aircraft with the intention of attempting to win one of the prizes for heavier-than-air flights offered by the Aéro-Club de France to promote the development of heavier-than-air aviation in France.[4] These included the Coupe Ernest Archdeacon prize of a silver trophy and 1500 francs for the first flight of 25 m (82 ft) and another prize of 1500 francs for the first flight of 100 m (330 ft).[5]
Design [ edit ]
Santos-Dumont supervised construction of a Hargrave-cell (box kite-like) biplane powered by an Antoinette engine. The wings, each made up of three cells, were at the back and configured with pronounced dihedral to make the aircraft laterally stable. The 37 kW (50 hp) Antoinette liquid-cooled, fuel-injected V8 engine was mounted at the extreme rear end of the fuselage, itself located almost vertically equidistant between the biplane wing panels' wing roots, with the rear-mount engine driving a pusher propeller, and the pilot stood in a balloon basket immediately in front of the engine. A movable boxkite-style cell at the nose, pivoted on a universal joint within it and controlled by cables was intended for yaw and pitch control. This layout would later come to be called a "canard configuration". It was constructed from bamboo and pine joined by aluminium sockets and was covered with Japanese silk.[6]
Operational history [ edit ]
14-bis at the Château de Bagatelle grounds, suspended from the envelope of Santos-Dumont's No.14 airship. Theat the Château de Bagatelle grounds, suspended from the envelope of Santos-Dumont's No.14 airship.
The first trials of the aircraft were made on 22 July 1906 at Santos-Dumont's grounds at Neuilly, where it had been assembled. In order to simulate flight conditions, Santos-Dumont attached the aircraft under his latest non-rigid airship, the Number 14, which is why the aircraft came to be known as the "14-bis".[7] The aircraft was then transported to the grounds of the Château de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne, where there was more space. The forces imposed by the aircraft pulled dangerously at the airship's envelope, nearly tearing it and only allowing limited control.[citation needed] The danger of these tests caused Santos-Dumont and his team to quickly abandon them, although some useful information was obtained that led to adjustments in the balance and weight distribution of the aircraft.
Further trials were made with the aircraft hung from a rope attached to pulleys running along a 60 m (200 ft) long steel cable slung between two posts, one 13.5 m (44 ft) high and the other 7 m (23 ft) high,[8] much like a zip-line or tyrolienne of today.
The first free-flight trials of the 14-bis took place at the Polo Ground in the Bois de Boulogne on 21 August, but were halted by damage to the newly fitted aluminium-bladed propeller, which replaced one with silk-covered wooden blades.[9] After repairs another trial took place the following day; although the nosewheel left the ground, the aircraft had insufficient power to take off, and Santos-Dumont decided to replace the engine with a 37 kW (50 hp) Antoinette.[9] Trials resumed on 4 September without great success, and on 7 September, after the propeller was damaged, a new slightly larger one was fitted.[10]
On 13 September 1906 Aéro-Club de France observers gathered to witness an attempt to make a prize-winning flight. The aircraft failed to take off during a first attempt, but during the second it lifted and flew between 4 and 7 metres (13 and 23 ft) at an altitude of about 70 cm (28 in). The aircraft then landed in a nose-up attitude, breaking the propeller and bringing an end to the day's experiments. This brief flight did not qualify for any prize, but earned Santos-Dumont an ovation from the crowd.[9]
On 23 October, after a series of engine tests and high-speed ground runs (one of which ended as one wheel came loose, but this was quickly fixed), Santos-Dumont made a flight of over 50 m (160 ft) at an altitude of 3–5 m (9.8–16.4 ft).[11] This earned Santos-Dumont the first of the aviation prizes, 3,000 francs for a flight of 25 m (82 ft) or more.
14-bis flying over the Château de Bagatelle grounds on 23 October. Theflying over the Château de Bagatelle grounds on 23 October.
Monument at Bagatelle to Santos-Dumont's flight of 12 November and its first world record.
This landing damaged the aircraft slightly, but Santos-Dumont announced that he should be ready to attempt the 100 meters prize on 12 November. The 14-bis was repaired, and octagonal ailerons were added to the middle of each outermost wing cell, with the surfaces pivoting between the outermost forward struts. These were operated by cables attached to the shoulders of the pilot's flightsuit, somewhat like the hip-movement wing-warping control of the Wright Flyer. On the morning of 12 November 1906 the aviation community of France assembled at the Chateau de Bagatelle's grounds to witness Santos Dumont's next attempt. As Santos-Dumont allowed the 14-bis to run down the field, a car drove alongside, from which Henry Farman dropped a plate each time he observed the wheels of the aircraft leave the ground or touch down again. The first attempt achieved a 5-second flight of about 40 m (130 ft) around 40 cm off the ground, and the second two brief flights of 40 and 50 m (160 ft). A hurried landing due to the proximity of some trees after this second attempt damaged the wheel axles, and these were fixed during a lunch break. In the afternoon, further flights of 50 meters and then 82 m (269 ft) (achieving about 40 km/h), this one interrupted by the proximity of a polo barrier. As the sun set, Santos-Dumont attempted one more flight. In order to ensure he would not hit the spectators, who by this time were all over the field, he pulled up while flying over them. After 22 seconds, he cut the engine and glided in to land. He had flown for 220 meters (over 700 ft), qualifying for the second aviation prize offered for heavier-than-air-aircraft, 1,000 francs for a flight of 100 meters or more. This was the last recorded flight of the aircraft.[12] The next notable Santos-Dumont flights were made in November 1907, flying his No. 19 Demoiselle.[13]
14-bis vs. Wright Flyer [ edit ]
Some contend that the 14-bis rather than Wright Flyer was the first true airplane.[14] For takeoff the 1903 Wright Flyer used a launch rail and a wheeled dolly which was left on the ground; the airplane landed on skids due to the sandy landing surface at Kitty Hawk.[15] After 1903 the Wrights used a catapult to assist most takeoffs of their 1904 and 1905 airplanes. The Santos-Dumont 14-bis did not use a catapult and ran on wheels located at the back of the aircraft, with a skid under the front of the fuselage.
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (F.A.I.) ("International Federation of Aeronautics"), founded in France in 1905 to "regulate the sport of flying" and to keep track of aviation records and other aeronautical activities, stated among its rules that an aircraft should be able to take off under its own power in order to qualify for a record. Many Brazilians therefore hold the 14-bis as the first airplane and Santos-Dumont is revered as Father of Aviation in the country. On October 5, 1905 Wilbur made a circling flight of 24 miles (38.9 km) in 39 minutes 23 seconds,[16] over Huffman Prairie near Dayton, Ohio, a year before Santos-Dumont's 50 metres (160 ft) flight earned him his first aviation award.
Written and photographic documentation by the Wrights authenticated by historians shows that the 1903 Wright Flyer accomplished takeoffs in a strong headwind without a catapult and made controlled and sustained flight nearly three years before Santos Dumont made his first takeoff.[17][18][19] Official records and motion picture footage show that the 14-bis achieved unaided takeoff on wheels.[citation needed]
Specifications [ edit ]
Data from www.aviafrance.com[20]
General characteristics
Crew: one pilot
one pilot Length: 9.60 m (31 ft 10 in)
9.60 m (31 ft 10 in) Wingspan: 11.46 m (36 ft 9 in)
11.46 m (36 ft 9 in) Height: 3.75 m (11 ft 2 in)
3.75 m (11 ft 2 in) Wing area: 52 m² (560 ft²)
52 m² (560 ft²) Loaded weight: 290 kg (661 lb)
290 kg (661 lb) Powerplant: 1 × Antoinette 8V V-8 piston engine, 37 kW (50 hp)
Performance
Media [ edit ]
Legacy [ edit ]
The 14-bis was featured as one of the highlights of Brazil during the 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.[21]
References [ edit ]
Notes
BibliographyTheFishPi/Twitter
What could make an awesome $35 bare-bones Linux system even more awesome? Sending it on an excellent, solar-powered trans-Atlantic journey, of course!
The FishPi project is one man's dream to use the Raspberry Pi microsystem to pilot a tiny craft across the ocean.
The idea is not just to redefine the term "budget cruise," but to prove that the inexpensive system can successfully guide and control a trans-oceanic vessel. The visionary behind the project, Greg Holloway, is currently working on a proof-of-concept vehicle for the project -- dubbed Fish Pi. Here's how he describes the plan on the project site:
The proof-of-concept Vehicle (POCV) will be battery powered, and only run the bare essentials needed to navigate the craft on a small body of water, a lake for example. The RPi will be tasked with running the electronic speed controller (ESC), which in turn manages the electric motor, taking GPS positioning information and combining that with waypoint and route information to calculate the rudder commands to navigate the POCV to predetermined locations, and take photographs and or video during its test missions.
TheFishPi/Tiwtter
The POCV is just the first step, of course. If all goes well, Holloway will continue to step up the project to a craft that can actually make it across the ocean, which is an ambition worthy of a Thor Heyerdahl for the Digital Age (Google him; he was a badass builder of crazy boats).
Here's hoping the dream comes to fruition. Heck, maybe one day Raspberry Pi will power a yacht big enough to carry Linus Torvalds and hundreds of his favorite journalists around the world.
(Via Wired)In-depth true crime reporting has never been hotter. It started in 2014 when Sarah Koenig and “This American Life” released the podcast “Serial”, which explored the murder of Hae Min Lee. The podcast shattered download records and was, presumably, somewhat responsible for continued efforts around the case.
Last year, HBO released the documentary The Jinx, which scrutinized Robert Durst, who was involved in three murders – it was huge. Netflix documentary, Making A Murderer, was just recently released on December 18th and explores the Steven Avery trial in which he is accused of the murder of Teresa Halbach. It has followed in the footsteps of “Serial” and The Jinx, drawing in massive viewer numbers. And when I say “massive”, I mean everybody has watched it. More interestingly though, everybody is talking about it.
Crowd Sourced Investigations
One of the more fascinating aspects of all three of these documentaries is the white-hot discussions they’ve ignited across online forums like Reddit. During the first season of Serial, thousands of listeners discussed and dissected the case, exchanging theories, questions, and relevant “evidence” (as determined by the Redditors themselves).
The same phenomenon can be seen with The Jinx and Making A Murderer; armchair detectives are congregating by the thousands, all obsessed with figuring out what actually happened.
But is this a good thing? Is it helping or hurting? What is the value, if any, coming out of these crowdsourced investigations?
Pros
There are several benefits to not only these documentaries but their spin-off discussion groups. First, these cases are receiving an insane amount of exposure. Would the majority of people know about Steven Avery or Adnan Syed if these documentaries hadn’t been made and the open forum discussions entertained? Probably not. If these cases truly were miscarriages (or at least unconvincing applications) of justice, as the documentaries claim, then the exposure and general interest is a good thing. The more eyes and voices, the more pressure there is on the institutions to chase integrity.
A second benefit is that hundreds of thousands of people are being recruited to fight for the innocence of those involved. Both “Serial” and Making A Murderer imply (more so in the latter) that the accused could very well be innocent. The Manitowoc County Courthouse is being deluged with requests for the Steven Avery records, all by amateur sleuths wanting to dig deeper. More sources for potential breakthroughs and again, more pressure to get it right for those who may be in a position to change course.
And the documentaries have certainly brought about change; Adnan is getting a new hearing examining evidence brought to light in “Serial” and over 129,000 people signed a Whitehouse petition asking that Steven Avery be pardoned.
Cons
But with all the good that has come about from these shows, there are still some significant problems with the crowdsourced investigations happening on Reddit and other discussion forums.
First, it should be noted that no change has come about directly because of amateur investigations. In other words, the discussions online haven’t uncovered new evidence, identified new suspects, or directly brought about new trials. Adnan’s trial is the result of evidence uncovered by the “Serial” team, not by Reddit investigators. The White House responded to the Steven Avery petition, saying the case needed to be handled at the state level.
Second, the Reddit forums have brought some unwelcome scrutiny to the families of the victims, particularly in the case of “Serial”. Hae Min Lee’s brother posted the following on the “Serial” subreddit:
To you listeners, its another murder mystery, crime drama, another episode of CSI. You weren’t there to see your mom crying every night, having a heartattck when she got the new that the body was found, and going to court almost everyday for a year seeing your mom weeping,crying and fainting. You don’t know what we went through. Especially to those who are demanding our family response and having a meetup… you guys are disgusting. SHame on you. I pray that you don’t have to go through what we went through and have your story blasted to 5 |
’s pool of beneficiaries. Take two people with identical sex lives: The PrEP user is denied insurance; the person who doesn’t use PrEP is covered. That make zero sense. And worse, it actually risks discouraging use of a powerful tool that could help end the HIV epidemic.
And the fact is that most people at risk for HIV in the United States are not yet on PrEP. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1.2 million people could benefit from PrEP. Yet, since PrEP was approved by the FDA in 2012 there have only been about 145,000 total PrEP users. Before the advent of PrEP, life, disability, and long-term care insurers did not assess for HIV risk. They did not ask applicants about sexual practices or condom use and make underwriting decisions on that basis. But with the advent of PrEP, they are carving out and excluding just a small percentage of the whole group of people who have some risk for HIV—those who use the most effective prevention tool. This is discrimination, not a rational policy.
From the earliest days of HIV, we have often said: We’re not going to end this epidemic if myths, fear and discrimination interfere with our best public health policies. We need to be doing everything we can to end the stigma associated with PrEP so that people can make decisions based on what’s best for their own health, not based on barriers to access or fear of discrimination. The corporate practices of these insurance companies reflect and reinforce stigma. They put the public health at risk by creating an incentive to avoid or delay PrEP.
This “no PrEP users need apply” policy belongs on the long list of just plain stupid beliefs about HIV transmission that have been proffered over the course of the epidemic.
Many of the companies perpetuating this policy and practice are Fortune 500 companies and some, like Aetna, John Hancock, State Farm, and Mutual of Omaha have a 100% approval rating from Human Rights Campaign (HRC). These corporations can’t wave the rainbow flag with one hand and with the other turn us away because of our sex lives. It’s time to end the PrEP exclusion in America’s insurance industry.
Read more about Doe v. Mutual of Omaha Insurance CompanyNORTH BRADDOCK (KDKA)-Allegheny County homicide detectives are looking into a deadly shooting in North Braddock.
Police were called to the 1500-block of Grandview Avenue around 1 a.m. Tuesday.
When officers arrived, they discovered a Alan White, 44, of Wilkinsburg, with a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police believe White was trying to steal the aluminum downspouts from the house. The homeowner saw the suspect and called 911.
White allegedly went after the 62-year-old homeowner, who pulled out a gun and shot him.
The homeowner and another man were taken to Allegheny County Police Headquarters for questioning.
“The resident will be interviewed,” Schurman said. “We will consult with the district attorney’s office and turn over the findings to them, figure out what course of action to take from there.”
North Braddock neighbors said these types of thefts have become all too common.
They said there was just a copper theft a street down this past weekend. Some, like Dominic Martin, are worried they could be next.
“I was actually thinking of getting a gun myself, but since we have that security house alarm I said, ‘You know, but maybe I might have to do that,’” Martin said.
Allegheny County Police ask that anyone who heard or saw anything along Grandview Avenue at 1 a.m. contact them at (412)-473-1300.Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is doubling down on her criticism of President Trump, saying in a tweet that he "doesn't belong in the White House."
"Trump is a lying, indecent man who has offended so many people in this country & around the world -except [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. He doesn't belong in the [White House]," Waters wrote late Monday.
Trump is a lying, indecent man who has offended so many people in this country & around the world -except Putin. He doesn't belong in the WH — Maxine Waters (@MaxineWaters) March 28, 2017
Waters has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the president and has called for his impeachment on multiple occasions.
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“The only thing that I am focused on is credible investigations to bring out the facts. … If the facts are there, then I think we should move very quickly to do something about it. And if there was collusion [with Russia], and any support for undermining our democracy, I think the president should be impeached,” Waters said earlier this month on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” program.
“I’ve said that, and that’s where I stand.”Canadians lost a reported $90 million to scams last year, but the total could be much higher, according to the Better Business Bureau.
The BBB's newly released list of the top 10 scams of 2016 includes information from the bureau's scam tracker website, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and concerns from community partners.
Danielle Primrose, president of the Better Business Bureau of Mainland B.C., said the biggest scam last year involved fake employment recruiting.
"Even though it wasn't the largest reported loss, it was reported all across Canada," she said.
As part of the scam, callers "hire" people over the phone or online, and ask them for banking information so they can get paid. Instead, they get robbed.
Employment scams — involving a person giving banking information to someone offering a job that doesn't exist — was the most prevalent scam in 2016. (Seokyong Lee/Bloomberg News)
"The scammers are getting very savvy now," said Primrose. "They're getting people to fill out a lot of paperwork and they make it look very official. They'll send you a signing bonus and then ask you to wire money back or send it to another employee."
Other scams that made the top 10 this year included online dating, investment fraud and the notorious Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) tax hoax.
Unreported losses could be much higher
In addition to getting more savvy, the scammers are also getting more profitable, according to Primrose.
The $90-million loss is much higher than in 2015, when $61 million in losses was reported, and 2014, when scammers took $71 million.
While the higher number could be due to increased reporting, Primrose said the vast majority of scams remain unreported.
"We think [$90 million] is only around five per cent of the total loss," she said. "If you do the math, it could be as high as $1.8 billion."
Primrose said many people are reluctant to report a scam because they are embarrassed or don't know where to report. She recommended contacting a local authority or the Better Business Bureau.
Even if you have already been scammed and lost money, it's still important to report it as the statistics are helpful to track the scam, she added.
Top 10 scams
Here are the top 10 scams of 2016 and how much was lost based on the people reporting them:
Employment: $5.3 million. Online dating: $17 million. Identity fraud: $11 million. Advance fee loans: $1.1 million. Online purchases: $8.6 million. Wire fraud spear phishing: $13 million. Binary option scams: $7.5 million. Fake lottery winnings: $3 million. Scam involving person claiming to be from CRA: $4.3 million. Fake online endorsements: Amount unknown.
With files from The Early Edition
To listen to the interview, click on the link labelled Better Business Bureau on top ten scams of 2016The Senate voted Monday to confirm billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as secretary of commerce in President Trump's Cabinet.
Ross was approved by a vote of 72-27, with 20 Democrats and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, joining 51 Republicans to vote "aye." Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., did not vote due to his ongoing recovery from back surgery.
The Senate later voted 67-31 to move forward on the nomination of Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., to lead the Interior Department. A final vote on Zinke's confirmation is expected Wednesday.
Ross is the 14th member of Trump's Cabinet to be cofirmed, with seven nominees still to be voted on.
Senators from both political parties were deferential to Ross at his nearly four-hour confirmation hearing, which was much more subdued than the confirmation hearings of other Trump nominees.
Former Commerce secretaries have praised him, including one who served under former President Barack Obama.
"I believe his extensive management experience in the private sector, and his understanding of the challenges faced by workers and businesses alike, will equip him well for the job of leading the Department of Commerce," said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of the Commerce Committee.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who voted "nay," had criticized Ross' business ties to Russia and the way he ran a mortgage lender during the housing crisis.
"Mr. Ross has extensive ties to Russia. He plans to keep making money from his major oil shipping companies while working as Commerce Secretary. He's made billions off the backs of struggling home owners," Warren said. "He is practically a cartoon stereotype of a Wall Street fat cat."
At his confirmation hearing, Ross was not asked about business ties to Russia or his work as a mortgage lender, and he did not address the issues.
Senators did note that Ross is divesting from much of his business empire.
Breaking with Republican orthodoxy, Ross said the Trump administration will work quickly to re-do the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a massive trade pact with Canada and Mexico that has boosted trade but still stings laid-off workers across the Midwest.
Ross said all free trade agreements should be systematically re-opened every few years to make sure they are working in the best interests of the U.S.
Ross said he is pro-free trade but noted his close relationship with the United Steelworkers union as proof that he will fight to protect American jobs. The union has endorsed him.
NAFTA was negotiated and signed by President Bill Clinton, with broad support among Republicans in Congress.
Worth an estimated $2.9 billion, Ross has extensive business ties around the globe. In 2000, he founded WL Ross & Co., a private equity firm. As part of his ethics agreement, Ross will divest from the firm, if confirmed.
The commerce secretary has several roles in promoting American business interests in the U.S. and abroad. The department handles trade issues, working to attract foreign investment to the U.S. The department also oversees agencies that manage fisheries, weather forecasting and the Census Bureau, which will conduct a count in 2020.
Ross said he has experience at that agency; he was a census-taker while he attended business school.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
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At least 111 Kurdish YPG fighters killed in recent attacks by Turkey, Islamists
ARA News
The US-led coalition against ISIS will keep account of every single weapon supplied to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in order to allay Turkish concerns, a coalition spokesman said.
“All of the elements of the SDF who are receiving equipment must pass our vetting process. They will also make an obligation and sign to fight only ISIS and to uphold the laws of armed conflict,” US Army Colonel Ryan Dillon said.
“The SDF commanders will sign for, by serial number, all the equipment that we are giving and we’ll maintain that in our database. And we will share that information with allies to the north who are concerned about the weapons that we are providing,” he said, with reference to NATO-ally Turkey.
“We will have advisors as well that are going to be with our SDF elements. And as much as they can, they will be with them as they are advising them in the seizure of Raqqa. And any misuse that does not go towards fighting ISIS or is found used elsewhere, could potentially curtail any further support on what we may give to them in the future,” the coalition spokesman said.
The Turkish government has strongly objected the arming of the Kurds in Syria. However, since the Kurds are the only force capable of fighting ISIS in Raqqa, the Trump administration decided to continue to support them.
Arming Kurds Ahead of Raqqa Operation
The United States has begun sending small arms to Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State (ISIS) group in northern Syria. The Pentagon confirmed that the weapons shipments began ahead of an upcoming offensive to recapture Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIS in northern Syria.
“We have begun to transfer small arms and vehicles to the Kurdish elements” of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Pentagon spokesman Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway said on Tuesday.
The weapons sent to the SDF’s Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) include AK-47s and small-calibre machine guns, Rankine-Galloway added.
US President Donald Trump earlier this month approved arming the YPG fighters, angering Turkey. The Pentagon said then that the YPG are “the only force on the ground that can successfully seize Raqqa in the near future”.
Turkish officials have warned the US that its decision to arm Kurdish forces fighting ISIS in Syria could end up hurting Washington.
Ankara says YPG fighters are linked to Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) inside Turkey, who have been in fight with the Turkish authorities since 1984–a conflict that has claimed the lives of over 40,000 people.
Turkey considers the Kurdish forces to be “terrorists” and fears any weapons sent to the YPG could end up in the hands of the PKK.
The SDF has been encircling Raqqa since November. The US-backed force has now advanced to within a few miles of the ISIS stronghold on several fronts, and this month captured the strategic town of Tabqa and the adjacent dam.
Following the capture of Tabqa, the SDF said it will soon begin a final attack to capture Raqqa.
Reporting by: Wladimir van Wilgenburg | Source: ARA News
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Join our Weekly NewsletterResolution does not allow for military enforcement of demands, despite calls from Arab countries for use of force against Houthis
The UN security council on Sunday unanimously adopted a resolution demanding that Shia rebels immediately relinquish control of Yemen’s government in a crisis that has pushed the Arab world’s poorest country near collapse.
Arab countries have been pressing for the use of military force against what they call the rebel group’s “illegitimate seizure of power”. But the resolution approved by all 15 council members at an emergency meeting does not act under chapter seven of the UN charter, which would allow it to be militarily enforced.
The resolution, co-sponsored by 10 countries including the US, demands that the Houthi rebels “immediately and unconditionally” withdraw forces from government institutions and engage “in good faith” in UN-led peace talks.
“It was clear the world was waiting for a powerful message from the UN security council,” British ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told the council. “The Houthis must take responsibility for their actions and stop using violence and coercion as political tools.”
It was the council’s first resolution on Yemen since the current crisis with the rebels began. “This resolution is overdue,” New Zealand ambassador Jim McLay said. He called the Houthi takeover a “coup d’etat”.
The Houthis’ takeover that began with seizing the capital, Sana’a, in September has raised alarms that the world’s most dangerous branch of al-Qaida, based in Yemen, would use the chaos to its advantage. The Houthis and the militant Sunnis of the al-Qaida branch are bitter rivals.
Worried that Shia powerhouse Iran is backing the rebels, foreign ministers of the largely Sunni six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) on Sunday urged the security council to intervene. They warned that if the world failed to respond they were prepared to take action on their own to maintain regional security and stability. They did not elaborate on what measures the group might take.
The security council resolution also demands that the Houthis release US-backed president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his cabinet from house arrest. Hadi resigned last month after the rebels dissolved the parliament.
The GCC ministers had demanded that the resolution impose sanctions against anyone “hampering the process of peaceful transition of power”. The resolution only calls for “further steps” if the parties in Yemen fail to implement the resolution.
Other departures from the GCC’s wishes included dropping a reference to the Houthis’ takeover as a “coup” and strongly deploring, instead of condemning, the rebels’ actions. Jordan’s ambassador, Dina Kawar, told reporters that “we wanted the resolution accepted by all members” of the council.
The GCC includes Yemen’s neighbours Saudi Arabia and Oman as well as Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.
Saudi Arabia’s UN ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi called the resolution “a milestone” and said: “We will be following up with the council on a daily basis.”
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, told the council on Thursday that Yemen was “collapsing before our eyes”. The US and several other countries closed their embassies in Yemen last week. The Houthis are generally hostile to US military intervention in the Middle East, placing in jeopardy US counter-terrorism operations that have included using drone aircraft to strike suspected al-Qaida sites in Yemen.
UN-led talks in Sana’a have made little ground, with envoy Jamal Benomar telling the security council on Thursday that Yemen was at a crossroads between “civil war and disintegration”. He said the political uncertainty had put pressure on the local currency, the riyal, and threatened to bring it to collapse.
“The people of Yemen deserve a clear path back to the political transition process and a legitimate government,” the US ambassador Samantha Power said on Sunday.
The resolution demands that all parties in Yemen “cease all armed hostilities against the people and the legitimate authorities of Yemen and relinquish the arms seized from Yemen’s military and security institutions”. It also calls on UN member states to “refrain from external interference which seeks to foment conflict and instability”.
Yemeni officials said Saudi Arabia, a staunch US ally, was sending arms and funds to tribesmen in Yemen’s Marib province to bolster them against the rebels. Saudi Arabia has not commented on the claims.
The Egyptians and Saudis are co-ordinating a joint military response to deal with any eventuality in Yemen, including the disruption of shipping through the corridor that runs past Yemen to Egypt’s Suez canal, according to Egyptian security officials. The officials in both Yemen and Egypt spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.Canada's Transportation Safety Board has announced a full "Class 3" investigation into how two CP Rail freight trains crashed and derailed while one was trying to pass the other early Sunday high in the B.C. mountains just east of the Rogers Pass.
A CP Rail conductor on eastbound train 602 suffered a concussion around 2:25 a.m. PT when he was thrown from his seat, while the engineer at the controls escaped serious physical injury when their locomotive, hauling empty potash cars, slammed into the tail end of a parked westbound train.
It happened at Beavermouth, along CP's Mountain Subdivision running between Golden and Revelstoke.
"At this point we are not drawing any conclusions. We're still gathering information to conduct the investigation," safety board spokesman Chris Krepski told CBC News.
"In this case, we're examining train handling, the track infrastructure, mechanical aspects with respect to the locomotive and the rail car and the signal indications."
Safety board examines 'over length' train
Sources familiar with the incident tell CBC News the parked, westbound train 113 was carrying tall, double stacked intermodal freight cars and had pulled onto a side track, or siding.
But sources said it was "over-length," meaning it was too long to fit entirely on the side track and had several rail cars trailing out on the main track.
CP Rail's Mountain Subdivision through B.C.'s Rogers Pass is one of Canada's steepest, most dangerous railway corridors. (Dave Seglins / CBC)
On the approach to the siding at Beavermouth, several sources said, the eastbound train passed a signal indicating the crew should be prepared to stop ahead. But for some reason, the eastbound train rounded a corner, passed the first section of train 113 parked on the siding, and then failed to heed the stop signal in time and slammed into 113's back end.
Two front-end locomotives of train 602 derailed, along with an empty potash car. A single car of the parked westbound train was forced off the track.
The length of the trains, and the communication between the crew and CP's rail traffic controllers, will be central in the investigation.
"Because we have two trains operating on the same track, obviously we are going to look at the procedures and safety defences in place to see if there's any breakdowns there," the Transportation Safety Board's Krepski said. "Length of the train,... whether the train was the appropriate length for the siding."
Not uncommon
"Over-length" trains are not uncommon on CP Rail's main east-west corridor. Oncoming trains are able to pass one another if the shorter train stops adjacent to a siding, to allow the longer train to then snake around using the side track as a passing lane.
But in 2009, CP Rail suffered a similar side collision of two trains involving one which was over-length. It happened at Redgrave, just eight kilometres east of Sunday's crash site.
In that case, the safety board concluded the crew of the oncoming train was distracted, failed to appreciate the train ahead was "over-length" and partially blocking the main track, and ultimately failed to heed the signal warning them to stop.
The safety board interviewed the crew of CP train 602 on Sunday and will begin downloading and deciphering the locomotive event recorder to determine how fast the train was travelling when it first applied its brakes.
The results of the investigation are not expected for many months.
Please send tips on this story to dave.seglins@cbc.ca.For the activists desperately trying to draw attention to what is happening on Manus, the Australian media has rediscovered a well-worn nickname: hooligans. It may be a slightly more tasteful pick than the often bandied about alternative “ferals”. They both arouse familiar images – mindless, attention-seeking youths who don’t believe in a progressive movement as much as they believe in causeless dissent; idealistic people with unachievable expectations of their reasoned superiors who are “just doing their job”, socio-political opportunists with a reckless disdain for authority.
Australia's offshore detention regime is a brutal and obscene piece of self-delusion Read more
It’s clever typecasting by a media that knows how to pull public opinion with a swift tug. Footage of young, justifiably upset and energised students is quickly harnessed in soundbites for current affairs programs. Police brutality against peaceful protesters is labelled as a demonstration randomly “turning violent”. The message this endeavours to spread is: the Australian public unanimously supports offshore detention, and the dissenters are merely dogmatic unemployed students complaining about whatever comes their way. The “majority”, it suggests, feels that imprisoning refugees is necessary for protecting our borders and therefore our conception of Australian identity and lifestyle.
But the material reality reveals something else. It shows hundreds of regional Australians standing with Rural Australians for Refugees, protests in Bunbury, and grandmothers in Kyogle establishing a communication line with men on Manus. It illuminates the broad, diverse band of protestors from all age groups – white-haired women with the expression of steely determination perhaps more prominent than any other demographic. These aren’t just students in Sydney and Melbourne, although they are among the many leading and organising these actions.
Even among young people, the crisis of vulnerable refugees held without food, water or medicine is often seen as irrelevant to our life. Unlike the easy exuberance of marriage equality, which quickly spawned a “come one, come all” attitude in the wake of a hopeful cultural moment, refugee rights requires stringent self-analysis and discomfort. Our politicians are absolutely to blame on every front – this is unmistakably the doing of Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek as it is Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton – but our silence does nothing to challenge the pre-existing plans and manoeuvres of those in power. Refugees are far beyond our shores, and despite our 61.6% yes vote, queer refugees held in these fortresses are somehow not our concern.
The government has made it clear that no matter what, our actions cannot ever produce a “result”, unlike the marriage equality campaign. Dutton says that despite what the Australian people want, “these men are never coming to Australia.” Is this not cause for concern – that all possibilities are ceded no matter what the public chooses? And is this quashing of diplomacy evident in the way police have shown up at the homes of protesters, demanding information about future actions and intimidating organisers?
Refugee ally activist Anna told us, “plain-clothed police officers visited me at my home, refused to show me their badges and demanded information about protests. It felt highly invasive and unwarranted, especially given I had committed no crime in attending protests against the government’s actions”. Police also released images of activists to the media and had heated stand-offs with protesters in Melbourne. The specific type of policing, as well as harassment at the homes of activists, poses a potential threat to our civil liberties.
We know that our ability to voice concerns is narrowed under a dysfunctional system and that we are made to feel we cannot vote with our conscience – we know that our prime minister is treading down the path of many oligarchs that came before him – that he is an expert at appealing to monied Australians under the guise of so-called egalitarian policies; of utilising superficial engagement with rural and elderly citizens in media packets and embellishing a narrative of Australianess for a gullible international audience, and speaking only on behalf of the few minorities that coincide with his own interests. We also remain consistently aware of his dearth in integrity, of a tidy claim over a blatantly hollow image.
As footage from Manus illustrates the violence, depravity and inhumanity being weaponised against refugees and asylum seekers, so too does the democratic right to protest escalate in all the major cities of our country. Spinning the narrative against protesters perpetuates the expedient myth of the “feral” activist and blindsides the advocacy of groups like Mums 4 Refugees, Doctors For Refugees and the Christian group Love Makes A Way, as well as the huge subset of Australian society taking a stand against government policy that tortures and abuses those who deign to ask for help.
The citizen journalism of Behrouz Boochani and dozens of other men on Twitter have been instrumental in exposing the abject human rights abuse being rolled out under the watch of the Australian Border Force, the Australian federal police and our federal parliament. As our politicians remain wilfully unresponsive, activists taking direct action to highlight the issue nationally and internationally are falling victim to police crackdown.
Manus protest: Christian leaders chain themselves to Kirribilli House gate Read more
This targeting of activists is an attack on freedom of speech and the fundamental right to protest, with potential as a threat to our democracy. We need to call attention to the truth: that the Australian population that rejects the government’s actions is wide and diverse, and that no matter the background of those speaking out against government policies like offshore detention, whether unemployed students or rural farmers, this response of escalated police presences and violence within the community weakens any moral basis to Dutton’s response to the crisis on Manus.If the election were held now President Obama's chances of victory would be 91.6 percent according to Nate Silver's model.
Further, his estimated margin in the electoral college would be 319 to 219. Both the margin of victory and the percentage chance of victory are all-time highs for Nate's "Nowcast."
The longer range forecast is also good, but with 50+ days to go, and chances for Mitt Romney to pull his head out improve his position reduce Obama's winning odds to 80.8 percent and an electoral total of 315.4.
The improvement in tonight's nowcast is likely due to:
- Obama's Gallup lead growing to +7 (50 for O, 43 for R)
- A Fox poll with Obama +5 (48 for O, 43 for R)
- A blowout New Mexico poll (Obama +11)
Also tonight, new polls in Michigan with great news. EPIC-MRA says Obama is up ten, 47 to 37. Further, Debbie Stabenow is up 11 over Pete Hoekstra.
Good polling day!Emails reveal that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) pushed local law enforcement to scan the license plates of gun show attendees in southern California.
The emails date back to 2010 and were obtained by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
According to WSJ, “[ICE] crafted a plan in 2010 to use license-plate readers—devices that record the plate numbers of all passing cars—at gun shows in Southern California, including one in Del Mar.” ICE then “compared that information to cars that crossed the border, hoping to find gun smugglers, according to the documents and interviews with law-enforcement officials with knowledge of the operation.”
ICE faced push-back over the scans from privacy advocates.
ACLU attorney Jay Stanley pointed to license plate readers as an example that “highlights the problem with mass collection of data.” Stanley suggested ICE has taken two legal behaviors—buying a gun, crossing a border—combined them and used that combination to make people look “inherently suspicious.”
Gun Owners of America’s Erich Pratt went further, saying, “Information on law-abiding gun owners ends up getting recorded, stored, and registered, which is a violation of the 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act and of the Second Amendment.”
ICE defended their actions as “an important and legal tool for pursuing dangerous, hard-to-track illegal activity.” At the same time, no arrests have been cited as resulting from the use of license plate readers on gun show attendees.
However, John Chicgos—CEO of the company that makes the license plate readers—believes using them to target gun show attendees is “an abuse of the technology.”
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its last major report on climate change last year, stating with the highest degree of confidence that people are mucking up the planet in ways that will cause a whole mess of human suffering, it understandably generated a lot of media attention. One headline that broke through the chatter came from a journalist’s emotional public renunciation of air travel.
“I realized, just now: This has to be the last flight I ever take,” tweeted meteorologist and journalist Eric Holthaus the day the release was published. “I’m committing right now to stop flying. It’s not worth the climate.”
At the annual SXSW Eco gathering in Austin, Texas, on Monday, Julie Felgar, Boeing’s managing director of environmental strategy presented Boeing’s case for sustainable air travel. She was quick to remind her audience that air travel accounts for only 2% of global greenhouse emissions.
(According to the most recent IPCC accounting, transportation today accounts for a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. International and domestic aviation make up 10.6% of that quarter, or roughly 2.5% of global emissions.)
Yet Holthaus’s message, and others like it, have struck a chord among the climate concerned and have forced Boeing to respond.
Air travel is considered the most carbon-intense form of transportation, but there are exceptions. Long-distance, single-passenger car trips, for example, have been shown to out-pollute airplanes in studies like this one from the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute and this research from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
But while cars can already use alternative fuels – such as ethanol, biodiesel and natural gas – today, airplanes require large amounts of power to keep themselves aloft that only jet fuel – or something very much like it – can provide, Felgar said.
According to the 2013 IPCC report on climate-change mitigation strategies, the answer is to reduce travel, as well as to advance technology: “Sectoral studies suggest that achieving significant reductions in aviation emissions will require reductions in the rate of growth of travel activity through demand management alongside technological advances.”
Technological advances found room in Felgar’s Austin talk, but demand management – intentionally limiting the number of people flying – wasn’t mentioned.
Quite the opposite, in fact. Boeing projections show a steep growth curve ahead for the air travel industry that Felgar said will require an estimated 36,800 new planes by 2033, only 40% of which will be replacing old aircraft. The dynamic growth scenario makes bringing biofuels into cost parity with traditional petroleum-based fuels even more critical to arresting climate change.
“I firmly believe we are at a nexus point,” Felgar told the Guardian a few minutes after her Austin address. “We’ve come so far down the techo-economic curve now [in biofuel development] that I think within the next five to six years we’re going to start seeing some major breakthroughs.”
One research development program that has Boeing’s interest – and investment dollars – involves efforts in the United Arab Emirates, where a small-scale research project is preparing to break ground in super-green Masdar City, outside Abu Dhabi.
The project of the Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium (SBRC) and the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology plans to pump sea water into aquaculture ponds stocked with shrimp or fish, the wastes of which will feed plots of salicornia, a salt-loving halophyte whose seed oils and biomass can be used to create biofuel. As the waters flush back toward the sea they will wash through bands of cultivated mangroves, which can also be converted into biofuel.
“The idea here is to be able to produce biomass in a sustainable way,” said SBRC Director Alejandro Ríos, who shared the stage with Felgar at SXSW Eco. “We’re not falling into the debate of water use. We’re not falling into this food versus fuel debate, because we’re actually producing food and producing energy.”
While the project has tremendous potential for the growing arid zones of the planet, it will take up to five years to grow the planned two-hectare pilot into a 200-hectare demonstration project before it could be commercialized.
There were skeptics in the audience and in subsequent panels. One audience member suggested that airplane emissions are more damaging due to the altitude at which they are released, a notion supported in the scientific literature.
But perhaps the most vociferous critic was travel writer Edward Hasbrouck, author of “The Practical Nomad,” who presented on the idea of “peak air travel” Tuesday.
While Hasbrouck doesn’t expect most people will voluntarily fly less because of climate concerns, he does expect peak oil to price air travel out of reach of most.
Calling aviation the most heavily subsidized form of travel, Hasbrouck complained about the Obama Administration’s decision to exempt US airlines from inclusion in the European Union’s emissions trading scheme.
“Ethics and policy aside, peak oil is likely to make air travel much more expensive,” he said. “Obviously the aviation industry doesn’t want to talk about its impending contraction.”
The time has come, he said Tuesday, to begin considering where alternative modes of travel can expand – such as a transcontinental light rail in the United States, for example. He also mentioned the need to modify global shipping ports to accommodate what he cast as an inevitable rise in the public use of cruise ships and ocean liners.
The aviation industry’s suggestion that biofuels will rescue it from the rising costs of petroleum and the carbon-emissions problem was equivalent to greenwashing, he said.
For Felgar’s part, she sees proof of the potential of biofuels in Boeing’s research and development investments on six continents. In addition, major airlines – which collectively account for roughly a third of global jet fuel purchases – belong to the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group.
“The policy mechanisms are right,” Felgar said.
And what if the sustainable fuel efforts in Masdar City fail?
“If we do not produce a drop of fuel, in the end this system actually acts as an aquaculture filter”, producing a steady source of protein, SBRC’s Ríos said, in a country that imports about 90% of its food.
Hasbrouck, on the other hand, said the UAE biofuel plan wasn’t even close to a sufficient response.
“I’m glad they’re working on it. But they have all their eggs in one basket,” he said. “There’s no other option. There’s no plan B.”
This story was amended 8 October. A previous version incorrectly stated that 33% of all biofuels are now certified by the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group. In fact, the group doesn’t certify biofuels. Instead, airlines that account for about a third of global jet fuel demand belong to the group.
The technology and innovation hub is funded by BT. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here.Norway is considering moving a mountain — or at least its peak — to neighboring Finland.
Norway is considering moving a mountain — or at least its peak — to neighboring Finland.
Anne Nordskog, a spokeswoman for Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, said Wednesday the government is contemplating a proposal to give the Halti peak as a gift to Finland next year as the Finns celebrate 100 years of independence.
Most of the mountain is on the Finnish side of their northern border but the peak of 1,331 meters (4,367 feet) is in Norway. The proposal would redraw the border to put the peak in Finland.
While mountainous Norway has several peaks that are higher, Finland's highest mountain is 1,325 meters.
Former Norwegian state surveyor Bjorn Geirr Harsson, who came up with the proposal, said "it would be nice to give Finland an extra 6 meters (20 feet)."
Top Exports for Norway | FindTheDataThe revival of civil war in Iraq is not about ancient sectarian hatreds – that is what the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant – Isis – wants you to think. It is a hardcore ideological group exploiting the political disaffection of one community to stoke |
decline. "Single motherhood has grown so common in America that demographers now believe half of all children will live with a single mom at some point before the age of 18," the Washington Post reported in December 2014.
This is a frightening trend, but explainable.
Agree with it or not, a pregnant woman has a legally protected choice when it comes to having a child. The man in that situation has zero choice. If the woman chooses to abort his child, he must accept that. If she chooses to keep the child, he's legally obligated to provide for it financially whether he wanted a child or not. This is usually when people say that men who don't want to be fathers ought not be having sex. I don't disagree, yet few accept that as an argument against legal abortion. Why would we accept it here?
Family law courts, too, are a fraught institution for men. A woman deciding a relationship is over can walk out the door with the expectation that she'll likely get to keep the kids and collect healthy financial income from child support. Given how it's calculated under the law, those support payments often far exceed the actual needs of the child.
My intent here isn't to indict women-being a single mother is no picnic either-but rather to illustrate social and policy signals we send men about what it means to be a father. If fatherhood looks like a trap, a bad deal only clownish buffoons agree to, then we shouldn't be surprised when fewer men decide they want to be fathers.
Men should provide for their children; men must provide for their children whether they stay with the mothers or not, but can we at least acknowledge the frustrations that come with having all of the responsibility in a situation and very little of the choice?
Worse, masculinity in our culture is far too associated with drinking and an obsession with sports. There's not a thing wrong with cracking a beer and watching the big game, or going out during the hunting season and knocking down a big buck, but that doesn't make you a man. What makes you a man is caring for your children. What makes you a man is providing for your family.
My father is the model of masculinity. He won a Silver Star and four Bronze Stars in Vietnam. He was a cop who went toe-to-toe with violent murderers and organized crime. He's a big-game hunter, and he loves to watch sports.
But what makes him a man is that he never shirked his duties as a father. He showed up to coach the baseball team, even after a grueling double shift. He's been a safety net for his children, even when they've made it hard. He's had fun doing these things. To see a portrait of joy is to see my father with his children and grandchildren.
I wish that were the sort of story our society communicates to young men. I wish we weren't so quick to paint caricatures of fatherhood. I wish the law would cut dads some slack.
Maybe it's time to make fatherhood great again.About one in 15 people in Allegheny County could be packing heat, and you wouldn’t know it.
Nearly 7 percent of the county’s 1.2 million residents have active permits to carry concealed handguns, said Chief Deputy Kevin Kraus with the sheriff’s department.
That doesn’t mean they all are carrying.
Sam Rosenberg, president of INPAX Academy of Personal Protection and Self Defense, which runs training courses in Sewickley, North Versailles and Warrendale, said many people obtain permits out of concern for personal safety but don’t carry weapons right away.
“Overwhelmingly, the majority of the people that I see and that I encounter don’t carry a firearm until they feel trained to do so,” Rosenberg said. “Most of the people who get permits aren’t going to carry, and most of the ones who do carry are extremely cautious.”
Allegheny County has 79,947 active concealed pistol permits.
By comparison, about 15 percent of Westmoreland County’s 359,320 residents have active permits. Permits are valid for five years.
Rosenberg offers courses for people with concealed handgun permits even though the state does not require training to obtain the license. John Brown, founder of 3 Rivers Tactical Training Solutions in Aliquippa, has offered such training since 2011.
“I was shocked at how little your average civilian knows about how to properly carry a concealed handgun,” Brown said. “Most people out there just don’t know what they are doing.”
Brown and Rosenberg teach handgun basics — how to aim, fire and clean a gun — and offer tactical training such as how to identify threats, defuse threats without a gun and how to draw and fire a gun in situations such as while sitting or in a car. They give legal briefings, including what is considered deadly force in Pennsylvania and what is self-defense, and where people can and can’t carry concealed weapons.
An October Gallup poll found that 56 percent of Americans believe more Americans carrying concealed weapons — after passing criminal background checks and receiving training — would make the country safer.
A recent ranking from City-data.com, using census data, found that Armstrong County ranks fourth in the nation in the percentage of homes reporting gun ownership, with nearly 58 percent.
Demand for concealed carry permits surged at Western Pennsylvania sheriff’s offices in the days after the terrorist attacks in Paris. Sheriffs in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties more than doubled their daily averages. Allegheny County has issued 15,982 permits this year; Westmoreland County, 9,573.
People must be 21 to apply for a gun permit in Pennsylvania. They must pass a state police background check; cannot have a conviction for any of 38 crimes, including murder, stalking and corruption of minors; and cannot have an open court case or a closed case in which they owe money.
Sheriffs can deny a permit if the applicant presents a danger to public safety; has a drug conviction; is mentally ill or has been committed to a mental institution; or has been in prison for more than a year. Other reasons: The person is not a Pennsylvania resident, does not have a permit from another state, is a fugitive, was dishonorably discharged from the military or is in the country illegally.
If a permit is denied through the state police background check, an applicant can appeal to the state police. If the sheriff denies a permit, applicants can appeal to Common Pleas Court.
The sheriff’s office can revoke a permit if the person commits a crime. Westmoreland County has revoked 364 permits this year; no one has appealed a revocation in recent years. Allegheny County has denied 852 permits and revoked 97. One or two people appeal each week, Kraus said.
Aaron Aupperlee is a Trib Total Media staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7986 or aaupperlee@tribweb.com. Staff writer Paul Peirce contributed.
Aaron Aupperlee is a Tribune-Review staff reporter. You can contact Aaron at 412-320-7986, aaupperlee@tribweb.com or via Twitter.For the Cypriot company, see KEO Ltd
KEO is the name of a proposed space time capsule which was to have been launched in 2003 carrying messages from the citizens of present Earth to humanity 50,000 years from now, when it would re-enter Earth's atmosphere. It was later delayed to 2006, then to 2007/2008, then to 2010/2011, then to 2012, then to 2013, then to 2015, followed by 2015/2016. Currently the KEO website cites 2019 as its launch, however, no actual date is set and information about its launch is vague.[2]
Its name represents the three most frequently used sounds common to the most widely spoken languages today, /k/, /e/, and /o/.[3]
Personal messages [ edit ]
Every person is invited to contribute to the time capsule. The contribution deadline was originally 31 December 2009, but as of 2014, it has been extended to end of 2014. Messages can be posted via the project's website or sent by postal mail. The organizers encourage everybody to gather messages from children, senior citizens, and the illiterate so that every culture and demographic on Earth is represented. The organization says, "All the messages received, without undergoing any censorship, will be embarked aboard KEO." The satellite has enough capacity to carry a four-page message from each of the more than six billion (as of the original 2009 deadline) inhabitants on the planet.[4] Once the satellite is launched, the messages will be made freely available on the web.
Other contents [ edit ]
KEO will also carry a diamond that encases a drop of human blood chosen at random and samples of air, sea water, and earth.[5] The DNA of the human genome will be engraved on one of the diamond's facets. The satellite will also carry an astronomical clock that shows the current rotation rates of several pulsars, photographs of people of all cultures, and "the contemporary Library of Alexandria", an encyclopaedic compendium of current human knowledge.
Technical aspects [ edit ]
The messages and library will be encoded in glass-made radiation-resistant DVDs. Symbolic instructions in several formats will show the future finders how to build a DVD reader.
The satellite itself is a hollow sphere 80 cm in diameter. The sphere is engraved with a map of Earth and surrounded by an aluminium layer, a thermal layer and several layers of titanium and other heavy materials intertwined with vacuum. The sphere is resistant to cosmic radiation, atmosphere re-entry, space junk impacts, etc. For its first few years in orbit, KEO will sport a pair of wings 10 meters across that will aid in its spotting from Earth. As the satellite enters the atmosphere, the thermal layer will produce an artificial aurora to give a signal of the satellite's re-entry. The passive satellite will not carry any communications or propulsion systems. It will be launched by an Ariane 5 rocket into an orbit 1,800 km high, an altitude that will bring it back to Earth in 500 centuries, the same amount of time that has elapsed since early humans started to draw on cavern walls.
Project history [ edit ]
The project KEO was conceived in 1994 by French artist-scientist Jean-Marc Philippe, a pioneer of space art. Messages began to be collected, and an initial launch date was set for 2001. Technical feasibility demonstration and other various delays have moved the launch date to 2019.
Similar projects [ edit ]
Several previous spacecraft have included time capsules for humans (or aliens) in the far future. Part of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, still on the moon, includes a plaque showing the arrangement of the Earth's continents in 1969. The LAGEOS satellite (which will re-enter the atmosphere in 8.4 million years) contains a plaque showing the arrangement of the Earth's continents in the past, present, and future. Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 both contain plaques that give pictorial information about their time and place of origin. Most famously, the two Voyager spacecraft each contain a golden record that contains pictures and sounds of Earth, along with symbolic directions for playing the record and data detailing the location of Earth. The Pioneers and Voyagers have left the solar system for interstellar space. In 2004, the Long Now Foundation produced a nickel disk containing parallel texts in over a thousand languages, which was launched aboard the Rosetta.
Popular culture [ edit ]
Life After People: The series, Episode 13 "Crypt of Civilization" mentions KEO as one of the last time capsules in the universe.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Get the biggest Chelsea FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Jose Mourinho has reassured Fernando Torres and Juan Mata over their Chelsea futures.
Such is the club's determination to keep him, Spanish playmaker Mata is now close to agreeing a three-year contract extension which would take him up to 2018.
Mourinho is understood to have called both players personally after their Confederations Cup involvement with Spain to tell them they are in his plans.
There were doubts whether Mourinho wanted to keep any of Torres, Mata and also David Luiz, who is a target for Spanish giants Barcelona, as he tweaked the squad he inherited from Rafa Benitez.
But while Barca continue to try to court Brazilian defender Luiz, the Special One wants to keep the Spanish duo on-side ahead of the new campaign.
Torres has enjoyed mixed fortunes at Stamford Bridge since his £50million move from Liverpool two and a half years ago, and was linked with moves to Italy and home to La Liga earlier this summer.
But while fellow hitman Demba Ba DOES look to be on his way out of the Bridge, Torres will be given a chance by Mourinho - even if he is fully aware that Chelsea remain in the hunt for a big-name strike signing.
(Image: PA)
Chelsea are keen on Manchester United's unsettled Wayne Rooney, while they are monitoring developments on Liverpool's Luis Suarez and would bid for him given any encouragement.
Mata is one of Chelsea's star players and his new deal will see him get a rise and take him to the £100,000-a-week plus bracket.
The 25-year-old, who joined from Valencia for £24m two years ago, has been courted by Barcelona and Real Madrid.
But it is clear that Mourinho very much sees him as central to his plans at Chelsea.
While neither player was given any guarantees about a starting place, Mourinho made it clear he sees them as part of the future.
The manager gave them extra reassurances because their involvement with Spain this summer will see them join up with their team-mates later this pre-season.The snap: Corbyn rips up the rules, as May warns of 'coalition of chaos'
Welcome to day two of the actually not all that snappy, seven-week snap election campaign. I’m Claire Phipps, bringing you the morning wrap of all things politics here and on our daily live blog.
General election 2017: result not a 'foregone conclusion', says Corbyn – politics live Read more
Sign up here if you’d like the Snap direct to your inbox each weekday morning.
What’s happening?
Real fight starts now, as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn makes his first major campaign speech in Westminster this morning. He might have voted for Theresa May’s early election timetable (and for article 50), but from now, he’s playing by different rules, he’ll tell his audience:
Much of the media and establishment are saying this election is a foregone conclusion … They say I don’t play by the rules – their rules. We can’t win, they say, because we don’t play their game. They’re quite right: I don’t. And a Labour government elected on 8 June won’t play by their rules.
The Tories can keep “fatcat bosses” Philip Green and Mike Ashley, Corbyn will say: the Labour manifesto will be for “the nurse, the teacher, the small trader, the carer, the builder, the office worker”.
Should the nurse, the teacher et al not propel him into No 10, though, Corbyn might not follow the unwritten rules that usually see a defeated opposition leader step down. The Independent reports today that even if he loses, “there is a good chance Mr Corbyn will either refuse to resign or run again to retain power”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jeremy Corbyn: ‘They say I don’t play by the rules …They’re quite right.’ Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA
Maverick rule-ripping, too, from Theresa May, who is sticking to her refusal to take part in head-to-head TV debates, instead insisting she prefers to “go out and knock on doors” to reach voters. Some 7 million people watched the 2015 ITV debate in which David Cameron squared off against Ed Miliband and co, so that’s an ambitious door target. The BBC and ITV have confirmed they will screen leaders’ debates, even if the actual leader isn’t there to debate.
Perhaps May’s intention is to steer clear of what she is keen to label the “coalition of chaos”, the Brexit naysayers who are dividing the country, once nostalgically known as “a democratic opposition”. After Nicola Sturgeon raised the prospect of an informal “progressive alliance” to try to oust the Conservatives, the PM seized the chance to recycle a 2015 Cameron slogan (one previous owner, slightly tarnished). Corbyn categorically ruled out any such pact – but don’t be surprised if some hastily recast versions of the Miliband-in-Salmond’s-pocket ads sneak their way out of CCHQ regardless.
At a glance:
Poll position
Brought to you, as polls must be these days, in association with a generous pinch of salt.
A YouGov poll for the Times – the first since we all knew an election was bearing down on us – has the Tories on double Labour’s score: 48% to 24%. It finds only 12% of Labour voters expect Corbyn’s party to win a majority. And that anticipated Lib Dem bounce hasn’t sprung through yet: they stay on 12%.
Sam Coates Times (@SamCoatesTimes) EXC: Tonight Tories on 48% in the first YouGov poll taken since Theresa May called election - highest since May 2008 pic.twitter.com/awaKs7V0Yv
Latest polling in Scotland has the SNP streets ahead on 47%, with the Conservatives second on 27%, and Labour on 14%.
Diary
Brexit business at 9.15am, when Theresa May holds talks with Antonio Tajani, president of the European parliament, at Downing Street.
holds talks with, president of the European parliament, at Downing Street. At 10.30am, Jeremy Corbyn makes his first keynote speech of the election campaign, in Westminster.
makes his first keynote speech of the election campaign, in Westminster. At 1.15pm in Bristol, Green leaders Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley will launch their party’s campaign.
and will launch their party’s campaign. And Boris Johnson hosts US House speaker Paul Ryan, on a trip to talk trade.
Talking point
On Wednesday, May repeatedly dodged questions on whether the Tory manifesto will delete Cameron’s 2015 commitment to spend 0.7% of GDP on foreign aid. Any cut to the £12bn aid budget would be a salve to the rightwing press – the Daily Mail today trumpets the speculative proposal as a “bonfire of the chumocracy’s legacy”. But Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates told the Guardian the ramifications could be devastating:
The big aid givers now are the US, Britain and Germany – those are the three biggest and if those three back off, a lot of the ambitious things going on with malaria, agriculture and reproductive health simply would not get done.
Read these
Nicola Sturgeon, writing in the Scotsman, says the PM’s motives for calling a general election are evident:
She knows that as the terms of her hard Brexit become clearer, the deep misgivings that so many people already have will increase and grow. So she wants to act now to crush the parliamentary opposition that she faces. Labour’s self-inflicted weakness has presented the excuse … No prime minister, not even Mrs Thatcher, has complained that there should not be robust debate in parliament. That is a healthy and indeed necessary in any parliamentary democracy, but Theresa May does not seem willing to acknowledge any views other than hers. That simply isn’t acceptable in a democracy.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon in London on Wednesday. Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA/REX/Shutterstock
Here’s Owen Jones on how Labour could up its media game:
What the Tories traditionally do is shoehorn in their vision, whatever the question, and repeat it in some form or other throughout the interview. That can be quite irritating – and not just for their opponents – but this constant repetition of what they stand for, regardless of what question they are asked, is very effective. The electorate end up absorbing a big chunk both of how the Tories want to be seen, and how the Tories want to see their opposition …
The Tories are very good at presenting THE CHOICE. On Brexit, for example, Labour could say: ‘Voters have a clear choice. Either a Labour Brexit deal that keeps Britain in the single market and protects jobs, or a chaotic Tory Brexit deal that damages jobs, living standards and the economy.’ … It’s not for me to pre-empt that clear Labour vision, but they have to present THE CHOICE as well. Here’s where we stand in a sentence or two, and here, by way of contrast, is where the Tories stand.
Suzanne Moore, in the Guardian, says voters will need to think tactically, too:
Militant remainers are delusional about how much support they have. They have mistakenly chosen to be led by discarded middle-aged Blairites and Nick Clegg. Many people just want politicians to get on with Brexit. They are not full of regret. But there is a real divide in this country; May is wrong to locate it in Westminster alone … Opposition has to come from an alliance. It is Labour who have refused to countenance alliances. It is that party that will pay the price. The politics of purity have polluted the atmosphere so much that when May saw that she could get a clean sweep, she went for it. Who can stop her?
Revelation of the day
Nigel Farage has told the Sun that he fancies his chances of winning in South Thanet, where he finished second to Conservative Craig Mackinlay in 2015. He told the Sun – after lunch with Ukip leader Paul Nuttall at man-of-the-people hangout/elite London private members’ club 5 Hertford Street:
A bit of me says what happened last time in South Thanet was so monstrous there that they wouldn’t dare try it again, so I think if I did run I would win it.
It would be Farage’s eighth attempt to win a Westminster seat. His previous seven runs were, for him, unsuccessful.
The day in a tweet
In the absence of an Ed Balls announcement, the jostling for seats lacks pizzazz:
Gaby Hinsliff (@gabyhinsliff) While I'm pleased to hear Bob Marshall Andrews is still alive, not sure his defection to the LibDems is the coup of the century tbh
And another thing
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Friday, December 16, 2016
Press Release
From the Secretary Treasurer of the
Industrial Workers of the World General Defense Committee, Local 14
For Immediate Release
Contact: tc-gdc@iww.org
Twin Cities Anti-Fascists Kick Out Neo-Fascist Luke Tromiczak
On December 15th, Anti-Fascist community members confronted known neo-fascist Luke Tromiczak at the Triple Rock Social Club. Luke was scheduled to perform at the venue that night under the name Blood and Sun (A description of Tromiczak’s fascist affiliations and past appears at the bottom of this post.) As Antifa removed Luke from the venue, he was given a clear message:
NAZIS ARE NOT WELCOME IN MINNEAPOLIS.
[A profile of Luke Tromizcak is at the end of this statement]
We will not allow fascists or their associates to gain a foothold in the city. Our cities have kicked organized fascists like the National Socialist Movement (NSM) and the bonehead crew White Knights out of town, and have kept them out for decades now. We have no intention of relaxing our refusal to allow racists and fascists a platform to spread their poisonous ideas (To learn about the anti-fascist policy of “No Platform,” start here.)
Fascists like Luke use shows to organize and spread their message of hate. Shows are a prime recruiting ground for young people who have been exposed to far right politics. White Nationalists become members of a subcultural music scene, and then recruit fellow members into their ideologies.
In addition to recruitment and legitimization efforts, fascists use popular culture venues to fund their other, more directly threatening actions and organizations.
We are the community that Luke despises, and against which he preaches and promotes genocidal violence. We are workers, women, people of color, LGBTQIA, disabled, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, and more. We do not have the luxury of “ignoring fascists in the hope that they will ‘go away.’” We’ve seen how that ends up, historically.
We are powerful; far stronger than a bunch of spineless children that think playing Nazi dress-up and spouting racist garbage is tough. Our diversity and our common opposition to all forms of oppression is our strength. Our solidarity with each other is our weapon. Our complete and non-negotiable hostility and eternal opposition to fascist and racist hatred requires our action.
A famous quote from Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatistas expresses this solidarity:
Yes, Marcos is gay. Marcos is gay in San Francisco, black in South Africa, an Asian in Europe, a Chicano in San Ysidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a Gypsy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the Metro at 10pm, a peasant without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains. Marcos is all the exploited, marginalised, oppressed minorities resisting and saying `Enough’. He is every minority who is now beginning to speak and every majority that must shut up and listen. He is every untolerated group searching for a way to speak. Everything that makes power and the good consciences of those in power uncomfortable — this is Marcos.”
These things are ‘Marcos.’ Similarly, we in the General Defense Committee (GDC) are all these things. We stand together against all attacks and support others who do so as well. Solidarity breaks chains.
Anti-fascism is a necessary part of Community Self Defense. Community Self Defense means that we defend, prepare, and serve the community. We do this in many different ways, from anti-fascist actions to support of survivors of sexual assault, know your rights trainings, copwatch, and harm reduction programs, as just a few examples. If people who want to oppress and murder any one of us shows up in our town, you can be certain they’ll be met by us.
We won’t permit Luke or his band Blood & Sun to play in the Twin Cities. Blood & Sun is hereby banned from the Twin Cities, as are all bands or cultural acts with fascist, racist, or white nationalist sympathies. Don’t come back; you won’t like it here.
Demands
We call on Luke Tromiczak to publicly renounce fascism and break all ties with fascists, including all fascist acts or groups.
We demand all Twin Cities venues refuse to book Blood & Sun or Luke Tromiczak. Anyone who provides fascists with a platform for fascist propaganda and recruitment provides direct aid and support to enemies of humanity.
For more on the General Defense Committee, our values and our work, click here. [Unionism and Antifascism; Community Self Defense]
Who is Luke Tromiczak?
Luke Tromiczak is a known fascist and nazi-associate. Trump’s campaign and election have emboldened fascists, as well as fascist imagery and rhetoric among conservatives in general.
When public venues provide a platform for these people, they are complicit in racism/white supremacy. Luke has been confronted before for his close ties with white supremacist militia member, Robert Taylor; his use and love of nazi clothing, imagery and rhetoric. Taylor is a famous white supremacist militiaman who used to be the spokesperson and director of organizing for the “Minutemen.”
Picture description: Luke Rockwell Tromiczak with Neo-fascist and white supremacist militia member – Robert Taylor
In the 1960s the Minutemen attempted to infiltrate leftist groups and bring police violence down on them. He also participated and advocated for race riots against blacks and immigrants moving into white neighborhoods. This is not some edgy artist Luke met in New York. In this picture, Tromiczak is paying homage to, and associating with, a white supremacist icon. Tromiczak’s band Blood and Sun has played sets with well-known artsy-fascists Death in June:
“Blood and Sun at Home Sweet Home nyc 11/16/14 (Opening for Death in June)” Note the “Black Sun” in the background, and the Totenkopf)
Luke pictured in SA regalia, above. The S.A. were the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. Their job was to intimidate Slavic and Romani citizens, unionists, and Jews – for instance, during the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses. His friend Marutgana Rudraksha (anti-equal symbol) calls him a “radical traditionalist,” a term by the occult racist thinker Julius Evola. Luke ‘likes’ this post:
Tromiczak acknowledges his attachment to Julius Evola in this Facebook post:
Luke has a large Valknut tattoo on his chest. The valknut symbol is a central symbol of fascism, with variants in many other organizations, including the Afrikaner’s National Party, which introduced Apartheid in South Africa.
The list of Tromiczak’s connections to white-supremacy, nazism, and racism continue even deeper. Our report on Tromiczak’s fascist activities currently exceeds 20 pages. At a previous show at the Triple Rock Social Club, there were people with Soldiers of Odin shirts spotted. Soldiers of Odin (SoO) is a gang of Neo-Nazis in Scandinavia who “patrol the streets looking for immigrant criminal behavior”. Their organization is currently spreading internationally, with chapters throughout Scandinavia, the USA, and Australia, as a few examples.
The particular brand of racism Tromiczak embraces is a type of paganism known as Wotanism, co-founded by the famous white supremacist David Lane. Wotan is another name for Odin; Lane also uses it as an acronym for “Will Of The Aryan Nation.”
Luke has in the past run a music distro called Anti-Theist Disseminations that distributed many “National Socialist Black Metal” bands (NSBM). Most people who are in the metal music scene are familiar with this subgenre. These are far-right white supremacist anti-immigrant bands.
An example of Anti-Theist Disseminations’ releases includes an album of fascist marching songs from the Romanian Iron Guard:
A quote from band members of the NBSM act “Dark Fury” expresses sentiments typical of members of the NBSM scene:
…Europe full of coloured pigs spreading the words of pacifism and racial tolerance. Every day I see the greater number of niggers and arabs on the streets, trying to be so european. That feeds my anger and fuels me to do something to change this situation.
A different NBSM act offers similar opinions:
The reason of our creation is will of strength! We have to grow up to spread the words of our ideas better. We’d like to change the situation in Europe, Europe [is] full of coloured pigs spreading the words of pacifism and racial tolerance. Every day I see the greater number of niggers and arabs on the streets, trying to be so european. That feeds my anger and fuels me to do something to change this situation. To enlight [sic] white youth about their real heritage from the one side, or just to smash the nigger’s face from the other. We are the voice of White Society! My inspiration is in the first place the philosophy of Nietzsche (Overmanship) and the theory of racial separatism. If you’re asking about musical influences, I like the spirit of old GRAVELAND, OHTAR, ANTISEMITEX, HONOR, WHITE DEVILS, DER STURMER and some others.
These are the sorts of bands Luke plays shows with, whose merchandize he distributes, and whom he includes in his own artwork. His artwork is full of fascist and especially Nazi imagery. Some attempt to pass it off as ‘edgy,’ but Luke actively associates with white supremacist fascists and organizations. This is not ‘edge,’ it’s fascism.
Luke Tromiczak is a fascist, a racist, and a very unpleasant musician. Neither he nor any of his associated acts are welcome in the Twin Cities. Take notice.The San Francisco Bay Estuary and the rivers that feed it face an existential crisis. The signs of impending collapse include six endangered native fish species, shrinking wetlands and beaches, and more frequent cyanobacteria blooms that generate neurotoxins powerful enough to kill pets and sicken people.
Just outside the Golden Gate, Orca whales feeding on Chinook salmon go hungry, while commercial fishermen cope with another shortened fishing season.
As documented in our report “San Francisco Bay: The Freshwater-Starved Estuary,” the productivity of the largest estuary on the Pacific Coast of the Americas depends on getting enough fresh water, especially during the winter and spring. Incredibly, California diverts more than half the winter-spring runoff destined for the Bay in a typical year and two-thirds or more during droughts.
After years of ignoring the signs of collapse, California’s Water Resources Control Board has finally begun to revisit the water quality standards that govern how much fresh water reaches the Estuary, last updated in 1995. Its comprehensive overhaul of all the standards won’t be completed until at least 2018, but this fall the Board released the first part of its proposed standards.
This proposal – that a mere 40 percent of the winter-spring flow from San Joaquin Valley rivers should reach the Estuary – was greeted with hysteria by local irrigators and the City of San Francisco, which get their water from these overburdened rivers.
But there’s little reason to expect that the San Joaquin region’s once mighty Chinook salmon runs can be restored – as the law requires – with less than half of the flow from these rivers. In 2010, |
rebel commanders, both under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and of the jihadis, have been united in demanding Assad's removal from power as a precondition for any meaningful peace talks.
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Finally, it's unclear what the sending of light weapons - Obama has been frustratingly vague on what exactly he's willing to give them, and it will take a while to set up supply routes and vetting procedures - will do to substantially change the situation. The Syrian army is professional and well-equipped; Hezbollah is one of the most capable fighting forces in the region. Without anti-tank weapons and anti-aircraft weapons - and professional training in their use - it's hard to see extra bullets or rifles making much of a difference beyond, perhaps, prolonging the agony.
Meanwhile, Russia looks on. President Vladimir Putin drew his own red line this week over any kind of no-fly or no-drive zone over Syria. His country continues to hold back on a promised delivery of the advanced S-300 anti-aircraft system to Assad that has alarmed Israel and the US. The greater the US slips towards a policy of regime change, the more likely he is to deliver those and perhaps other weapons.Republican leaders have been complaining for years about the Freedom Caucus, the group of hard-right House members who live to annoy the party brass. But they’ve never taken a shot so public, vocal, and direct as what Donald Trump tweeted today — basically calling Freedom Caucus members electoral enemies on a par with the Democratic Party.
The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2017
Thursday evening, Trump renewed his (so far one-sided) Twitter fight against Freedom Caucus leaders, suggesting they would hold up his desired tax overhaul too:
If @RepMarkMeadows, @Jim_Jordan and @Raul_Labrador would get on board we would have both great healthcare and massive tax cuts & reform. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2017
Coming from any other president in living memory, this would be a clear warning that the president is prepared to back primary challenges against House members who issue conservative dissents from his agenda. Trump, however, has a tendency to say things without necessarily meaning them.
As we saw during the AHCApocalypse last week, he enjoys bluffing as a political strategy — as when he threatened to force the House to hold a doomed vote on the American Health Care Act so that everyone in the caucus would have to go on record as a friend or a foe, only to demur at the last minute when Paul Ryan pointed out to him that this would create huge political problems for his members.
So Trump is probably just bluffing here, too. At least that’s how I would interpret it. (Also, the historical track record of presidents trying to back primary challenges to incumbent members of Congress is dismal.)
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokesperson, declined to clarify, telling NBC News that “the tweet speaks for itself.”
It’s worth noting that while the Freedom Caucus certainly has been known to scuttle the GOP’s best-laid plans in the past, it’s far from clear that this is really what happened with the Obamacare repeal effort. Many moderate or vulnerable House Republicans had serious doubts about the bill, and the legislation, as written, wasn’t going to make it through the Senate.
It’s possible that if every single Freedom Caucus member had been prepared to vote for the AHCA it would have passed the House, but that’s far from certain. And even if it had passed the House, the basic reality that the bill was too extreme and poorly designed to pass the Senate would have forced major modifications. All of which suggests Trump might be better served blaming the bill’s architects — including himself.Well, this is maddening: outgoing New York Times public editor (ombudsman) Arthur S. Brisbane wrote Sunday, in his final column for the paper, that he believes that the venerable organization treats marriage equality more like a cause than a news subject:
“Across the paper’s many departments, though, so many share a kind of political and cultural progressivism — for lack of a better term — that this worldview virtually bleeds through the fabric of The Times. As a result, developments like the Occupy movement and gay marriage [sic] seem almost to erupt in The Times, overloved and undermanaged, more like causes than news subjects.”
I’m not sure how to interpret Brisbane’s remarks. Just what exactly does he mean by “overloved?” The New York Times reports frequently and objectively on the struggle for LGBT civil rights not because it “overloves” that topic, but because it’s a major, compelling, ongoing story playing out in states, communities, families, religious congregations, legislative chambers, courtrooms, and individual people’s lives all across the country. The NYT would be derelict in its journalistic duty not to cover issues related to LGBT rights, including marriage equality, extensively. Sure, the paper’s editorial board has published columns supporting marriage equality, but as the Advocate points out, other major national newspapers like the Los Angeles Times have done so as well. The New York Times, like every other major newspaper, has strict ethical guidelines in place to ensure that its editorial and news departments are kept totally separate. Furthermore, as I said above, this is a civil rights issue. Quite simply, there are not two morally equivalent, equally legitimate “sides” to civil rights issues, including the freedom to marry. And finally, the editorial page of the New York Times has long served as a call to our national conscience where civil rights are concerned. It supported the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, and its post-Brown coverage served as a model for newspapers across the country. The Chicago Defender, a Chicago-based weekly newspaper founded by and for African Americans, said of the NYT:
“No driving force has been more consistent and insistent in beating the tom-tom for the rights of this black minority than the New York Times.“
If this were 1954 and not 2012, would Brisbane be characterizing the New York Times‘ progressive editorial advocacy for and coverage of the struggle for African American civil rights as “overloved and undermanaged?” I shudder to think.
Condemning bigotry, prejudice, and discrimination, as the editorial page of the New York Times does on the issue of marriage equality, is never wrong. Reinforcing a false equivalency between oppressed minority groups working for their constitutionally-guaranteed civil rights and the people seeking to perpetuate oppression by denying them those rights and stripping them away — as many media outlets do — is very wrong. Brisbane would be wise to learn the difference.* Rouble down 50 pct vs dollar in 2014
* RTS share index plunges 10 percent to 5-year low
* Central bank seen intervening to support rouble
* Putin’s popularity in part based on stability (Adds rouble in U.S. trading, Moscow Exchange comment)
By Alexander Winning and Vladimir Abramov
MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The rouble plunged around 10 percent against the dollar on Monday, its sharpest fall since 1998, and Russian assets sold off across markets, testing the firepower of the central bank and posing a major challenge for President Vladimir Putin.
Traders said the slump in the rouble, down 50 percent against the dollar this year, forced the central bank to intervene in the market on Monday to defend it against the threat of new U.S. sanctions over Ukraine, tumbling oil prices and one-sided bets that the currency would fall.
Intervention has become a near-daily routine since the start of the month. Neither rate hikes nor tough talk from senior policymakers have been able to stem the currency’s decline.
Putin’s popularity, based partly on providing stability and prosperity, is at risk from the rouble’s decline, which is stoking already galloping inflation and damaging Russia’s credibility among investors.
On Monday, the rouble weakened beyond 60 roubles per dollar for the first time, hitting a record low of 64.44 to the dollar on the Moscow Exchange, almost 10 percent weaker than the previous close, and 78.87 versus the euro.
In U.S. trading, the rouble sank further to 65.90 to the dollar after it broke through the upper limits of a price boundary set by the Moscow Exchange, meaning the exchange did not accept offers above 64.4459 in the evening session.
The dollar-denominated RTS share index closed down 10 percent at a five-year low and Russian companies’ dollar bonds sold off.
Three traders told Reuters the central bank probably intervened after the rouble passed 61 roubles per dollar. One said the bank probably sold around $1 billion to briefly bring the rouble back to 60 to the dollar.
“Expectations are strongly weighted for the rouble to weaken,” said Vladimir Pantyushin, a forex and fixed income strategist at Sberbank CIB. “We would need a lot to reverse this trend.”
The bank has spent close to $80 billion propping up the rouble this year, including over $5 billion this month. It has raised its main lending rate 5 percentage points this year in response to Ukraine-related market turmoil.
It said on Monday the Russian economy would likely contract in the first quarter of next year and that it could shrink by around 4.5 percent in 2015 as a whole if oil prices average $60 a barrel.
UKRAINE PAIN
A bill passed by the U.S. Congress after Russian markets closed on Friday set out tougher sanctions on Moscow, putting pressure on Russian assets.
U.S. President Barack Obama has not signed the bill into law and has opposed further sanctions on Russia unless Europe joins in, but the draft law nevertheless soured the market mood.
Crude oil prices came under renewed pressure on Monday, and Brent hit five-year lows of nearly $60 a barrel. That in turn hurt the rouble because sales of oil and gas are Russia’s chief source of export revenue.
“Unless the situation in Ukraine improves and we see a big change in oil prices it’s not trivial to go in and buy Russia,” said Bhanu Baweja, head of emerging market strategy at UBS in London.
The shock from the weaker rouble rippled throughout other markets. The dollar-based RTS index ended down 10.1 percent at 718 points and the rouble-traded MICEX closed down 1.9 percent to 1,431 points.
The cost of insuring exposure to Russian debt jumped to 536 basis points on Monday, the highest since March 2009 and well beyond the 500 mark hit earlier in the day, data from Markit showed.
For rouble poll data see
For Russian equities guide see
For Russian treasury bonds see
Russia in graphics: link.reuters.com/dun63s (Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly and Olga Popova in Moscow and Sujata Rao in London; Editing by Larry King/Ruth Pitchford)THE LOST GODS OF GERMANY
Prior to the discovery and dissemination of the Poetic Edda in 1643, these were the best reports of the Gods of Northern Europe. The first translation and full printing of the Eddic poems would not occur until 1787-1812. Thus Arnkeil's work gives us a glimpse of what the Germanic pantheon looked like in the popular mind, before the Codex Regius had been found.
Besides discussing the Gods of the Germanic tribes, as known at the time, this book contains information and illustrations of divinities and fantastic creatures from other world mythologies. Here I have only included the images of the dieties in the Germanic sphere. Some of the illustrations in this book appear to be based on those in Elias Schedius' De Diis Germanis (1648). Some of these gods are familiar to us and others are not. Where the author cites a source for a deity, I have provided the reference and any additional information where possible. The illustrations herein remained influencial into the early decades of the 19th century, reprinted in other works or in derivative form ( see below ).
Title Page
This image (left) is based on an illustration from manuscript Nks 1867 4to of Snorri's Edda (right). As told in the opening scene of Gylfaginning, Swedish King Gylfi, in disguise as Gangleri, questions Hárr, Jafnhárr, and Þriði— High, Just-as-High, and Third—presumably a threefold representation of Odin himself. The author demonstrates his very limited knowledge of Snorri's Edda beginning on page 86. THOR, ODIN, FREIA Nks 1867 4to 111v.
[Det Kongelige Bibliotek in Copenhagen]
OTHIN, THOR, FRIGGE
These images of Odin, Thor and Frigg are based on a woodcut first published in
Olaus Magnus' A Description of the Northern Peoples (1555), which also inspired
Richard Verstegan's Saxon Idols in Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities (1605).
The Saxon Gods: The Namesakes of the Weekdays
Sun, Moon, Tuisco, Wodan, Thor (not pictured), Freyja, Seater
See Richard Verstegan's Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities (1605).
THE GOLDEN HORN
The illustrated horn clearly shows images of mythic beings and creatures, including the lady with the mead cup, twin gods, a three-headed giant, and animal-headed beings. This is a drawing of the first of two golden horns known today as the Gallehus Horns found in 1639 and 1734. This horn, the longer of the two, had seven segments with ornaments, to which six plain segments and a plain rim were added, possibly in the 17th-century by a restorer. Both of the original horns were stolen in 1805 and melted down.
FRO, MITOTHIN and VAGNHOFF
These images of Freyr (Fro), Mitothin, and Vagnoff are based on a woodcut from Olaus Magnus' A Description of the Northern Peoples (1555). Their names characters ultimately derive from figures found in Books I-IX of Saxo Grammaticus' Danish History. These gods are not clearly identified in the original, however the text appears to indicate that the first figure is Mitothin, chief priest of the gods, and the second is Freyr, a deputy of the gods. The name of the third figure, Vagnoff, is probably a misreading of Vagnhofthi, a giant who assists Hadding in the first Book of Saxo's Danish History. See Also Richard Verstegan's
Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities (1605)
THE SAXON IRMINSUL
An Image of Mercury, also called Wodan
This image of the god Irminsul (left) is clearly based on Conrad Bote (also called Botho)'s image of the Idol Armesule in his Saxon Chronicle of 1492 (right):
These, in turn, appear to be related to an illustration from Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia c. 1590 (right), depicting a god of war and commerce: His inspiration for this is likely a reference in the 12th century Kaiserchronik, concerning the origin of the designation Wednesday and therefore probably describing the god Woden (Odin), which reads: His inspiration for this is likely a reference in the 12th century ûf ainer irmensiule stuont ain abgot ungehiure, daz hiezen si ir choufman. "On an Irminsul
stands an enormous idol
which they call their merchant." An Irminsul is properly a kind of pillar attested as an object of worship among the ancient Saxon tribes. From this, a Germanic god Irmin, inferred from the name Irminsul and the tribal name Irminones, was once presumed to have been the national god of the Saxons. The first reference to an Irminsul, as the chief seat of the Saxon religion, appears in the Royal Frankish Annals (772AD). During the Saxon wars, Charlemagne repeatedly orders its destruction. The Irminsul is described as located near Heresburg (now Obermarsberg), Germany. Rudolf of Fulda (AD 865) provides a description of an Irminsul in his De Miraculis Sancti Alexandri ("The Miracles of Saint Alexander"), chapter III, where he describes the Irminsul as a great wooden pillar erected and worshipped under the open sky. A surprisingly late source identifies the Irmunsul with an idol of the Roman God Mercury, often identified as Woden or Odin in Medieval European histories. The source links the Germanic god Mercury directly to Frau Herra (a form of the name Herke) as deities worshipped together by the ancient Saxons. As such it’s worth quoting at length. The author is Gobelin Person (also Gobelinus Persona, 1358-1421), a prominent historian and church reformer from the bishopric of Paderborn, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. His main work, Cosmidromius, completed in 1418, prior to the re-discovery and dissemination of a single manuscript of Tacitus’ Germania in 1425, is one of the most important historical works of the 15th century. In chapter 38, written some time before 1406, speaking of local history and superstition, he writes:
"Charles the Great in the year of our Lord 769, took hold of the reign in the kingdom of the Franks and ruled for forty-six years; of course, three years together with his brother Carlomann and the remainder of the years ruled alone. In the second year of his reign, the General Assembly of Worms convened to decide upon the approach to the Saxon War, and they, without delay, advanced altogether with swords and fire to plunder the castle of Eresburgh, which presently is called Mount Mars in the Latin tongue, and seized the idol which the Saxons call Irminsuel, destroyed it and then took it back all the way up to the Weser River, and withdrew with twelve Saxon hostages. Understand that this idol Irminsuel is Mercury or what the Greeks call Hermes... They consecrate the idol or statue in the aforementioned place to this god, because Irminsuel is a statue of he who is called Hermes. And because in this aforementioned place all men in the district assemble in order to sacrifice to the idol out of reverence and devote themselves to it, that place is called Eresburgh, the Mountain of Reverence. Actually, Juno, who is called in the writings of the Greeks Hera, was worshipped in the same place before Hermes or perhaps at the same time, thereupon they call that place Heresbergh, which is clearly the Mountain of Hera or Juno, and afterwards, when they occupied and fortified that place, call it Heresburgh, the Castle of Hera Veneration. Moreover, this Hera was worshipped by the Saxons, which can be seen by the fact that certain of the common people recite what they themselves have heard from the antiquity, just as I myself have heard, that between the festival of the Birth of Christ and the holiday of the Epiphany of the Lord, Mistress Hera flies through the air, because the pagans assign the air to Juno. And because Juno, whenever they call upon her as Ceres and depict her with bells and wings, the common people call her vrowe here (Frau Here), or corrupt the name Vor Here de Vlughet [of Flight], and believe that she herself brings abundance at that time."
The significance of this remarkable passage cannot be overstated. Written prior to the discovery of Tacitius’ Germania in 1425, it clearly identifies a local Saxon god with the Roman Mercury, information which can be gleaned from only a few other sources. He appears to speak of local belief recording what “certain of the common people” say they “themselves have heard from antiquity [or the ancient elders], just as I myself have heard.” Although he travelled widely throughout Italy in the company of Pope Urban VI before being ordained in 1386, Gobelin Person was a native of Paderborn, Germany who was born, lived, worked, and ultimately buried in the vicinity. Although deeply learned, he was in a position to both know and understand local legend. Remarkably, he not only identifies the local Saxon goddess known as Frau Herre with the Greek goddess Hera, the Queen of the Classical pantheon, but also with Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, demonstrating that the identification was based on more than just a superficial similarity between the names Herre and Hera. Clearly drawing on local tradition which he himself has heard, he says the common folk believe she flies through the air at Christmas time bringing abundance, adding the unique detail that she is depicted with bells and wings. These details immediately correspond to what we know of Frau Holle, whose followers are known for ringing bells, and her wings can be confirmed by images in iconography and the mythology of the region, which is well-acquainted with prophetic goddesses in the form of birds. In addition, Gobelin directly associates her worship with the Classical god Hermes or Mercury, who is widely recognized as Odin from other sources, and this at least two decades before the re-discovery and wide dissemination of Tacitus’ book on the traits and traditions of the Germanic tribes! In addition, he precisely pinpoints the time of her flight as taking place between the Feast of the Nativity and the Feast of the Epiphany, corresponding to the Twelve Days of Christmas, the exact time of the Wild Hunt in Northern European belief.
All copies of Germania were lost during the Middle Ages and the work was forgotten until a single manuscript was found in Hersfeld Abbey (Codex Hersfeldensis) in 1425. It was then brought to Italy, where Enea Silvio Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II, first examined and analyzed the book. This sparked interest among German humanists, including Conrad Celtes, Johannes Aventinus, and Ulrich von Hutten and beyond. The peoples of medieval Germany (the Kingdom of Germany in the Holy Roman Empire) were heterogenous, separated in distinct tribal kingdoms, such as the Bavarians, Franconians, and Swaibians, distinctions which remain evident in the German language and culture after the unification of Germany in 1871 and the establishment of modern Austria and Germany. During the medieval period a self-designation of "Germani" was virtually never used, the name was only revived in 1471, inspired by the rediscovered text of Germania, to invoke the warlike qualities of the ancient Germans in a crusade against the Turks. Ever since its discovery, treatment of the text regarding the culture of the early Germanic peoples in ancient Germany remains strong especially in German history, philology, and ethnology studies, and to a lesser degree in Scandinavian countries as well.
For additional contemporary information on Irminsul (Mercury) and Hera, see
Petrus Albinus, Saxonum Historiue Progymnasmata, 1585
THE GODDESS HERTHA
MOTHER EARTH
An illustration of the goddess Herthe known from chapter 40 of Tacitus' Germania (c. 90AD) which reads:
“The Langobardi are distinguished by being few in number. Surrounded by many mighty peoples they have protected themselves not by submissiveness, but by battle and boldness. Next to them come the Reudigni, Aviones, Anglii, Varini, Eudoses, Suarines and Huitones protected by rivers and forests. There is nothing especially noteworthy about these states individually, but they are distinguished by a common worship of Nerthus, that is, Mother Earth, and believe she intervenes in human affairs and rides through their peoples. There is a sacred grove on an island of the Ocean, in which there is a consecrated chariot draped with a cloth, which the priest alone may touch. He perceives the presence of the goddess in the innermost shrine and with great reverence escorts her in her chariot, which is drawn by female cattle. There are days of rejoicing then and the countryside celebrates the festival, wherever she deigns to visit and to accept hospitality. No one goes to war, no one takes up arms. All objects of iron are locked away then and only then do they exercise peace and quiet, only then do they prize them, until the goddess has had her fill of society, and the priest brings her back to the temple. Afterwards the chariot, the cloth, and if one may believe it, the deity herself are washed in a hidden lake. The slaves who perform this office are immediately afterwards swallowed up in the same lake. Hence arises dread of the mysterious, and piety, which keeps them ignorant of what only those who are about to perish may see.” [—A.R. Birley translation, 1999]
Prior to the work of modern scholars who consider the reading Nerthum the most accurate, this goddess was commonly known as Herthus or Herthe based on a variant reading found in some manuscripts. John McKinnell, writing in Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend (2005), explains: “The usually accepted stemma has three families, and readings shared by the best manuscripts of any two of them are thought likely to be correct. The best X group manuscripts (Vatican, Cod. Vat. 1862, Leiden UL XVIII Periz.Q.21) read Neithum; the best y manuscripts (Cod. Vat. 1518, Codex Neapolitanus) have Nerthum, and the best Z manuscript (Iesi, Æsinas Lat. 8) reads Nertum. The sound /th/ did not exist in classical Latin, though the spelling is found in words derived from Greek or the Germanic languages (such as thesaurus 'treasure', or the name Theodoricus). Tacitus would therefore be unlikely to introduce the spelling th gratuitously. In the fifteenth century, the Italian scribes who produced most of the earliest surviving manuscripts (including the Iesi manuscript) would have a natural tendency to replace th with t, as was consistently done in their native language (see Italian tesoro, Teodorico), but would be very unlikely to do the reverse. Nerthum is therefore more probably correct than Nertum. If both Y and Z should read Nerthum, that reading must be preferred. A different stemma, proposed by Robinson, has only two groups, and the best manuscripts in both read Nerthum. Whichever stemma is correct, Nerthum therefore seems the likeliest reading, although it could represent either a grammatically masculine Nerthus or a grammatically neuter Nerthum.” The form Hertha is a false reading of comparatively modern origin. In 1519, Rhenanus, the pious scholar who published Tacitus, wrote Herthum for Nerthum, manifestly the same as the Old High German Herda, earth. Based on his authority, the text of Tacitus was uniformly given as Herthum up until 1817, when editors such as Franz Passow restored Nerthum to the Latin text. That the name Nerthus is grammatically masculine in form has lead some critics such as Klaus von See to conclude that Tacitus had no genuine information about the cult of Nerthus other than this name, and therefore based his account of the Germanic ‘god’ on the Roman cult of Magna Mater (the Great Mother), a cult in which Tacitus was himself entitled to participate. Therefore, the most frequent objections to the authenticity of the Nerthus cult are based upon superficial comparisons to its Roman reflection, almost always ignoring their sharp contrasts. Besides the superficial similarity of the designations Terra Mater and Magna Mater, or more properly magna deum mater, “great mother of the gods,” scholars prone to compare the two point out the fact that both cults included a public procession which terminated with the ritual washing of the idol in a lake. The differences between these cults, however, are not insignificant, and thus there is little reason to suspect that Tacitus drew on his knowledge of the Roman cult in his description of the Germanic Earth-Mother. Tacitus describes the goddess in question as Terra Mater, not Magna Mater. The Romans knew a Tellus or Terra Mater, who had a different ceremony than the one attributed to Nerthus; cattle were sacrificed to her on the 14th of April. The worship of Cybele, the great mother of the gods, spread from its chief sanctuary, Pessinus in Phrygia, to Greece by the early fourth century and then on to Egypt and Italy. Heeding the counsel of the Sibylline oracle concerning the threat of foreign invaders, the Roman senate brought her worship to Rome in 204 BC as the first officially sanctioned Eastern cult. Lucretius provides one of the best descriptions of her festival, considered decadent even by Roman standards, as it was celebrated around the time of Julius Caesar. In one telling of her story, the goddess was born a hermaphrodite and was castrated at birth, leaving her female. Attis, her consort, was the child of a nymph, impregnated by the goddess’ discarded member. Cybele fell in love with Attis, but grew jealous of him after he was unfaithful to her and so drove him insane. He died from blood-loss after castrating himself. This myth was reenacted during the festival. In her train, men, known as Galli, castrated themselves in devotion to her, following the example of Attis. Since this practice was outlawed among the Romans, the Galli were all recruited from outside of Rome. Once a year, decked out in their exotic feminine garments, long hair and amulets, these self-mutilated eunuchs were allowed to parade a statue of the goddess, seated in a chariot pulled by wild lions, through the streets accompanied by the clatter of cymbals and the sounds of tambourines. Gathered spectators threw flower petals and coins before them. Bulls were ritually slaughtered at her increasingly elaborate feasts. During the rest of the year, the Senate confined the Galli to an enclosed sanctuary and declared that no citizen had the right to enter the annexes occupied by them or take part in their frenzied orgies. In detail, this cult is quite unlike the peaceful public procession of Nerthus, in which all iron objects were locked away. Instead of wild lions, her car was drawn by domestic cattle. A single priest, rather than a motley crew, attended her and only he was allowed to touch her sacred vehicle. Although some scholars have pointed out possible foreign models for Tacitus’ account of the Nerthus cult, it is more probable that he based his account on native Scandinavian tradition. A divinity in a wagon is well-known in Germanic lore, thus there is little need to speculate that Tacitus borrowed the idea from Roman sources. According to Snorri’s Edda, Thor drives a wagon drawn by goats, Freyr arrives at Baldur’s funeral in a cart led by a boar, and Freyja rides in a car pulled by cats. Njörd too is known as ‘god of the wagon’ in a skaldic strophe cited in the primary manuscript of Snorri’s Edda; where other manuscripts have Vana guð (‘god of the Vanir’), Codex Regius has vagna guð. The Big Dipper (Ursa Major) was commonly known as the Wain or wagon. In skaldic poetry, Odin is known as runni vagna, "mover of wagons"; vinr vagna, "friend of wagons"; vári vagna "protector of wagons"; and valdr vagnbrautar, "ruler of the wagon-road.” The sky itself, home of the gods, is known as “the land of wagons (land vagna),” indicating that the constellations were imagined as the gods circling the heavens in their cars.
Other Germanic literary sources also support the procession of an idol in a wagon among the northern European tribes. In the latter half of the fourth century, the Church historian Sozomen (c. 400–450 AD), writing of the dangers that beset Ulphilas [Wulfias] among the heathen Goths, recounts how Athanaric, chieftain of the Thervingians, appointed Winguric (Wingureiks), a goði, to eradicate the Christian faith from the land. He placed a xoanon (wooden idol) in an armamaxa (covered carriage) and ordered it conveyed to the homes of those suspected of practicing Christianity. If they refused to fall down and sacrifice (evidently to the deity represented by the statue), their tents were set ablaze. Sozomen says:
“[Ulphilas] exposed himself to innumerable perils in defense of the faith, during the period that the aforesaid barbarians were abandoned to paganism. He taught them the use of letters, and translated the sacred scriptures into their own language. …Athanaric resented the change in religion that had been effected by Ulphilas; and irritated because his subjects had abandoned the superstition of their fathers, he imposed cruel punishments on many individuals; some he put to death after they had been dragged before tribunals and had nobly confessed the faith, and others were slain without being permitted to utter a single word in their own defense. It is said that the officers appointed by Athanaric to execute his cruel mandates, caused a statue to be constructed, which they placed on a chariot, and had it conveyed to the tents of those who were suspected of having embraced Christianity, and who were therefore commanded to worship the statue and offer sacrifice: if they refused to do so, they were burnt alive in their tents. But I have heard that an outrage of still greater atrocity was perpetrated at this period. Men, women, and children, who were compelled to offer sacrifice, fled from their tents and sought refuge in a church, whither also they carried the infants at the breast; the pagans set fire to the church and consumed it, with all who were therein.” [16]
In Crimea, Winguric paraded the idol before a tent used by Christians for their church service. Those who honored the idol were spared, and the rest were burned alive in their place of worship around the year 375 AD. A total of 308 people died in the fire, of which twenty-one are known by name, written with multiple variants in manuscript. A woman called Baren or Beride, also recorded as Larisa, led the congregation in a hymn as the fire consumed them. The so-called “26 Gothic Martyrs” linked to this incident are commemorated on March 26 in the Christian Orthodox calendar and on October 29 in the Gothic calendar fragment, "in remembrance of the martyrs who with Werekas the priest and Batwin the bilaif (minister?) were burned in a crowded church among the Goths," gaminþi marwtre þize bi Werekan papan jah Batwin bilaif aikklesjons fullaizos ana Gutþiudai gabrannidai.[17] It is noteworthy that Athanaric did not persecute Christians in general, but primarily members of his own community who had converted. Since the purpose of the procession seems to be to promote prosperity, Carla O'Harris has suggested that Anthanaric's true motivation in persecuting the coverts may have been their unwillingness to participate in the time-honored rituals that would insure the well-being of the land, and therefore the community at large. His chosen means of execution, death by fire, may indicate that Athanaric saw the Christians as practitioners of witchcraft, whose religious rites would offend the gods and thereby blight the land. Footnotes:
[16] Historia Ecclesiastica VI, 37, translated by Edward Walford as The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen (1855), pp. 306-7.
[17] George W. S. Friedrichsen, 'Notes on the Gothic Calendar (Cod. Ambros. A)’, Modern Language Review 22 (1927); The ‘twenty-six’ martyrs include the twenty-one who are named, Batwin’s four children, and an anonymous man who ran up to confess his faith as the tent began to burn.
THE GOD SVETOVID (SVANTO-VITH)
This evidence for this idol is a passage in Book XIV of Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum ("Danish History") written before 1220 AD. There he describes a statue of Suanto-Vitus ("Saint Vitus") in the following manner:
"[Waldemar I and Absalon lay siege to Arkon in Rügen, a city on a ness with precipice walls.] "On a level in the midst of the city was to be seen a wooden temple of most graceful workmanship, held in honour not only for the splendour of its ornament, but for the divinity of an image set up within it. The outside of the building was bright with careful graving [or painting], whereon sundry shape were rudely and uncouthly pictured. There was but one gate for entrance. The shrine itself was shut in a double row of enclosures, the outer whereof was made of walls and covered with a red summit; while the inner one rested on four pillars, and instead of having walls was gorgeous with hangings, not communicating with the outer save for the roof and a few beams. In the temple stood a huge image, far overtopping all human stature, marvellous for its four heads and four necks, two facing the breast and two the back. Moreover, of those in front as well as of those behind, one looked leftwards and the other rightwards. The beards were figured as shaven and the hair as clipped; the skilled workman might be thought to have copied the fashion of the Rügeners in the dressing of the heads. In the right hand it held a horn wrought of divers metals, which the priest, who was versed in its rites, used to fill every year with new wine, in order to foresee the crops of the next season from the disposition of the liquor. In the left there was a representation of a bow, the arm being drawn back to the side. A tunic was figured reaching to the shanks, which were made of different woods, and so secretly joined to the knees that the place |
, community engagement is a metric that is calculated for any particular subreddit. For the top posts in the subreddit, we normalized the upvotes with the number of subscribers to that subreddit. Then, we averaged over all the top posts in the subreddit.
Our intention for creating individual and community engagement based on the strong suspicion that some subreddits, perhaps those of a more niche topic, attract higher individual engagement, while general interest subreddits might generally have lower individual engagement. Additionally, because community engagement corresponds to what proportion of the community a top post needs to appeal to, we thought it reasonable that it’s easier to create a top post in a subreddit with low community engagement because you have to appeal to a smaller fraction of the subscriber base.
2.2 Cross-pollination between subreddits: Measuring weighted link importance
Reddit users are, like most people, multidimensional and likely to frequent multiple subreddits. As they move between communities, they bring with them the context of the different communities they participate in. This context could take the form of knowledge of memes or inside jokes.
Because subreddits are composed solely through contributions to the subreddit, we implemented a metric that takes the top posts at the current time of the subreddit, and analyzes all the posts of the authors of those top posts—who we call top users—to see how often they post are in the original subreddit a, and how often they post in the target subreddit b.
participation a → b = ∑ u ∈ top users 4 ⋅ u posts in a u total posts ⋅ u posts in b u total posts | top users |, participation a → b ∈ [ 0, 1 ].
By taking the concentration of posts in the first subreddit, taken as a representation of the degree the author is a member of the first subreddit, and multiplying by the concentration of posts in the second subreddit, taken as a representation of the degree the author is a member of the second subreddit, we receive a metric describing the crossover between subreddits for a given author. This participation function is maximized when a user participates 50% in subreddit a and 50% in subreddit b and contains an extra factor of four to possible values between 0 and 1. The metric for the subreddit is the average of the values for its top users.
Modeling subreddits as nodes in a network is an extension of Chapter 8: How do I influence people on Facebook and Twitter. An important notion from that chapter is that some links between users more important than others, such as links that were included in many shortest paths. Here, we extend that intuition to our participation metric which generates a network of weighted links, and we use the weights to directly infer which links are important in the network representation.
2.3 The Reddit Power Index: How “average” are top users?
Because of the lack of real names on Reddit, it is not immediately clear who are the “top users” and who are not. For example, on Twitter, the users with the most followers are often celebrities and public figures. But who are these top users of Reddit, and how dominant are they? Specifically, is it possible for the average user of Reddit to have a post become very popular in a subreddit? Or are the frontpages of subreddits controlled by an elite group of users?
To answer these questions, we were interested in quantifying how good the top users are. To do so, we created the a metric called the Reddit Power Index (RPI). Fundamentally, RPI is a metric that can be calculated on any post, and is defined as follows:
RPI post = post upvotes subreddit avg. upvotes.
Thus, the RPI for any post is the number of upvotes it has divided by the average number of upvotes for a post in that subreddit. An RPI below 1 means that the post is below average, and any RPI above 1 means that the post is above average.
Because we are interested in categorizing subreddits as a whole, we extend the definition of RPI first to users and then to subreddits as follows:
RPI user = ∑ p ∈ posts RPI p | posts |,
RPI subreddit = ∑ u ∈ top users RPI u | top users |.
Naturally, the RPI for a user is the average RPI of its posts, and the RPI for a subreddit is the average RPI of its top users.
With RPI, we created a heuristic which indicates the difficulty of creating a top post in any given subreddit. A subreddit with high RPI is one dominated largely by users who consistently have successful posts. Whereas a subreddit with lower RPI is in some sense more “democratic” because the community surfaces posts from users who are closer to the average Reddit user in terms of past post upvote performance.
3 Implementation
We collected our data using Python scripts and the Python package PRAW, the Python Reddit API Wrapper. The wrapper authenticates using OAuth, creating a Reddit instance that contains the client_id, client_secret, password, and username, which the rest of the PRAW API acts upon. While Reddit has its own public API that exposes data through JSON, we preferred using PRAW as an intermediary because it handled authentication, rate-limiting, and exceptions, and allowed us to focus on writing the data collection scripts.
Diagram of our data collection process.
The Reddit Instance generated by PRAW can access any subreddit, post, or user that is accessible through reddit.com. Additionally, PRAW generates iterables which are very useful for data collection. For example, we can create a PRAW object that is a list of all of the current top posts in a subreddit, and this object can be iterated through like any other list in Python. We then can get key data for each submission, such as author, upvote count, and title. Similarly, each Reddit user can generate a PRAW object which is a list of its recent posts. This technique of (a) iterating through the top posts in a subreddit, (b) finding the upvotes and author of each top posts, and (c) finding the history of posts for that user forms the foundation of our data collection techniques.
While PRAW simplified using the Reddit API, we still encountered significant roadblocks in regards to rate-limiting. Each request to the API can return a maximum of 100 posts at a time, and PRAW delays 2 seconds between API requests. In all of our scripts, there was the trade off where collecting more data resulted in longer execution times. We were able to strike a reasonable balance by often choosing to look at samples of top posts of size 25 to 100.
However, when collecting data for the RPI, these rate-limits actually became a bottleneck factor (script execution time took hours). Our issue was that calculating the RPI for each user often requires collecting average upvote data for dozens of subreddits, each requiring a scraping of random posts that took several seconds. We largely overcame the issue by caching the average upvote value for subreddits and storing this data in a CSV file so it was persistent across different executions. Then, for example, if we had already scraped /r/AskReddit before, our code gets the average upvotes from the local cache instead of hitting the API, which makes a multi-second operation essentially free.
Also, we should note that many subreddits closely follow power-law distributions for the number of upvotes on a random post, which had a noticeable impact on our sampling results.
Log-log plot of upvotes for 1,000 random submissions to /r/AskReddit, a Top 100 subreddit.
Thus, because rate-limits constrained the number of posts we could sample, there was the potential for statistics to be moved wildly by sampling one outlier post out of 100. We believe that the reason for power-law distributions for upvotes on Reddit posts is because of how Reddit surfaces content to users. By default, users of the site are shown posts that are already popular, and then as a function of their increased visibility, these popular posts will continue to receive more upvotes. This is analogous to the model of preferential attachment studied in Chapter 10: Does the Internet Have an Achilles’ heel of Networked Life. In preferential attachment, new nodes added to a network tend to connect to nodes which already have high in-degree, similar to how new upvotes tend to accumulate on posts that already have a lot of upvotes. Thus, when analyzing the RPI for subreddits in 4.3, because RPI for a subreddit depends on the average upvotes from various other subreddits, we believe the median is a more explanatory measure of typical RPI.
4 Discussion and Conclusions
4.1 Quadrant Analysis: How much engagement do top posts get?
Plot of individual and community engagement for various subreddits.
The category of Top 100 subreddits is clustered in the lower-left quadrant, meaning the top posts are authored by users with low individual engagement and those posts receive low community engagement. Given that these subreddits are general-interest, this pattern is not unsurprising. For instance, while many people might be interested in the funny pictures from /r/Funny, very few people will only be interested in funny pictures.
For Original Content subreddits, it is difficult to discern a significant difference from the other categories in terms of individual engagement, but it is clear that community engagement is relatively low on the whole. Perhaps this a factor of subreddits driven by Original Content not needing to appeal to a very wide fraction of the subreddit.
For small subreddits, we do see relatively large individual engagement and community engagement compared to the Top 100 subreddits. We propose the following explanatory mechanism: smaller subreddits are about more niche topics, so while many people might subscribe to /r/Funny because they like funny pictures, the only users that will subscribe to /r/lexington are people who live in Lexington, KY. As a result, this self-selection means that the typical subscriber to /r/lexington is more invested in the subreddit than the typical subscriber to /r/funny. As the plot shows, these self-selecting groups tend to have top posts from users with higher individual engagement (frequently above 0.5), and they can have very high community engagement.
One interesting datapoint separate from the three categories that we added was /r/The_Donald. This subreddit is for supporters of Donald Trump and has created quite a bit of controversy on Reddit, with Reddit coming under fire for possible censoring of the subreddit, and members of the subreddit being accused of being toxic and harmful to the overall community. The controversial status of /r/The_Donald carries over to the plot, as the subreddit is a datapoint with no peers. It has extremely high individual engagement of 0.81, which means that the users who have the top posts in /r/The_Donald contribute 81% of their total posts to that community. The community engagement is the second highest of the subreddits we investigated, coming second to a much smaller community dedicated to Star Wars prequel memes (335,783 subscribers /r/The_Donald, 5,910 to /r/PrequelMemes).
For users new to Reddit looking to create posts that rise to the top, we suggest looking at subreddits in the lower-left quadrant, with low individual and community engagement. We suggest to look for low individual engagement subreddits because these subreddits likely surface top posts that don’t require extensive history of context and knowledge about the particular inside jokes and idiosyncrasies of that subreddit. We also suggest subreddits with low community engagement because these are communities posts can become popular while appealing to a smaller proportion of the community. An example of a subreddit that matches these criteria is /r/PersonalFinance, with scores of 0.06 and 2.6e-4 for individual and community engagement respectively.
4.2 Cross-pollination between subreddits: Measuring weighted link importance
First we had to decide which subreddits to measure against each other. We first observed top subreddits, such as /r/funny and /r/pics, but what we found was that in all tested cases, the connection value was either negligibly low or 0. This is probably because the posters to those subreddits are so varied and their interests so varied that the size of samples we were taking did did not discover cross-pollination.
The second tests we made were across political subreddits, including /r/The_Donald and /r/hillaryclinton, trying to match them with subreddits with similar views, such as /r/dncleaks and /r/enoughtrumpspam. However, because the top posters in political subreddits seem to keep very heavily inside those subreddits, they received 0 scores even with subreddits with similar views.
We then decided to test a network known to be based on geography, local sports, to see if we could gain information about the sports tendency of areas and locations. We examined the “big four” of Philadelphia—basketball, football, baseball, and hockey teams—and their relatedness to themselves, as well as some of the relevant league subreddits (e.g. /r/NBA).
Cross-pollination graph for Philadelphia sports teams.
Here in the graphs, red lines indicate a participation from one subreddit in another of.1 or greater, green lines indicate a participation from one subreddit in another of.01 or greater, and blue indicate any other non-zero participation. What we found was interesting. Comparing to known information, we can confirm that /r/timberwolves and /r/sixers users are a subset of /r/NBA. We can also confirm that Philadelphia is a football town, as is known, and also make the interesting observations that /r/NBA is the biggest sports subreddit, even though local people are most likely to follow the football team in addition to any other sports of the area.
We also applied to same analysis to Minnesota sports teams.
Cross-pollination graph for Minnesota sports teams.
The above graph suggests that if you want to become a star in /r/Timberwolves, then you should also participate in /r/NBA and /r/MinnesotaTwins. There is likely context in terms of discussion, memes, and knowledge among these communities that is shared among the top users.
Overall we can conclude that subreddits with users that stay only in the subreddit have 0 cross pollination, and that it is clear that larger communities have more participation in and less participation out.
Future improvements that could be made include scraping all posts of a given subreddit, though it would take much more time, and also nuancing the conclusions reached here by interlacing these results with the previous analysis of engagement of the top posts.
4.3 The Reddit Power Index: How “average” are top users?
RPI is a metric we created that can help us pinpoint the difficulty of creating a top post in any given subreddit. The RPI also allows us to clearly see what subreddits are dominated by users that consistently have successful posts. All this really means is that with the RPI we are able to find subreddits that will have more or less “alpha redditors” that one will have to compete with for upvotes.
Category Average RPI Median RPI Top 100 149.8 13.8 25 Small (<10,000) 3.0 2.0 10 Original Content 15.2 2.6
RPI scores for the three different categories of subreddits examined.
On the whole, RPI did provide a reasonable number we could use in analysis. We implemented a 10% trimmed mean in calculating the RPI subreddit to protect the metric against large outliers. However, there are still cases such as /r/gaming in the Top 100 which had an outlier RPI of 4767 that skewed the average RPI of Top 100 subreddits upwards. This is why we believe that median RPIs are the better way to quanitfy the typical subreddit RPI in our categories.
Shifting our focus to the Figure 8, we can see that the median RPI are more reliable. Subreddits that fall into the Top 100 category have significantly higher RPI than small or original content subreddits. This tells us that the popular posts in the Top 100 subreddits are typically created by users that typically get more than 10x the average number of upvotes! Conversely, our data show that the RPI for top users in subreddits less than 10,000 subscribers has a median value of 2, which is much closer to being an average Reddit user. The Original Content subreddits also have low RPI, though we suspect that this might be largely a function of size of subscribers, as the Original Content subreddits we examined happened to have smaller subscriber bases.
New users of Reddit should target subreddits with RPI scores closer to 1. These subreddits commonly surface content from more average users, not just from Reddit superstars. Our data tell us that smaller subreddits, such as /r/improv with an RPI of 1.4 and 7,332 subscribers, typically have lower RPI scores. Even some larger subreddits, such as /r/Frugal with an RPI of 1.7 and 613,046 subscribers and /r/GetMotivated with an RPI of 1.6 and 9,779,376 subscribers, have low RPI scores as well.
Posting to a subreddit with low RPI does not guarantee success. What it does mean is that you are competing against more average users of Reddit to get the top posts, hopefully giving yourself a chance to standout.
Final Words
“Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely.” Adam Smith wrote that line in 1759 in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and the same could be said of our behavior on Reddit today. We, the users of the this social bulletin board called Reddit, crave recognition and popularity. We want to be “loved” and “lovely”—we want our posts to become popular.
To that end, our analysis produced a few steps of action. There are clear differences between large and small subreddits in terms of individual and community engagement, as well as the RPI of top users. These differences are important to keep in mind for new users coming to the site, as it might be beneficial to begin in subreddits tailored to your interests while also keeping an eye out for low RPI, low engagement subreddits. Additionally, understanding the importance of what we termed cross-pollination will help you tailor which sets of communities to participate in. By deliberately choosing a set of subreddits, you can benefit from the same shared context that top users in those subreddits already have. Hopefully, with these takeaways, the factors of what makes a good Reddit post have been made clearer, and we can all use them to be more “loved” and more “lovely” on the site.Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) formally issued a decision in its multiyear review of the antitrust consent decrees that govern the licensing of music copyrights. At the end of the day, the DOJ opted not to change the way music is licensed, which was an undeniable win for consumers.
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At issue were antitrust consent decrees between the DOJ and the two largest collectives for the music industry, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI). For more than seven decades, the two collectives have operated under antitrust consent decrees, which have allowed ASCAP and BMI to maintain their monopolies in exchange for anticompetitive protections for consumers.
ASCAP and BMI, as well as their largest member publishers, have recently once again aggressively lobbied the DOJ to relax these consent decrees. From the outset, their goal was to raise fees on businesses across the country by scaling back some of the protections against monopoly pricing. This was in spite of ASCAP and BMI achieving record revenues over the past couple of years.
Businesses throughout America would have been harmed by any relaxation of the consent decrees. Had the DOJ bent to the demands of ASCAP and BMI, businesses from restaurants and retail stores to radio stations and digital music services would have been subjected to huge cost increases as a result of ASCAP and BMI leveraging unrestrained monopoly pricing.
Luckily for consumers of all types, DOJ refused to make any changes to the music licensing system. The evidence clearly suggested continued anticompetitive activity in this marketplace, and relaxing the consent decrees would have only increased the collusion and price manipulation by ASCAP, BMI and the largest publishers. In fact, as a result of this review, ASCAP recently agreed to a $1.75 million fine for failing to comply with the existing consent decree.
While the evidence clearly pointed toward no changes to the consent decrees, the DOJ's decision was not an easy one. From the start, the largest publishers within ASCAP and BMI threatened to pull out of the collective licensing system altogether if the DOJ did not grant the changes they demanded. The publishers were essentially saying to the DOJ, "give us the ability to charge monopoly prices or we will create disruption in the marketplace." However, the DOJ refused to be bullied by the music industry, and preserved the status quo that has benefited businesses and music creators for decades.
ASCAP, BMI and their major publishers are not happy with the DOJ's decision. They have made wild accusations that in making no changes to the consent decrees — by continuing to maintain the existing status quo — the DOJ has somehow radically changed the way music is licensed. Such claims defy common sense, yet a few of their most ardent supporters in Congress have attempted to undo the years of work put in by the the DOJ's Antitrust Division. Despite these very public and misleading attacks and significant added political pressure, the DOJ remained firm.
The Department of Justice made the correct decision by not making any changes to the consent decrees. It might not have been popular within the music licensing industry, but it was based upon very clear marketplace realities. The decision will mean continuity and stability in the market for music licenses. It will also mean that a system is preserved that has yielded record revenues for music creators. Most importantly, the decision will protect Main Street businesses across America from monopoly abuses.
Horowitz is a senior fellow with the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University in Washington.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.I read this on a dare from my friend. We are both Pats fans. Actually, MOST of my male friends who are Pats fans have expressed a horrified fascination that this exists. But none of them are brave enough to read it, so here is me texting the best parts to him as I read though:
(For those who are not Pats fans: Rob Gronkowski is like a golden retriever in human form if dogs could play really good football. A 25 year-old tight end, he’s 6’6’’, 265lbs. and bounds around the field with puppy exuberance swatting tackles away like they weren’t also grown men. After he scores a touchdown he does a “Gronk Spike” where he fracks for shale gas in the end zone by driving the football deep into the asthenosphere. Off the field he keeps company with porn stars and says things like “Our linemen should get laid tonight!”)
“The story so far: the thirsty wife of a Jets fan sees a Gronk Spike and has a sexual awakening.”
“The struggle is real.”
“So far it’s just her jilling off to videos of Gronk Spikes on YouTube. Twice.”
“This is described as ‘thumbing up and down the Gronkachusetts Turnpike.”
“And her nickname for him is ‘Gronkalish’.”
“I fantasize about Gronk on one knee spiking a bouquet of roses, a bottle of champagne and a diamond ring into my butt.”
“We went to Olive Garden and destroyed the free breadsticks.”
“He’s drunk as shit and falls off the side of the bed and butt fumbles back against the wall.”
“Spike me! Gronk me! Work my slot receiver!”
“Her husband then takes her to a Pats game, throws her in the end zone with perfect timing so that Gronk spikes her right in the pussy. Multiple orgasms and arrest ensue. The End.”
Lacy Noonan, the author, has a little cottage industry on Amazon of these silly self-aware romance stories. Highlights from her oeuvre include “Hotbox”, “Submitting Landlord” and “I Don’t Care If My Best Friend’s Mom is a Sasquatch, She’s Hot and I’m Taking a Shower With Her”. The writing is substantially better than broken English romance author El Stephanie James Meyer and there are enough football jokes inside to keep the ‘amuse’ in ‘amusingly dumb’.”
Should you read this? No. Should you buy this for your annoying as hell Patriots fan friend? Hell yes. And make them unwrap it in a public place.
The best part is this is part of a trilogy. The sequels haven’t been named but I humbly suggest “Gronk, Actually” and “The Eternal Sunshine of the Spikeless Mind”.
TD:DR (Too dumb; didn’t read): this book is a powerful confirmation of the sexual ineptitude of Jet’s fans but we knew that already.Now that iOS 8 is officially out for developers, it’s time to start digging into the apps and settings to find out what Apple didn’t tell us. Sure there are plenty of new features available in iOS 8, but there are definitely other little (and bigger) ones that didn’t make it to the unveiling.
We’ve been exploring iOS 8 and finding all sorts of features and helpful tips that Apple failed to mention during the keynote, but we feel are important enough to share with you. Check out our top 10 hidden iOS 8 features video below…
Keep in mind, there are a lot more than just 10 hidden gems in iOS 8, but to keep things from running too long we’ve narrowed it down to a handful of favorites. It’s unclear if all of these features will make it to the public release as Apple has a tendency to remove smaller features throughout the beta period before a public launch.
At this point, I think it’s safe to say that iOS is heading in a great direction. Apple has definitely taken the time to listen to the public’s feature requests. It’s a shame it took this long for certain features, but overall I’m happy with the progress.
Here are the top 10 hidden features mentioned in the video above:
Customize/Rearrange iOS 8 share sheets (Thanks, Ravirajm!)
Self-timer in Camera app
Time-Lapse videos
New accessibility zoom features
Grayscale
Request desktop site in Safari
Siri with Shazam integration
Independent exposure and focus control in Camera app
Battery usage (percentage) per app
Auto-delete messages
Which one is your favorite hidden feature?Hillary Clinton Will Be a Sharp Contrast to GOP on LGBT Equality
With Hillary Clinton's entrance into the race for president, the Republican field now has a Democrat to contrast with on LGBT equality.
Clinton officially announced her bid today with a video released online shortly after 3 p.m. Eastern. It features a diverse group of people making changes in their lives, including a male couple about to be married. A female couple is also included in the video (watch below).
The video was released shortly after her campaign chairman, John Podesta, sent an email to donors and Clinton associates confirming her candidacy, The New York Times reports. He said she will soon meet with voters in Iowa and will have a formal kickoff event next month.
On the Republican side, only Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have officially declared their candidacies, and both oppose marriage equality and more. Paul said in March that same-sex couples shouldn't get to use the word "marriage" because it "offends myself and a lot of people," and Cruz used his very first campaign stop to rile up the crowd against "the radical gay marriage agenda," then on Thursday he warned of the gay "jihad" against religious freedom.
Still, every Republican whose name has been mentioned as a potential 2016 contender is unified in opposition to marriage equality. Even the so-called moderate Chris Christie vetoed a marriage equality bill in his state. Whoever is chosen could set up a laundry list of sharply differing views on LGBT equality with Clinton, should she win the Democratic primary.
Some Republicans still consider it a mistake that gays and lesbians are allowed to serve openly in the military, support "license to discriminate" laws, and oppose passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Not only does Clinton support marriage equality, she's spoken out on the other side of all those arguments.
She's most beloved among the LGBT community for a December 2011 speech she gave before the United Nations in Geneva while Secretary of State, in which she said to the world that "Being LGBT does not make you less human. And that is why gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights."
And Politico reports on documents released this week by the National Archives at the Clinton Library that show it was Hillary Clinton's staff who pushed during her husband's presidency for greater acceptance of LGBT people. For example, President Obama signed an executive order last year that went into effect last week that bans discrimination in employment by federal contractors — something that Hillary Clinton's staff pushed her husband to do back in August 2000.
So far, Clinton could potentially face three other supporters of LGBT equality in the Democratic primary. And despite her popularity among LGBT voters, her potential rivals could wield a few advantages. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, for example, has long been in favor of equal marriage rights, even voting against the Defense of Marriage Act that Clinton's husband signed into law and which Hillary Clinton once said she'd have voted for if she were in the Senate at the time — though she now welcomes its dismantling.
Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland signed a marriage equality bill in his state before Clinton had even came out publicly in favor of same-sex marriage in March 2013. Lincoln Chafee, former governor of Rhode Island, also signed a law in his state. Clinton bristled during a tense interview in June with NPR's Terry Gross while promoting her new book after being asked to clarify exactly when she changed her mind on marriage equality.
"You know, somebody is always first, Terry," she said. "Somebody’s always out front and thank goodness they are. But that doesn’t mean that those who joined later in being publicly supportive or even privately accepting that there needs to be change are any less committed. You could not be having the sweep of marriage equality across our country if nobody changed their mind. And thank goodness so many of us have."Paul Krugman has written two blogs about Ibn Khaldun this weekend (and also said some kind words about my research). Readers of this blog know that I hold Ibn Khaldun in great esteem (see this blog, for example).
Ibn Khaldun’s greatest contribution is the development of a theory of collective solidarity/social cooperation, for which he uses the Arabic term `asabiyyah (which I usually simplify to asabiya). In this he is very different from such great European thinkers as Machiavelli, Hobbs, Hume, and Adam Smith, whose great contributions eventually led to the Rational Choice Theory (and the dead end of homo economicus in its most primitive form). Yes, I know that those political philosophers were much more subtle than they are often given credit for; yet the fact is that by the second half of the twentieth century a very flawed model of human nature reigned supreme in economics. Economists and many other social scientists seemingly took to heart David Hume’s famous pronouncement:
Political writers established it as a maxim, that, in contriving any system of government … every man ought to be supposed to be a knave and to have no other end, in all his actions, than his private interest. Sign up for our newsletters
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This is very wrong. It is, in fact, impossible to build a working society if all its members are selfish rational agents (or “knaves” in Hume’s wonderful characterization). Selfish agents will not cohere in a functional society – this I believe can be elevated to the First Law of Sociology.
Ibn Khaldun knew this and he devoted his book to developing a theory of the origins of social cooperation/asabiya, and mechanisms responsible for its loss. I won’t repeat myself here, because I devoted a big chunk of my popular book War and Peace and War to discussing Ibn Khaldun’s theory. In other writings I have modeled the dynamics of asabiya waxing and waning, loosely based on the ideas of Ibn Khaldun.
My models were focused on understanding the rise and fall of states and empires. What is interesting is that a very similar kind of model can be developed for the rise and fall of business firms. (In particular, Rob Axtell, with whom I have periodically interacted in Santa Fe and elsewhere, developed such models that are very similar in spirit to my models on political cycles). In fact, I believe Paul Krugman is completely right in bringing up Ibn Khaldun when thinking about the decline of Microsoft. However, I would develop this idea a bit further.
Both states and corporations are, at some fundamental level, cooperative enterprises. Yes, political elites and corporate managers are motivated by personal gain, power, status, and prestige. And that even can be the majority of their motivations. But in addition there has to be something else, at least some of these elites (whether political or economic) some of the time must behave in a cooperative prosocial manner, that is, putting the common interest of their state or corporation above their private interests. When they stop doing that, states crumble and corporations go bankrupt.
So here is a simple model that I have in mind for explaining the rise and fall of mighty corporations, which is heavily influenced by the ideas of Ibn Khaldun, Rob Axtell, and Pete Richerson (on institutions) and mine own on the empires. (Also, Rob’s model, which he has published, is well worth checking out).
In the beginning we start with small groups of entrepreneurs randomly thrown together by chance. The vast majority of these incipient firms fail. Most of these groups will contain uncooperative selfish knaves. All such groups will fail with 100% probability; only groups consisting entirely of cooperators have a chance. However, the majority of such potentially cooperative groups will still fail because they will be unable to hit upon the right combination of social norms and institutions to enable them to cooperate effectively. As an example, people coming from different ethnic backgrounds often find it difficult to concert a cooperative action, simply because different cultures evolved different ways of cooperating, and these may not work well when thrown together.
In the next step, the majority of even those groups that consist of cooperators and have acquired effective cooperative institutions will fail – because they don’t have the right product, or perhaps because they are simply unlucky. But at least they have a chance, whereas groups with knaves and lacking the right institutions have no chance at all.
This is a typical cultural evolution scenario. At this stage we have a lot of variation, with all kinds of incipient firms churned out, and a selection mechanism that weeds the ones that don’t cut the mustard. This is completely analogous to the Ibn Khaldun situation of the stateless ‘desert’ where groups that can’t cooperate together in defense (and predation on other groups!) are rapidly eliminated.
Only those Bedouin groups that wield a lot of asabiya survive and thrive in the competitive desert. Analogously, only those start-ups that have a lot of – well, asabiya – survive and thrive in the competitive markets.
So that’s how high asabiya firms are generated. What happens next? Next they need to expand without losing asabiya. That means that they need to be very picky about accepting new members (keep those knaves out) and have another set of institutions that would allow them to assimilate newbies to the firm’s social norms of cooperation. If they surmount this challenge, they will expand and become a huge corporation.
But eventually the rot sets in. More and more knaves weasel their way in. The institutions that sustained cooperation begin to be undermined by the selfish behavior of freeriders. Moralistic cooperators, in response, withdraw their cooperation, because they don’t want to be taken advantage of. Prosocial founders and early joiners leave the company and join more cooperative ones, or start new businesses.
Eventually knaves reign and the company is really moribund. However, it’s big and has a lot of inertia and so it survives – for a while. Then, however, a particularly greedy set of executives, or a market downturn, exposes its inherent weakness and the corporation goes under. You can substitute ‘executives’ with the ‘elites’ and ‘corporation’ with ‘empire’ and you have the gist of my theory of why empires collapse (however, the time scale on which firms rise and fall is much faster than that for empires).
And that’s how I see the fall and decline of imperial corporations, when looked though the lens of Ibn Khaldun’s theory. I won’t name names, but I am sure we all can think of a number of examples of such moribund corporations.Virtual reality is coming. You know that as a developer – you want in. The Oculus Rift, Gear VR, HTC Vive and more are making waves, yet many developers don’t realise just how much potential there is in the simplest of them all – Google Cardboard.
I’ve been doing a series of IoT related articles here at SitePoint, exploring connecting web APIs to almost anything. So far I’ve covered web APIs and the Unity game engine, the Jawbone Up API and Node.js and displaying web API data on an Arduino LCD via Node.js. In this article, I wanted to bring web APIs into the virtual reality world in a way that will allow JavaScript developers to get started easily. Google Cardboard and Three.js is the perfect first leap into this. It also means your users don’t have to install anything specific and you won’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on a VR headset. Just get a compatible smartphone, slip it into a cardboard headset and you’re ready to go.
Where Do I Get One?
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There are a tonne of different manufacturers that are producing Google Cardboard compatible headsets. Google have a great list on their Get Cardboard page. The one I’m most excited about is coming later this year – the relaunched View-Master® (that wonderful clicky slide toy!). The new View-Master® is going to be Google Cardboard compatible!
My current Google Cardboard headset is from the team at Dodocase. These guys have been absolutely brilliant. Their customer support are quite friendly and really quick to respond. If you’re more of a DIYer, you can source all the parts and make a headset yourself following the instructions also available on the Get Cardboard page.
What We’re Going To Build
We |
place for the migrants-turned-citizens infrastructure, education, pension and health services.
China’s slow growth pushed urbanisation to boost demand and consumption. In doing this, it has left a trail—there are “ghost cities” with grand projects like Manhattan and Paris, which look good but are empty shells with little utility—what has been called “fake urbanisation”. And then there are huge costs of “citizenising” migrants and piling debts of local governments.
The author is a Singapore-based Sinologist and adjunct fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi. She is the author of Finding India in ChinaGeorge Bernard Shaw once said, "Certainly all great truths begin as blasphemies." On April 11, 2010, those who identify as people of faith and as "non-heterosexual" were given particular cause to celebrate Shaw's wisdom: a most unlikely church has given a most unlikely people a gift of love and truth, and I cannot stop smiling.
After twenty-five years of deliberation, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Church Council has abolished its anti-gay policies, effective immediately. Following from discussions at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly last summer, the ELCA will now allow people in same-sex relationships to serve as rostered leaders. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) human beings are no longer considered abominations but blessed church members with full standing. Same-sex partners and families can now fully participate in the ELCA Pension Plan.
Best of all, the ELCA is reinstating people who were removed from ministry positions because they were truthful and came out of the closet, as well as those who conducted holy unions for non-heterosexual couples. The ELCA has practiced restorative justice.
The Lutherans -- breaking from Garrison Keillor stereotypes as shy, retiring, or stoic -- said, "Just do it!" All votes passed overwhelmingly, with no votes against and no drawn-out hassles about how to implement the policies.
I'm particularly grateful to the ELCA for adding restoration to its reforms. My colleague, Rev. Paul W. Egerston, faithfully pastored and served as Bishop in the Lutheran church for 31 years. He resigned one month before the end of his term in 2001. Why? He ordained a lesbian as a Pastor and took a public stand for justice in opposition to the official anti-gay policy of the ELCA. Now, Paul and his wife, Shirley, and their six children, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren can take a day off. I believe that through the ELCA's restoration, God has sent them a message, "Well done, my good and faithful servants."
In the midst of this week of celebration, I have been asked, "What about the rest of the churches? How can we get them to change their minds about gay people and our rights as human beings?"
Let me suggest a simple formula: praise, publicize, and participate. It is important that we actively support the ELCA leaders and the early adopters with our public affirmation and praise. Write a letter of commendation of the ELCA to the editor in your local paper and send a copy to the denominational headquarters. Carbon copy your letter to the leadership of non-affirming denominations. Financially support the organizations who "push the envelope" of denominational resistance to change. Anti-gay fundamentalists outspend pro-gays by a ratio of four to one. Participate in community-based engagement efforts. These have proven highly effective in shifting attitudes of fundamentalists towards gays.
The good news is that science is on our side. Consumer adoption theory tells us that the rate at which people accept change or innovation accelerates once early adopters embrace the idea and people hear about the change. This makes sense when you think about the way in which people buy new technology. There are always people who buy the first release. They tell their friends and families. They weather the challenges of operating systems that are less than perfect.
The ELCA has served as the beta test site for a process through which a very traditional faith community can reverse its thinking and policies. They will continue to push the envelope and all of us will learn from their experiences. Other denominational leaders and congregants will be glad that they tested the waters first.
And, soon, as we've seen with microwaves, cell phones, the Internet, and even the Model-T, the rest of us will wade into the water as well.
The Lutherans have made a crack in the dam of religious bigotry that is now set to break wide open for the rest of the fundamentalist world -- we are at a tipping point.
The ELCA has conducted itself with grace and dignity, and many of us are longing for some of that type of public civility. Their example is going to make people within other embattled denominations long for a better process within their own communities. The ELCA members didn't wage war in public with one another. There was no public outcry that diminished everyone while they worked their way through a quarter century of discussion.
The ELCA press release about the decision reads:
These actions are important because they are a major milestone along the journey of full inclusion. We have a policy that recognizes the gifts of its members [...] and that will allow the return of those who have been removed or alienated [...]. [There will] be new life in the church through new leaders. [...] [W]e have lifted up crucial questions for the church: What is the relationship of sexuality to salvation in Christ? What is the diversity in God's wondrous creation? What is sinful? [...] Who continues to face barriers to ministry and mission? How do we journey together faithfully, in spite of so many differences? What some people have dismissed as a narrow issue has both opened up and profoundly deepened our moral and theological life.But the House Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, praised the White House, saying the final rules showed “the administration’s commitment to smoothly implement the Affordable Care Act.”
Coming on the heels of a government analysis of the law’s impact on the work force, the delay is likely to breathe new life into the Republican effort to make the health care law the central issue in the coming midterm elections. Several lines of attack, which started with the disastrous rollout of the Healthcare.gov website in October and shifted to a wave of insurance cancellation notices in November, have largely run their course as the website’s problems came under control and canceled policies were replaced.
“Once again, the president is rewriting law on a whim,” said Speaker John A. Boehner. “If the administration doesn’t believe employers can manage the burden of the law, how can struggling families be expected to?”
That theme was echoed by many Republicans, who say it is unfair for the White House to grant a dispensation to employers but not to individuals and families. Democrats see the individual mandate as more important to the operation of the law.
Image Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic minority leader in the House, praised the administration’s move. Credit Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times
But lawmakers from both parties have raised questions about unilateral actions by the president to waive or delay various provisions of the law. J. Mark Iwry, deputy assistant Treasury secretary for health policy, said the administration had broad “authority to grant transition relief” under a section of the Internal Revenue Code that directs the Treasury secretary to “prescribe all needful rules and regulations for the enforcement” of tax obligations. This authority has often been used to postpone the application of new laws that would cause “unreasonable administrative burdens or costs” to taxpayers, Mr. Iwry said.
Under the law, larger employers may be subject to tax penalties if they do not offer “minimum essential coverage” to employees who work at least 30 hours a week, on average.
Larger companies have, for many years, been more likely to offer coverage than smaller ones.
The Treasury said that companies with 50 to 99 employees accounted for 7 percent of the private sector work force, while businesses with 100 or more workers accounted for 66 percent. Most companies with 100 or more employees already offer health benefits to at least some of their workers. Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees account for nearly 28 percent of private sector employees, but 96 percent of all private employers, the Treasury said.Superannuation changes to slash savings of half of all working women, say industry funds
Updated
Industry superannuation funds are warning plans to axe a rebate for low-income workers will affect half of all working women and will disproportionately hit rural workers.
The funds are proposing a tax offset for all workers and scaling back the Coalition's paid parental leave scheme in order to maintain the rebate.
The Coalition plans to scrap the $500 Low Income Super Contribution for people earning less than $37,000 a year as part of its bill to repeal the mining tax.
The move would cut as much as $27,000 from the retirement savings of 3.5 million Australians, mostly women and young workers, according to the body representing industry funds, Industry Super Australia (ISA).
The Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) repeal bill will also delay by two years increases to compulsory super contributions made by employers.
Combined, the two measures will slash $53 billion from the nation's superannuation savings by 2022, ISA says in its submission to the Senate committee examining the bill.
ISA chief executive David Whiteley says the changes are unfair and unsustainable, as they leave low-income workers without a tax concession on their superannuation, while those on high incomes already receive concessions.
"We would be very keen to see that this committee recommends to the Parliament that every option is exhausted to make sure that all Australians are getting access to tax concessions on their super," Mr Whiteley said.
The group warns axing the rebate will undermine efforts to improve women's retirement savings, affecting the income of around 2 million or nearly half of all working women, including 80 per cent of female part-time workers.
The submission also says the changes will disproportionately affect four in 10 regional and rural Australians.
Paid parental leave on the table
ISA suggests a flat tax offset on super contributions of 20 per cent or more for all workers, as proposed in the Henry Tax Review, would "greatly simplify the existing system and lead to more sustainable and equitable outcomes".
It is also urging Parliament to trim the Coalition's paid parental leave (PPL) policy to help fund the rebate.
The Coalition's leave policy proposes, for the first time, that workers will continue to receive super contributions from their employer while on parental leave.
But modelling by ISA suggests those benefits will be wiped out by scrapping the super rebate.
The submission says Parliament should aim to keep the rebate in mind as it debates the parental leave proposal: "So that the Superannuation Guarantee payment entitlement integral to the proposed PPL is fully realised and not eroded... in the initial period following parental leave, when most women prefer part-time work".
The Coalition flagged cutting the contribution and delaying the increase to the Super Guarantee during the federal election campaign and confirmed the move earlier this month.
Labor has described the move as "warped" and has vowed to fight it in Parliament.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, superannuation, federal-government, australia
First posted***GROUND ZEROES SPOILERS** Another little MGSV Analysis: The other thing I found very interesting apart from the whole mystery surrounding Skull Face was the ending timeline that appears after the credits. All the dates that appear are pre 1984(the year The Phantom Pain takes place)apart from the final two dates.
2002 - Camp X-Ray, a black site for housing "enemy combatants" is established at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
2008 - The President of the United States publicly pledges to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
Obviously the setting and story of ground zeroes features some commentary on guantanamo but I'm wondering if there is more to these dates being mentioned than just some political commentary.
One of the main visual themes in MGSV is the X ray design. The manual for GZ is X-Ray themed. We've seen TPP promotional posters that are X ray themed. The opening credits for TPP have been hinted at to be X ray themed and designed by Kyle Cooper once again... We see various X Ray images throughout the trailers as well.
I'm wondering will the game have some crazy S3 style twist with flashing forward to the future or something or if its just some political commentary that ties nicely into the themes of the game.
Reply · Report PostA cabaret artist dressed as Frankenstein character Herman Munster has been found guilty of raping a woman during a Hallowe’en party at a swingers’ club.
Jeremy Frazer Newsome Smith, 45, formerly of Wakefield, attacked the woman in a mirrored indoor smoking room at sex club La Chambre in Attercliffe, Sheffield, last October.
He denied rape and said the pair had consensual sex.
But a jury at Sheffield Crown Court found him guilty of rape today (Thursday) after nearly seven hours of deliberations.
Judge Peter Kelson QC warned Smith, now of Regent Street, London, he was facing a jail term and released him on bail so he could ‘get his affairs in order’.
Opening the case for the prosecution at Sheffield Crown Court, Charlotte Baines, said: “The allegation occurred in an establishment called La Chambre. “That is a private members club that’s commonly called a swingers’ club. “It is an establishment that opens its doors to members who go with a view to watching or participating in sexual activity if they chose to do so.”
“It’s clear that La Chambre makes no secret of the type of establishment that it is. “It is a swingers’ club.
“There are rooms upstairs in the club referred to as the ‘playrooms’. “Those rooms are for those individuals who want to engage in sexual activity and they engage with other consenting adults in various types of sexual activity - that’s activity that takes place between consenting adults.”
The court heard the woman went to the fancy dress party at the club with two female friends on October 27 and was dressed up as a vampire in a corset, stockings and heels.
Smith was also with friends - one dressed as Harry Potter and the other in drag as Lily Munster - and the trio had been asked to perform as the cabaret act for the night and were paid in drink.
Miss Baines said the woman volunteered to take part in some games on stage as part of the cabaret act.
But during one game she was locked in a guillotine on stage and humiliated.
After the show Smith, who admitted taking Viagra before going to the club, and his friends drank and socialised with the victim and her friends.
After going upstairs to the ‘playrooms’ to watch and laugh at an orgy, Smith took the victim into the mirrored smoking room and raped her.
The victim told the jury she froze during the attack.
She said: “I just felt as though I was paralysed.
“I was just so scared, I knew what was going to happen. I was just so scared I didn’t event know what to do.”
Smith will be sentenced in September after the preparation of a probation report.Armed police stand guard in the popular shopping and nightlife area of Sanlitun in Beijing on December 26, 2015. Getty Images
China has passed a broad range of counter-terrorism measures that could make life extremely difficult for internet and tech companies operating in the country.
The anti-terrorism law, which is China'sfirst, gives the government wide-ranging new powers over online communications and social media, and will require companies to hand over technical details and decrypt messages on demand.
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Internet service providers will have to provide "technical support and assistance, including decryption" to the police and national security forces under the new laws.
The approved draft, as detailed by Xinhua, dropped one earlier measure that would have forced companies to hand over encryption codes to the government. But it still includes extensive new measures, founded on an exceptionally broad definition of terrorism that critics say could lead to abuses of power.
Read next These are the Chinese car firms competing for Tesla's crown These are the Chinese car firms competing for Tesla's crown
Xinhau said that terrorism was now defined as any activity "that, by means of violence, sabotage or threat, generates social panic, undermines public security, infringes on personal and property rights, and menaces government organs and international organisations".
The law also restricts how journalists will be able to report on acts of terrorism: "none, except news media with approval from counter-terrorism authorities in charge of information distribution, shall report on or disseminate the personal details of on-scene counter-terrorist workers, hostages or authorities' response activities" said Xinhua.
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Chinese officials have come under pressure to respond to anti-government violence and terrorism, after a year that included the deaths of 29 people at the hands of knife-wielding Uighur militants.But the unanimous passing of the law by China's compliant legislature followed widespread international condemnation of an earlier draft, published in March, that would have required companies to install "back door" access to communications for government agencies, bypassing all encryption.
"We have made it very clear to them that this is something they are going to have to change if they are to do business with the United States," Obama said in March.
The new law, which removed provisions to hand-over encryption keys, will still put companiues such as Apple in a difficult position, given they maintain that they do not hold individual encrpytion details for iPhones and other devices.
The law was unsurprisingly defended by the government, who said it was necessary in order to give law enforcement the power to effectively combat terrorism -- the same justifcation for similar laws that have either passed or been published in draft in the UK and US.
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"Relevant regulations in the anti-terrorism law will not affect the normal business operation of companies, and we do not use the law to set up 'backdoors' to violate the intellectual property rights of companies... The law will not damage people's freedom of speech or religion." said Li Shouwei, a National People’s Congress official who helped produce the law, according to Reuters.
Shouwei also cited western nations such as the UK for precedent in passing the new laws, saying that China was "simply doing what other major nations already do in asking technology firms to help fight terror".
In the UK a revised Investigatory Powers bill, also known as the 'Snoopers' charter', is set to debated by parliament and likely passed in the first half of 2016, despite heavy criticism of its motivations and technical proficiency from privacy groups, tech firms including Apple and security experts.Updated, 8:45 a.m., April 30
Omar Hammami's enemies appear to be closing in on him. The most wanted American jihadi in Somalia survived a Thursday assassination attempt only to tweet today that his former allies in al-Qaida's Somali affiliate are stepping up their efforts to wipe him out. On Monday, according to what Hammami warned might be his last words, Shebab gunmen surrounded his home, marched him to "court" and opened fire in a Somali forest.
"Even if we die weve won," Hammami tweeted from his @abumamerican Twitter account today. "May not find another chance to tweet but just remember what we said and what we stood for."
Hammami is a 28-year-old Alabaman who has been waging jihad in Somalia since 2006, sometimes through rap music. (He later claimed he didn't actually perform the jihadi rhymes that went out under his nom de guerre.) But last year he had a dramatic and very public break with his former colleagues in al-Shebab, and since then he's relentlessly trolled the Somali wing of al-Qaida, all while proclaiming he'll be a jihadi until the day he dies. "I figure i can't do much but wait 4 my time," he told me via direct message last month.
That time may be up. On Thursday, Hammami was sipping tea at an undisclosed location in Somalia when he heard three gunshots from behind him. A man he claims was a Shebab assassin shot him with a pistol through the neck. Incredibly – and true to form – Hammami tweeted his own attempted murder, even posting pictures of his bullet wound. He joked that his albums might sell better, post-mortem.
I spoke to Hammami that day. He explained that he was in tremendous pain, but the bullet passed through his neck without tearing through his windpipe or any major artery. Hours after the shooting, Hammami said he hadn't been stitched up, and was treating his bullet wound with gauze and iodine. "Remembered allah and stayed calm. stable now," he told me.
Supposedly, the would-be assassin was conspicuous, maybe a foreigner, "a known shabab guy w/this type a job." Hammami thought the tribe that is protecting him would keep him safe, which I understood to mean they were going to retaliate. Publicly, he said Shebab's leader, Moktar Ali Zubayr, had "gone mad" and was sending forces after Hammami, threatening to ignite a civil war.
That was the last I heard from Hammami in private.
Today Hammami reemerged on Twitter to update his 2,391 followers about what happened. On Friday, Shebab fighters surrounded a house he was staying at. "They said drop guns &go to court or prepare 4 war," he tweeted. Not trusting Shebab, he and an entourage of unknown size went to "an open place," guns in hand.
Seemingly accepting the explanations Hammami provided to the court, the Shebab cohort, bolstered by an "army," agreed to drop the charges – but put Hammami on notice that they would still be gunning for him. In Hammami's telling, Shebab's army was reluctant to fight at that moment, and so Hammami was free to go. Until he and his allies noticed Shebab men following them through a forest.
"We were forced to fight in self defense &killed 3 and wounded others w/no losses. The main amir who wanted 2 fight us was from the killed," he said. "They now have to bring outside forces who dont know why they are fighting to track us in the forest." Shebab raided the houses of Hammami's allies and emerged with condoms, alcohol and documents – ostensibly planted evidence. "Their goal is to kill us regardless of reason," he tweeted.
"It's [the] culmination of full faceted dime [sic] warfare against those who speak truth," Hammami continued. Boycott, tribe politics, assassination, char[acter] assass[ination], mil[itary] attack."
Hammami tweeted that he was outnumbered and sounded frightened. Hyperbole is part of the way he communicates, but this seemed different. He did not return Twitter DMs trying to find out if he was in immediate danger. Minutes after I sent him one, he tweeted publicly, "May not find another chance to tweet but just remember what we said and what we stood for. God kept me alive to deliver the mssg 2 the umah."
For about six months, Hammami has engaged in a public colloquy with American counterterrorism professionals, on subjects both highbrow (the meaning of jihad), lowbrow (barbecue tastes) and personal (the wisdom of Hammami remaining in Somalia while Shebab hunts him). Those counterterrorism analysts have grown to like him, in spite of themselves, and feared that Hammami would not listen to their entreaties to turn himself in to U.S. authorities so he can live. Their worst fears might be about to come true.
Update, 8:45 a.m., April 30: Hammami is alive. He just tweeted: "Abu mansuur, afghani, hasan thahir uweys, &others passed a fatwa on http://aljahd.com that fighting us is haram &that we arent bughat" – which is to say, that Hammami isn't a religious rebel. Uweys is a big shot in Somali extremist Islamist circles and is aligned with a faction of Shebab with what I understand are strained ties to the faction that's hunting Hammami. (I could be misunderstanding; I'm no Somalia expert.) "Abu Mansuur," while also confusingly being part of Hammami's nom de guerre, probably refers to this guy, another Shebab leader.
Yet he seems not to be out of danger. "They have started harrassing our wives," Hammami continued. "Army from gedo refused 2 come. Theysaid they will kill me even if they lose 100 despite defections."MONTGOMERY, Alabama --- Alabama has sales tax holidays for back-to-school shopping and for severe weather preparedness.
A state lawmaker wants to add a third sales tax holiday,.
Rep. Becky Nordgen, R-Gadsden, has introduced a bill that would create a sales tax holiday for guns, ammunition and firearms supplies.
It would be scheduled the weekend before the Fourth of July.
“The anti-gun agenda being pursued by Barack Obama, Congressional Democrats, and other D.C. liberals has caused the cost of firearms and ammunition to skyrocket, and Alabamians, who embrace guns by long-standing tradition, deserve some relief,” Nordgren said in a news release.
“Holding a firearms sales tax holiday at the anniversary of our nation’s birth is the perfect way to celebrate the rights and independence that we hold close to our hearts as Americans.”
Nordgren’s bill, HB 559, would waive the 4 percent state sales tax on guns, ammunition and firearms supplies from Friday through Sunday prior to July 4 each year. There are 22 representatives listed as co-sponsors on Nordgren's bill.
Updated at 1:25 p.m. to add tax percentage rate.Dear Wayne and Wanda,
I'm a woman in my early 40s, currently happily dating a man I've been seeing now for about five years. We have a great life together in Alaska filled with tons of adventures, two great careers, and a beautiful home. We recently got a dog who is the absolute joy of our existence. We talk about getting married in a low-key and memorable way, like eloping in Mexico. I imagine my future, and I imagine he and I together.
Here's the problem I'm dealing with: my family, namely my parents, and to an extent, even my friends, and the collective pressure that the whole of them are putting on me to have children.
Truthfully, I have never wanted to have kids. Not ever. I didn't even play with dolls as a child. When girlfriends started having kids, I dutifully "met the baby" and usually even enjoyed it, but was always grateful to go. The truth is, I don't want the responsibility of creating and raising a life. I always knew I might fall for someone with kids and I was totally OK with that. But I never wanted one of my own.
I resent my family and friends pressing me on this deeply personal decision and I get so irritated or even angry when they say, "You'll change your mind." I'm 43. I'm not changing my mind. I feel like they're projecting such judgment on me for it, and devaluing my relationship. How can I get them to back off?
Wanda says:
For years, being "childless" conjured this image of a barren and frigid, deprived woman; but these days, more independent women are proudly declaring themselves childfree. It's never quite that simple. There are women who always want kids and get them, women who don't plan on it but end up there, women who want it and can't, and women who don't want it and can't get people to believe them. Can't we all just get along?
The common denominator here: choice. It isn't something us women have always had. And the fact that we have it is something that should unite us, not divide us. For decades, women had a defined path, where education and careers were optional and marriages and children were expected. Shouldn't we all be excited and happy that we now live in a time where we can be exactly what we want to be? If the stigma isn't completely lifted, at least it's alleviated.
Having children is a massive decision that can often divide couples, and it's exciting that you've found a partner who is on the same page. As for your meddling, judgey family members and friends, know that their persistent inquiries come from a place of love, and then lovingly remind them that having children has never and will never be on your agenda.
Wayne says:
Being that you're 43, I'm guessing you've been hearing this kiddie convo for about 20 years or so, with the volume and feedback amping up whenever one of your friends has a kid and whenever you've landed in a serious relationship. Yes, that sounds exhausting, but I can't really feel sorry for you.
Again, you're 43. At what point do you, a mature adult who is confident and clearheaded about one of life's most complicated, sensitive and game-changing decisions, simply not let these people and this topic bother you anymore?
Like Wanda said, the collective hearts of your friends and family members are probably in the right place when they bring up babies. But they are also clearly insensitive to your choice and how deeply you feel about not changing diapers or changing your mind.
So, it's time for a new approach. You could also be insensitive and bite their heads off at the next mention … or, you could just rise above it all. You've made your decision, you're at peace with it, and that's all that matters. After 20 years, you certainly don't have to explain that anymore. And since a few of these well-meaning folks will never be able to wrap their prehistoric brains around your choice, whenever the topic comes up, take a nice, cleansing breath, smile and tell them to move on because you already have.David Bernard Gaiman (1933 – 7 March 2009[1]) was head of the UK branch of Church of Scientology. He and his wife Sheila joined Scientology in the early 1960s and Gaiman served as public relations director and was commonly in the media during the British controversies over Scientology in the 1960s and 1970s.
Family and public career [ edit ]
Gaiman's family is of Polish Jewish origins; after emigrating from the Netherlands in 1916, his father eventually settled in the Hampshire city of Portsmouth on the south coast of England and established a chain of grocery stores. Born in 1933, Gaiman was educated at The Portsmouth Grammar School, though he did not excel academically. He subsequently joined the British Army where he rose to the rank of sergeant. He returned to Portsmouth on leaving the army to work for his father in the grocery stores, though he detested this job.[2]
He married Sheila on 1 March 1959.[3] He eventually decided to go into business for himself, much to his father's displeasure,[2] and the family moved away from their home in Portchester in 1962.[4]
When the Gaimans discovered Scientology they moved to East Grinstead, West Sussex in 1965.[2] David Gaiman joined the staff of the Church of Scientology at nearby Saint Hill Manor, eventually becoming the Church's chief UK media spokesman.
Guardian's Office [ edit ]
He joined the Guardian's Office (GO), the Church's public relations bureau / intelligence agency. In 1969, Gaiman was involved in an attempt by the Church to take over the National Association for Mental Health (now Mind), a British mental health charity. Some 300 Scientologists joined the group and nominated Gaiman, among others, for high office. Gaiman was nominated for the Chairmanship. Eventually, the Scientologists were asked to resign but contested that request in court. Scientologists also held demonstrations for, according to Gaiman, "humane treatment and a bill of rights for mental patients and the protection of their bodies and their well-being. We want an independent inquiry into conditions in mental hospitals. We want no more whitewashing from certain mental health organisations like the one across the road. Our stand is not on being asked to resign but for humane psychiatry."[5]
In the 1970s he became Deputy Guardian for Public Relations[6] World Wide and Minister of Public Affairs for the Churches of Scientology Worldwide, as well as serving as public spokesman.[7][8]
According to documents in the US vs Kember and Budlong case, Gaiman issued an order in 1975 for an operation to put false information in US security agency computers using planted agents. It was known as 'Operation Cat'. Kember also credited Gaiman with the strategy to claim that CoS plants inside the American Medical Association were reporters for Freedom magazine.[9]
He rose to become the head of GO Public Relations and was a member of the powerful Watchdog Committee. In 1981 he was promoted to the position of Guardian (i.e. head of the Guardian's Office), replacing Jane Kember following her criminal conviction for conspiracy against the US Government (she had been part of Scientology's Operation Snow White).[10]
Vitamin Shop and later life [ edit ]
In 1965, David and Sheila Gaiman co-founded a vitamin shop, G&G Vitamins.[11] In 1987 G&G moved to larger premises and began to manufacture its own label vitamins for the first time. With David’s leadership the demand for G&G’s own-brand label and manufacturing expertise grew dramatically and in 1997 they moved to a 31,000 square foot factory and built a customised clean-room for optimum high speed production lines. It was from here that G&G expanded its contract manufacturing arm, building up to the current capacity to manufacture 14,000,000 capsules per month for numerous companies across the UK and Europe under their own label. Today G&G is still a family-owned business under the leadership of Mauro Calcioli, David’s son-in-law. Mauro, who was appointed as Chairman in April 2009, is assisted by his wife Lizzy Calcioli and Sheila Gaiman. Sheila stands today as one of the longest serving members of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. In April 2009 they appointed Myles McEntyre as Managing Director to run G&G on a day-to-day basis.[12] The Gaimans were prominent figures in the local community and well known for their sponsorship of the local arts scene.[2] Gaiman was also a trustee of Greenfield's School from its formation in the 1980s.[13] Gaiman had three children, a son and two daughters:[2] Neil Gaiman, the well-known fantasy author,[14][15] Claire Edwards, head of Scientology Missions International,[16] and Lizzy Calcioli.[13]
Gaiman took part in the inaugural London Marathon, in 1981, and came joint last.[17]
Gaiman, aged 75,[18] had a heart attack during a business meeting and was dead by the time he reached hospital.[19] A memorial service, attended by hundreds, was held for him at Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead,[13] and, on 12 March 2009, his Jewish funeral service was held in Brighton.[3][13]
See also [ edit ]Anurag Kashyap and his actress wife Kalki Koechlin have announced that they are taking time apart.
Director Anurag Kashyap and his actress wife Kalki Koechlin have announced that they are taking time apart from their more than two-year-old marriage. The couple, whose marriage was said to be in trouble, issued a joint statement today asking for privacy and to deny that they were divorcing.
"Me and Kalki are separating, we are taking time off from each other to figure things out. We are not divorcing. We request the media to please respect our privacy and give us our space and not speculate. Thank you, Kalki and Anurag," the
statement from the couple read.
Kalki, 29, who is an Indian of French descent, and Kashyap, 41, noted for his films 'Black Friday', 'Gulal' and 'Gangs of Wasseypur', met and fell in love while working on 'Dev D' in 2009.
Kalki played Chandramukhi in Kashyap's modern take on Sarat Chandra's classic 'Devdas'.
The two finalised their romance by getting married in April 2011.
Anurag was previously married to Aarti Bajaj with whom he has a daughter while it is Kalki's first marriage.
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SEATLE -Colorado and Washington, two states once known for their productivity, industry and being proponents of the American Dream. Yet on November 7th,both states passed ballot initiatives legalizing recreational marijuana use.
Since then utter calamity and disaster has befallen both states. Now that marijuana has been legalized at the state level, productivity in the public and private spheres has disappeared. The streets are overrun in crime, while dilapidated buildings fall apart. Impending rumors of the ascension of the anti-Christ and storms of blood sweeping across the afflicted states are still unverified but probably true.
Such a disaster should have been foreseen. The Republicans had warned of the consequences, pointing to such situations as the Netherlands, where chaos may or may not have reigned after the limited legalization of marijuana.
Our reporters interviewed one of the stoned zombies wandering the streets of Denver. The weed-zombie, self-identifying as an ‘Amanda Stone’ managed to get out a single sentence before sliding back into a marijuana dozed haze. “I used to chain smoke and binge drink cause that was legal, but now that marijuana is legal it must be good too, so now I’m always stoned.”
This same logic seems to have infected the rest of the formerly innocent populace and not just the ones over twenty-one whom the legalization is limited to. The youth, emulating their older peers have taken to marijuana as well. Schools sit as empty as the heads of the weed-zombies wandering the streets.
As of press release, the mayor of Denver, Mr. Hancock was, like most public officials of the state after legalization, unavailable for comment.
Flynn Pomeroy
Reporting for The Lapine
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CommentsA blunt reading of the B.C. government’s plan for public education is this: Impoverish it, neuter critics (including teachers and elected school trustees) and centralize control.
Once control is centralized, the blueprint seems to be to move to the American model where public school funding and teachers’ pay are linked more closely to students’ test scores.
The impoverishment part is well underway and the benignly named education amendment act introduced this week is devilishly full of details to get the rest done.
For the past three years, funding was capped at less than inflation. Over the coming three, the government has already decreed $137 million more must be cut and, this |
providing front-line technical help to playing key roles in Ukraine’s propaganda campaign.
And some – a handful – have taken up arms. While Canadians who have gone to join the fight in Syria have had their passports revoked, at least one Ukrainian-Canadian who joined a pro-government militia and fought in the Lugansk region has returned to Canada to help raise money for Army SOS. He hopes to recruit other Canadians to the front line.
This uncharted territory is not without risks. Most obviously, the fundraising campaign is going where no country, including Canada, is willing to go – supplying sometimes-lethal equipment to Ukrainian fighters, including irregulars. By circumventing official channels in both Canada and Ukraine, activists risk playing into the agendas of both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian militias whose patriotism is tainted by extremism.
Warehouse full of war supplies
The shelves in SOS’s Kiev warehouse are piled high with supplies for war: dark green uniforms, sturdy black boots, white winter camouflage nets.
Upstairs is a workshop where a team of volunteers gathers nightly to tinker with handmade surveillance drones that they will take to the front and fly over territory controlled by a Russian-backed militia.
Other volunteers gleefully show off new artillery-targeting software that they’ve installed on tablet computers. The software is designed by a team led by Bohdan Kupych, a Ukrainian-Canadian resident of Kiev.
Ukraine’s myriad volunteer battalions are famed for their bravery, as well as for their sometimes-extreme nationalism. Along the front line, they are often the ones engaged in the toughest fighting against the rebel army that Kiev and NATO say is armed by Moscow.
Lenna Koszarny, head of the Kiev chapter of the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress, overseeing delivering of official Canadian aid to Ukrainian troops in a base near Kramatorsk. (Anton Skyba for The Globe and Mail)
Army SOS says it has raised and spent just more than $1-million since it was founded last summer. (Ms. Koszarny estimates the amount of overall aid raised for Ukraine by the Canadian diaspora million over the past year at between $10-million and $15-million.) Some of Army SOS money was used to buy parts for the homemade drones, but more went toward 30 vehicles, mostly Humvees and pickup trucks, that it has shipped to the front. The group says this unusual aid is needed because of endemic corruption inside the army.
“We don’t specifically help the army or any battalion … we deliver to those at the front and put it directly into the hands of the soldiers,” says Yaroslav Tropinov, a Kiev investment banker who co-founded Army SOS after he saw the Ukrainian army humiliated by Russia’s annexation of Crimea last March. “We don’t consult with army headquarters – we go around the corruption and the stealing.”
While cash donations are pooled and used where Army SOS deems the need to be greatest, many in the diaspora have bought goods themselves and shipped them to the Kiev warehouse. Mr. Tropinov says that while the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States has been the biggest source of clothes and toys for the families of soldiers, its Canadian counterpart has been a bigger contributor in terms of military supplies. Hence the flags in the warehouse.
Richard Hareychuk, a 59-year-old Toronto optometrist, says he raises funds for Army SOS because it gets help to those actually doing the fighting, regardless of whether it’s the regular army or the volunteer battalions.
He says he worried that official Canadian aid wasn’t getting to those doing the bulk of the fighting. “We heard a lot of stories that aid would arrive, they would show it for the cameras … and then in terms of distribution, I heard a lot of different stories. I didn’t hear very much about stuff being driven to the front.”
Last year, Mr. Hareychuk and other members of the Ukrainian-Canadian community bought a $12,000 drone, which they christened Prometheus before shipping it to Army SOS. Prometheus flew 10 intelligence-gathering missions over the rebel-held regions of Donetsk and Lugansk before it was shot down by the separatist forces last month. Army SOS has also purchased parts for sniper rifles and tripwire detonators.
A volunteer at a workshop in Kiev builds a drone. (Max Avdeev for The Globe and Mail)
Mr. Hareychuk says the effort to buy lethal weapons is just getting started. “The initial call … was ‘we don’t have boots.’ There were guys [at the front line] in running shoes. Now that the guys have the boots, we’ve decided to take to it to the next level.”
Mr. Kupych, an executive at a Kiev-based software firm who has helped oversee the development of the targeting software distributed by Army SOS, says the feeling in the diaspora – and among Ukrainians in general – is that everyone should do whatever they can. “Most of what we do is defensive,” the Toronto native says, speaking of the volunteer movement in general. “But, as [President] Poroshenko said, you’re not going to win a war with winter outfits and sleeping bags.”
Beyond groups such as Army SOS are even more informal – and direct – contacts between the Ukrainian troops at the front and the diaspora in Canada.
Mychailo Wynnyckyj, a well-known Ukrainian-Canadian political analyst who teaches at the Kyiv Mohyla Business School, says a shopkeeper neighbour has joined a mechanized brigade of the regular army. The neighbour mentioned that his unit lacked encrypted communication equipment; Prof. Wynnyckyj notified a friend in Montreal, who donated $5,000 to buy the gear.
“It sounds very chaotic, but when you put these initiatives together, this is how the Ukrainian army gets 60 per cent of its aid,” Prof. Wynnyckyj says. He adds that there were examples of “NATO-standard” weaponry that had reached the front, though he wasn’t sure of how they were supplied. “Bottom-up, grassroots networks can be more powerful than the state machine, because the state machine can be corrupted.”
The front lines
The two trucks bouncing along the potholed and frost-framed roads of the eastern Ukraine war zone betray little hint of their cargo. The tarp covering the back of one advertises “Everything for Home and Garden.” The other looks even plainer – save for a bumper sticker bearing a crude reference to Mr. Putin.
This is how Canada sends its official military aid to Ukraine. Inside the trucks are several thousand boxes dispatched from the Department of National Defence. They contain flame-resistant green winter uniforms and water-resistant boots.
Soldiers of 3rd bat. 81st brigade examining new boots that were sent from Canada. (Anton Skyba for The Globe and Mail)
Sitting in front of the truck with the anti-Putin slogan is Ms. Koszarny of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. When the convoy arrives at an abandoned school that’s been converted into a military base in Konstantynivka – a former industrial town just 30 kilometres from the rebel front line – she gives the troops a message along with the new kit.
“We pressed the Canadian government to give as much aid as they can to Ukraine,” the mother of two says. “There are 20 million Ukrainians outside Ukraine doing all they can to support you.”
They are, especially in Canada. Earlier this month, the English-language Kyiv Post printed a list that ranked Prime Minister Stephen Harper among the 10 “most influential promoters” of Ukraine in the international community. The article noted that “perhaps Stephen Harper would not support Ukraine that actively if Canada did not have the world’s largest diaspora community.”
Indeed, Canada is often the Ukrainian government’s most fervent foreign backer, going first and furthest in terms of aid for Ukraine, including non-lethal military supplies and sanctions against the Kremlin. (However, Britain arguably leaped deepest into the confrontation on Tuesday when Prime Minister David Cameron announced he was sending 75 military advisers to help train the Ukrainian army.)
Prof. Wynnyckyj says the diaspora deserves much of the credit for putting the Ukraine file onto the desks of politicians in Ottawa.
“The cause is just, but it is in the limelight and the attention of politicians because there is a large and organized Ukrainian-Canadian community that brings it to the attention of politicians. … The Conservatives have done an excellent job of supporting Ukraine and the Ukrainian cause.” The tradeoff is obvious: “There’s a lot of support for the Conservatives in the Ukrainian community,” he says. The gratitude of a community once seen as favouring the Liberal Party could tip key ridings in the Conservatives’ favour, particularly in and around cities with large Ukrainian populations, such as Toronto and Winnipeg.
Many of the most active members of the 1.2 million Ukrainian-Canadian diaspora had parents and grandparents who fled Ukraine either during the Stalin-engineered famine of the 1930s or the crackdown on Ukrainian nationalism that followed the Second World War. To them, this war is just the latest chapter in a long struggle to free their homeland from Moscow’s grasp. Russia, to them, is an eternal enemy.
Piotr Dutkiewicz, director of the Centre for Governance and Public Management at Carleton University, says that Canada has squandered the “very good” relations it had with Moscow prior to the conflict in favour of a one-sided pro-Kiev stance.
“We were in an almost ideal position to be good negotiators and brokers of peace,” Prof. Dutkiewicz says. Instead, “Ukrainian organizations in Canada are forcefully and loudly feeding the anti-Russian foreign policy.”
The Russian embassy in Ottawa did not respond to a request for comment.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko meets with Harper several hours after Poroshenko was sworn in June 7, 2014, in Kiev. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
Canada’s prominent role in the war in Ukraine is the latest iteration of the loudly pro-Ukraine stance that Ottawa – in both Liberal and Conservative periods – has taken since 1991, when Canada was the first government in the world to recognize Ukraine’s independence from the collapsing Soviet Union. Government-to-government support in the 1990s was accompanied by backing for the political opposition in the early 2000s, as the country drifted back into Moscow’s orbit. The Canadian embassy in Kiev provided startup cash to some of the civil-society groups that helped organize the Orange Revolution, which swept the pro-Western government of Viktor Yushchenko to power in 2004.
While the 2010 election of the Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovych effectively undid the Orange Revolution, the embassy continued to pour money into independent media and organizations opposed to Mr. Yanukovych’s authoritarian style. When new pro-Western protests erupted in late 2013, Canada again joined a consortium of Western embassies in Kiev that provided cash and advice to the protesters.
A Canadian embassy source told The Globe and Mail that “millions” were dished out by Canada over several years to support both the anti-government Hromadske television network and Internet news portal and non-governmental organizations such as Opora and Euromaidan SOS that played organizing roles in the uprising against Mr. Yanukovych.
Canada’s involvement was so well-known in Kiev that embassy staffer Inna Tsarkova had her car torched by pro-Yanukovych thugs during the protests.
Ms. Koszarny, a London, Ont., native who is chief executive officer of an investment bank in Kiev when she’s not driving around the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, speaks glowingly of Mr. Harper. Her job, as she sees it, is to make sure that Canada’s official support doesn’t waver. Rattled by online rumours that some Canadian military supplies delivered last year had been sold for cash on local markets – and worried that Canada and other countries would curtail their help – Ms. Koszarny and a team of volunteers began trailing the delivery trucks into the war zone, taking photographs and ensuring the Canadian aid goes to the units and soldiers it’s intended for. Her recent trip to Konstantynivka took her to four other stops near the front line.
On the day she sports the Roots sweatshirt, Ms. Koszarny is accompanied by Volodomyr Nabir, a 22-year-old soldier from western Ukraine who returned to Kiev in January following a 13-day stint fighting in the epic, but ultimately failed, effort to hold Donetsk airport against a rebel siege. He says the Canadian aid and the knowledge that the diaspora was behind the war effort was crucial to the defenders’ being able to hold out as long as they did.
“Without the volunteers, we would have frozen and died a long time ago,” Mr. Nabir says. Smiling ear-to-ear at the compliment, Ms. Koszarny leans over and gives the young soldier a warm hug.
Other Ukrainian-Canadians have waded even more directly into the conflict. The new strategic director of Ukraine Today – an English-language network that aims to counteract the spin promulgated by the Kremlin-funded RT (Russia Today) news channel – is London, Ont., native Lada Roslycky. While Ms. Roslycky, the author of a book on soft power, avoids the words “propaganda war,” her reporters see themselves as being on the media front line.
“Russia is fighting an information war,” says Ukraine Today editor Steven Brese, a 29-year-old Edmonton native. “I hope this channel can help shine a light on what’s happening here.”
Volunteer battalions
Some in Kiev worry that the volunteer battalions supported by Army SOS pose a future threat to the internal stability of Ukraine, whenever this war ends. Half a dozen of the most battle-hardened groups (and also Ukraine Today) are funded by Ihor Kolomoisky, a billionaire oligarch who is increasingly at odds with President Poroshenko about military strategy and the overall direction of the country. Some of the battalions affiliated with Mr. Kolomoisky have earned notoriety with their use of far-right rhetoric and iconography.
Fears that the battalions – and thus the aid they receive from the Canadian diaspora – could later cause trouble inside Ukraine were heightened last week in the wake of the separatists’ capture of the strategic transportation hub of Debaltseve. Amid conflicting reports of how many Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers were killed and wounded during a chaotic retreat from the town, Semen Semechenko, the head of the Kolomoisky-funded Donbass Battalion, said he would establish a “parallel” headquarters for 17 of the volunteer militias, moving them further outside Kiev’s control.
“Would I like these [fighters] to be my neighbour? Probably not. But when you’re fighting a war, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Professor Mychailo Wynnyckyj
“There is a clear danger from the volunteer battalions and Kolomoisky at some stage,” says an adviser to the Ukrainian government who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the topic. “If there is a huge military defeat [suffered by the Ukrainian military], the battalions could come to Kiev and stage a coup.”
That view, to many in the diaspora, is alarmist. Marko Suprun, a Winnipeg native now living in Kiev, co-founded Patriot Defence, a volunteer group that raises money in Ukraine and the diaspora to provide medical kits and combat medical training to both the regular army and the volunteer battalions. He called the debate around the volunteer fighters “ridiculous.”
“Out there in the [war] zone, Azov, Donbass, Dnipr [three of the most prominent volunteer battalions], and the Ukrainian forces, they just work together,” says Mr. Suprun, who in the past has worked as a translator for The Globe and Mail. It’s the Russian side, he says, that’s flooding the war zone with mercenaries from all over the former Soviet Union.
And the threat posed by Mr. Kolomoisky’s battalions? “A lot of people are saying he’s getting too powerful, etc., etc. But for the time being, a lot of people are happy he’s there,” Prof. Wynnyckyj says. “Would I like these people [fighters in the right-wing battalions] to be my neighbour? Probably not. But when you’re fighting a war, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
The Globe and Mail knows of at least two Canadians who played front-line roles fighting in the Kolomoisky-sponsored battalions, and a third who is enlisting in the Ukrainian army.
One of the fighters, who goes by the nom de guerre “Lemko,” fought as a member of the far-right Azov battalion near the port city of Mariupol last summer. He told reporters there that he was a “national socialist” who had faced persecution in Canada for his political beliefs. “Ukraine should be for Ukrainians,” he was quoted saying. “We don’t need the European idea of multicultural extremism here. Ukraine must protect its cultural and ethnic integrity.” (The Azov Battalion’s symbol is a modified version of the “Wolfsangel” symbol used by some Nazi units in the Second World War.)
Lemko is also believed to have led a group of protesters that stormed the Canadian embassy and forced it to close during the Maidan protests last year. His current whereabouts are unclear.
Another Ukrainian-Canadian fighter, Nazar Volynets – a 30-year-old construction worker and artist who was born in western Ukraine – is now back in Canada and will be a featured speaker at the Feb. 28 Army SOS fundraiser organized by Mr. Hareychuk, the Toronto optometrist.
Nazar Volynets's Facebook profile picture.
Ex-comrades-in-arms say Mr. Volynets fought last summer and fall in the Lugansk region as a member of the Aidar Battalion, a group accused last year by Amnesty International of war crimes, including abductions and “possible executions.” The group, which is partly funded by Mr. Kolomoisky, has since been folded into the army’s 24th Assault Battalion.
Mr. Volynets says he went to war with no equipment, other than two grenades, until he commandeered a rifle on the battlefield. “The volunteers, they come with what they have, some have shotguns or self-made guns. Maybe only 20 per cent had guns,” he says in an interview conducted via Skype. But the volunteers, he says, made up for the lack of equipment and training with adrenalin and patriotism. “Their morale is high, they are eager to fight.”
Mr. Volynets says there was no question in his mind that he had been fighting against well-trained Russian troops (“because of their tactics”). He calls for Canada and other Western governments to send weapons to the Ukrainian army and volunteer battalions.
He says he plans to return soon to the front line – with some company, he hopes. “I think I will go back with some kind of group of Canadians. That would be really nice, because this is a fight for democracy. … I think Western societies have to fight for what they have, because Putin is not going to stop.”I've always loved my AstroX X5 - the carbon is a work of art and the frame just went together so nicely with so many extras it really left me feeling like if I had bought it (it was a review sample don't forget), I'd have made a great purchase for the money. Now, with a rumour of AstroX coming out with a race frame, I knew I had to check it out as soon as I could!
Specs
Features
Full 3K Carbon Fiber airframe (Base plate 4T / 45degree CW / Round cut).
AstroX Silky finish coated (All carbon parts - Carbon dust free).
Frame size for 5" propellers, 220mm motor to motor.
New 20mm Alu 6061 T6 standoff 4pcs and 28mm 1pcs.
12.9 Carbon Steel M3 screws (Black nickel plated).
M3*6mm Nylon Standoff, nut and washer.
Include HUB PDB 5V and 12V BEC and AUX out.
Long type velcro tie 230mm (2pcs).
Lipo battery protection carbon plate included.
Designed 26~28mm size cams (recommend camera : HS1177).
Width FPV camera angle.
Easy to use cam mount at 25 degree angle. (Gopro, Cube, Runcam and etc).
lightweight and super rigid for racing
Option Parts
Aerodynamic canopy L/R
US7075 T6 Alu screws
3 color(Astro Blue/default, Rose Pink, Gold Yellow) 20mm Alu 6061 Standoff
Includes
1 x 4mm carbon fiber unibody base plate (Round cut, Silky coated)
1 x 2mm carbon fiber top plate (Silky coated)
1 x 1.5mm x 2 side wall plate (Silky coated)
1 x 1.5mm HD camera mounting plate (Silky coated)
1 x 1.5mm VTX protection plate (Silky coated)
1 set of 12.9 carbon steel screws (black nickel plated)
1 set of aluminum hardware (4x20mm and 1x28mm standoff)
1 set of nylon standoff, hex nut and washers
1 x HUB PDB
2 x long type lipo strap
2 x Lipo pad
1 x Sticker
Airframe Weight : 85g (include carbon steel screws) without PDB
What's in the box?
A bit of a trick question here, inside the packaging we have a frame or two :) let's open one up and see what we get inside.
Inside we get the usual awesomeness with AstroX branded packaging and every component having its own bagged section to stop any of that lovely carbon from rubbing in transit.
With all the parts separated out we can see we get some nice amounts of hardware including 2 battery straps, a couple of foam mounts for the bottom plate to mount the battery softly without hitting screws. Also included just below the frame is a battery protector, great idea and I'm looking forward to seeing how this works!
Look at that carbon!! It's by far the best carbon I've seen on any frame - it's cut at the correct angle, it looks great, every single edge is smoothed and finished, and there's no dust. It really is something other frames should aspire to be like when it comes to carbon finish.
The Build
Let's do this! I must admit this is one of the more exciting builds I was looking forward to. I got to see a glimpse of this frame out in Hawaii as AstroX had brought over some of their team pilots, and it looked great so I really wanted to fly one and see how it felt.
Without further ado let's get on with it, I've chosen the following additional parts to go alongside the frame in this build:
ZMX Fusion 2206 2300kv motors
FuriousFPV Silky 30A BLHeli_S ESC's
RaceFlight Revolt flight controller
HS1177 with 1.8mm lens
TBS Unify Pro HV 5.8Ghz video transmitter
TBS Triumph 5.8Ghz antenna
I will note here that on the assembly of the PDB & FC stack I have detoured a little to accommodate for soft-mounting the Revolt. Normally here you would use the longest screws and the nylon hardware provided, however I have opted for especially long steel screws that go all the way through the stack, but have extra length for me to add the o-rings and still have enough thread to tighten it all down.
It all looks so shiny :) I'm glad the motors match the frame blue colour, not perfectly, but at least to some degree!
Bottom Section
Let's start! For me as I say above I've opted for super long steel screws, but here you would use the longest screws in the kit.
Add the plastic spacers to stop the PDB from shorting on the carbon, it is probably worth adding your battery strap in here because it is difficult to add it after once everything is screwed down.
Here's the PDB that we get with the frame. It's a clean PDB that features both 12v and 5v BEC's for your flight controller and video systems, as well as spare pads with direct voltage (presumably filtered). There's also a nice addition of being able to solder your ESC signal wires to the corners, to keep that build tidy if you run a flight controller that has all 4 ESC outputs in the same place. The thing to note here is the cool looking board-mounted XT60 we have, made by Amass. I will be opting to use this in this build, though I know many prefer to run pigtails to reduce the stress on the PDB.
First things first we need to solder up the XT60. I've kept the solder nice and flat so that it doesn't foul on the frame once we've installed it, remember the standoffs are low and we don't want those joints touching the carbon!
For this reason, I've also added a layer of Kapton tape across where the solder joints are, this should stop any unwanted shorts no matter how close it gets.
Once we've done all that we can add the PDB onto the frame and start looking at hooking that power up to our powertrain. I've pre-soldered my ESC's to my motors so this saves one job, but getting the ESC's as far into the center of the frame as possible is preferable to keep that CoG right in the middle.
Once we've screwed it onto the frame we can then solder the power wires - take note to ensure you route the wires so that they will not interfere with the top plate. The side wires are fine but the front and backs need to be on the inside of the slot and m3 screw hole to avoid clashing with any of the frame.
1, 2, miss a few, and 4 ESC's are done!
Next we can hook up our auxiliary power to the PDB. I've chosen to run the VTX from 12v, and we have the 5v required for the Revolt. I've done both in one stage as there's not much to see :) at this point on the stock build you would need to add the nylon screws that also have their own threads ready to mount the flight controller.
With the spacers added we can mount the o-rings, the flight controller, more o-rings and finally the nylon nuts to hold it all together. Take care to route your video wires out the back so your vtx can access them easily.
Finally, we add the receiver on top of the FC to finish off our very neat stack. The only stages left now are to build up the top section and we're ready to fly!
Top Section
With the bottom section done we can now move onto the top section. I actually did this first when building it, but it really makes no difference :)
Firstly you want to get your VTX prepped, I am going to be using double-sided foam tape to stick the VTX to the top plate, it won't come free but bare in mind you may need decent 3M tape if your VTX gets hot, it can melt the glue and it will fall off.
Stick the VTX to the plate - note how we have the hole at the front still accessible - this is to feed in the coax for the antenna that will sit on the other side of this place.
Once we've done that we can make it a little more 3D, by sliding over the first of the side plates. Take note to ensure the orientation is correct, the VTX is sat on the bottom side, so most of the carbon will be on the same side as this.
We can now slide the camera in place, it has guidance holes for the screws so it will sit nicely in there until you add the other side plate.
Once you've done that, check the fitment of the top brace plates by ensuring the fit into the side plates ok. You may have to fit them a few times for them to loosen up a little - I had the fear of snapping the plates I was pushing them so hard, but with a tiny bit of sanding later they were a little looser. You DO want them tight, but not so tight you cannot fit them :)
Once those are confirmed to fit ok, slide the other side plate across, and add the standoff using the smallest length screws.
With that in place, connect up your camera and VTX to the connectors you soldered earlier, and slot the top section into place. Again, it may be a tight fit, but that is as designed!
Once you've done that you can then add the standoffs in their obvious location using the screws that are left (the bigger ones are used for the bottom as you have to go through the 4mm thick base plate), and that is it!! Now you can just admire what a great looking quad you have just built.
Test Flying
So I've been flying this for the past few weeks, which is why the review has been a while to come out compared to some of the pictures I've shared of it on Instagram, as I wanted to get a true feel for the frame. It's a potential new race frame for me after I feel like I've outgrown the Shrike, so for me this was both a huge personal test and a review combined into one.
I've slightly changed the build as I reverted back from the Revolt to the Revo which is guaranteed a smooth flight so I could remain competitive as I ran out of time for proper tuning in the end, but otherwise the build is exactly the same as in the pictures above.
This weekend just gone I used the frame competitively at the UK Drone Show in which I took second place. I've grown to love the frame, the carbon is just simply the best out there, the design is great, and it's strong! It took much abuse at UKDS, as much as I could throw at it in fact. There were some small issues where the rear brace popped out when I crashed upside down (and hard), and I've chipped some of the carbon on the top. Apart from that it has been absolutely solid. I've even been running the side aero skirts which double up as awesome LED containers and stop any prop hits on both the ESC's and LED's :)
Here's my main flight from the competition:
Many people had broken frame arms, whole bottom plates and other things in crashes, and despite me crashing MANY times, I came away pretty damn good!
Conclusion
What else can I say? I love the frame. There's a couple of things I may suggest to AstroX in order to make it completely bulletproof (rear standoff brace and more carbon between the front slots), but in all honesty that is just me nitpicking. A truly fantastic frame that deserves the reputation I keep hearing about AstroX, it really does stand out from the crowd right now.Image: Shutterstock
It's no secret that many US courts don't have great track records when it comes to understanding technology. But last week, a federal judge in Washington state issued a truly baffling opinion suggesting that you don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy when using Tor, the widely-used anonymity software literally designed to give its users privacy.
The statement comes from the case of Jay Michaud, a public school administration employee in Vancouver, WA caught by the controversial FBI hacking tool known as a Network Investigative Technique (NIT), which the Bureau deployed en-masse to determine the true IP addresses of 1,300 users accessing images of child abuse on a hidden website called Play Pen.
The FBI was able to distribute the malware after it took over and controversially continued to operate the website for 13 days from a server in Virginia. Once it had control, the Bureau injected malicious scripts onto pages hosting images of child abuse, which downloaded the NIT to the visitors' computers and returned machine information, including their true IP addresses, to the FBI.
Michaud tried to suppress the evidence against him, arguing that because the server was located in Virginia and he was in Washington, the warrant for the NIT had violated Rule 41(b), which prevents judges from authorizing searches and seizures outside of their district.
But US district judge Robert J. Bryan denied the motion, noting that while the warrant technically violated the rule, a higher court's interpretation provides an exception for when the information sought could have been discovered by "other lawful means."
To prove this, the judge bizarrely argued that Tor doesn't give its users complete anonymity because a user has to give their IP address to their Internet Service Provider to connect to the Tor network. Therefore, he concluded, Michaud's IP address was "public information, like an unlisted telephone number" that "eventually could have been discovered."
This makes no sense to anyone with a basic understanding of how Tor works. Just like with any website or service, Tor users do reveal their IP address to an ISP when initially connecting to the Tor network, through an entry point called a guard node. But since Tor bounces data between random nodes located around the world, neither the ISP nor anyone intercepting traffic can correlate which IPs are accessing which sites.
Nevertheless, the judge ruled that Michaud had "no reasonable expectation of privacy" in his IP address because it was technically revealed at some point before entering the Tor network—even though there was no way for the FBI to discover that IP by looking at those connecting to the hidden site.
Chris Soghoian, a top privacy technologist at the ACLU who provided testimony in the case, was equally confused by the argument.
"As far as I can understand, [the judge] is saying that the gov violated Rule 41 by hacking Tor users outside the state of VA, but no harm no foul because it only got IP addresses, and that isn't a big deal, because the government would have found another way to learn those IP addresses. And then he doesn't explain how that would happen," he said in an email to Motherboard.
In the past, researchers have shown it is technically possible to identify Tor users with advanced traffic correlation techniques. But doing so requires an attacker to control both the entry and exit nodes the user is connected to, which is practically impossible unless they control a large number of nodes in the network. Even the NSA has expressed frustration with this method, saying in a leaked document titled "Tor Stinks" that it can only de-anonymize "a very small fraction of Tor users."
That makes it very strange for the judge to suggest there were other ways the FBI could have discovered Michaud's "public" IP address. In fact, the entire reason the FBI deployed the NIT in the first place was because it couldn't find "another way" to determine the hidden site users' true IP addresses.
"While I have complete respect for the judge, it appears that he still does not understand how Tor works, even after I testified in the case," said Soghoian.
Judge Bryan has also struggled to grasp the technical details of how the FBI's NIT works. A court transcript from the hearing authorizing the use of the hacking tool shows several exchanges where he didn't seem to understand that it was a hacking tool at all, at one point even appearing confused by the concept of remotely accessing information on a computer. When asked for comment, the judge's office said he doesn't comment on pending cases.Nov 27 2011 12:54AM GMT
What the hell can one guy know that’s worth half a billion dollars?
That’s Western Digital’s reaction to a decision this week of an arbitrator to a case where a Seagate employee who joined Western Digital is accused of having brought trade secrets with him. Though it was Western Digital’s idea in the first place to keep it secret four years ago when the case first came up, the Irvine, Calif. company has now publicized the award, along with saying it intends to fight the decision — though since it’s binding arbitration, they may be out of luck. To add insult to injury, the award also includes 10% interest per year.
“The case stems from a lawsuit filed by Seagate in Hennepin District Court in October 2006 against Western Digital and former employee Sining Mao, alleging misappropriation of confidential information and trade secrets,” writes the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, where the case was filed because Seagate has a lot of employees there. “Mao, 48, was an engineering manager at Seagate before departing for Western Digital in October 2006, where he’s now a vice president. After the suit was filed, Mao filed for arbitration in June 2007, and a motion to compel arbitration was granted by the court in September 2007, according to a Western Digital securities filing. The arbitration hearing began in May and continued through July of this year,” the Star Tribune continued, adding that Western Digital has more than $3 billion in cash on hand.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Mao was at Seagate for more than 11 years in positions of increased responsibility, and is still at Western Digital. He holds bachelor and masters degrees in physics from Peking University, and a doctorate in physics from the University of Maryland. His research topics cover the advanced nanotechnologies including GMR, TMR and BMR, as well as longitudinal and perpendicular recording, and he has more than 170 scientific papers and 50 conference presentations on magnetic thin film materials and devices, according to his bio for the Silicon Valley Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum. He also holds 57 patents in the field.
This isn’t the first time Seagate has attempted to keep one of its high-level people from going to Western Digital. In 2004, the company sought an injunction to keep Peter Goglia, executive director of the Recording Head Operation, from joining Western Digital. This attempt failed; according to his LinkedIn profile, he became a vice president of R&D at Western Digital for three years before moving on to two other companies in the field.
This hasn’t been a great year for Western Digital; the company was also affected by the Thai flooding, to the extent that it could lose its first place position in the disk drive market and could cut its revenue by more than half. However, the company also said that the judgment wouldn’t affect its ability to purchase Hitachi GST, announced in March. Analysts quoted by Reuters, however, said misappropriation of trade secrets cases are hard to prove and that it doesn’t affect the company’s ability to compete.Project: DIY Knotted Headband
I LOVE this headband! I have made several different colors of it already out of the t-shirt yarn that you already know I have a small obsession with (thumbs up for upcycling!) For awhile, I was just tying the ends to a hair tie, like I did in the no-sew version of my braided headband, but I recently bought some fold-over elastic and decided to add it in to the mix. I’m liking the way it came out!
Materials:
4 strips of t-shirt yarn (enough to wrap around your head)
Fold over elastic (4 – 6 inches worth)
Sewing machine and matching yarn and/or thread and needle
Pins
Scissors
Instructions:
Measure your head! See how much yarn you’ll need to fit a snug headband. Add about two inches to it, as you’ll |
the Andy Johnson and Bobby Zamora we already had. We’ve grown used to the club behaving like that, and it’s apparently taking some getting used to that we don’t/can’t any more.
In addition, by not signing known players and big names, it creates a knowledge vacuum. Everybody knows what Chris Samba is and does, the same cannot be said of Grant Hall. Into that vacuum often slips Twitter and Wikipedia - which is a valuable resource in many areas, but football certainly isn’t one of them. Quite apart from the notoriously inaccurate goal stats (treat yourselves to soccerbase.com) the text is often wildly off the mark. As a bit of a giggle, we altered Patrick Agyemang’s Wikipedia profile a while back to say his remarkable eight goals in six game run at the start of his QPR career was later attributed by scientists to a “tear in the fabric of reality” and cited one of our articles – it remained on his page for 18 months. So people look at the Wikipedia profile of Nasser El Khayati after he arrives from Burton, they see he’s listed as a striker (he’s not) and they see his inaccurate goal stats (which are actually quite decent for somebody who plays wide midfield) and they wonder what QPR are playing at and say as much, often very forcefully, often to the club chairman or manager, having never seen him play.
We could pop the Hovis advert music on, kick back in a chair and talk about how ‘during the war’ QPR popped downstairs and came back with Darren Peacock from Hereford, Andy Sinton from Brentford, Rufus Brevett from Doncaster Rovers, Andy Tillson from Grimsby, Les Ferdinand from Hayes, Andy Impey from Yeading and so on. But of more relevance is recent years, when the best signings the club has made - for cost, consistency and quality of performance, and length of service – have been the least heralded at the time.
Grant Hall the latest example, Shaun Derry and Clint Hill before that. Generally it seems that when the club plays it low key, we don’t really know who the player is, we barely even notice his arrival, and sites like this don’t get all moist and hot under the collar about the arrival – that’s when we’re at our most successful in the transfer market. This craving for bigger names, more money spent, more strikers signed etc etc rather ignores that in the vast, vast majority of cases, when we’ve signed name players and spent decent money on them it simply hasn’t worked – Matt Phillips and Charlie Austin rare exceptions.
Going down swinging
Which doesn’t mean El Khayati and Conor Washington will succeed at QPR at all. They may both fail completely. Washington took time to get going at Newport, and Peterborough, but certainly looks hard working and dynamic on his brief QPR outings so far. El Khayati, on the couple of occasions I’ve seen him, is a bit maverick, a bit street-footballer, a bit unpredictable. Whether he’s tricky and skilful enough to pull that off against better defenders, or will simply prove to be a luxury player we cannot afford to carry, who knows? Certainly not us, and certainly not Wikipedia.
But these are, actually, the sort of players QPR should be signing. These are the actual right sorts. Better ages, better fitness records, better transfer fees, lower wages, everything to prove, careers ahead of them, potential sell on value. They see QPR as a big move, they’re keen to do well here and prove themselves. Some will hit the ground running immediately, as Hall has. Some will struggle and maybe ultimately fail completely, as Tjaronn Chery could potentially be doing. Some will have to go out on loan to further their development, like Ben Gladwin. Some will be eased into the team, perhaps taken out for a couple of months and then reintroduced, like Massimo Luongo. All will need patience and time.
That QPR, after that mad autumn on the back of Tony Fernandes’ ‘promotion is everything to me’ moment, are now seemingly willing to at least try and sign that sort of player and give him that opportunity is something to be praised and embraced rather than criticised. A January of Sandro, Fer and Caulker leaving while Matt Ingram, El Khayati and Washington arrive feels like a bloody good one to me.
Les Ferdinand, for all his faults and failures, is the first person to actually try and do this at our club since the money arrived, and I wish him, and the boys he’s bringing in, all the luck in the world. If we’re going to fail I’d rather we failed like this, and I suspect the club’s accountants agree.
The Twitter @loftforwords
Pictures – Action Images
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Photo: Action Images
BasingstokeR added 01:02 - Feb 4
Good article Clive.
One thing... Has there been noise from the club that want to move YSY on or has he just been too often injured (or both)? 0
pedrosqpr added 05:19 - Feb 4
I don't really bother to much with the bile thats spewed across the internet, however your words are like an oasis in a increasing world of wordpuke and not just in the world of QPR. Rant over.. Really keep Sandro because he averages one in 3 matches on £40 grand a week? We are midtable Championship.
If the players who went out on loan were so good we would make a profit on them by selling them.
Well done Les and Lee for putting the club back on track for now and the future.
Don't pay any attention to old Candlewax face on the tele because he would have brought some old crocks in the transfer window.
3
GetMeRangers added 07:29 - Feb 4
Wonderful article.
I don't know about others, but I enjoy watch players who I have little expectations of. Watching young players develop or fail, rather than wondering why Fer can't put in the kind of performance he did at Sunderland. Despite the turmoil of the autumn, it is great that we appear to be back to the promises of the summer of trying to do the right thing 3
colsson added 08:35 - Feb 4
Agree with all that has been said here. What I can't understand is the willingness to let go promising youngsters, who have come up through the ranks but have never been given the chance to break into the first team.
At the beginning of the season Ehmer was allowed to go to Gillingham when he had had a successful season on loan and would have been a useful back up in case of injuries at centre half, this was before other recruits such as Angella were made.
More recently, and despite a chronic lack of cover at right back, Harriman has moved permanently to Wycombe despite having gained a lot of experience on loan over a couple of seasons.
Will Doughty be the next to go without a fair crack of the whip, or Furlong or Kpekawa? 0
Russell added 09:36 - Feb 4
Always reassuring to read these posts.
Finally the club is waking up and turning this sinking ocean liner around. It will take time. patience, bravery and understanding but for the 1st time in years I'm feeling optimistic that the club is slowly getting back on track. I don't understand most of the comments written on social media, it seems many fans need an outlet to vent their anger and they're almost disappointed if they can't use the club to do so?
Really looking forward to seeing a team running out who put the shirt above all else. With a spine of Smithies, Hall, Luongo and Washington : 2
Eddo added 09:43 - Feb 4
Bang on Clive - Maybe some of the 'alleged' supporters might need to read your prose several times before the realisation of what we (QPR) actually are.
We are not a big club, we never have been, and more to the point who wants to be?
If you crave supporting underperforming superstars, follow Man U / Chelski etc..
I loved the line 'We could pop the Hovis advert...' Quality, and so pertinent.
Hopefully the church will turn full circle, and actually start to support Queens Park Rangers again, remember them? Everyone's favourite little club, who play an attractive, entertaining brand of football, whilst wearing the best kit bar none. 2
derbyhoop added 19:23 - Feb 4
More superb stuff from our US correspondent.
3 PL seasons in the last 5 have bred a sense of entitlement in some fans. Football games make people think the management games is easy. Throw in the anonymity of social media and you end up with a toxic stew where unjustified criticism can find an audience.
Those of us more experienced in life (or old in blunt terms) appreciate what QPR, as a club, have been in the past. And we need to demonstrate our support and patience. as we try to get back to that way of operating. 2
Patrick added 19:40 - Feb 4
It's another vote in the plus column. I agree 100% with what Les Fredinand is aiming to do, apparently now with manager and chief exec on side, hallelujah. I just hope they can manage the chairmans "expectations" while the rebuilding goes on. At risk of showing my age, I can't help but notice that "what QPR fans think" is for most of the media just hoovering up what a few dozen commit to the anti-social media (as I in my dotage call it). I seem to recall we had the thick end of 40,000 at the play off final. Our future has to lie with Polter, Luongo, Hall, Smithies (brilliant signing) plus the new boys this month, not overpaid premiership crocks and early retirement plans. 2
Aitch added 21:10 - Feb 4
The fools gold of The Prem and uncle Tonys inability to keep his wallet in his pocket has totally warped expectations of a sizeable chunk of our fans. How they can have such short memorys?
In the last two transfer windows we've made some very typical QPR signings. Players with something to prove and not a celebrity status to maintain. IMO we're now trying to build on solid foundations and not on quicksand like we were before. Long may it continue. This is the first time the team has felt like "my" QPR since Warnock got us promoted. 2
Spiritof67 added 21:16 - Feb 4
Great article Clive. Big name players or players with something to prove? Probably the most exciting and skilful players to wear the hoops - season 1975/76 included the following players:
Phil Parkes - Wallsal
Dave Clement - QPR youth
Ian Gillard - QPR Youth
Mick Leach - QPR Youth
Stan Bowles- Carlisle Utd
Don Givens - Luton Town
Don Masson - Notts County
Gerry Francis - QPR Youth
Only Frank McLontock, David Webb and John Hollins had previously won any silverware. So I hope this new direction that the club appears to be taking, in looking for players with something to prove, is a success. 2
TacticalR added 21:39 - Feb 4
Thanks for your summary of recent events.
'Which is why I’m a little perplexed by an opinion I’ve seen bandied around the increasingly vile world of QPR on Twitter and Facebook, that waving farewell to such wasters while shopping for younger, cheaper, rough diamonds in the lower divisions is somehow perceived as a negative thing.' I am more of the opinion that it is not an easy thing, and that there is a danger that it might be perceived as a new panacea rather than as necessary medicine.
Also, as I've said in the forums, I am a bit concerned that the old mania of blindly buying players has been replaced with the new mania of blindly selling players.
I have to say that I am truly astounded that anyone has come in for Sandro - there must be a lot of injuries at West Brom if they're prepared to put up with a 60-minute player. 0A history of sort was created in Varanasi, formerly known as Kashi, on Monday when a large number of high-caste Hindu seers and Sanskrit scholars shared a meal with more than 100 widows, who are often considered “untouchables” in orthodox Hindu society.
Widows from different parts of the country who are living in different ashrams in Varanasi broke traditions, with prominent Sanskrit scholars and saints at a function held at Kashi Vidyapeeth in the holy city.
The function was organised by Sulabh International, a non-government organisation (NGO) active in the field of sanitation.
“It was an exercise to create awareness against the practice of widowhood in the country. Such programmes will help end this treatment,” said Sulabh International founder Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, who sought support of the Hindu seers, saints and Sanskrit pundits to oppose widowhood. The seers and scholars also hailed the efforts to allow the widows to lead a normal life. “Such programmes will go a long way in sensitising people towards the plight of widows,” they said.
Pathak said he intended to draft a bill to improve the condition of widows abandoned by their families.
He urged all political parties to support the proposed legislation.
“I will also meet UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, and appeal to them to introduce this draft bill in Parliament,” he said.
The organisation had last month launched a pension scheme for widows under which each of them would be given Rs 2,000 every month. Sulabh had launched a similar monthly pension scheme in Vrindavan a few months ago.
The pension will enable the widows to take care of their health and other needs.Minister of State Alan Kelly has said that the principle of paying 55 fee-paying schools almost €100m annually must come to an end.
Mr Kelly told RTÉ's The Week in Politics that consideration will have to be given to the private schools of religious minorities, but the overall sum paid to fee-paying institutions will be looked at in the Budget.
The Department of Education has carried out an audit of private schools and the publication of this is imminent, Mr Kelly said.
Fianna Fáil's Seán Ó Fearghail said his party would have to see the results of the audit before identifying what cuts, if any, could be made to the subsidy given to private schools.
However, several Labour TDs have called on Education Minister Ruairi Quinn to scrap the subsidy entirely in the next budget.
Dublin South West Labour TD Eamonn Maloney described the system as "education apartheid".
Other Labour TDs, including Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and Michael Conaghan, have also called for the funding to be reviewed.
However, school principals have warned that a dramatic cut to funding would shut their schools down.
Castleknock College principal Oliver Murphy said the State would then have to pick up the bill and this would end up costing more.
The Department of Education must find savings of €77m in the Budget.The demolition of the historic Sixth Street bridge that connects Boyle Heights with downtown Los Angeles is back on.
Originally set for earlier this month, the city will begin demolishing the 3,500-foot concrete structure, officially known as the Sixth Street Viaduct, on Wednesday.
The roadway will be closed from Mateo Street on the west and Boyle Avenue on the east, announced the Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering Thursday so crews can begin tearing down the 84-year-old structure. The bridge suffers from a chemical deterioration of the concrete that makes it vulnerable to collapse during a major earthquake.
Demolition will take nine months. Construction of a new viaduct will be completed in late 2019, said Caltrans.
To make way for the demolition of the bridge which hangs over the 101 Freeway, the freeway will be closed for 40 hours beginning Friday, Feb. 5 at 10 p.m. until Sunday, Feb. 7 at 2 p.m., the city and Caltrans announced.
The 2 1/2-mile section of the 101 in downtown L.A. will be closed to all traffic at the 10/101 juncture just east of downtown to the 5/10/101 interchange. Also, motorists traveling west on the 60 Freeway from the San Gabriel Valley will not be able to access the 101 Freeway.
“We are encouraging drivers to plan ahead, expect delays and to follow detour signs to alternate freeways,” said Carrie Bowen, director of Caltrans’ District 7, which includes Los Angeles County.
A new bridge will be built complete with arches, a bikeway and a walkway. The project costs $445 million.Wall Street is reportedly one step ahead of the Obama administration's plan to scrap some of the Bush tax cuts on the nation's top earners.
Banks are considering paying annual bonuses early this year to lessen the impact of the increased tax rates expected in January, when bonuses are traditionally paid out, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Rumors of the hurry-up bonuses on Wall Street come on the heels of Credit Suisse's reported plan to pay 400 managing directors in its London office a cash reward next month in lieu of a chunk of their 2009 bonuses. The bank's aim, according to a Bloomberg report, was to spread the cost of a one-time 50 percent tax levied on bank bonuses in the U.K.
The WSJ has more on Credit Suisse's move:
"Managing directors at Credit Suisse Group in London learned last Wednesday that they would receive a late-summer reward that will restore at least some of the money they sacrificed last year when the bank cut payouts in response to the one-time U.K. bonus tax. The bank will pay a midyear bonus on Sept. 1 in the form of cash that the bankers can't take home until 2012 or 2013..."
In the U.S., Wall Street firms typically wait until after the end of the year to pay out bonuses tied to performance over the previous 12 months. Bonus payments, which are often several times larger than an employee's annual salary, make up the lion's share of a bank's payroll expense.
The hurry-up bonuses can be seen as good leadership that boosts employee morale and protects employees from burdensome tax hikes. But Jena McGregor at the Washington Post's blog on corporate leadership says that accelerating compensation perpetuates a culture of greed.It’s almost about that time. The NBA All-Star game in New York is coming up. With that, so is the Dunk Contest. Who doesn’t love dunks!? The contest has received much criticism for who should participate (LeBron), who shouldn’t (non all-stars or non established players since it is called All-Star weekend), missed dunks, etc.
Every year I think about this in my head so I decided to share my magical/imaginary way to possibly fix all issues with the dunk contest. What if we had a time machine and could bring in the 10 Greatest Dunkers in their prime to compete in the best slam dunk contest of all-time? I made a dunk contest dream lineup. Here are the members of my list…
Carter absolutely dazzled all the fans in Oakland in 2000 after a two year dunk contest absence. He completed a ridiculous 360 windmill among several other unbelievable dunks. In my opinion, his game dunks were even more “half man- half amazing” than the contest dunks, especially when he dunked OVER (not on) the 7’2 Frenchman Frederic Weis during the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
When fans and kids are waiting outside malls to purchase your sneakers many years after you’ve retired that’s a good sign the nickname “Air Jordan” has probably been the best suited name to ever be bestowed onto a player. Jordan was a two time winner (’87,’88). Needing a 50 to defeat former champion Dominique Wilkins in his home court Chicago. In ‘1988, Jordan took-off from the free throw line spreading his legs, bending his knees, and pumping the ball easily clearing the distance needed to complete the dunk. He also posterized nearly every single meaningful player to play in his era. I find it, very difficult to pick between his fellow Tar Heel Vince Carter, but a dunk contest can settle things!
3. Dominique Wilkins
“The Human Highlight Film” was a two time winner (’85,’90). His signature dunks consisted of the windmill and tomahawk jams. Arguably the greatest dunker with a combination of explosiveness and power. ‘Nique’s put back dunks off rebounds were classic. He also had memorable dunk offs with fellow teammate Spud Webb and his Airness, MJ.
“Dr. J.” would be considered to most as the innovator of creative dunks. The doctor was the first notable player to take off from the free throw line while winning the ABA dunk contest in ‘1976. One of his memorable dunks was off a breakaway cuffing the ball and slamming it over one of the best defenders ever to play, Michael Cooper who ducked for cover.
Not sure if I should rank a player this high who has never competed in a dunk contest but if you’re going to make an exception, it’ll be “King James”. For over a decade now, fans have practically begged for him to take part in the contest but to no avail. His signature dunk combines elevation, speed, power, and explosiveness which can be classified as a semi tomahawk cocking the ball sideways with his head at times nearly equal height to the rim.Money is anything that is commonly accepted by a group of people for the exchange of goods, services, or resources. Every country has its own exchange system of coins and paper money.
Bartering and Commodity Money
In the beginning, people bartered. Bartering is the exchange of a good or service for another good or service. For example, a bag of rice for a bag of beans. However, what if you couldn't agree what something was worth in exchange or you didn't want what the other person had? To solve that problem, humans developed what is called commodity money.
A commodity is a basic item used by almost everyone. In the past, items such as salt, tea, tobacco, cattle, and seeds were commodities and therefore were once used as money. However, using commodities as money had other problems. Carrying bags of salt and other commodities was hard and commodities were difficult to store or were perishable.
Coins and Paper Money
Metals objects were introduced as money around 5000 B.C. By 700 BC, the Lydians became the first in the western world to make coins. Countries were soon minting their own series of coins with specific values. Metal was used because it was readily available, easy to work with and could be recycled. Since coins were given a certain value, it became easier to compare the cost of items people wanted.
Some of the earliest known paper money dates back to ancient China, where the issuing of paper money became common from about AD 960 onwards.
Representative Money
With the introduction of paper currency and non-precious coinage, commodity money evolved into representative money. This meant that what money itself was made of no longer had to be very valuable.
Representative money was backed by a government or bank's promise to exchange it for a certain amount of silver or gold. For example, the old British Pound bill or Pound Sterling was once guaranteed to be redeemable for a pound of sterling silver.
For most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the majority of currencies were based on representative money through the use of the gold standard.
Fiat Money
Representative money has now been replaced by fiat money. Fiat is the Latin word for "let it be done." Money is now given value by a government fiat or decree. In other words, enforceable legal tender laws were made. By law, the refusal of "legal tender" money in favor of some other form of payment is illegal.
Origin of the Dollar Sign ($)
The origin of the "$" money sign is not certain. Many historians trace the "$" money sign to either the Mexican or Spanish "P's" for pesos, or piastres, or pieces of eight. The study of old manuscripts shows that the "S" gradually came to be written over the "P" and looking very much like the "$" mark.
U.S. Money Trivia
On March 10, 1862, the first United States paper money was issued. The denominations at the time were $5, $10, and $20. They became legal tender by Act of March 17, 1862. The inclusion of "In God We Trust" on all currency was required by law in 1955. The national motto first appeared on paper money in 1957 on $1 Silver Certificates and on all Federal Reserve Notes beginning with Series 1963.
Electronic BankingThe Other 9/11: How U.S. Interventions Evolve
By Mickey Z.
08 September, 2013
World News Trust
PHOTO: By Mickey Z.
“The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.” - Henry Kissinger
Since September 11, 2001, there has been a marked increase in the comfort with which those in power openly discuss military interventions -- both current and pending. This shift is particularly obvious when examining the "other 9/11."
Thanks to information made available in documents declassified in 1999, we can coherently discuss the Sept. 11, 1973, coup in Chile -- an event cloaked in secrecy and obscured by Cold War paranoia. But those roughly 5,000 documents don't begin to explain how the toppling of Salvador Allende fits within the context of today's foreign entanglements.
After all, what the United States did by replacing Allende with General Augusto Pinochet 40 years ago would today be termed a "regime change" or "humanitarian" (As Henry Kissinger explained at the time: "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist because of the irresponsibility of its own people.")
"Nothing but human rights"
Salvador Allende, a physician by trade, first gained worldwide attention when he came within 3 percent of winning Chile’s 1958 presidential election. Six years later, the United States decided to no longer leave such elections to chance. It was time to introduce the Chilean people to democracy, American-style.
The U.S. government, mostly through the covert efforts of the Central Intelligence Agency, spent more money per capita to support Allende’s opponent, Eduardo Frei, than Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater combined to spend that same year in the American presidential election.
With an estimated $20 million of U.S. taxpayer money to work with, the CIA embarked on a program of anti-communist propaganda and disinformation designed to scare Chilean citizens -- specifically mothers -- into believing that an Allende victory would result in direct Russian control of their country and their lives. “No religious activity would be possible,” they were told. Their children, hammer and sickle stamped on their foreheads, would be shipped to the USSR to be used as slaves, the radio and newspapers direly warned.
The scare tactics worked. While Allende won the male vote by a small margin, 469,000 more Chilean women chose Frei. Cleverly manipulated to fear the “blood and pain” of “godless, atheist communism,” the mothers of Chile voted against the man who promised to “redistribute income and reshape the … economy” through the nationalization of some major industries, like copper mining, and the expansion of agrarian reform. A far cry from Leninism, Allende’s policy of “eurocommunism,” i.e., communists linking with social democratic parties into a united front, was for the most part, as unacceptable to the Kremlin as it was to the White House.
When the 1970 Chilean presidential election rolled around, Allende was still a major player. However, he had a new and powerful enemy: Dr. Henry Kissinger.
Despite another wave of U.S.-funded propaganda, Salvador Allende was elected president of South America’s longest functioning democracy on Sept. 4, 1970. Henry Kissinger (HK) and his cohorts had to act. The 40 Committee was formed with HK as chair. The goal was not only to save Chile from its irresponsible populace but to yet again stave off the red tide.
“Chile is a fairly big place, with a lot of natural resources,” explains Noam Chomsky, “but the United States wasn’t going to collapse if Chile became independent. Why were we so concerned about it? According to Kissinger, Chile was a ‘virus’ that would ‘infect’ the region with effects all the way to Italy.”
At a Sept. 15, 1970 meeting called to halt the spread of infection, Kissinger and President Nixon told CIA Director Richard Helms it would be necessary to “make the [Chilean] economy scream.” While allocating at least $10 million to assist in sabotaging Allende’s presidency, outright assassination was also considered a serious and welcome option.
The respect held by the Chilean military for the democratic process led Kissinger to pick as his first assassination target not Allende himself, but General Rene Schneider, head of the Chilean Armed Forces. Schneider, it seems, had long believed that politics and the military should remain discrete. Despite warnings from Helms that a coup might not be possible in such a stable democracy, HK urged the plan to proceed.
When the killing of Schneider only served to solidify Allende’s support, a CIA-sponsored media blitz similar to that of 1964 commenced. Citizens were faced with daily “reports” of Marxist atrocities and Soviet bases supposedly being built in Chile. U.S. threats to sever economic and military aid were also used to help cultivate a “coup climate” among those in the military. These two approaches represented the hard and soft lines outlined by Nixon and HK.
How soft was soft? Edward Korry, U.S. ambassador to Chile at the time, articulated the soft sell by declaring that the U.S. task was “to do all within our power to condemn Chile and the Chileans to utmost deprivation and poverty.” Korry warned, “not a nut or bolt [will] be allowed to reach Chile under Allende.”
On the hard side, Dr. Henry began securing support for a possible military coup.
“In 1970,” wrote historian Howard Zinn, “an ITT director, John McCone, who had also been head of the CIA, told Kissinger and Helms that ITT was willing to give $1 million to help the U.S. government in its plans to overthrow the Allende government.”
“The stage was set for a clash of two experiments,” says Blum. Allende’s socialism was pitted against what was later called a “prototype or laboratory experiment to test the techniques of heavy financial investment in an effort to discredit and bring down a government.” This clash would reach its climax on Sept. 11, 1973.
The socialist experiment ended in violence on that day and Allende himself was said to have committed suicide … with a machine gun. Of course, the U.S. claimed no complicity in or even knowledge of the coup at the time. However, when the State Department declassified 5,000 documents in 1999, a different story was told.
For example, a CIA document from the day before the coup stated bluntly, “The coup attempt will begin Sept. 11.” Ten days later, the Agency announced, “severe repression is planned.” With thousands of opponents of the new regime gathered in soccer stadiums, a Sept. 28 State Department document detailed a request from Chile’s new defense minister for Washington to send an expert advisor on detention centers.
Allende was dead. In his place, the people of Chile now faced brutal repression and human rights violations, book burnings, a powerful secret police, and more than 3,000 executions. Tens of thousands more were tortured and/or disappeared. Shortly after the coup, U.S. economic and military aid once again began to flow into Chile.
The man in charge of all this was General Augusto Pinochet, a man Dr. Kissinger could really get behind. “In the United States, as you know, we are sympathetic to what you are trying to do,” HK told the Chilean dictator in 1975. “We wish your government well.
“My evaluation,” he continued to Pinochet, “is that you are the victim of all the left-wing groups around the world and that your greatest sin was that you overthrew a government that was going communist.” Later that same year, when facing a roomful of Chilean diplomats concerned about the effect Pinochet’s human rights violations might have on world opinion, Henry was in top form:
“Well, I read the briefing paper for this meeting and it was nothing but human rights. The State Department is made up of people who have a vocation for the ministry. Because there were not enough churches for them, they went into the Department of State.”
Was HK really that concerned with the minor nationalization of industry proposed by Salvador Allende or were other forces at work here?
Here’s how the CIA saw it three days after Allende won the election: “The U.S. has no vital national interests within Chile. The world military balance of power would not be significantly altered by an Allende government. [But] an Allende victory would represent a definite psychological advantage for the Marxist idea.”
“Even Kissinger, mad as he is, didn’t believe that Chilean armies were going to descend on Rome,” says Chomsky. “It wasn’t going to be that kind of an influence. He was worried that successful economic development, where the economy produces benefits for the general population -- not just profits for private corporations -- would have a contagious effect. In those comments, Kissinger revealed the basic story of U.S. foreign policy for decades.” Accordingly, in 1974, when the new U.S. ambassador to Chile, David Popper, complained about Chile’s human rights violations, Dr. Kissinger promptly sent these orders:
“Tell Popper to cut out the political science lectures.”
The New Style
Ten days after the Allende government was overthrown, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jack Kubisch told the House Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs: "Gentlemen, I wish to state as flatly and as categorically as I possibly can that we did not have advance knowledge of the coup." The documents declassified in 1999, of course, told a vastly different story.
Makes me wonder: what would happen if Allende were elected president of Chile in 2013? Would Obama and Kerry follow the same clandestine path Kissinger and Nixon opted for in 1973 or would the U.S.government be a tad more forthcoming about their plans?
Based on their public posturing and subsequent actions vis-à-vis Syria, one might safely assume that the Obama administration (or for that matter, a McCain or Romney administration) would declare Chile a clear and present danger, impose brutal sanctions, and then pronounce the need for regime change in the name of freedom and democracy. Next would come the brazen threats to "shock and awe" Santiago with 3,000 cruise missiles in the first two or three days of the "liberation." With or without the approval of the UN, Operation Chile Out would commence.
The Chilean people would be told, candidly, that America (and a mysterious "Coalition of the Willing"?) was acting in their best interests. Meanwhile, every man, woman, and child paying attention would be aware of the United States' intention to occupy Chile as de facto ruler while government contracts for the rebuilding of infrastructure destroyed by coalition bombs and missiles would set American-based construction firms into furious competition and nefarious backroom negotiations.
In other words, there would be little or no need for the curious to wait decades for documents to be declassified. Today's architects of war -- from both parties -- would merely rely on the seductive power of spin to paint Allende as the "next Stalin," Pinochet would hire a PR firm, CNN would design a nifty "Showdown with Salvador" logo, and reading books by Isabel Allende in the airport would be reason for a bag search.
As sentiments sizzle, you never know: a new moniker might even be needed for The Red Hot Chili Peppers and cartoon character Chilly Willy would become "Free Willy" and enjoy a unexpected career resurgence.
Rightfully, there is much hand wringing today when looking back at U.S. involvement in the 1973 coup in Chile. In 40 years, will others be equally persistent in attempting to comprehend how this generation tolerated -- and even offered tacit support for -- a culture that made the Freedom of Information Act superfluous?
#shifthappens
Mickey Z. is the author of 11 books, most recently the novel Darker Shade of Green. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on an obscure website called Facebook. Anyone wishing to support his activist efforts can do so by making a donation here
© WorldNewsTrust.com -No they should not We as the people should have the right to know what is going on with our country. If we can't trust the government then is everything a lie? What if we are at stake from nuclear war? We should be able to know inorder to do something to protect ourselves and feel safe. Like the Cuban missile crisis. Kennedy did not tell the people we were close to nuclear war. How are we supposed to be prepared? The government should not keep secrets Report Post
It's not right As the government we have here in America it's supposed to be a government for the people and by the people so if it's by the people the people deserve to know. The people have the right to know what the government is doing, whether it is hard to understand or hard to take it all in, the people need to know what it is doing! They need to know what the government is doing so if they disagree with it they can change the people in charge. But military circumstances are different. Report Post
Hidden truth causes obvious ignorance The government keeping secrets only shows how low it's expectations are of its citizens. Not only does it undermine the overall maturity of how citizens will react to new information, it also forces the citizens into a belittled mind state. We the people are what make this nation |
operations and bulk operations [ edit ]
In addition to the single-element insert, delete and lookup operations, several set operations have been defined on red-black trees: union, intersection and set difference. Then fast bulk operations on insertions or deletions can be implemented based on these set functions. These set operations rely on two helper operations, Split and Join. With the new operations, the implementation of red-black trees can be more efficient and highly-parallelizable.[26] This implementation allows a red root.
Join: The function Join is on two red-black trees t 1 and t 2 and a key k and will return a tree containing all elements in t 1, t 2 as well as k. It requires k to be greater than all keys in t 1 and smaller than all keys in t 2. If the two trees have the same black height, Join simply create a new node with left subtree t 1, root k and right subtree t 2. If both t 1 and t 2 have black root, set k to be red. Otherwise k is set black. Suppose that t 1 has larger black height than t 2 (the other case is symmetric). Join follows the right spine of t 1 until a black node c which is balanced with t 2. At this point a new node with left child c, root k (set to be red) and right child t 2 is created to replace c. The new node may invalidate the red-black invariant because at most three red nodes can appear in a row. This can be fixed with a double rotation. If double red issue propagates to the root, the root is then set to be black, restoring the properties. The cost of this function is the difference of the black heights between the two input trees.
Split: To split a red-black tree into two smaller trees, those smaller than key x, and those larger than key x, first draw a path from the root by inserting x into the red-black tree. After this insertion, all values less than x will be found on the left of the path, and all values greater than x will be found on the right. By applying Join, all the subtrees on the left side are merged bottom-up using keys on the path as intermediate nodes from bottom to top to form the left tree, and the right part is asymmetric. For some applications, Split also returns a boolean value denoting if x appears in the tree. The cost of Split is O ( log n ) {\displaystyle O(\log n)} AVL trees.
The join algorithm is as follows:
function joinRightRB(T L, k, T R ) if r(T L )=⌊r(T L )/2⌋×2: return Node(T L,⟨k,red⟩,T R ) else (L',⟨k',c'⟩,R')=expose(T L ) T'=Node(L',⟨k',c'⟩,joinRightRB(R',k,T R ) if (c'=black) and (T'.right.color=T'.right.right.color=red): T'.right.right.color=black; return rotateLeft(T') else return T' function joinLeftRB(T L, k, T R ) /* symmetric to joinRightRB */ function join(T L, k, T R ) if ⌊r(T L )/2⌋>⌊r(T R )/2⌋×2: T'=joinRightRB(T L,k,T R ) if (T'.color=red) and (T'.right.color=red): T'.color=black return T' else if ⌊r(T L )/2⌋>⌊r(T L )/2⌋×2 /* symmetric */ else if (T L.color=black) and (T R =black) Node(T L,⟨k,red⟩,T R ) else Node(T L,⟨k,black⟩,T R )
Here r ( v ) {\displaystyle r(v)} of a node v {\displaystyle v} means twice the black height of a black node, and the twice the black height of a red node. expose(v)=(l,⟨k,c⟩,r) means to extract a tree node v {\displaystyle v}'s left child l {\displaystyle l}, the key of the node k {\displaystyle k}, the color of the node c {\displaystyle c} and the right child r {\displaystyle r}. Node(l,⟨k,c⟩,r) means to create a node of left child l {\displaystyle l}, key k {\displaystyle k}, color c {\displaystyle c} and right child r {\displaystyle r}.
The split algorithm is as follows:
function split(T,k) if (T=nil) return (nil,false,nil) (L,(m,c),R)=expose(T) if (k=m) return (L,true,R) if (k<m) (L',b,R')=split(L,k) return (L',b,join(R',m,R)) if (k>m) (L',b,R')=split(R,k) return (join(L,m,L'),b,R))
The union of two red-black trees t 1 and t 2 representing sets A and B, is a red-black tree t that represents A ∪ B. The following recursive function computes this union:
function union(t 1, t 2 ): if t 1 = nil: return t 2 if t 2 = nil: return t 1 t <, t > ← split t 2 on t 1.root return join(t 1.root, union(left(t 1 ), t < ), union(right(t 1 ), t > ))
Here, Split is presumed to return two trees: one holding the keys less its input key, one holding the greater keys. (The algorithm is non-destructive, but an in-place destructive version exists as well.)
The algorithm for intersection or difference is similar, but requires the Join2 helper routine that is the same as Join but without the middle key. Based on the new functions for union, intersection or difference, either one key or multiple keys can be inserted to or deleted from the red-black tree. Since Split calls Join but does not deal with the balancing criteria of red-black trees directly, such an implementation is usually called the "join-based" implementation.
The complexity of each of union, intersection and difference is O ( m log ( n m + 1 ) ) {\displaystyle O\left(m\log \left({n \over m}+1\right)\right)} for two red-black trees of sizes m {\displaystyle m} and n ( ≥ m ) {\displaystyle n(\geq m)}. This complexity is optimal in terms of the number of comparisons. More importantly, since the recursive calls to union, intersection or difference are independent of each other, they can be executed in parallel with a parallel depth O ( log m log n ) {\displaystyle O(\log m\log n)}.[26] When m = 1 {\displaystyle m=1}, the join-based implementation has the same computational directed acyclic graph (DAG) as single-element insertion and deletion if the root of the larger tree is used to split the smaller tree.
Parallel algorithms [ edit ]
Parallel algorithms for constructing red–black trees from sorted lists of items can run in constant time or O(log log n) time, depending on the computer model, if the number of processors available is asymptotically proportional to the number n of items where n→∞. Fast search, insertion, and deletion parallel algorithms are also known.[27]
The join-based algorithms for red-black trees are parallel for bulk operations, including union, intersection, construction, filter, map-reduce, and so on.
Popular culture [ edit ]
A red-black-tree was referenced correctly in an episode of Missing (Canadian TV series)[28] as noted by Robert Sedgewick in one of his lectures:[29]
Jess: "It was the red door again."
Pollock: "I thought the red door was the storage container."
Jess: "But it wasn't red anymore, it was black."
Antonio: "So red turning to black means what?"
Pollock: "Budget deficits, red ink, black ink."
Antonio: "It could be from a binary search tree. The red-black tree tracks every simple path from a node to a descendant leaf that has the same number of black nodes."
Jess: "Does that help you with the ladies?"
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]The flood water near reaches 1974 levels in North Lismore.
The flood water near reaches 1974 levels in North Lismore. Marc Stapelberg
SATURDAY 10.30am: LISMORE retailer Alex Clarke live streamed a video from his kayak while paddling on Magellan St and Carrington St in downtown Lismore yesterday afternoon.
The footage reveals the devastation first hand.
Mr Clarke, the owner of Magellan St's PowerMax Computers, said " I think it's fair to say this took everyone by surprise" and it was "pretty scary".
"Good luck to us all," he said sombrely.
The video has been viewed more than 58,000 times. It was one of several videos Mr Clarke shared via Facebook at the height of the flooding.
The flood has certainly peaked in Lismore, with the Bureau of Meteorology's river height gauge showing the Wilsons River at 10.10m just after 10am this morning.
But the floodwaters could take days to recede.
UPDATE 7.30pm: THE Wilsons River has peaked, but police are warning that morning rain is on the way.
Richmond Local Area Command's Senior Constable David Henderson has said: "This is now the worst Lismore flood since 1974. More rain is on the way."
The SES have sent a text message to local residents reading: "The Wilsons River peaked at 11.57m today. Lismore declared natural disaster area. Please take care as waters recede."
UPDATE 7pm: FOOTAGE of the Lismore CBD shows just how severe the flood is since water started to run over the levee in the early hours of this morning.
Keen St is submerged, completely engulfing shops up to their awnings, in footage taken by resident Darrell Crockford and posted to Facebook.
The Bureau of Meteorology has reported the Wilsons River at Lismore is still close to its peak at about 11.57m.
Bruno Poles helps to evacaute the Little polli & the Blackbird store in Lismore after the evacuation order is given. Marc Stapelberg
UPDATE 3pm: The highest point reached by the Lismore flood was 11.59m however a high tide this afternoon may still send the level higher.
According to Bureau of Meteorology data the river reached its highest point so far just after 11am.
However, water continues to rush into the Lismore CBD over the levee walls, and will continue to do so until the flow falls below 11m.
On the Richmond River major flooding is also occurring at Kyogle.
Lismore CBD flooding: IMAGES of the Lismore CBD from early this morning as it rapidly became inundated.
The Richmond River at Casino Road Bridge may peak near 11.80 metres Friday afternoon with minor flooding.
Downstream, moderate flooding is occurring along the Richmond River at Coraki with a peak expected this evening at about 6m.
Minor flooding is occurring along the Richmond River at Bungawalbyn, and the river there is expected to peak near 5.50 metres Friday evening with major flooding.
At Woodburn, the Richmond the river level may peak near 4.10 metres also this evening.
Friday 9.30am: LISMORE is officially seeing its highest flood since 1974, reaching 11.53m just after 9am, and still rising.
While the flood appears to be slowing down, it still shows no signs of peaking.
HISTORICAL: Date from the BOM showing the extent of the flooding at Lismore. Bureau of Meteorology
The Lismore levee has successfully directed water into the CBD via a pre-planned route down Browns Creek to Dawson St, which is now completely underwater.
Excess floodwater has travelled down Molesworth St and turned left at Woodlark St, continuing down to Dawson St.
It is now inevitable that businesses on Woodlark St will be inundated at some stage in the next few hours.
Several businesses including Planet Music are already metres underwater.
HISTORICAL: Date from the BOM showing the extent of the flooding at Lismore. Bureau of Meteorology
Friday 4.34am: SES have warned destructive winds set to batter the Northern Rivers today.
After 24 hours of torrential rain, destructive winds are likely to impact residents in the
Northern Rivers during Friday.
As Ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie moves south east, a cold front has moved up along the coast bringing storm to gale force winds to the Northern Rivers during Friday.
Damaging north-easterly winds averaging 65km/h with gusts in excess of 90km/h are forecast along the coast north of Yamba today with destructive southerly wind gusts in excess of 125km/h possible along the coast and elevated terrain.
Damaging surf conditions are expected to along the Byron coast on Friday.
Waves exceeding five metres in the surf zone are likely to produce significant beach erosion.
High tides today in this area may exceed the highest astronomical tide of the year.
NSW SES Incident Controller for the Northern Rivers, David Monk advised residents to stay indoors on Friday.
"The flooding is likely to remain in the area for the coming days and we're asking residents to stay out of floodwater" he said.
"Coupled with the damaging winds, Friday is set to be a busy day for NSW SES volunteers".
Residents should secure loose items, move vehicles under cover or away from trees and keep at least 8 metres away from fallen power lines.
For emergency help in floods and storms, call the NSW SES on 132 500, or if the situation is
life-threatening call 000 (triple-zero).
Friday 4am: THE Wilsons River at Lismore has now reached 10.74m and is still rising.
Lismore City Council predicts the Lismore levee walls generally start over topping between 10.6m and 10.7m.
Much of South Lismore and North Lismore are now likely underwater.
The Bureau has predicted it will reach 11.5m sometime during the morning. If it does so, this would be the highest flood since 1974.
Destructive winds are now also blowing about much of the Northern Rivers, with gusts up to 125kmh possible along the coast.
Thursday 11.23pm: LISMORE City Council have upgraded the expected flood peak to 11.5m on Friday morning.
Thursday, 6.30pm: THE predicted flood bearing down on Lismore could be the biggest in 30 years.
The 11m peak predicted by the Bureau of Meteorology would exceed the previous major flood peaks in 2009, 2005, and 2001.
Tanya Poles helps to evacuate the Little polli & the blackbird store in Lismore after SES issue evacuation order. Marc Stapelberg
The 1989 flood, which inundated Lismore, peaked at 11.28m.
The river is currently sitting at just above 6m and will rise through the evening.
Lismore City Council has issued a prediction of what is likely to happen in Lismore as the flood rises, as follows:
Below 10m
• At 9.86 metres, water may reach the floor height of the Lismore Palms Caravan Park
• At 9.88 metres, about 600 metres of the southern end of the Lismore Airport is covered by water, which closes the airport to normal air traffic.
The evacuation order for Lismore is given by the SES. Marc Stapelberg
10m and above
• At 10.00 metres, the South Lismore levee may overtop between 10 and 10.2m when both the Wilsons River and Leycester Creek are in flood or when only the Wilsons River is in flood. The levee overtops in the North West Corner. Soon afterwards South Lismore is rapidly inundated with high velocity floodwaters.
• There is a risk that evacuation routes may be lost if pumps malfunction.
• The evacuation route from the CBD to the Bruxner Highway is via Conway St and/or Molesworth St. Lismore to Dunoon road may be closed.
• At 10.13 metres, Conway Street may be closed (if the Browns Creek Basin is full).
• The Lismore to Nimbin road is closed near Goolmangar Shop.
• The Lismore to Woodburn road is closed at treatment works flat.
• At 10.40 metres, in extremely rare events the Central Lismore levee at Browns Ck may begin to overtop. This will occur when Leycester Ck and Wilsons River peaks occur concurrently and are accompanied by fast rates of rise. Once the levee overtops floodwater will flow down the browns creek floodway into the basin area, flooding central Lismore.
Lismore CBD flooding at 10.6m and above
• At 10.60 to 10.70 metres, typical overtopping height of the Central Lismore levee. Once the levee overtops floodwater will flow down the Browns Creek floodway into the basin area, flooding central Lismore. As river levels continue to rise overtopping will occur at Gasworks Creek Spillway and Spinks Park Spillway. In a very large flood the entire levee system may be overtopped.
Above 11m
• At 11.05 to 11.16 metres, the Bruxner Highway closed to all traffic east and west (11.05m).
• At 11.36 metres, water may enter the Northern Star building in Molesworth Street north*.
Lismore evacuation order: A EMERGENCY order to evacuate the Lismore CBD, South Lismore and North Lismore has been issued.
ORIGINAL: LISMORE is being warned to brace for a bigger flood than in 2005 and 2001 with a major flood now predicted early tomorrow morning.
The SES has issued a mandatory evacuation order of over 6500 people for the Lismore CBD, North Lismore, and South Lismore.
"It is not issued lightly, people must leave for their own safety," an SES spokesman said.
The Bureau of Meteorology is now calling an 11m flood, which would go over the levee walls and flood parts of the CBD.
Lismore City Council closed the levee gates earlier this afternoon.
The SES has advised:
- Do not delay your evacuation. Roads will be congested or closed. You could become trapped and need rescue. Remaining in flooded areas is dangerous and may place your life at risk.
- Wherever possible, people should go and stay with family or friends, or make other accommodation arrangements.
- For people who need assistance an evacuation centre has been set up at Southern Cross University, Military Road, East Lismore.
As you evacuate you should:
Take your important documents, mementos and photos.
Take your spare clothing, medicines and personal hygiene supplies.
If you are going to the evacuation centre, take blankets/sleeping bags, pillows and sleeping mats.
If possible, check to see if your neighbours need help.
Turn off the electricity and gas.
Never drive ride or walk through floodwater.
Continue to listen to a local radio station for updates.
Up to 270 millimetres of rain has been recorded during the past 15 hours to 03:00 pm Thursday over the Wilsons River valley.
Further rainfall is forecast for the next 24 to 48 hours which could produce further river level rises. The situation is being closely monitored and revised predictions will be issued if necessary.“[I] am thoroughly hooked and impressed! Great production values, acting, and writing!”
— Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing.net
“With JourneyQuest, the Dead Gentlemen once again set the bar for independent comedy: smart, silly, wholly original, and, above all, genuinely fun.”
— Rachel Edidin, Dark Horse Comics
FUNDING UPDATE:
Thanks to the support of over eight-hundred of you, plus a matching funds promotion from Beth, Brad, and Steve, we've reached $100,000, which means that our contributors have unlocked a feature-length season!
We're also adding in some exciting new prizes and bonuses for new contributors to help unlock with their pledges:
Unlocked : $105,000 -- Every contributor receives an exclusive backer's-only embroidered Season Two Supporter patch.
: $105,000 -- Every contributor receives an exclusive backer's-only embroidered Season Two Supporter patch. Unlocked : $110,000 -- We commission a full-color map of Fartherall, the world of JourneyQuest
: $110,000 -- We commission a full-color map of Fartherall, the world of JourneyQuest Next Goal: $115,000 -- We greenlight development of the JourneyQuest Role-playing Game
$115,000 -- We greenlight development of the $120,000 -- We produce the official Orcs of JourneyQuest beefcake calendar
beefcake calendar $200,000 -- We shoot seasons two and three concurrently.
---------------------------------------------------------
What is JourneyQuest?
JourneyQuest is a fantasy comedy webseries that premiered on Hulu and YouTube in 2010. It has gone on to find an international fan base, and has screened at festivals and conventions worldwide, including PAX, GenCon, and Comic Con San Diego. It is released for free under a Creative Commons license.
And who are you?
We are Zombie Orpheus Entertainment—composed of longtime friends and filmmakers Matt Vancil and Ben Dobyns—and our buddies at Dead Gentlemen Productions. We created the first season of JourneyQuest with an all-volunteer cast and crew because we wanted to show you what we were capable of before asking you for money.
Where can I watch JourneyQuest: Season 1?
The first season of JourneyQuest can be seen in its entirety on YouTube or Hulu. Give it two episodes, and you’ll be hooked.
What are you trying to do?
Thanks to generous fan contributions, we have entirely paid off our first season’s budget of $30,000. Our new goal is to raise $100,000 to produce a second season of JourneyQuest.
Who else is involved?
We are thrilled to have new actors joining our cast in upcoming seasons!
MMA superstar Bob Sapp will be playing our barbarian king Karn the Unpleasant, appearing first in Season Two.
TV star Fran Kranz, who played Topher Brink on Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, will be playing the dashing, honey-tongued bard Silver Tom.
Genre actress Jen Page (The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, Project London) will appear as Queen Starling, ruling conquered kingdoms by the side of her husband, Karn the Unpleasant.
Scott C. Brown (or his clone) is slated to play the orcish professor Strong Like Bull.
We also have internationally renowned fantasy artist Wayne Reynolds producing the cover artwork for our DVDs and poster!
Where does the money go?
Every penny goes directly towards production and contributor rewards. Our budget covers everything from production insurance to location fees, from cast and crew wages to equipment rentals, from the props and costumes and makeup of preproduction to the VFX, sound design, and music of post—everything. With their quick and efficient micro-crew, Matt and Ben have learned how to stretch a dollar to get the maximum amount of production value without sacrificing a drop of story or characterization. Nothing goes to waste.
I previously contributed to JQ2 elsewhere. Will I also get the Kickstarter incentives?
Yes! We’ve already received over 1,000 contributions for our first season, and the folks who contributed (if this campaign is successful) will receive matching Kickstarter rewards based on the levels at which they pledged. If you pledged on another site but would like to increase your level here, you can do so, but be sure to let us know—Kickstarter isn’t set up to handle that, and we wouldn’t want to lose track of the level at which you contributed!
I want to help, but I can’t pledge financially.
That’s okay! You can help us just by letting anyone who might like our show that we’re out here. Tweet us, share us, like us on Facebook—any extra exposure we get helps people who can contribute find our project.
Where can I learn more?
You can find us and ask us questions at the sites listed below. Additionally, you can ask us a question with the “Ask A Question” button at the bottom of the FAQ; we’ll be sure to get you an answer!
www.journey-quest.com
www.facebook.com/journeyquest
www.facebook.com/zombieorpheus
www.facebook.com/deadgentlemen
“JourneyQuest restores our faith in the Internet as the medium that will transform the creation and delivery of entertainment … It’s an absolutely hilarious romp, with wry wit, outstanding cast, tremendous production quality, and most importantly, it made us laugh out loud with every episode. We want more! Or someone’s going to get a smiting.”
— Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Star Trek: EnterpriseMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Emily Hunt said she "had a lightbulb moment" that she was drugged
A woman seeking what is thought to be the UK's first crowdfunded private rape prosecution says she hopes to lead the way for those "let down" by the courts.
Emily Hunt from London, claims she was drugged and raped in 2015.
Police investigated, but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) felt there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a case.
Ms Hunt has hired a barrister who believes there are grounds for a criminal prosecution.
'Filmed her naked'
Ms Hunt - who has waived her right to anonymity - told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme on the day of the alleged rape she woke up "completely naked" at 22:00 in a hotel room next to a man she had "never seen".
Her last memory of that day was between 16:00 and 17:00, she said, when she had been having a meal with her father.
When she "finally came to", she added, she had a "light-bulb moment" that she had been drugged.
"I'd never felt like that before. I'd lost five hours of my life and wound up somewhere where I didn't know how I got there."
She said she hid in the bathroom and phoned a friend, who rang the police.
With no memory of the encounter Ms Hunt was not aware they had had sex until police informed her they had found used condoms in the hotel room.
The man told police they had had sex but insisted it was consensual.
Ms Hunt believes it was rape as she would not have been in a state to consent.
Police told her the man had also "filmed her naked and unconscious on the bed" and carried out a sex act over her body.
Toxicology report 'flawed'
The police referred her case to the CPS, who upon reviewing CCTV footage and toxicology tests decided there was not enough evidence to proceed.
CCTV footage of Ms Hunt and the man showed them kissing and holding hands as they walked to the hotel after leaving a bar.
Toxicology tests, taken almost nine hours after her last memory, showed Ms Hunt was at least two times over the drink drive limit, but came back negative for any signs of the date rape drug GHB.
Ms Hunt believes the toxicology report was "flawed", and that CCTV footage - which she said showed her unable to stand without support - demonstrated how she could not have been in a position to give consent.
'Thorough investigation'
She estimated the cost of a potential private rape prosecution to be £50,000 - a sum she is hoping to crowdfund.
"It is an amazing thing that we as individuals can bring a criminal charge in a case where the system has let us down, that can result in a rapist going to jail," she said.
The Metropolitan Police said it "carried out a thorough investigation following [Ms Hunt's] allegations" and "will always provide support to anyone who reports a serious sexual offence".
Ms Hunt's complaints over its investigation were "independently reviewed by the IPCC and not upheld", it continued.
The CPS said "having looked carefully at all the available evidence, a specialist prosecutor decided there was insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction in this case".
A further review - conducted at the request of Ms Hunt - "upheld the original decision", it added.
Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel.Big Hollywood’s Kelli Serio criticized Hollywood’s hypocrisy on Friday’s “Stossel” on the Fox Business Network.
“Take a look at Sean Penn and Alec Baldwin, right? Both of these men routinely make comments, disparaging comments towards minorities, yet they’re given a free pass. They don’t have a trouble finding work, or they don’t seem to, right?” she stated.
Serio added that while Sean Penn’s joke about Birdman director Alejandro Iñárritu’s green card “was a joke, but can you imagine if a conservative would have said that? What would have happened? Instead, they laughed it off, right? Free pass.”
She also talked about Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence making less for their roles in American Hustle than their male co-starts, asking “why are they not entitled to equal pay? These top executives for minor and major film studios, 100% white? 94% male. These guys are the ones in charge of financing, green lighting all these films. They’re controlling the narrative. You’re telling me that, you know, women aren’t entitled to equal pay?”
Serio also criticized Hollywood stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio for protesting climate change yet using private jets and yachts, saying “he cares about the environment, yet he’s riding around yachts, travelling around the world on his private jet,” and Gwyneth Paltrow for protesting in favor of wage equality while having a holiday gift guide full of massively expensive gifts.
She concluded by discussing the e-mails sent by Sony executives about President Obama.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchettAnd we live to trade another day in the bitcoin price space. Things have been pretty volatile this week so far. With over-the-weekend-action dominated by a correction and subsequent to the correction a relatively flat period of consolidation, putting together a forward strategy early week was a little tough. Not because we didn’t know what’s coming (we never know what’s coming really) but because the volatility we’d seen translated to some pretty wide key levels. When things stay active, wide parameters are fine. As price settles, however, they become relatively redundant. Why? Because we just see continued range bound action and – by proxy – don’t have the opportunity to get in and out of the market on any breakouts.
Sure. We’ve got our intrarange strategy in our back pocket for when this sort of action dominates, but even that isn’t overly effective when our parameters are too wide.
Anyway, that’s enough moaning.
With any luck, we should see things normalize near term and settle back into our standard breakout ways.
So, with that noted let’s get to the action for today. As ever, take a look at the chart below to get an idea what’s on. For reference, we’re narrowing our timeframe to the one-minute chart in an attempt to force the hand of the market.
So, as the chart shows, the range we have in our sights for the session today comes in as defined by support to the downside at 2207 and resistance to the upside at 2242.
We’re going to stick to our guns and maintain a breakout approach right now, so we’ll be in long towards an upside target of 2270 if we see price close above resistance. Conversely, if we get a break and a close below support, 1180 becomes a downside target on a short position.
As ever, keep stops tight to stay on top of risk.
Charts courtesy of Trading ViewSamantha Bee kicked off her show with a passionate monologue on Wednesday’s episode of “Full Frontal” and criticized anyone who helped Donald Trump make it to the White House.
“In the coming days, people will be looking for someone to blame: the pollsters, the strident feminists, the Democratic party, a vengeful god. But once you dust for fingerprints, it’s pretty clear who ruined America: white people. I guess ruining Brooklyn was just a dry run,” the late-night host said to rousing applause. “The Caucasian nation showed up in droves to vote for Trump, so I don’t want to hear a goddamn word about black voter turnout. How many times do we expect black people to build our country for us?”
“White people, this is the worst thing we’ve ever — no, I’m sorry, that’s a very high bar,” Bee said. “But holy shit, and don’t try to distance yourself from the bad apples and say, ‘It’s not my fault, I didn’t vote for him, hashtag not all white people.’ Shush. If Muslims have to take responsibility for every member of their community, so do we.”
Electing the “marmalade hairball” and “vial of weaponized testosterone” sent a message to the U.S.’ allies and enemies all around the world, Bee said. But despite the hate that seems to have consumed our nation, the comedian ended her monologue with a message of hope.Nobody cares about you. I don’t mean your parents, of course they do. And of course your dog. And your significant other, if you have one. Maybe even your kids or your siblings, though there’s no guarantee. And maybe a great friend or two.
No, I’m talking about all the rest. Your work team, your customers, your suppliers, your neighbors, your kids’ teachers, the gang at the gym and at church. The people you spend 85% of your time with, who make up 90% of the entries in your contacts database and 95% of the people in your LinkedIn catalog. 99% of your Facebook and Twitter friends. They don’t really care about you. None of them. Not really.
Basically, the vast majority of human interactions we have are with people who don’t really care about us.
And that, my ‘friends,’ is a wonderful thing. Here’s why.
My Life has Been Very Eventful: Some of It Actually Happened.
For me, almost all the stomach-churning fear and angst I have experienced in my life consisted of fictional plots hatched in the dark places in my own mind. They nearly always featured those 90%-plus people in my life. A huge chunk of my life’s emotional energy was spent on winning fictional arguments and fights with them—though now, finally, I spend a lot less time on that.
If only I could have realized more fully, earlier on in my life, the One Big Truth, how much more productive I could have been! And what is the One Big Truth?
They don’t really give a damn. Any more than I do about them. Oh sure I like interacting with them, most of them, most of the time. And I actually don’t think badly about hardly any of them—they mean well, mostly. It’s just that, I’ve got my own issues to worry about, and I honestly don’t spend that much time focusing on them.
And, surprise surprise, they spend about as much time focused on me as I do focused on them. Which is not a lot. And they probably don’t think any more badly about me than I think badly about them, which is not much. The main thing is: I just think about myself more than I do about them. And they do the same.
The Freedom That Lies in Realizing No One Really Cares
Again, I don’t mean we’re all selfish, mean-spirited people. But I do mean that we’re all pretty much wrapped up in ourselves. And that turns out to be an enormous, high-potential gift.
Because: imagine doubling the quality of attention you show to other people. Not even the quantity—just the quality. No more time—just more connection. What if you could really connect with your customer. Just for two minutes. For two minutes, to engage in a way that is not dominated by your desire to close the deal, to advance the sale, to get them to like you.
What if, for two minutes, you could actually care about them? About how they are feeling, about why they’re thinking what they’re thinking, about how it must feel to be them in that moment.
What if you could offer the fine gift of your attention?
What would happen if someone gave a damn about you for just two minutes? How would it feel?
Pretty good, I think. And what does it cost? Pretty much nothing.
You Can Radically Improve Lives in Two Minutes a Day
Any time you want, you can stop the noise, get off the Bozo Bus, and reach out and touch someone. All it takes is the gift of your attention.
It seems to me that the reason we don’t give the gift of attention is that we are trapped in the fictional belief that we must gain the approval of others. Thus we are afraid of what they think of us.
The truth is: they can’t think good or ill of us if they’re not even thinking of us at all. Which means we are free—gloriously free—to share our attention. No one else is claiming it.
And if you give it away, you’ll get something back. It’s a universal truth.
Declare the obvious—your own freedom from the myth of others’ judgment. Then go use that freedom to fix your little corner of the world. You might even find that someone cares just a little bit about you.SIGN PETITION Sign our petition to Congress to close the immigration law loophole that enables child marriage in the U.S. Child marriage is alive and rampant in the U.S.
READ MORE U.S. government approved immigration petitions for 8,686 spouses and fiancée in marriages involving minors from 2007 to 2017. AHA Foundation was first to expose immigration loopholes that enable child marriage in the U.S. PRESS RELEASE
SEE THE IMPACT OF YOUR LOYALTY IN 2018 Watch the Video BREAKING THE SILENCE PROTECTING LIBERTY CELEBRATING DIGNITY I I AHA |
, I can recover every keystroke. Above, you can see the first uncertain stirrings of the first paragraph.
What’s neat about this is that I didn’t have to use any special software while I was writing to make this “video” possible. I was working in plain old vanilla Google Docs. And to show you this one paragraph I liked, I didn’t have to present you with the whole document (all 39,154 revisions of it) — I could extract bits and pieces that I thought were interesting, and interleave them in a blog post. Imagine what a high school English teacher could do with that. Imagine what you could do with that if instead of a minor effort by ol’ Somers here you had, say, a piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates. (I’ve always wanted to watch how TNC writes. If he’s ever used Google Docs, it’s now possible.)
To produce the embed, I used a tool I made called Draftback, which I suppose I’m launching right now. With Draftback, you can play back and analyze any of your own Google Docs, or, for that matter, any Google Doc you have permission to edit.
(Everyone I’ve talked to about this has been surprised, and maybe a little unnerved, to discover that whenever they share a Google Doc with someone, they’re also sharing an extremely detailed record of them typing the thing.)
Here’s a graph that Draftback automatically produced for an article I was working on a few weeks ago. It shows the timeline of my changes, and below it, a “map” that tells me where in the document each of those revisions happened: the further down the graph, the further down the page. At the start, I added many thousands of words of notes — that’s why the doc gets so long so fast, and why the edits look sparse. Then you can see that I made three distinct passes, the first one focused on the top of the article, and slow; and the later ones faster and further down. A visual fingerprint of a document, and of a writer.
The data that Google stores is, as you might expect, kind of incredible. What we actually have is not just a coarse “video” of a document — we have the complete history of every single character. Draftback is aware of this history, and assigns each character a persistent unique ID, which makes it possible to do stuff that I don’t think folks have really done to a piece of writing before.
Here, for instance, you can see me typing a short document. Focus on the first paragraph: you’ll see that it wasn’t written in one contiguous swoop, but rather was cobbled together over time via a bunch of discontinuous edits: I edit the paragraph, then do other stuff, then I come back to the paragraph, and so on. I even cut and paste a phrase from one paragraph to another.
Since Draftback has the full history for every character, and since that history is maintained even as characters are cut and pasted, it’s possible to select some text and see exactly where it came from. It’s like having a four-dimensional view of a document.
To what end?
I’ve long been obsessed by what you might call the “archaeology” of writing: how something like John McPhee’s profile of Bill Bradley (A Sense of Where You Are), or T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, comes to be.
I’ll read stuff about it: Eliot Among the Typists is a fascinating paper; the introduction to The John McPhee Reader is good, as are McPhee’s own essays on writing, Structure and Draft No. 4. I liked McP’s interview in The Paris Review, whose long-running series is legendary, especially this one with Hemingway, which is one of the best things I’ve read.
But what if you could actually see these guys at work? Isn’t it a shame you can’t?
I worry that most people aren’t as good writers as they should be. One thing is that they just don’t write enough. Another is that they don’t realize it’s supposed to be hard; they think that good writers are talented, when the truth is that good writers get good the way good programmers get good, the way good anythings get good: by running into the spike. Maybe folks would understand that better if they had vivid evidence that a good writer actually spends most of his time fighting himself.
That’s why I wanted something like Draftback. I had this image I just couldn’t shake: you’d get someone whose writing is accessible, concise, uncontroversial, well-styled, and, above all, quintessentially writing: i.e., someone who’s writing in a form where the writing is what there is, where the job isn’t to report but rather to put into words what we would think if only we had their critical equipment and verbal range… someone like A.O. Scott, who reviews movies for the New York Times and does such a good job of it that sometimes I’ll watch a movie just so I can read his review.
So you get A.O. Scott to write in Google Docs, and you publish the full playback and excerpted bits and pieces of it, the greatest hits — annotated, of course, director’s-commentary style — for every fan, every aspiring writer, and every high school English teacher in the country.
Whaddya say, Mr. Scott?
The Technical Origin Story: From Etherpad to Jimbopad to Google Docs
It all started 5 years ago on Hacker News with this oddly exuberant post by pg himself: The most surprising thing I’ve seen in 2009, courtesy of Etherpad. pg got famous because of his essays, and here you could watch him write one, backspaces and all. It was a sensation. At the time, it was one of the biggest Hacker News stories ever.
Here’s what it looked like. (This is actually a later, slightly more advanced version; the original, at etherpad.com, was taken down when Etherpad was bought by Google. More on that later.) All it was was a document with a slider at the top and a big play button, showing every revision. You could play the whole history start to finish. Prettty simple.
I remember seeing this playback and thinking that it could be better. I wanted more information: when did pg pause, and for how long? How much, exactly, did he delete? How did that compare against other writers? What if I saw a sentence I really liked — could I trace it to its source?
So I decided to build a thing I called Jimbopad. I was surprised at how simple Jimbopad turned out to be. You don’t actually need that much code to play back a record of someone writing. All you need is a textarea and some way of tracking diffs. Here’s what the playback UI was like, and here’s the JavaScript that made it possible (click on the highlighted bits of code for annotations):
Simple as it is, this was actually better for my purposes than Etherpad. The problem with Etherpad is that in order to power its playback feature, it actually stored a full snapshot of the document at every tick. So if you had a 1MB text file — say, you’re working on a 7,500-word article — every keystroke would dump another meg on disk. Jimbopad, which was purpose-built for playback — I didn’t have to worry about real-time collaboration, which was Etherpad’s raison d’être and big value proposition — just stored “deltas” between each revision, which led to about a 1,000x decrease in required storage.
This is why if you were to do “version control” for writing, you would have to record everything. You would have to make it trivial for the writer to “branch” off from some articulation, fail, and fall back to what they had before. Their every half-overture would have to be saved—because every half-overture, like every “commit,” might have words they would want to get back to. — jsomers.net/blog/jimbopad
As soon as I made Jimbopad, which was the simplest this program could possibly be, I wanted something better. That’s when I set out to build Draftback 1.0. You can see what it looked like here.
As far as I can tell this was the state of the art in writing playback. You’ve got your slider, of course. But you’ve also got these nifty green and red colors that show you exactly what changed in each revision. You’re automatically scrolled to the part of the document that changed (HUGE innovation). And you could drop in to “actual-speed” playback mode, which somehow I thought was far more intimate, and interesting, than watching a ceaseless robotic clack. (It had a feature where if the delay between revisions was long enough, a thing would come up and say “the writer stared into space for 30 minutes.”) You could even search phrases and filter to just the revisions including that phrase.
But there were still a bunch of problems. The “search” filter was really naive: all it did was look for revisions whose full rendered text included the phrase, and it filtered out everything else. That’s useful, but what I was really looking for was the “genealogy” of a phrase or sentence; I wanted to know where the parts of the sentence, before it was the atomic unit I’m seeing now, came from. That just wasn’t even possible using the diff-match-patch approach.
Maybe the bigger problem was that no good writer was going to use this program. Up to this point, my “editor” had been a simple textarea, and it required that you write in Markdown. And eventually I got this mantra in my head: “A.O. Scott is never gonna use markdown”, “A.O. Scott is never gonna use markdown.”
I was convinced you needed a beautiful clean WYSIWYG editor to get people to use your writing software.
I looked at a lot of options, and ultimately I paid for a thing called Redactor. That’s right: in my desperation I actually bought my RTF technology. I paid like $200 for a Javascript file.
Redactor was actually a good editor, it had this great big API, it was really easy to hack on, but still it ultimately used contentEditable, and contentEditable ends up breaking a lot. Here are a couple of TODOs and notes from my time working on that editor:
The WYSYWIG control buttons sometimes don’t reflect state. Toggles don’t toggle properly.
Why does hitting “I” italicize so much text?
Does un-blockquoting something not return you to normal formatting?
So that was a problem.
The § That Actually Finally Delivers What the Title Promised: An explanation of how to reverse-engineer Google Docs’s diff data structures and renderer, a system which was actually probably developed for real-time collaboration, a.k.a “Operational Transformation,” a.k.a. nothing to do with “the archaeology of writing”
The slam dunk in my face was this blog post by Google in which they explained why they scrapped the contentEditable approach for Docs, and in its stead built a brand new rendering engine from scratch.
When you’re using Google Docs, you’re not actually typing into where you think you’re typing. You’re typing into a textarea in an iFrame off-screen, and through the postMessage API, those events are being sent to the “edit surface” that you see, which does stuff like draw your cursor. (Your cursor on Docs isn’t actually a cursor, it’s a 2px-wide div!)
I took this as proof not just that contentEditable was doomed, but that Google were the only ones who had the gall, and technical wherewithal, to do the insane gymnastics required to build something that felt like Word in the browser. I figured if I couldn’t beat them, I’d join them.
I started by trying to build an actual plugin for Docs. I played with their sample code, and I looked through the documentation. I was trying to see if there was a hook I could get that would tell me when a user changed the document. Recall that all I really need is that one hook, a diff-match-patch library, and a place to store the deltas.
It turns out that they don’t expose this kind of event for their docs. (“The onEdit trigger runs automatically when a user changes the value of any cell in a... spreadsheet.”) But that’s when things started getting pretty interesting.
I decide I’m just going to write a Chrome extension on top of Google Docs, and I’m gonna capture the rendered HTML every time I make a change. Sure, the user has to install a Chrome extension, but that’s pretty simple, and when they’re using Docs they’ll hardly notice that my extension is there. It’ll feel like a seamless transparent experience.
So what I did was I looked in the web inspector and found the DOM I cared about. I found out that all the actual content has these classes like kix-page and kix-lineview and kix-wordhtmlgenerator-word-node. (Google’s codename for their Docs edit surface and rendering engine is “Kix.”) I figured that I could do something like this in a Chrome extension:
I thought I was pretty clever, but while testing this code, I discovered that sometimes it would miss big chunks of my document. I found out that Google renders pages on demand: if you load a 99-page document, although it might look like you can scroll all the way down right away, the actual text on those later pages won’t be generated until you scroll it into view.
At this point I did something kinda dumb. I tried to reverse-engineer the obfuscated, minified client-side editor code so that I could find whatever the render function was. I figured if I could find some hook, I could trick the editor into thinking I’d scrolled through the whole document. That way, my diff-match-patch tool would be working with the full document at each revision.
My thought was that if the Docs editor/rendering code was all Javascript, I must be able to figure out how it works, even if it was 80,000 lines of code that looked like this:
I tried to do this by throwing breakpoints all over the place. I’d search for phrases in the code that weren’t obfuscated, like innerHTML, and throw a breakpoint beside them. Then I’d do stuff in the UI, and see if I hit my breakpoint. Then I’d inspect the call stack and see what values were lying around. I found out stuff like if you type something like P.j.zb.rx() in the console, and run it, you’ll “redo” whatever your last action was. I spent days doing this. In fact, on one weekend I spent so much time staring at minified Docs Javascript that I literally developed an eye ulcer.
Have you ever heard the story of how while NASA spent years and tens of millions of dollars developing a pen that would write in space, underwater, and upside-down, the Russians just brought a pencil? It’s apparently apocryphal (the space pen was much safer than a pencil, and the Russians wanted one too) but it illustrates a point. Here’s the “Russians bring a pencil” solution to my rendering problem. Again, click the highlighted lines to see an annotation that explains what’s going on:
Needless to say, I wasn’t really happy with this solution. And I had seen something curious while getting my eye ulcer. At one point I’d clicked away from the “Sources” tab in the Chrome inspector and started looking at the “Network” tab. And I noticed these /save calls every time I typed something:
The payload looked pretty juicy. Here, for instance, I’m typing a period at the end of a sentence early in the document:
That seems parseable enough: a “command” of type ( ty ) insert ( is ) where the “insert begin index” ( ibi ) is 24 and the string ( s ) is “.”. Now we’re cooking with gas.
At this point, I figured my Chrome extension could be pretty dumb. All I had to do was intercept these “save” requests and store them somewhere. Later, I could figure out how to use them to rebuild the document. As long as someone had my extension installed from the very start of their editing, and never made any change in a browser without the extension, I should have enough to do everything Docs could do. (I reasoned that Docs gets exactly no more data about a document than what is sent to the server via these save calls; so those must be enough to render everything.)
Here’s what I cooked up:
This gave me a bunch of commands that looked like this:
These didn’t seem so hard to figure out. You have what looks like a “multi” or bundle operation, and then inside of it, a list of other operations: some inserts and some deletes. For inserts, you have the string you’re adding; for deletes, the indexes that tell you what to remove. I built myself a debugging tool that would let me step through a list of these revisions, to see both a rendered document and a dump of the critical characters array I was using to represent it under the hood:
The data is so simple that it almost suggests the implementation of the builder and renderer. You have a characters array, and you insert and remove characters from it. When you format text, you’re just passing a hash of options to a range of characters. The whole of my document builder looks like this, in outline. The main thing it’s doing, really, is giving intelligible names to a bunch of variables:
The renderer is also pretty simple. (For bigger documents, for now, I don’t render styles, because it’s a lot of extra work for not that much better of a user experience.) It works like this. We have two levels: paragraphs and spans. To figure out what to wrap in styles, we look at each character and say “what are your calculated styles?” based on its hash of properties. Then we say “are those styles equal to the styles of the character before you?” If they are, we continue the span. If not, we create a new span.
And that’s essentially all you need to make something like Draftback.
Except, of course, the big key, which is that wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to install a Chrome extension to capture these /save requests?
I was talking to my boss at Genius about this, and he suggested I look at the standard “Revision History” menu in Docs — maybe they had all the diffs somewhere in there?
I thought he must be wrong, since I remembered that Google only ever rendered a fairly coarse set of changes: maybe dozens or at most a hundred revisions for a document that had probably been changed tens of thousands of times. But I indulged him, and kept my Network tab open while poking through the Revision History menu. It’s then that I chanced upon the /load call. It has a URL that looks like this:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/#{docid}/revisions/load?id=#{docid}&start=1330&end=1341
And it returns something that looks like this:
Hmm, I wonder what happens when you change the start and end parameters to cover a wider range? Will you, by chance, get the entire revision history for the document?
I think yes.
There are a couple of complications — one is that you can’t just say “load me revisions 1 to infinity” (or -1): you have to specify the actual upper bound. My first cut at this was to do a binary search — if you get a 500 response, you know you’ve gone too high, so you reduce your upper bound; if you get a 200, you’re in range, so you increase your lower bound; stop until lower > upper.
And, of course, there’s the matter of building a renderer that works at scale, including for documents that have many tens of thousands of revisions, where each revision is hundreds of pages long. (For that, the main trick is in calculating a “window” around the locus of each revision, and only doing your heavy-duty rendering within that window.) And making a UI that people want to use. And finding a way to hit these undocumented APIs on the behalf of other Google users without having them give you their credentials.
A historical note
It’s worth noting for a second that Google probably wasn’t thinking of playback when they built this system for storing documents as a series of minute changes. They probably did it for the same reason that Etherpad did it, which is to power real-time collaboration. The only way you can do that quickly and reliably is by shooting small changes back and forth across the network; if two changes differ, you can just reject one of them, thereby ensuring that everyone has the same version of the document. This is a technique called operational transformation, and it’s a whole science unto itself.
So it’s not likely that Google is going to change the way they save documents just because it enables this playback stuff. The playback is an epiphenomenon of real-time collaboration, as it was with Etherpad. Etherpad made their playback demo at Paul Graham’s request; it was a hack on top of data they were already storing for other purposes. In fact, I think it’s possible that the very same engineers who built Etherpad found their way to the Docs team. (When they were acquired, they started at Wave, but then, of course, Wave was discontinued.)
A few notes about Draftback
In the spirit of “worse is better,” the software at draftback.com is about as simple as I could bear releasing. I hope people find it useful. You probably could use it to look at the revision history of documents where you really have no business doing so — documents, for instance, shared with you by folks who didn’t know you’d be able to see their revision history. Don’t do that, obviously.
Aside from that, well, I’m just excited that this thing finally exists.Do you prefer wine to whisky, but whisky to beer; and, perhaps, beer to wine? If so, you have intransitive preferences (that is, preferring A to B and B to C does not mean you necessarily prefer A to C. Rock beats scissors beats paper beats rock!). In fact. when it comes to drinking this isn't really a problem, at least in my experience - context matters - but it is more of an issue with politics and policy. If you said that you preferred David Cameron as PM to Boris Johnson, and Johnson to Jeremy Corbyn, but Corbyn to Cameron, we might conclude that you were more than a little inconsistent.
But that's not the case for the electorate as a whole. The Condorcet Paradox notes that while each individual voter may have transitive preferences, this may not be true of the electorate as a whole. That is, A may be preferred to B by more than 50% of the electorate, and B to C, but also C to A, without this pattern actually being true of any individual. We may not be inconsistent individually but we can be so collectively.
Normally this situation doesn't bother us much in our Parliamentary democracy. We elect MPs; the party that gets a majority forms a government, and the government decides between A, B and C. This system may have its own issues, but the paradox either never arises or is at least obscured. But this need not be true of referenda, particularly if it turns out that the subject of the referendum isn't really a binary choice.
And so it would appear for this one. It has been increasingly clear that there are not two, but three choices in this referendum. Remain in the EU; Leave, and seek to "make our own way in the world", by negotiating bilateral trade agreements not only with the remaining EU, but with third countries; or Leave, but seek, at least for an interim period, to recreate a large part of the preferential trading arrangements we currently have with the EU, most obviously by joining the European Economic Area. This last is sometimes referred to as the Norway option (or, by its proponents, Flexcit). A clear description of how it might work is here.
Now there are lots of complications here. But for these purposes the only things that really matter (certainly as far as the vast majority of the electorate is concerned) is that what I will call the "straight Leave" option means both that the UK would no longer be part of the Single Market and that we would no longer have free movement with the rest of the EU; while the Norway option would mean that we would retain both.
The proponents of Brexit, and in particular the Vote Leave campaign, had to choose; which Leave option would they advocate? And they faced a dilemma; as my colleague Matt Goodwin has repeatedly emphasised, the risk to the economy from leaving the EU (and excluding ourselves from the Single Market) is by far Remain's strongest argument; adopting the Norway option might reduce the perceived risk and hence the potency of this issue. But, and ultimately more importantly, immigration and free movement are Leave's trump cards. They have concluded that by adopting the Norway option, or even allowing it to remain on the table, they would be ruling out the only strategy that gives them any chance of success: concentrating almost all their fire on immigration in the last few weeks of the campaign.
Now suppose they are right, and that, in a straight fight, the electorate do indeed prefer "strong Leave" to "Remain". What happens next? This is where the Condorcet Paradox comes in. In this case, it would be up to Parliament (with, quite possibly, a new Prime Minister and other Ministers) to implement Leave. While Parliament and the government would obviously and rightly be bound by the referendum to negotiate the UK's exit from the EU, they wouldn't be bound by anything that Vote Leave had said about how that should be done. With the likelihood of at least some turbulence in financial markets - and, more seriously, with strong pressure from business to resolve the situation in the least destabilising way possible - economic arguments, as well as those of practicality, will come to the fore again.
So, at this point, the Norway option for Leave re-emerges; and, as James Landale reports today, "pro-Remain MPs are considering using their Commons majority to keep Britain inside the EU single market". Would this be defying the will of the electorate? Not obviously; there would likely to be majority support for such a move. Given a decision to Leave, a majority of electorate would probably prefer the Norway option to "straight Leave" (presumably almost all of those who voted Remain, as well as some of those, albeit a minority, who voted Leave). So there would be nothing obviously anti-democratic about Parliament and Whitehall proceeding on this basis.
But the irony, of course, is that given a straight choice - which, in this scenario, they wouldn't have had - a majority of the electorate would probably have preferred Remain to the Norway option; indeed, the considerable polling evidence that they couldn't win on the basis of the Norway option is precisely why Vote Leave chose to rule it out and to focus the campaign on immigration. So the Condorcet cycle is closed; no option is strictly preferred to both the others; and whichever we choose, there's an alternative preferred by a majority of the electorate.
Where would that leave us? Well, I've speculated enough already. But I think there are three key conclusions from this. First, when you've got more than two choices, referenda may not be as democratic as they seem. We could easily end up in a place which neither of the campaigns was arguing for. Second, and for obvious reasons, this could be a recipe for continued instability. We may find that, wherever we end up, a majority of us still feel dissatisfied. And finally - a point I've made before - that this might be the wrong time to have a referendum; if we'd waited, perhaps we'd have been presented with a genuine clear-cut choice.Compulsory military service, first introduced in Germany in 1957, came to an end on Friday. A package of reforms introduced last year is aiming to make the German military smaller but more flexible.
The reforms mean the Bundeswehr will become a voluntary army, reduced in size by a quarter to just 185,000 soldiers, made up of 170,000 professional soldiers and 15,000 volunteers.
The voluntary military service will be open to men and women and will last between 12 and 23 months, which will give volunteers the opportunity to receive training in foreign assignments. With the end of conscription, the army needs to make up the soldier shortfall, and has lately begun setting up stalls at the country's careers fairs.
"Our demand for 2011 is around 14,000 personnel," said Lieutenant Colonel Harry Fegert, head of the Bundeswehr recruitment center in eastern Germany.
The Bundeswehr are competing at the Berlin careers fair against companies like engineering giant Siemens, chemical company Bayer and the country's biggest private bank, Deutsche Bank.
Fegert says the recruitment task is "ambitious" but the Bundeswehr is "attractive" and has "good career prospects."
The perks
At careers fairs, army personnel give out information to young people
For many young people, the Bundeswehr offers a chance to be paid to go to university or receive professional training. The average pay for voluntary military service is now around 700 euros a month and those who sign up for a longer commitment can receive training in 60 different jobs that will be applicable to civilian life.
At a recruitment fair in Mönchengladbach, the Bundeswehr tried to win over new recruits by advertising the fun side of army training. One 18-year-old is challenged to see how many pushups he can do while carrying a heavy army backpack, while at another stall boys and girls compete in a Bundeswehr quiz. Surrounding these activities are information stalls and members of the Bundeswehr handing out information.
Soldier Markus Baier was originally not interested in joining the army, but the training opportunities with the Bundeswehr changed his mind. Baier now tours local schools to give students information on joining the army, saying that "honesty and pure information" are important tools for recruitment.
"A job in the army is no walk in the park," Baier tells the schoolchildren. "We're not looking for loners or reckless Rambo-types, nor party animals. We go to bed at 10 p.m. so we can wake up at 5 a.m.."
The importance of teamwork is also stressed by Captain Benedict Janich, chief recruitment officer for the states of Saxony and Thuringia.
"Joining the forces means joining a team and that's something where we're better than most companies," said Janich. "You take responsibility very early and finally we are serving Germany, which is not the worst thing to do."
Soldier Markus Baier gives talks on the benefits of joining the volunteer army
Recruitment problems
Despite the advertisements at careers fairs and in schools, one of the problems attracting volunteers is finding those of a high enough caliber. The benefit of a conscripted army is that it gives the military access to the full breadth of German society and the professional qualifications of young people.
"The average fitness of younger generations is decreasing," said Janich. "Also, as a soldier you have to move at least once in two or three years and that wish for mobility is decreasing."
This unwillingness to move is the main obstacle for soldier Markus Baier when trying to encourage school-leavers that the army might be for them. While few complain about being deployed abroad, the idea of moving to another part of Germany unnerves them. "I'd rather stay with my family," is a common reply from the students.
Nonetheless, between Baier and his colleagues at the Mönchengladbach fair they register more than 9,000 people who are interested in receiving more information on joining the Bundeswehr.
Last month, the Defense Ministry announced that recruitment targets for this year would be reached as 10,000 people had already enlisted as lower-rank soldiers. Although some 4,500 of these were recruited from the last batch of conscripts, those at jobs fairs across Germany seem optimistic they'll make their targets for 2012 as well.
Author: Wolfgang Dirk, Uwe Hessler / cb
Editor: Andreas IllmerIn a 400-year-old ritual believed to bring good health to infants, sumo wrestlers at a shrine in Tokyo reduced babies to tears, in a "baby-cry sumo" competition on 21 September.
Over a hundred babies were bounced around in a makeshift sumo ring at Tokyo's Irugi Shrine as their parents gleefully watched over them.
The babies' cries are intended to reach God and parents hope that their little ones will grow healthy and strong. So if a baby doesn't cry at this event, sumo wrestlers try to make him or her cry on purpose, moving the baby up and down, while their parents watch with pounding hearts. - Yoshimi Morita, Priest
The infants between the ages of 6-to-18 months were at times roared at in the face in an attempt to make them cry.
Yoshimi Morita, a priest at the shrine said:
"The babies' cries are intended to reach God and parents hope that their little ones will grow healthy and strong. So if a baby doesn't cry at this event, sumo wrestlers try to make him or her cry on purpose, moving the baby up and down, while their parents watch with pounding hearts.
"There is no victory nor defeat in this wrestling, and a match always ends with a chorus of 'Banzai raku!' which means 'Live long'."
The ceremony is practised across the nationwide shrines, however, the versions differ –while some shrines bounce the babies in sumo rings, others make them race against each other to see which baby cries first.
Mae Shige, a participating mother told AFP that her son performed well at Sunday's (21 September) event saying: "He's not a baby that cries much, but today he cried a lot for us and we are very happy about it."The Taiwan Relations Act (TRA; Pub.L. 96–8, 93 Stat. 14, enacted April 10, 1979; H.R. 2479) is an act of the United States Congress. Since the recognition of the People's Republic of China, the Act has defined the officially substantial but non-diplomatic relations between the people of the United States and the people on Taiwan.
Background [ edit ]
In 1978, China regarded itself as in a "united front" with the U.S., Japan, and western Europe against the Soviets and thus established diplomatic relations with the United States in 1979, supported American operations in Communist Afghanistan, and leveled a punitive expedition against Vietnam, America's main antagonist in Southeast Asia. In exchange, the United States abrogated its mutual defense treaty with the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan.
The ROC government mobilized its ethnic lobby in the United States to lobby Congress for the swift passage of an American security guarantee for the island. Taiwan could appeal to members of Congress on many fronts -- anti-communist China sentiment, a shared wartime history with the ROC, Beijing's human rights violations and its curtailment of religious freedoms, etc.[1][2]
Senator Barry Goldwater and other members of the United States Congress challenged the right of President Jimmy Carter to unilaterally nullify the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, which the United States had signed with the ROC in December 1954 and was ratified by the U.S. Senate in February 1955. Goldwater and his co-filers of the Supreme Court case Goldwater v. Carter argued that the President required Senate approval to take such an action of termination, under Article II, Section II of the U.S. Constitution, and that, by not doing so, President Carter had acted beyond the powers of his office.[3]
The Act was passed by both chambers of the United States Congress and signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 after the breaking of relations between the United States and the Republic of China on Taiwan. Congress rejected the State Department's proposed draft and replaced it with language that has remained in effect since 1979. The Carter Administration signed the Taiwan Relations Act to maintain commercial, cultural, and other relations through the unofficial relations in the form of a nonprofit corporation incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia—the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT)−without official government representation and without formal diplomatic relations.[4] The Act entered retroactively into force, effective January 1, 1979.
Provisions [ edit ]
Definition of Taiwan [ edit ]
The act does not recognize the terminology of 'Republic of China' after 1 January 1979, but uses the terminology of "governing authorities on Taiwan". Geographically speaking and following the similar content in the earlier defense treaty from 1955, it defines the term "Taiwan" to include, as the context may require, the island of Taiwan (the main Island) and Penghu.
Of the other islands or archipelagos under the control of the Republic of China, Jinmen, the Matsus, the Wuqiu Islands, the Pratas and Taiping Island are left outside the definition of Taiwan. Also any area claimed by the authorities, but not under their control, is without mention.
De facto diplomatic relations [ edit ]
The act authorizes de facto diplomatic relations with the governing authorities by giving special powers to the AIT to the level that it is the de facto embassy, and states that any international agreements made between the ROC and U.S. before 1979 are still valid unless otherwise terminated. One agreement that was unilaterally terminated by President Jimmy Carter upon the establishment of relations with the PRC was the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty.
The act provides for Taiwan to be treated under U.S. laws the same as "foreign countries, nations, states, governments, or similar entities," thus treating Taiwan as a sub-sovereign foreign state equivalent. The act provides that for most practical purposes of the U.S. government, the absence of diplomatic relations and recognition will have no effect.[5]
Military provisions [ edit ]
The Taiwan Relations Act does not guarantee the USA will intervene militarily if the PRC attacks or invades Taiwan nor does it relinquish it, as its primary purpose is to ensure the US's Taiwan policy will not be changed unilaterally by the president and ensure any decision to defend Taiwan will be made with the consent of Congress. The act states that "the United States will make available to Taiwan such defense articles and defense services in such quantity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capabilities". However, the decision about the nature and quantity of defense services that America will provide to Taiwan is to be determined by the President and Congress. America's policy has been called "strategic ambiguity" and it is designed to dissuade Taiwan from a unilateral declaration of independence, and to dissuade the PRC from unilaterally unifying Taiwan with the PRC.
The act further stipulates that the United States will "consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western |
America and how I see African-Americans in many cases — not every case but in many cases — are suffering throughout this country and to see how en masse we have been voting for the Democratic Party en masse and yet we have very little to show for it,” he said during a phone interview on MSNBC. “It’s a vexation to me to see how the Democratic Party, and especially Hillary Clinton, what I call tap dance for the black vote, get it and then disappear for four more years.”
Trump himself has only recently begun reaching out to minority voters for the first time in his campaign, blaming Democrats for the plight of African-Americans who live in inner cities as he asks for the support of black and Hispanic voters in scripted speeches across the country.
The real estate mogul on Sunday acknowledged the 53rd anniversary of the March On Washington with a brief statement honoring the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and all who marched alongside him.
The campaign also announced Sunday that Trump would be speaking to The Impact Network, a black-owned national Christian television network, in Detroit on Saturday.
“Mr. Trump will answer questions that are relevant to the African American community such as education (including HBCUs), unemployment, making our streets safe and creating better opportunities for all,” Burns said in the statement released by Trump’s campaign. “He will then give an address to outline policies that will impact minorities and the disenfranchised in our country. Citizens around the country will see, as I've have seen, the heart and compassion Mr. Trump has for all Americans, which includes minority communities whose votes have been taken for granted for far too long.”International Year of Chemistry Logo
The International Year of Chemistry 2011 (IYC 2011) was a year-long commemorative event for the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to humankind.[1] The recognition for chemistry was made official by the United Nations in December 2008. Events for the year were coordinated by IUPAC, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.[2][3]
Background [ edit ]
The UN resolution calling for the International Year of Chemistry in 2011 was submitted by Ethiopia and co-sponsored by 23 nations. A case was made that chemistry makes a vital contribution towards achieving the goals of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005-2014.
Theme [ edit ]
The theme of IYC2011 was "Chemistry–our life, our future." It focused on the “achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind.”[1] It aimed to raise awareness of chemistry among the general public and to attract young people into the field, as well as to highlight the role of chemistry in solving global problems.[4]
Events [ edit ]
IYC 2011 events were organized by national chemical societies, such as the American Chemical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Brazilian Chemical Society, the Society of Chemical Industry and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, and by regional chemical federations, such as the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences and the Federation of African Societies of Chemistry.[5][6][7][8]
IUPAC selected 25 women for the Distinguished Women Chemistry/Chemical Engineering Award.[9] These included Ada Yonath of Israel, Chulabhorn Walailak of Thailand, Lesley Yellowlees of the UK and Joanna S. Fowler of the USA.
The IYC holds a full list of events on its website.[10] Events scheduled were billed as: - conferences, congresses, symposia, fairs, exhibitions, expositions, grand openings, lectures, meetings, open discussions, workshops, celebrations, shows, art exhibitions, and quizzes,
The IYC Closing Event was held in Brussels, Belgium on 1 December 2011.[10]
Some notable events [ edit ]
See the IYC website for a full list.
France [ edit ]
The official launch ceremony of the IYC 2011 took place on 27–28 January in Paris at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It was attended by 1,000+ delegates from 60 countries. Four Nobel Prize Winners attended. UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova delivered the opening address.[11]
Switzerland [ edit ]
On February 2011 Swiss Post issued a postage stamp bearing a depiction of a model of a molecule of vitamin C to mark the International Year of Chemistry. Swiss chemist Tadeus Reichstein synthesised the vitamin for the first time in 1933.[12]
United Kingdom [ edit ]
The Royal Society of Chemistry celebrated IYC 2011 by reviewing the most significant chemical advances since the millennium.[13]
Australia [ edit ]
An international conference was held as an official IYC event at the UNESCO World Heritage Listed Lord Howe Island between 14–18 August entitled 'Towards Global Artificial Photosynthesis: Energy, Nanochemistry and Governance.' [14]
Canada [ edit ]
Canada had many demonstrations for the year of chemistry. 32 universities all around Canada participated.[15] Dalhousie University made a "chemistry rendezvous" for the 7th of May. It included a tour of the chemistry lab, food and demonstrations.[16]
See also [ edit ]Miami Gardens police records reveal broad policy of stopping and questioning citizens: 8,489 kids and 1,775 senior citizens caught up in city’s version of “stop and frisk.”
In the summer of 2010, a young black man was stopped and questioned by police on the streets of Miami Gardens, Florida. According to the report filled out by the officer, he was “wearing gray sweatpants, a red hoodie and black gloves” giving the police “just cause” to question him. In the report, he was labeled a “suspicious person.”
He was an 11-year-old boy on his way to football practice.
A Fusion investigation has found that he was just one of 56,922 people who were stopped and questioned by Miami Gardens Police Department (MGPD) between 2008 and 2013. That’s the equivalent of more than half of the city’s population.
Not one of them was arrested.
It was all part of the city’s sweeping “stop and frisk” style policy that may be unparalleled in the nation.
According to a review of 99,980 “field contact” reports, they were stopped, written up and often identified as “suspicious” — but just like the 11-year-old boy — the encounter was recorded in a public database, and they were let go.
Thousands more were arrested after being stopped by the police, raising the total number of people ensnared by the policy to 65,328 during the five-year period.
“I have never seen a police department that has taken the approach that every citizen in that city is a suspect. I’ve described it as New York City stop-and-frisk on steroids.” said Miami-Dade County Public Defender Carlos Martinez.
Last year, a Miami Herald report exposed how the MGPD repeatedly stopped and arrested employees and customers of a local convenience store including, Earl Sampson, who was stopped more than 200 times.
Fusion’s analysis of more than 30,000 pages of field contact reports, shows how aggressive and far-reaching the police actions were. Some residents were stopped, questioned and written up multiple times within minutes of each other, by different officers. Children were stopped by police in playgrounds. Senior citizens were stopped and questioned near their retirement home, including a 99-year-old man deemed to be “suspicious.” Officers even wrote a report identifying a five-year-old child as a “suspicious person.”
Fusion’s Investigation also found evidence that some field contact reports may have been falsified. There were many instances were multiple reports were filed just minutes apart – all claiming to stop the same person. Other reports claimed a person was stopped on the streets by police, when in fact, they were actually in jail at the time.
Two officers from the MGPD told Fusion that high-ranking department officials gave them orders to “bring in the numbers” by conducting stops and arrests. One officer said he was ordered to stop all black males between 15 and 30 years of age.
According to the current police chief, simply being in a “high crime area” may be enough reason to stop and question people. Because of the city’s high crime rate, this means virtually any person can be stopped.
“You’re essentially saying you have reasonable suspicion to stop everybody in your community. That’s crazy, because that means they’re exercising no discretion,” says Martinez, the Miami-Dade public defender.
8,000 KIDS CAUGHT UP IN ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY
It’s like making a deal with the devil. In order for you to stay here you gotta have a record. You can’t be the only one over here without a record so what we have to do is we are gonna make you have a record. - DENZEL FLOWERS
Denzel Flowers remembers the first time he was stopped by the Miami Gardens Police Department. He said he was hanging out in a neighborhood park in the middle of the day when police approached him. Denzel said he was just 15 years old.
“We were all chillin’ in the park,” says Denzel, now 20. “The police stopped everybody. Told us don’t move and ran everybody’s names.”
That was the first of a string of 27 police stops, according to field contact records examined by Fusion. Denzel was also arrested four times before he was 18 years old, but he has never been convicted of any crime.
“I couldn’t leave my house without being in fear,” he says.
Thousands of others ages 18 and under also had encounters with Miami Gardens police as recorded in field contact reports like this one.
MAN STOPPED MORE THAN 200 TIMES BY THE MIAMI GARDENS POLICE DEPARTMENT
It feels like I ain’t got no rights, no say so. Like I’m just a number - EARL SAMPSON
Earl Sampson has worked for nearly three years at the 207th Street Quickstop, a convenience store that has become the epicenter for police stops.
Earl, 28, says he’s been stopped more than 200 times by the Miami Gardens Police Department. According to records obtained by Fusion, MGPD stopped him and filed a field contact report 181 times. In addition, Earl was arrested 111 times. Seventy-one of those arrests were for trespassing at his place of work.
“They walked through the door, grabbed me and just take me out,” says Sampson. “I told them I work here and they said I don’t care.”
Since the Miami Herald first reported Earl Sampson’s story last year, Quickstop owner Alex Saleh has launched a civil rights lawsuit against the police department and the City of Miami Gardens.
Alex says it all started with the police department’s “zero tolerance” policy, meant to bring down the crime rate by stopping suspected trespassers and loiterers at area businesses. But Alex says police took it too far and now calls police “bullies with badges.”
“I see how officers walk in and take everybody,” Alex told Fusion. “I see there was abuse.”
Alex says he was so appalled that he installed video surveillance cameras in his store — not to record crime but to record police misconduct.
In January 2012, Alex says he gave his employee, Earl Sampson, a place to live inside the store to protect him from the police. But even that was no deterrent. In this security video, police are seen storming into Earl’s bedroom in the back of the store. Then Alex Saleh is seen stepping in, demanding police leave Earl alone. Moments later, the police can be seen turning around and leaving the store.Image copyright Reuters Image caption PKN celebrated winning the chance to represent Finland at Eurovision in style
The competition is hotting up for this year's Eurovision Song Contest and Finland's entry is notable for a number of firsts for the competition.
PKN (Pertti Kurikan Nimipaivat) is the first punk band to perform at the event, and it is also the first Eurovision band made up entirely of people with learning difficulties.
Since being chosen to represent their home nation, life for the band has been a rollercoaster of interviews and photo shoots.
Amid a of crowd of people swathed in leather and denim, camera crews jostle with photographers at the Austrian embassy in Helsinki to get a shot of the guests of honour.
Image copyright Mark Bosworth Image caption The group has had to get used to the media attention
Sami Helle, the bass player in PKN, is clearly enjoying himself.
"This is really nice to be with friends and family," says Helle.
"It means a lot to us. We need the support because if we don't have the support we won't do well in Vienna."
Today's celebration for PKN is typical of what life has been like for the quartet since the Finnish public chose them to represent their country at Eurovision in February.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption PKN's video for Aina Mun Pitaa
PKN - whose members have autism and Down's syndrome - first got together at a workshop for adults with learning disabilities in Helsinki in 2009. Since then they have been a regular fixture on the Finnish gig circuit with their songs which rail against the obstacles disabled people face and the pedicurists who cut their toenails.
They have built up a strong fanbase in Finland but now they are set to compete in Vienna, they are attracting fans from all over the world.
Image copyright AP Image caption Lordi put Finland on the map at Eurovision in 2006
Their 85-second song Aina Mun Pitaa (I Always Have To) is ranked among the favourites to win Eurovision by bookmakers.
In between mouthfuls of Viennese apple strudel, guitarist Pertti Kurikka, who the band is named after, says getting to Eurovision has been his life-long dream.
"Lordi really inspired me. Their song was great," he says.
Lordi's Hard Rock Hallelujah won Eurovision in Athens in 2006 and is Finland's only Eurovision win to date. The band were celebrated throughout Finland; part of Lordi's hometown, Rovaniemi, was renamed Lordi Square, Lordi Cola was sold in shops and the Finnish postal service issued a Lordi postage stamp.
PKN already have their own stamp. A set has just been issued in celebration of the band ahead of the Vienna final.
At the Austrian Embassy, Elisabeth Kehrer, the Austrian ambassador to Finland, admits to having a soft spot for PKN.
Image caption Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello is a PKN fan
"I think they are a very special group. What I found most moving about their story is that all they ever wanted to do was to make music, and that's what they're doing," she says.
"Disabled or not, it's about them being musicians and enjoying it."
Kehrer says she grew up with opera and classical music and says PKN is her first introduction to punk music.
"Punk is a bit leftfield for me but I think their song is enjoyable, but if I don't have to listen to an hour of that music, that's fine!
"I think PKN will do well and my fingers are definitely crossed for them."
Helle - a lifelong Leeds United supporter since his grandfather travelled there for work, bringing home replica football shirts - says changing attitudes to disabilities is only part of the band's mission.
"Our first objective is to go over there, put on a good show and put the music first because music is the big thing for us."
Creative tension?
Helle's relationship with the band, in particular with the band's frontman Kari Aalto, is similar to that of the Gallagher brothers in Oasis.
"You get a bit frustrated with them and there's been some little fights," he says.
"When I have days off I don't want to be with the guys. It's normal when you spend so long with the same people."
With Eurovision just around the corner, the band are now spending a lot more time together.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption PKN's video for Aina Mun Pitaa
"Things have changed. Now people want us all the time and everybody notices us. Sometimes it's good, sometimes not," says Helle.
"When people start to ask you the same questions then I get really annoyed, but right now it's ok."
Among the legions of new fans, one in particular stands out. Tom Morello - the guitar player in Rage Against The Machine - recently tweeted his admiration for PKN.
Helle is still in shock: "I was like, 'what is going on, Rage Against The Machine?!' Now I know the world is going crazy - he likes us?! I'm proud."
So does this mean we can look forward to a Tom Morello and PKN collaboration?
"Hopefully, yeah. I don't know what the future holds, we'll see after Eurovision."
The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 takes place in Vienna, Austria, on Saturday 23 May. The semi-finals can be seen live on BBC Three on Tuesday 19th and Thursday 21st of May at 20:00BST. The grand final will be broadcast live on BBC One and BBC Radio 2.This Week In Sales: Shin Megami Tensei IV Did Really, Really Well
By Ishaan. May 29, 2013. 12:30pm
Period: The week of May 20th – May 26th (2013)
Top-seller: Shin Megami Tensei IV – 188,562
Nintendo 3DS sales: 14,059 | Total sales: 8,310,268
Nintendo 3DS XL sales: 40,651 | Total sales: 3,181,009
PlayStation Vita sales: 12,171 | Total sales: 1,594,218
Wii U sales: 5,648 | Total sales: 928,906
<< Last week’s software sales chart
Shin Megami Tensei IV got off to a whopper of a start when it released in Japan last week. The 3DS RPG sold 188,562 copies in its first week, making it one of Atlus’ best-debuting games of the last few years.
In fact, the only recent Atlus game that has had a better launch was 2008’s Persona 4, which outsold Shin Megami Tensei IV by a very slight margin of about 4,000 copies. Persona 4 on the PS2 sold 192,812 copies in its first week.
Also released last week was Resident Evil: Revelations on consoles. Here’s a quick look at how the console versions sold in comparison to the original Nintendo 3DS version of the game:
Resident Evil: Revelations (3DS) – 146,559
Resident Evil: Revelations (PS3) – 102,673
Resident Evil: Revelations (Wii U) – 8,398
Resident Evil: Revelations (360) – 7,053
Finally, Namco Bandai’s Kamen Rider: Battride War got off to decent start as well, selling 128,659 copies in its first week.
The top-20 chart for the week was as follows:
Lw Tw Title Weekly Sales Total Sales Sys. Publisher New 01. Shin Megami Tensei IV 188,562 New 3DS Atlus New 02. Kamen Rider: Battride War 128,659 New PS3 Namco Bandai New 03. Resident Evil: Revelations 102,673 New PS3 Capcom 02. 04. Tomodachi Collection: New Life 59,876 984,984 3DS Nintendo New 05. Valhalla Knights 3 40,357 New PSV Marvelous AQL New 06. Terraria 19,861 New PS3 Spike Chunsoft 03. 07. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon 19,079 731,304 3DS Nintendo 04. 08. Animal Crossing: New Leaf 15,489 3,232,840 3DS Nintendo 01. 09. Summon Night 5 13,624 119,135 PSP Namco Bandai New 10. Resident Evil: Revelations 8,398 New WiiU Capcom New 11. Resident Evil: Revelations 7,053 New 360 Capcom 06. 12. Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen 5,334 184,088 PS3 Capcom 08. 13. Taiko no Tatsujin: Super Splendid Edition 5,190 482,930 Wii Namco Bandai New 14. Zillions of Enemy X 5,019 New PS3 Nippon Ichi 07. 15. Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission 4,105 193,160 3DS Namco Bandai New 16. Tamagotchi no Dokidoki * Dream Omisetchi 3,961 New 3DS Namco Bandai 09. 17. New Super Mario Bros. 2 3,517 2,032,180 3DS Nintendo 05. 18. Muv-Luv Alternative 3,138 15,511 PS3 5pb. 10. 19. Mario Kart 7 3,045 2,054,247 3DS Nintendo 16. 20. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Best Price!) 2,612 310,085 3DS Capcom
Sales data acquired from 4Gamer, Media Create and Geimin.net.Needham analyst Rajvindra Gill raised his price target for Nvidia shares to $250 after spending time with CEO Jensen Huang. The chipmaker closed yesterday up 9c to $191.03. The company's total addressable market in data center alone could represent $21B-$35B over the next five years, Gill tells investors in a research note. Nvidia's data center business could outpace the gaming segment over the next five years, the analyst points out. He believes a higher multiple on the shares should be applied today on this potential earnings power. Gill keeps a Buy rating on Nvidia.
NVDA Nvidia $191.03 0.09 (0.05%) 10/04/17 LEHM 10/04/17
NO CHANGE Target $200
LEHM
Equal Weight Nvidia price target raised to $200 from $140 at Barclays Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis raised his price target for Nvidia shares to $200 while keeping an Equal Weight rating on the name. The launch of Volta based client graphic processing units in early 2018 should widen the company's lead, Curtis tells investors in a research note on the U.S. Semiconductors space titled "Crypto Tailwind Likely Extends into Next Year." The GPU market is still in shortage but should start to recover into the end of the year, the analyst writes. He sees this as positive for both Nvidia and AMD (AMD). The analyst raised his price target for AMD shares to $10 from $9 but keeps an Underweight rating on the name. Curtis remains cautious saying AMD's share gains are not materializing to justify the current stock price. Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis raised his price target for Nvidia shares to $200 while keeping an Equal Weight rating on the name. The launch of Volta based client graphic processing units in early 2018 should widen the company's lead, Curtis tells investors in a research note on the U.S. Semiconductors space titled "Crypto Tailwind Likely Extends into Next Year." The GPU market is still in shortage but should start to recover into the end of the year, the analyst writes. He sees this as positive for both Nvidia and AMD (AMD). The analyst raised his price target for AMD shares to $10 from $9 but keeps an Underweight rating on the name. Curtis remains cautious saying AMD's share gains are not materializing to justify the current stock price. 10/05/17 LOOP 10/05/17
NO CHANGE Target $205
LOOP
Buy Nvidia price target raised to $205 from $181 at Loop Capital Loop Capital analyst Betsy Van Hees raised her price target for Nvidia to $205 on expectations of upside to estimates in the second half of the company's fiscal 2018. The chipmaker closed yesterday up $1.50 to $180.87. An "impressive slate" of fall video game releases will drive better than expected demand for GeForce GTX series GPUs in Q3, Van Hees tells investors in a research note. Further, the analyst sees continued demand from crypto currency mining and broad adoption of Volta-based V100 GPUs pushing the company's Data Center revenue growth back to double-digit quarter-over-quarter. Van Hees keeps a Buy rating on Nvidia. Loop Capital analyst Betsy Van Hees raised her price target for Nvidia to $205 on expectations of upside to estimates in the second half of the company's fiscal 2018. The chipmaker closed yesterday up $1.50 to $180.87. An "impressive slate" of fall video game releases will drive better than expected demand for GeForce GTX series GPUs in Q3, Van Hees tells investors in a research note. Further, the analyst sees continued demand from crypto currency mining and broad adoption of Volta-based V100 GPUs pushing the company's Data Center revenue growth back to double-digit quarter-over-quarter. Van Hees keeps a Buy rating on Nvidia. 10/11/17 GSCO 10/11/17
NO CHANGE Target $217
GSCO
Conviction Buy Nvidia price target raised to $217 from $193 at Goldman Sachs Goldman analyst Toshiya Hari raised Nvidia's price target to $217 saying he came away from the GTC Europe 2017 conference incrementally more positive on shares. Hari believes Nvidia is better positioned to address the Inferencing opportunity with its new GPU architecture, Volta, and high performance deep learning inference optimizer, TensorRT. The analyst said CPU's have historically dominated the market and GPU computing has a significant runway given performance improvements. Hari rates Nvidia a Conviction Buy. Goldman analyst Toshiya Hari raised Nvidia's price target to $217 saying he came away from the GTC Europe 2017 conference incrementally more positive on shares. Hari believes Nvidia is better positioned to address the Inferencing opportunity with its new GPU architecture, Volta, and high performance deep learning inference optimizer, TensorRT. The analyst said CPU's have historically dominated the market and GPU computing has a significant runway given performance improvements. Hari rates Nvidia a Conviction Buy. 10/12/17 RBCM 10/12/17
NO CHANGE Target $220
RBCM
Outperform Nvidia price target raised to $220 from $205 at RBC Capital RBC Capital analyst Mitch Steves raised his price target on Nvidia to $220 from $205 citing his confidence in a re-acceleration in Data Center spending, expectations for "solid" gaming results and a "modest boost" from cryptocurrency mining. He keeps an Outperform rating on Nvidia shares. RBC Capital analyst Mitch Steves raised his price target on Nvidia to $220 from $205 citing his confidence in a re-acceleration in Data Center spending, expectations for "solid" gaming results and a "modest boost" from cryptocurrency mining. He keeps an Outperform rating on Nvidia shares.The Yukon Green Party says it's time to address the root causes of crime in Yukon.
Party leader Frank de Jong, who's running in the Pelly-Nisutlin riding, says community involvement in crime prevention is good, but he says government must address things such as drug addiction, homelessness, and medical challenges.
"If you can address the root crime you can avoid all these costs of incarcerations, courts and police," de Jong said.
He says the Yukon Party wants to increase funding for programs such as Crime Stoppers and auxiliary RCMP officers, but he wonders where the money will come from.
De Jong also says his party supports the move towards legalizing marijuana, and the territorial government must be prepared.
"I think we have to follow the lead of the federal government and decriminalize marijuana, like four states in the United States have already done," he said.
"Start making it available in a controlled way at the liquor store — you know, you have to be over 18, you can't smoke it when you're driving, etc."
De Jong says his party would address the illegal drug trade with harm reduction programs. He applauds recent efforts in other jurisdictions to supply addicts with controlled doses, under safe conditions.0 of 5
John Locher/Associated Press
UFC 213 kind of stumbled over itself, swallowed up by the hoopla surrounding a war between Justin Gaethje and Michael Johnson and a carousel of withdrawing headliners. Initially positioned to headline International Fight Week, Saturday's event landed with something of a thud despite a few watchable fights.
One of the main reasons the event sputtered was the late withdrawal of women's bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, herself only thrust into the spotlight when Cody Garbrandt bailed last month on a bout with TJ Dillashaw. Nunes pulled herself from a title defense only hours before she was to lock horns with Valentina Shevchenko as a result of sinusitis.
The decision was polarizing based on what fans, media and other fighters were saying once her pulling out was announced. Some felt she should have fought, while others felt she was within her rights to drop off the card at the last minute, but there was no person in the sport who wasn't voicing an opinion.
Regardless of where a person stands on the legitimacy of a champion pulling out hours before a fight, it afforded an opportunity to look back over the course of UFC history and consider some similar instances when big names were booked for big fights but never made it to the cage.
Nunes' actions weren't unprecedented entirely, but given the late notice of her withdrawal, it will go down as one of the more unique and shocking circumstances in which an athlete didn't make the walk.
Here are five other famous times when someone didn't show up for work as a result of pulling out.‘Wondering if Into the Water could be as good as The Girl on the Train? It's better. A triumph.’ Clare Mackintosh, bestselling author of I Let You Go
The addictive No. 1 psychological thriller from the author of The Girl on the Train, the runaway Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller and global phenomenon.
*****
Just days before her sister plunged to her death, Jules ignored her call.
Now Nel is dead. They say she jumped. And Jules must return to her sister's house to care for her daughter, and to face the mystery of Nel's death.
But Jules is afraid. Of her long-buried memories, of the old Mill House, of this small town that is drowning in secrecy...
And of knowing that Nel would never have jumped.
*****
‘Paula Hawkins does it again! Into the Water is a moody and chilling thriller that will have you madly turning the pages. A gripping, compulsive read!’ Shari Lapena, bestselling author of The Couple Next Door
‘Fans of Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train rejoice: her second novel Into the Water is even better. A brilliantly plotted and fast-paced juggernaut of a read that hurtles to a heart-stopping conclusion.’ Good Housekeeping (Book of the Month)
‘A twisting whodunnit that leaves you both gratified and surprised (also the best kind)... Not just a brilliant thriller but also a furious feminist howl...’ Stylist
‘Dark, gothic and twisty as a snake in the grass. I read it in one sitting.’ Erin Kelly, author of He Said, She Said
‘Into the Water is superb. Sinister layers, complex characters and a plot that'll keep you guessing.’ Ali Land, author of Good Me, Bad MeCLOSE Jayln Rippy was killed by a sturgeon strike on the Suwanee River near Fanning Springs, Florida. Her mom and big brother were both injured. VPC
Jayln Rippy died in the accident, and her mother, Tanya Faye, was injured. (Photo: gofundme)
A 5-year-old girl was killed by a jumping sturgeon on the Suwanee River in Florida on Thursday, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Jayln Rippy was killed by a leaping sturgeon while she was boating with her family near Fanning Springs, Fla. Her mother,Tanya Faye, 31, and her brother, Trevor, 9, were also injured and will need facial reconstruction surgery.
This is the first fatality that has been recorded from a sturgeon strike on the Suwannee River, according to the commission. Four boaters have been injured this year.
The Rippy family was airlifted to Shands Hospital in Gainesville on Thursday.
On Friday, two more people were hurt by a jumping sturgeon on the Sante Fe River, Fla.
The FWC reminds anyone in a boat to wear life jackets and do no stay on the bow of the craft.
"With the low water levels in the river system, the sturgeon are jumping much more frequently than in recent years," said Maj. Andy Krause, FWC regional commander in Lake City. "We want everyone boating on the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers to be aware that the sturgeon are jumping and that people have been injured."
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1IAQB9zThis blog is both a plug for http://arz5a.com/azure.html and a general discussion of trans characters in my work. I have touched on gender and sexuality in science fiction in previous posts, and in this post I want to expand on the transgender characters within my work.
First off, in full disclosure, I am personally a post-op trans woman, though woman better sums me up these days. I give this not to out myself or invite a general discussion on trans related issues (though I am more than happy to discuss them), rather I want to show where I am drawing a lot of my ideas for trans characters from. As I have stated previously, I believe gender in any shade should only be a small part of a character’s make-up, and as such when I come to use trans characters this is how I invariably see them.
So, the first question has to be why do I include trans characters at all? The answer is because I happen to think Aquila is a great character, and her trans narrative plays into her overall personality, while also allowing me to explore trans issues through my writing. Her narrative is one of religious devotion to the Mater bringing her to sacrifice her masculinity to become a woman. She has no gender dysphoria, she was not born in the wrong body, and as such skips a massive part of the modern trans narrative (including my own). This aspect of her was one of the first elements I established about her, before all the other pieces fell into place. It is the driving force for her whole journey, one which she ultimately rejects and is therefore seen as an outcast by the majority of her own society. This in turn sets up tensions which I can play on and exploit later on down the line in the saga, without needing to set up a Deus Ex scenario to force her into a situation. By choosing this version of being trans, I am also challenging the very foundations of the trans narrative that we generally accept, while also using it to question religious devotion and the driving force behind why a person will do extreme actions in the name of their faith.
Which then in turn begs the question am I being tokenistic with Aquila? I would argue I am not, as I believe that a character’s narrative arc should both be organic, and should also play off the other characters around her. The fact that she is trans is a small part of her, and I would argue her religious decision to be assexual is a bigger aspect, as this causes more internal tensions that the gender. I do use Aquila as a mirror for misogyny, and there are plenty of choice comments in some of my other short stories to her nature from other characters. Aquila is not a special snow flake, she can more than hold her own, yet at the same time I don’t want to walk on egg shells around her. The Arz universe is designed to be a living, breathing organic place, where there is not one hegemonic view; rather, each person has a their own map of the world which colours their interactions. This is especially important for the main characters, as I want them to have individual agency to push the saga forward.
Finally, why then is it important for me to have trans characters in my work? I first conceived Aquila five years ago when I initially though out the saga, and at that point there were no mainstream trans characters in science fiction or fantasy. Indeed, aside from Krem in Dragon Age: Inquisition I struggle to think of a single SF/F trans character at all. To have a character like Aquila, for me, addresses this, and allows me to raise questions of what it is to be trans in a setting which is so utterly divorced from our own. In some respects she is a cypher for my own journey, and yet in others she is the antithesis of my own experiences. This also allows me to get out of my own trans comfort zone, and push past what people expect from trans characters. The fact she is a kick ass AI programmer, secret agent, and all round information whore are more important than her gender, so through my writing of her I want to expand the narrative of what it means to be trans beyond the idea of victim and bravery.
Above and beyond all of this, the most important element for me as a writer and creator is for Aquila, and my other characters, to be part of a saga and stories that people will want to read and enjoy. I am wax lyrical all I want about my motivations, but if the stories are no good then I will not have accomplished anything. I therefore need to ensure each and every story is compelling, and that the character arcs I have planned draw you in, enthral you, and then leave you wanting more. If I accomplish this, then my other connoted messages written into my works can come to the fore.SPIEGEL: Mr. Dohle, your rise to the top post in the world's largest book publishing company two years ago was met with disdain in the literary community, especially in New York, where Random House is headquartered. You were seen as an outsider who had made a career at Random House's parent company Bertelsmann in Germany, in the book printing and logistics business. Did you receive a correspondingly icy reception?
Markus Dohle: Let's put it this way: The creative community was very surprised. And so was I, by the way. There were a few question marks at first, even within our company, which is why I immediately spoke with as many people as possible. After that, the first shock within the intellectual Manhattan establishment quickly disappeared.
SPIEG |
, either Nazis or communists, but definitely not people proclaiming an authentic Christian witness. Before he goes too much further down that rhetorical path, I would urge Mr. Beck to take some time reading his Bible.
Throughout those sacred pages, God's abundant and overarching concern for the poor, the marginalized, the weak, and the oppressed is apparent, as is God's call on the community to be responsible to those concerns. The prophet Jeremiah, speaking to the king of Israel, proclaimed God's desire this way: "[Did not your father the previous king] do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. 'Is that not what it means to know me?' declares the Lord." (Jer. 22:15-17) Isaiah begins his prophecy to the nation of Israel with this definition of right and wrong: "Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow." The word "justice" is everywhere in the Bible.
During this season of Lent, a time marked by fasting, we do well to remember God's words to the nation of Israel that appear later in Isaiah: "Is not this the fast that I choose; to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke... Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house?" (Isa. 58:6-7). And here is how Jesus himself described the nature of his ministry on Earth: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor [also known as the year of Jubilee]" (Lk. 4:18-19). Jesus saw his ministry as a continuation and fulfillment of the call for justice and righteousness of the Hebrew prophets. One cannot know him without seeing that context around him.
The ideas of economic justice (see Jer. 5:28), rights of workers (see Isa. 58:3), and redistribution of wealth (see the year of Jubilee in Lev. 25:8) are in no way foreign to the biblical text. This is not to say that the Bible is perfectly aligned with political ideologies that prioritize those principles. Nor can we ignore that different Christian traditions emphasize some parts of Scripture more than others. But regardless of where one stands along the theological Christian spectrum, one cannot claim to be following the teachings of Scripture while also saying that Jesus and the prophets cared nothing for economic justice and that a discussion of such principles has no place in the Church.
If Mr. Beck's rants stemmed simply from an honest lack of familiarity with Scripture, that would be one thing. But what is perhaps most disturbing about Mr. Beck's recent statements is that he is urging his listeners to follow a piecemeal Gospel because it better fits his worldly political views. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not ours to bend to our will, to pick and choose what we will accept and what we will disregard, especially when we do so for worldly gain. The Gospel message does not fit into any ideological box we would seek to put it in. It sustains and convicts, challenges and exhorts all who are bold enough to call themselves followers of Christ -- Democrats, Republicans, Independents, liberals, conservatives, and moderates alike.Image copyright Getty Images
If the measles outbreak and resulting vaccine debate wasn't a political issue before this week began, it is now.
Thanks to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's off-the-cuff statements in the UK on Monday endorsing "a measure of choice" as to whether to immunise their children against measles, several of his fellow high-profile presidential aspirants have decided to weigh in on the topic.
On Monday evening former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came down firmly on the pro-vaccine side, tweeting: "The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Let's protect all our kids."
She ended her message with the hashtag "#GrandmothersKnowBest", yet another hint that her newly minted grandmaternal status could be leaned on heavily to provide her with a softer image as she gears up for her possible campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Meanwhile Kentucky Senator Rand Paul took a decidedly different tack on Monday, reiterating his position that most vaccines should be "voluntary" and that parental choice is "an issue of freedom".
"I don't understand the point of why that would be controversial," the Republican told a CNBC interviewer, adding that he's a "big fan" of vaccines. But, he said: "I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines".
"The state doesn't own your children," Mr Paul, who has placed near the top of many polls of Republican primary voters, concluded. "Parents own the children."
It's much more important, I think, what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official Chris Christie, New Jersey Governor
The latest political debate started on Monday morning, when Mr Christie noted that while he and his wife decided to have their children vaccinated, that solution may not be best for all parents.
"It's much more important, I think, what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official," he said. "But I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well. So that's the balance that the government has to decide."
He continued: "I didn't say I'm leaving people the option, what I'm saying is that you have to have that balance in considering parental concerns because no parent cares about anything more than they care about protecting their own child's health. And so we have to have that conversation. But that has to move and shift, in my view, from disease type. Not every vaccine is created equal, and not every disease type is as great a public health threat as others."
Image copyright Getty Images
Despite being effectively eradicated in the US as recently as 2000, a measles outbreak that started at the Disneyland amusement park in California has spread to 14 US states and infected at least 84 individuals. The episode has many Americans blaming parents who, citing religious beliefs or possible adverse health implications of scheduled vaccinations, have opted to delay or skip vaccinations - despite repeated insistence by public health professionals that the risks are minimal.
Within a few hours of Mr Christie's comments, his press office attempted to "clarify" his remarks, writing in a statement that "the governor believes vaccines are an important public health protection, and with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated".
It's easy to forget, given Christie's reputation as a no-nonsense pragmatist, but he often finds himself at odds with the medical establishment Olivia Nuzzi, The Daily Beast
The fires had been stoked, however - and his remarks have been contrasted with US President Barack Obama's statement on Monday morning that the science supporting immunisations is "pretty indisputable".
"We've looked at this again and again," he said on NBC's Today programme. "There is every reason to get vaccinated, but there aren't reasons to not."
Given that Mr Christie, Mr Paul and Ms Clinton are considered likely candidates for president in 2016, much of the debate is being cast in a political light - right versus left; science versus theology; authority versus doubt.
Slate's Amanda Marcotte calls rejecting scientific consensus "an art that Republicans have perfected when it comes to climate change and evolution. But, more importantly, the right is just a more comfortable home, ideologically, for anti-vaccination arguments."
Despite Marcotte's contention, the immunisation "debate", such as it is, is difficult to break down on partisan lines. Although she cites a survey that shows slightly more self-identified conservatives support the now-debunked link between autism and vaccines, a liberal anti-corporate, natural-living strain of anti-vaccination opinion is just as responsible for the drop in immunisation rates in the US as the conservative, anti-government-mandate view.
Republican consultant Rick Wilson tweets that Mr Christie is being "wildly irresponsible" in his statements.
"Vaccination is one of the most consequential scientific and medical advances in the history of mankind," hewrites. "I'm as libertarian as it comes, but the social contract includes not letting your kids die of preventable diseases or spread them to others."
Christie can tell conservatives his stance is due to an overall distrust of the federal government and scientists, which always sits well with the right Justin Baragona, PoliticusUSA
The increased attention to Mr Christie's recent views have had other writers rehashing 2009 remarks by the governor in which he told a radio interviewer he didn't support mandating that children receive the flu vaccine and that parents who believe vaccines cause autism need "a voice in these debates". He also wrote a letter to anti-vaccination parents saying he stands by them "in their fight for greater parental involvement in vaccination decisions that affect children".
They also point out that Mr Christie's public health policies appear inconsistent, as just last year he instituted a mandatory quarantine for a nurse who had returned from treating Ebola patients in Africa despite no evidence that she had contracted the disease.
"It's easy to forget, given Christie's reputation as a no-nonsense pragmatist, but he often finds himself at odds with the medical establishment and basic common sense on issues of health," writes the Daily Beast's Olivia Nuzzi.
PoliticusUSA's Justin Baragona calls the New Jersey governor a "crass politician".
"It appears he is thinking that he can possibly appeal to the libertarians and upper-middle-class liberals who feel vaccinations are unnecessary, a tool of big government, responsible for autism or any other crackpot reason anti-vaxxers have given for not immunising their children," he says. "At the same time, Christie can tell conservatives his stance is due to an overall distrust of the federal government and scientists, which always sits well with the right."
If Mr Christie's past affiliation with the anti-vaccination movement and his recent comments are, in fact, a calculated way to position himself within the Republican primary electorate, a recent Pew Research survey shows he may find pockets of support for his attempts to buck scientific authority.
On a host of different subjects, the US public differs significantly in its views from members of the scientific community. While 68% of US adults say that childhood vaccines should be required, 86% of scientists support it.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Alistair Leithead spoke to parents in California about their concerns
Vaccines aren't the only source of significant disagreement - on topics like climate change, animal research, pesticides, nuclear power and offshore drilling, the two groups differ by at least 20%. On the issue of genetically modified foods, 88% of scientists believe they are safe - a view supported by only 37% of the US public.
Public health officials and commentators on the left and the right have been quick to dismiss comments by Mr Paul and Mr Christie as dangerous. But while the Earth is round and the sky is blue, the Pew survey seems to indicate that coming down against mandatory vaccinations may not be the political suicide that some may think.The War on Christmas starts earlier and earlier each year, doesn’t it! Here we are, just a few days into November, and already we’re battling over who is the least offended by Starbucks’ supposedly even-less-religious-than-normal holiday cup. On the one side you have people making fun of Christians for supposedly being offended by Starbuck’s very-not-religious cup. On the other, you have Christians denying that they are, in fact, upset.
I guess 2015 won’t go down as a particularly coherent year in the War on Christmas skirmishes.
For those of you who are confused, here’s a quick explanation of where things stand. On November 5, Raheem Kassam of Breitbart London wrote a pretty tongue-in-cheek report on the new “This is really not a Christmas cup but sort of vaguely holiday-themed” to-go cup from Starbucks. You can tell it was not the most earnest of jeremiads because of lines such as:
And behold, Starbucks did conceive and bear a red cup, and called his name blasphemy.
and
Frankly, the only thing that can redeem them from this whitewashing of Christmas is to print Bible verses on their cups next year. Not that I’d buy their burnt coffee anyway. And certainly not while they keep spelling my name ‘Ragih’ (right) on their cups.
I thought it was a totally fine piece that poked fun at the cup for being even more bland than normal, but I noticed that some of the more liberal Christians (names hidden to protect those of us who tweet impulsively) I follow were immediately aghast at this Breitbart piece, on the assumption it was meant to launch a serious War on Christmas battle.
Then some Christian shock jock type ran with it and made a video, and a set of hashtags, and Facebook links to his ad-supported web page. This, I think, is what produced not just the Christian response of “No, really, we don’t care” but the many articles claiming that Christians were freaked out by Starbucks cups. Not sure which response was first, to be honest, or if they all occurred at the same time.
WHAT PEOPLE??? NOBODY CARES ABOUT THIS YOUR EVIDENCE IS LIKE 4 TWEETS AND ONE OF THEM IS FROM A PARODY ACCOUNT https://t.co/fB1kq3WohQ
a shrill of hope (@theshrillest) November 9, 2015
New York Times TV critic James Poniewozik joked, in response to the tweet above, that we need “a snopes.com, but for whether any actual human is outraged over a reported ‘outrage.'”
This is where the story gets particularly sad, because Snopes.com is in part responsible for the faux-rage over the Starbucks claim. The site declared “false” the claim that “The coffee chain Starbucks removed all mentions of Christmas from their red holiday cups because ‘they hate Jesus.'” It cited this shock-jock video and the Breitbart London story.
I’m unable to transcribe the cry of anguish my heart is uttering over the stupidity of all this. I get that it’s fun to feel outraged, at times, but maybe all day, every day is a bit much, you know? When you have to invent some public outcry to be outraged over, you’re probably taking things too far.
If you want to have an actual discussion about the War on Christmas, a battle that has actually been raging for thousands of years and was not invented, as “The Daily Show” probably told you, by Fox News, let’s do it. But let’s not be complete idiots about it.
No, really. Let’s discuss it.
Every year we see battles over Christmas and whether it’s under siege. These battles usually take place in the public square or the market. Should town squares have Christmas trees? What about malls? Should they be renamed holiday trees? Unnamed “holy days” are less offensive than the specific holy day we all know we’re marking, right? Can government school students sing carols and not have their choir instructor sued into financial ruin? Or is it better to stick with such choral classics as “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel” and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” or whatever is less offensive than a Bach Christmas cantata?
When the two sides are bullies and protesters who have nothing better to complain about, it’s easier still to simply root for casualties.
Stories about the battles are easy to write. When the two sides are politically correct bullies and supposedly pious protesters who have nothing better to complain about, it’s easier still to simply root for casualties. But what if we didn’t just respond to shock jocks trolling for traffic and revenue-generating clicks and instead thought through the tension between commercialization and sacralization of holy days?
I wrote about this a bit years ago for the Los Angeles Times, but Christmas wars aren’t new. They’re ancient. Even in this country they go way back. Mayflower Pilgrims and Massachusetts Bay Colonists didn’t celebrate Christmas—Massachusetts even banned its celebration for a few decades—while others enjoyed it as a day of respite and revelry. Pennsylvania Quakers scorned the day as much as Puritans did.
The Many-Yeared Christmas Battle Saga
Various language and denominational barriers pretty much kept Christmas a private celebration. But in the early nineteenth century, some Americans began calling for a greater celebration of Christmas. By 1860, only 16 states had legalized Christmas as a holiday. It took another ten years for the U.S. Congress to do the same—although Christmas had been widely celebrated since 1830.
‘The American marketplace has served for more than a century and a half as a site of competition about the meanings of Christmas.’
The American Santa Claus was also a big problem, as many religious types presciently worried it would overtake the religious purpose of the day. “This Santa Claus folly has infected family life, literature, church services, everything almost, at this season,” wrote “Germanicus” for the Lutheran Observer in 1883.
The Baptist Teacher editorialized in 1875, “We believe in Christmas — not as a holy day but as a holiday... Stripped as it ought to be, of all pretensions of religious sanctity and simply regarded as a social and domestic institution — an occasion of housewarming, and heart-warming and innocent festivity — we welcome its coming with a hearty ‘All Hail.’” If The New York Times republished that editorial as its own, the paper would face public excoriation by modern Baptists. Also, if you told modern secularists that their views are a throwback to Baptists, they probably wouldn’t take too kindly to it, either.
As historian Leigh Eric Schmidt writes in the excellent “Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays,” “conflicts about how to solemnize Christmas, particularly how to sort out Christian and commercial enactments, have been a recurrent feature of American religious life,” arguing that “the American marketplace has served for more than a century and a half as a site of competition about the meanings of Christmas.”
Blame Christians and the Market
For liturgical Christians, Christmas is one of our holiest seasons, a major point of celebration of God taking on human flesh to save us. For Western Christians, the 12 days of Christmas begin—note: begin, not end—on Christmas Day. For capitalists, Christmas is the holiest of seasons, as well. Retailers depend on good sales from November’s Black Friday through the beginning of January to make profits for the year. Schmidt says this tension between the religious practitioners and the capitalists seeking to exploit their fervor is why Christmas “has remained a realm of contest, not fiat, a place of disaffection and estrangement as well as joy and excitement, a site of not a little ambivalence, paradox, and contradiction.”
He thanked the Puritans for contributing to the widespread observance of Christmas by removing the theological foundations for the holiday.
It would be easy to blame problems of Christmas in America on the enlightened secularist denizens of the Left who oppose every crèche in a public square or Bach cantata sung at a public school. And they certainly will come in for their fair share of the blame. But their effect on deChristianizing the holy day came later and built upon the strong foundation laid by what we might now term the Christian Right. At the same time, this commercialization and attempt at desacralization is a big reason why Christmas remains a favored holy day. When was the last time you saw an article about the War on Whitsunday? (I secretly hope for Wars on Whitsunday so that Christians would remember they’re supposed to mark it.)
George W. Curtis, a founder of the Republican Party and editor of Harper’s, wrote a piece about Christmas for the magazine in 1883. In his essay, he thanked the Puritans for contributing to the widespread observance of Christmas by removing the theological foundations for the holiday. Christmas “could not be the most beautiful of festivals if it were doctrinal, or dogmatic, or theological, or local. It is a universal holiday because it is the jubilee of a universal sentiment, moulded only by a new epoch, and subtly adapted to newer forms of the old faith,” he wrote.
The War Between Church and Sentiment
He wrote this almost in protest of how the holiday was becoming quite religious. A burst of Christmas hymns in the nineteenth century and the rising popularity of the day made Christmas a major religious event by the end of the nineteenth century, “a time to recount biblical stories of the Incarnation, sing religious hymns, stage Sunday school pageants, view Nativity scenes, decorate church interiors, hold special services, and contemplate God’s mysterious work of redemption,” according to Schmidt.
By the 1940s, a non-religious Christmas had become an integral part of American life.
But by the 1940s, a non-religious Christmas had become an integral part of American life. “Holiday Inn,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” “White Christmas,” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” are some of the most popular films of all time, but they are devoid of Christianity. Seriously, have you seen “White Christmas,” the 1954 musical featuring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney? It’s a great movie, but it has absolutely nothing to do with a Christian version of Christmas. Or even much of any other kind of Christmas.
“White Christmas” composer Irving Berlin was a Russian Jewish immigrant, which explains much of this. But how many other “Christmas” songs are any different? “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire,” “Frosty the Snowman,” “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” “It’s Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas,” “Jingle Bells,” “Let it Snow,” “Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer,” “Silver Bells,” “Winter Wonderland,” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” also make no mention of religious themes. The songs, which were written during the twentieth century, are all warm-hearted and familiar without any of the theology of Christ’s incarnation.
Again, to cut a lot of history short, retailers and capitalists in general are responsible for both the rise of religiosity in commercial ventures, and their decline. American retailers figured out that religious window trappings encouraged Christian shoppers at Christmas. Because of various non-liturgical influences in American churches, storefronts frequently outdid churches in religious symbols.
Because of various non-liturgical influences in American churches, storefronts frequently outdid churches in religious symbols.
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Wanamaker, a downtown Philadelphia department store, decorated its Grand Court for Christmas with wood carvings of the apostles, golden candlesticks signifying the seven churches of Asia, angel statues, and giant tapestries of the Three Wise Men and Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. The world’s largest organ accompanied shoppers in hymn sings twice a day. Hymnals were printed up for shoppers featuring overtly Christian hymns, such as “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” and “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.” Beginning in the 1950s, however, the displays were replaced with a “dancing water show composed of colorfully lighted fountains,” Frosty the Snowman, and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.
An article noting the rather lacking homage to anything even remotely Christmas-season-related on the Starbucks Christmas cup is nothing to get your panties in a twist about. It’s actually an interesting observation about the ebb and flow of both capitalism and Christianity.
While we’re thinking about how we mark sacred days in a commercialized culture, I’ll offer a humble plea that the real War on Christmas is the destruction of Advent, the penitential season that precedes and prepares us for Christmas. Liturgical seasons are a great way to get the proper amount of preparation and contemplation before the big celebration.On March 20, 1854 the Republican Party was established in Ripon, Wisconsin. Referred to as the GOP or Grand Old Party, it established for one reason: to break the chains of slavery and ensure the unalienable rights endowed by the Creator of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness would be for all Americans.
The Republican Party was created to achieve individual freedom. Then, as now, the antagonist to the Republican party has been the Democrats, the party of collective subjugation and individual enslavement — then physical, now economic.
The first black members of the US House and Senate were Republicans. The first civil rights legislation came from Republicans. Democrats gave us the KKK, Jim Crow, lynchings, poll taxes, literacy tests, and failed policies like the “Great Society.”
Republican President Eisenhower ordered troops to enforce school desegregation. Republican Senator Everett Dirksen enabled the 1964 civil rights legislation to pass, in opposition to Democrat Senators Robert Byrd (KKK Grand Wizard) and Al Gore, Sr.
Trending: It’s Official: This Senate Vote Proves Dems Are Now ‘The Infanticide Party’
As a matter of fact, it was Democrat President Lyndon Baines Johnson who stated, “I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years” as he confided with two like-minded governors on Air Force One regarding his underlying intentions for the “Great Society” programs.
Read more: allenbwest.com6 Summer Looks that are So Hot Right Now
6 Summer Looks that are So Hot Right Now
Summer is coming! Make a fun change to your hair to match the crazy, colorful spirit of the summer season. Here are some unique naturals to inspire you.
Rock The Fro Hawk
Make the fro-hawk your staple this summer! Not only is it edgy, but it gets all your hair out of your face so you don’t burn up from the summer heat.
What You Need
Gel
Brush
hair pins/clips
What to Do
Prep your hair the night before by sleeping in twist strands sealed with butter and oil In the morning release the twists and fluff your hair On the right side of your head, use gel to slick your edges back to the middle of your head Pin your hair where the edges are slicked back Repeat the slicking and pinning on the left side of the head Fluff and shape your hair until you are satisfied Use an afro hair pick for more volume
Check out the lovely Samara Taylor on Instagram: @styledchic_
Fierce Fire Curls
Imagine getting long lasting fire red curls WITHOUT bleaching your hair! Yepp, this curly did it. Now you can get this sexy look without damaging your ends.
What you need
Loreal Excellence HiColor HiLights in Magenta
30 volume developer
Bowl
Hair dye applicator brush
Shower cap
What to do
Put the whole tube of Loreal Excellence HiColor HiLights into bowl Mix in some 30 volume developer Apply the mixture to hair and put on a shower cap Let it soak for a 1-2 hours Wash out Repeat the next day for a brighter red Keep it bright red with your choice of red semi-permanent hair dye, this young lady used Pravana semi-permanent red dye
Check out this lovely natural on Instagram: @scarlettrose
Sport it Short
Second big chop anyone? I know, it seems crazy because length seems to be all the rage among most naturals. But hey, it’ll grow back, and even healthier too! You’ll live to tell the tale of the natural who big chopped twice and looked fierce and classy.
What you need
Scissors or clipper
What to do
Snip or buzz!
Check out this classy natural, Ms. Dee Kay on Instagram, her blog, or YouTube
Whoa, Blonde Fro!
Jazz up your voluminous fro by going lighter. This process does require bleaching the entire head of hair, but hey, you’ve been working for your health so have fun with it! And it’s just for the summer, with regular deep conditioning and time your curls will heal.
What to do
Hair bleach
10, 20, or 30 volume developer
Bowl
Hair dye applicator brush
Fav deep conditioner
What to do
mix the bleach and developer in a bowl apply bleach to ends first and the roots last leave in until hair lightens to desired color rinse out and deep condition
Check out this unique natural on Instagram: @msmartin_
Locs of Love
Ever had the urge to get locs? Well, why not scratch that itch this summer. It is possible to dread your own hair, but to get neat locs we recommend you go get them professionally done. Despite many rumors, it is actually possible to get rid of them without chopping your hair off. And we recommend you get that professionally done as well!
Check out the lovely Claire Sulmers on Instagram or her blog
Multicolor Curls
Who said hair can only be one shade? Go crazy with color without all the crazy damage.
What you need
Fav deep conditioner
Splat temporary hair color (color of your choice)
Eye shadow color of your choice
Bowl
Hair dye applicator brush
Shower cap
What to do
Mix your deep conditioner with the temporary hair dye in the bowl Apply the mix to your hair Put on the shower cap and leave in for 1-2 hours Wash out Apply eye shadow to get different color ends
Check this miss out on her Instagram: @naturallytashBreaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Jan. 29, 2016, 4:41 PM GMT / Updated Jan. 29, 2016, 6:27 PM GMT By Elizabeth Chuck
Can you spare a swipe?
A Detroit homeless man has taken panhandling high-tech: He accepts credit cards on the 8 Mile highway overpass where he lives and created a website where he can be hired to work odd jobs.
Abe Hagenston, 42, who goes by "Honest Abe" on his website, told NBC affiliate WDIV he has been homeless for about a decade. He takes credit card donations through Square, a credit card reader that connects to cell phones — although he said his phone has been stolen before.
"People don’t realize how tough it is to come from nothing when you don’t have any family or any friends,” Hagenston told the affiliate.
His website, which he updates from the public library, has already helped him land some work. And Hagenston says it's benefiting other homeless people, too.
“I’ve done some painting,” he said. “I’ve taken some other guys out on team jobs where I needed a couple extra guys to carry some things.”
Related: 'The Man With the Golden Voice': Where Is Ted Williams Now?
Hagenston said his dream is to create an app that would identify fake panhandlers — and to run a non-profit for the homeless.
"I'm trying to turn this situation into something that will not only help me, but help others," he said. "I’d like to see America start granting homeless people a real shot."
Hagenston accepts Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express.
"Being homeless is my business. Now my business is being homeless," he said.We have been married for 6 years now, both of us were virgins when we married. She has had this smell that it is like living beside the dumpster, we have tried going to the doctors' but they misdiagnose her all the time, we have tried meds and different cleaning solutions, but nothing helps. I have not said...
We have been married for 6 years now, both of us were virgins when we married. She has had this smell that it is like living beside the dumpster, we have tried going to the doctors' but they misdiagnose her all the time, we have tried meds and different cleaning solutions, but nothing helps. I have not said anything to her for the past 3 years for fear of hurting her feelings. Plus I know that when we have sex, it hurts her, so we are down to having sex once or twice a month. I want to have sex with her, her sex drive is close to none, everything goes well in our time of intimacy, but when she takes her underwear off, the smell fills the room like a devil straight from hell. The smell is like 4 year old fish left out in the sun for 3 years and 11 months, with a mix of burning trash, and decomposing carcass. It really smells abominal, I have never smelt anything so bad in my life. Don't get me wrong, I love my wife, I really do, and I want to have intimate times with her, but this smell really ruins it for me, big time, thank you for your time.Wikimedia announced this week it was in the process of implementing HTTPS by default across all of its sites, including Wikipedia. The HTTPS protocol will create an encrypted connection between users' computers and Wikimedia sites, in an effort to protect transmitted data and make it difficult for governments or third parties to monitor traffic. Wikimedia will also use HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) to prevent communications being sent over HTTP.
The US government is doing it too
HTTPS is not new for Wikimedia. Since 2011, users have been able to implement HTTPS manually through the browser extension HTTPS Everywhere, and logged-in users have defaulted to HTTPS since 2013. Wikimedia has previously held off on defaulting to HTTPS because of the problems it could create for users with low bandwidth or poor connections, according to Motherboard. HTTPS can also affect selective censorship of websites, meaning people in certain countries where censorship is prevalent may have trouble accessing any Wikimedia sites at all.
Compared to sites like Yahoo Mail (which uses default SSL encryption) and Facebook, Wikimedia is not a high-stakes site for security. But the announcement comes at a time when user privacy and security is a growing concern across the internet. This week, the US government also announced it would also be moving to an HTTPS standard. All publicly accessible federal websites will be required to default to HTTPS by December 31st of 2016, according to a White House statement.
Wikimedia says it is in the final stages of the transition, and hopes to complete it in the upcoming weeks.TV Reviews All of our TV reviews in one convenient place.
Louis CK: 2017 A- Louis CK: 2017 A- A- Louis CK: 2017 Director Louis CK Runtime 74 minutes Rating TV-MA Cast Louis CK Availability April 4 on Netflix
About 31 minutes into Louis CK’s latest stand-up special, the crowd bursts into applause after he makes an offhand comment about how hard it is to be a public school teacher in the United States. Normally, this the type of thing a comic says when they want a round of applause, but CK is quick to rebuff the crowd: “Don’t do that,” he says. “You’re not gonna like it.” And sure enough, he’s only bringing this up to go into a point about how public school teachers are losers for agreeing to do such a thankless job for such little pay in the first place. Sure, as the bit goes on, he makes it clear that they have his sympathy (as he points out, it’s hard to teach math to those who have little interest in learning it), but it’s still not the type of sentiment that a bleeding-heart liberal would be likely to greet with a round of applause.
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That’s been a staple of CK’s act for a long time: saying things that the average liberal would find perfectly agreeable in a vacuum, but reaching that opinion in the most warped way possible. He doesn’t wait too long to veer into the uncomfortable; within 30 seconds of taking the stage, he begins talking about abortion. He adopts a pro-choice stance with the reasoning that “not getting an abortion that you need is like not taking a shit,” before also noting that if you disagree with this statement, you likely consider it to be tantamount to killing a child. As vulgar as this comparison is, CK does a concise job of explaining why abortion is one of the most difficult topics to reach a consensus on, as it’s either viewed as an uncomfortable, but ultimately not objectionable, procedure that women have an inalienable right to or nothing short of infanticide. The conclusion he reaches is unlikely to win CK any fans among the holders of either opinion, but it’s the type of absurdist “wait, what?” perspective that has made him so essential to modern comedy.
Despite that rather direct start, this is not a special full of explicitly political material. No references are made to Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, as the show tends to focus on Louis CK’s philosophy more than his concrete views. And it’s a decidedly bleak philosophy. He discusses suicide with remarkable candor, noting that when he tells his therapist that he hasn’t had suicidal thoughts, it’s only because of how they might react if he had responded in the affirmative, a point that could resonate with anyone unsure about exactly how much to reveal in a therapy session. Furthermore, he mentions that he’s felt depressed just from looking inside people’s cars, wondering how much worse it must be for the people actually stuck driving them.
The special isn’t all doom and gloom—there’s respite in the form of a few absurdist tangents that the audience can just laugh at without any creeping existential dread. One such bit comes when he talks about listening to NPR with his daughters (“because we’re better than you”) and how one of his kids heard the phrase “9/11 deniers” as “nine 11 deniers”—a fringe group with fewer than 10 members that denies the existence of the number 11. About halfway through acting out a rant from a hypothetical “11 truther,” he realizes he’s speaking in a stereotypical black voice. Catching himself, he apologizes to the crowd for doing a caricature of a Chinese person. None of this quite makes sense, but it doesn’t matter, as it delivers the biggest laughs of the special. CK’s more depressing observations can be hard to handle at times, but his absurdity acts as the perfect chaser.
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Equally amusing (also sharing a trace of dreariness) is his routine about the story of Achilles. After his daughter asks why Achilles’ mother couldn’t have fixed his weak heel by simply putting him in the fountain one more time, CK has a different perspective, framing it as one more example of how parents can never do enough for their kids. Sure, he was immortal everywhere else, but he has to complain about her one mistake. He goes further, mocking an athlete for saying his dead mother was watching from heaven, arguing that if your mother is dead |
no relationship with him. I don't -- I've never met him. … I have no relationship with Putin. I don't think I've ever met him. I never met him. … I mean if he's in the same room or something. But I don't think so...."
Stephanopoulos: "You've never spoken to him on the phone?"
Trump: "I have never spoken to him on the phone, no. … Well, I don't know what it means by having a relationship. I mean he was saying very good things about me, but I don't have a relationship with him. I didn't meet him. I haven't spent time with him. I didn't have dinner with him. I didn't go hiking with him. I don't know -- and I wouldn't know him from Adam except I see his picture and I would know what he looks like."
Also, on July 27, Trump said at a press conference in Florida, "I never met Putin -- I don't know who Putin is. He said one nice thing about me. He said I'm a genius. I said thank you very much to the newspaper and that was the end of it. I never met Putin."
For the record: Media outlets have said the more accurate translation for what Putin said was "flamboyant," rather than "genius," and Putin subsequently confirmed that he was trying to indicate "flamboyant" when he made his his remark.
Our ruling
Trump has changed what he’s said about whether he’s had a relationship with Putin.
In 2013, he said, "I do have a relationship." In 2014 he said, "I spoke, indirectly and directly, with President Putin" and said the Russian leader had sent him a present. In 2015, he said, "I got to know him very well" due to their joint appearance on 60 Minutes.
More recently, though, Trump has said, "I never met Putin -- I don't know who Putin is" and "I have no relationship with him."
We rate this a Full Flop.
https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/87035bb9-c25c-4af3-843f-dfce8d466048Darth Vader, I Wish You A Merry Sithmas
By The Dude Dean
Last November 17, I saw a storm coming, and I started Save Stargate Universe on Twitter and Facebook. Last Month SyFy moved Caprica and Stargate Universe from Friday night to Tuesday night because Wrestling was more important than Sci-Fi. SyFy really didn’t market this change, but I saw it for what it was. First Caprica got the axe and within one month both shows were canceled so that SyFy Channel would have more programming room for Wrestling.
In the last week the growth of Save SGU has been strong and steady. We are now over 4200 strong. But now, we’ve got to go to the Dark Side of the Force for some help. Two days ago, I came up with the idea to Wish @DarthVader a Merry Sithmas after seeing a tweet from him poking fun at SyFy.
I think that our group did well with it, but I don’t know if Lord Vader noticed our tweets about Sithmas (click that like for the most epic Facebook community page of all time). So this go around let’s try to get both @DarthVader and @DeathStarPR to aid in Saving SGU.
Retweet or reply to these tweets by @DeathStarPR and @DarthVader:
So Lord Vader, please help us Stargate Universe fans have a Merry Sithmas this year. Please join our fight to Save SGU. There are Three Days of Sithmas left. I’m sure you can wish the SGU something nice for Sithmas. SGU on AMC? Maybe SGU on USA or TBS? What about Caprica?
A lot is going on SyFy Channel’s FB Wall they’re completely ignoring SGU’s fanbase about this issue. Please go and chime in and give them your two cents.
The Dude Dean – The Greatest Living American Dude: Former Evil Power Digger, Social Media Maverick, Web Developer and Elite Space Monkey in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Think Green.From Team Fortress Wiki
This article is about the game. For the cosmetic item, please see Brotherhood of Arms
Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms Basic Information Developer: Valve Released: Cancelled Modes: Multiplayer Platform: Windows
Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms is a cancelled Team Fortress game. It was to be a standalone sequel to the original Team Fortress and a reboot of Valve's Team Fortress. Unlike other Team Fortress games, there would be a major emphasis on realism.
Gameplay
Gameplay would be radically different than the gameplay in traditional Team Fortress games. Many unrealistic elements, such as Rocket jumping and the Minigun, would be removed. Weapons would be based on those in real-life, such as the M16A2 and FAMAS. In addition, classes roles were to be more distinct; Medics would only be able to heal and revive allies, not attack the enemy base.
Because of the emphasis on realism, tactics used in real-life, such as suppressing fire, would need to be utilized if a team wanted to win.
The most significant change was to be a command system. In this system, there would be an invisible player called the Commander that would issue orders to the players on his team. This class would have a complete view of the map and could issue orders on the fly via text or voice chat.
Players would also have to get into squads, which would be lead by a player in a special class known as the Officer. He would generally lead an attack and would affect a player's morale. The higher the morale, the faster and more accurate a player is. This was done to encourage players to get together and move in teams. If an Officer were to die, the player's morale would reset back to zero.
Teamwork would be emphasized via combination. In addition to the previously-mentioned morale system, there would be other ways to make two or more teammates work together. For example, if there was a mounted machine gun in a map, one player could fire it. However, if another player got next to it, then the gun would fire much faster because the other player would be feeding ammo to it.
There would also be a limited amount of lives for each player, depending on the map. For example, Robin explained that one of their maps only gave a person one life; if that person died, he would've had to wait out the rest of the match.
Vehicles would play a role in the game, mostly as dynamic spawn points. They would also be parts of objectives in maps. Earlier builds had drivable vehicles, but this was scrapped so that the team could focus more on fine-tuning classes.
Maps
Map objectives were to be much more varied; in some maps, one team would attempt to destroy an objective, such as a bridge, while the other team would defend it. Some previews mention flags as well, which might have indicated that CTF would've returned.
Design-wise, maps were generally going to take place in real-life areas such as canyons (like Badlands), the Middle-East and Italian-themed areas. Urban areas are also shown in some early screenshots, but are absent in later ones. Most of the Italian textures ended up being used in Team Fortress Classic maps, such as Avanti.
One of the ideas used was that maps would be part of a greater storyline that the player could progress through.
HUD
The HUD was planned to be radically different than the TFC HUD. A live summary of what is happening would be shown scrolling on a part of the HUD like a news ticker, so as to keep the player informed. If the player is a Commander, then the news ticker will show the results of his commands.
A big part of the HUD would be a new navigational system. There would be a compass that would always point the player to the current objective. In addition, the map-maker could add waypoints that would show the player exactly where to go. One of the rumored abilities of this system was that if the Commander issued a new order, the game would dynamically change the compass and waypoints so that it'd lead to the new objective.
The only communications that would be shown is text and voice commands from your squads. This was done to reduce the amount of chat spam in large servers.
None of these HUD elements have been seen in screenshots. Some early shots showed a new HUD, but it seemed to display the exact same information that the regular TFC HUD did. Later screenshots completely discarded the new HUD in favor of a direct copy of the TFC HUD. One of the last screenshots released for this build showed a green version of the regular TFC HUD.
Technology
TF2 was to use a variety of new technologies such as a system called Parametric Animation. This would mesh various animations together so as to appear more realistic. For example, if a person dies while jumping, he would somehow slump to the ground while in the air. In TF2, Parametric animation would make it so that the a person killed while jumping would go limp in the air, and would finally slump when he hits the ground.
There was also to be voice communication via microphones. In addition, the player's mouth would move while talking.
The game could also dynamically change the amount of polygons on models, depending on the scene. If a large squad of enemies were to attack the player, all model's polygon counts would be reduced to maintain performance. When the enemies had disappeared, the game would increase the poly count back to the previous amount.
Classes
There were to be 12 classes in the game; two more than the ten in the classic games. Most of the original classes reappeared, but were significantly altered so as to make them realistic.
The Marine would be a more realistic version of the classic Soldier. He would have an automatic rifle and a rocket launcher.
would be a more realistic version of the classic Soldier. He would have an automatic rifle and a rocket launcher. The Machine Gunner was essentially a "realistic" classic Heavy. Instead of a Minigun, he would wield a light machine gun. Otherwise, he is the same as the classic Heavy.
was essentially a "realistic" classic Heavy. Instead of a Minigun, he would wield a light machine gun. Otherwise, he is the same as the classic Heavy. The Sniper would be the same as the classic Sniper, but he could blend into environments if he stood still and didn't move for a certain amount of time.
would be the same as the classic Sniper, but he could blend into environments if he stood still and didn't move for a certain amount of time. The Commando would be similar to the classic Demoman; he would be used to destroy things, such as vehicles and buildings.
would be similar to the classic Demoman; he would be used to destroy things, such as vehicles and buildings. The Flame-thrower would be similar to the classic Pyro. The only announced change is that his flamethrower would look prettier.
would be similar to the classic Pyro. The only announced change is that his flamethrower would look prettier. The Officer would be a new class. As described earlier, he would increase player's morale and could lead the charge. To help him start an attack, he would be equipped with Infra Red Goggles and a smoke grenade.
would be a new class. As described earlier, he would increase player's morale and could lead the charge. To help him start an attack, he would be equipped with Infra Red Goggles and a smoke grenade. The Ranger would be similar to the classic Scout. He would be used to flank and distract enemies while his other teammates would attack enemies from the front.
would be similar to the classic Scout. He would be used to flank and distract enemies while his other teammates would attack enemies from the front. The Field Medic is quite different from the classic Medic. His only ability would be to heal and revive teammates. He would not have equipment suitable for attacking enemy bases.
is quite different from the classic Medic. His only ability would be to heal and revive teammates. He would not have equipment suitable for attacking enemy bases. The Engineer would be very similar to his classic counter-part; he could build Sentries for defense. However, these Sentries can be moved around without destroying them, which would be useful for making sure that enemies don't get to certain areas, such as the front lines, without having to build the Sentry at the spot. An unlimited amount of Sentries could be built, but the Engineer would need sources of Energy in order to build them. He can build these sources, but enemies can destroy them. Engineers could also build fixed-emplacements, such as mounted machine guns. These would be much closer to the classic Sentry Gun than the previously mentioned Sentries would be, but they would have to be used by players.
would be very similar to his classic counter-part; he could build Sentries for defense. However, these Sentries can be moved around without destroying them, which would be useful for making sure that enemies don't get to certain areas, such as the front lines, without having to build the Sentry at the spot. An unlimited amount of Sentries could be built, but the Engineer would need sources of Energy in order to build them. He can build these sources, but enemies can destroy them. Engineers could also build fixed-emplacements, such as mounted machine guns. These would be much closer to the classic Sentry Gun than the previously mentioned Sentries would be, but they would have to be used by players. The Spy would be similar to the classic Spy. He would have an instant-kill attack that would be done when he attacks the target's back, but it would be a piece of wire that would choke the enemy to death, not a backstab with a knife. His disguise system would be a bit different; instead of selecting a disguise from a menu, he would have to kill an enemy in order to look like him. If an enemy doesn't make a sound when killed, then his disguise will not appear.
would be similar to the classic Spy. He would have an instant-kill attack that would be done when he attacks the target's back, but it would be a piece of wire that would choke the enemy to death, not a backstab with a knife. His disguise system would be a bit different; instead of selecting a disguise from a menu, he would have to kill an enemy in order to look like him. If an enemy doesn't make a sound when killed, then his disguise will not appear. The Instructor was a bot that would teach the player how to play the game.
was a bot that would teach the player how to play the game. The Commander was to be the most important class in the game. He would be able to see through team members' eyes and Engineers' cameras, as well as see entire map, issue orders on the fly and control squads and groups.
Weapons
There were to be a variety of weapons in the game; most of them based on weapons in real-life.
Automatic Rifle: Screenshots show that there were two automatic rifles in TF2; the M16A2 and the FAMAS. Interestingly, the FAMAS is only shown in a first-person screenshot. All other shots show the M16A2. The M16A2 could also be possibly a placeholder worldmodel for the FAMAS.
Uzi: The Uzi can be seen used by the Spy and Field Medic.
M249: The M249 would be used by the Machine Gunner. It would have to mounted on sandbags in order to be effectively used.
Sniper Rifle: The Sniper Rifle would be like the classic Sniper Rifle, in that is is the ultimate long-range weapon. However, it is unknown if it could be charged or if it would slow down the user while zoomed in.
Grenade Launcher: The Grenade Launcher was to be used by the Commando. It is unknown if it would behave like the classic Grenade Launcher.
Smoke Grenade: The Smoke Grenade is only available to the Officer class; it would create a smokescreen that would make it difficult for enemies to see where the player and his squad would be coming from.
Spider Grenade: The Spider Grenade is only available to the Spy class; it was to have a camera and would be used for recon. [1]
SMAW: The SMAW is a one-shot rocket launcher used by the Marine class. It would be used to destroy armored objects, such as vehicles. It would create exhaust from its behind, which would damage any nearby enemies. It would also have to travel 20 meters before being armed and would have a very large blast radius. Because of the emphasis on realism, there would be no way for the player to rocket jump.
Machine Gun: Emplaced Machine Guns could be built by Engineers. These heavy machine guns would be used to create covering fire for allies. If an ally was to stand next to the gun while it was firing, then it would fire much faster.
Sentry: The Sentry Gun would return, but an unlimited amount of them could be made and they could be transported anywhere via Engineers.
Soundtrack
Possibly Kelly Bailey - Team Fortress 2 Demo - 1:51 (combined with game sounds)
Gallery
An old ad from a Sierra/Blizzard catalogueHigher Numbers of Americans Take Their Lives than During the Depths of the Great Depression
Suicide rates are tied to the economy.
The Boston Globe reported in 2011:
A new report issued today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that the overall suicide rate rises and falls with the state of the economy — dating all the way back to the Great Depression. The report, published in the American Journal of Public Health, found that suicide rates increased in times of economic crisis: the Great Depression (1929-1933), the end of the New Deal (1937-1938), the Oil Crisis (1973-1975), and the Double-Dip Recession (1980-1982). Those rates tended to fall during strong economic times — with fast growth and low unemployment — like right after World War II and during the 1990s.
During the depths of the Great Depression, suicide rates in America significantly increased. As the Globe notes:
The largest increase in the US suicide rate occurred during the Great Depression surging from 18 in 100,000 up to 22 in 100,000 …
We’ve previously pointed out that suicide rates have skyrocketed recently:
NBC News reported in March:
Suicide rates are up alarmingly among middle-aged Americans, according to the latest federal government statistics. They show a 28 percent rise in suicide rates for people aged 35 to 64 between 1999 and 2010.
RT reports:
In a letter to The Lancet medical journal, scientists from Britain, Hong Kong and United States said an analysis of data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that while suicide rates increased slowly between 1999 and 2007, the rate of increase more than quadrupled from 2008 to 2010, Reuters reported.
Earlier this month, NY Daily News wrote:
The Great Recession may have been at the root of a great depression that caused suicides to soar among middle-aged Americans, a government report speculates. The annual suicide rate for adults ages 35 to 64 spiked in the past decade, according to a study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And a shaky economy that nose-dived into the worst financial crisis since the Depression may be the biggest reason why. *** The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report said the annual suicide rate jumped 28.4% from 1999-2010. It was the biggest increase of any age group, said the CDC, citing “the recent economic downturn” as one of the “possible contributing factors” for the increase. “Historically, suicide rates tend to correlate with business cycles, with higher rates observed during times of economic hardship,” the report said.
David Stuckler (a senior research leader in sociology at Oxford), and Sanjay Basu (an assistant professor of medicine and an epidemiologist in the Prevention Research Center at Stanford), write in the New York Times:
The correlation between unemployment and suicide has been observed since the 19th century.
(And see these articles by the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. This is obviously true world-wide. For example, last year the New York Times reported:
The economic downturn that has shaken Europe for the last three years has also swept away the foundations of once-sturdy lives, leading to an alarming spike in suicide rates. Especially in the most fragile nations like Greece, Ireland and Italy, small-business owners and entrepreneurs are increasingly taking their own lives in a phenomenon some European newspapers have started calling “suicide by economic crisis.” *** In Greece, the suicide rate among men increased more than 24 percent from 2007 to 2009, government statistics show. In Ireland during the same period, suicides among men rose more than 16 percent. In Italy, suicides motivated by economic difficulties have increased 52 percent, to 187 in 2010 — the most recent year for which statistics were available — from 123 in 2005.)
Indeed, more Americans are killing themselves today than during the Great Depression. Specifically, there were were 123 million Americans in 1930. The maximum suicide rate during the depths of the Great Depression was 22 out of 100,000 Americans. That means that up to 27,060 Americans killed themselves each year.
In contrast, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that 38,364 Americans committed suicide in 2010. In other words, 2010 suicides were approximately 142% of suicides during the depths of the Great Depression. (The suicide rate is lower today than during the Great Depression, but – given that there are more Americans – there are more suicides each year.)
The head of my local county’s mental health services confirmed to me today that there are now more suicides now than during the Great Depression.
The Root Causes: Unemployment and Foreclosure
Why do more people kill themselves during severe downturns? It’s not just a downturn in the business cycle in some general sense. It’s more specific than that.
Unemployment and foreclosure are the largest triggers in increased suicide risk.
David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu write:
People looking for work are about twice as likely to end their lives as those who have jobs. *** Unemployment is a leading cause of depression, anxiety, alcoholism and suicidal thinking.
ABC News points out:
“Joblessness is a risk factor for suicide,” said Nadine Kaslow, professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University in Atlanta. “The stress is just overwhelming. … People are freaked out.”
Bloomberg reports:
“The suicide rate started accelerating in 2008, 2009 and 2010 — someone might still be working, but their house is underwater, or they’re working but they’re working part-time,” Eric Caine, the director of the CDC’s Injury Control Research Center for Suicide Prevention, said by telephone. “These things ripple into families. There’s an economic stress.”
NY Daily News writes:
“Most people who commit suicide tend to suffer from major depression, and this vulnerability tends to be brought forth by very stressful situations like losing one’s home or job,” [Dr. Dan Iosifescu, director of mood and anxiety disorders program at Mount Sinai Hospita] said.
NBC News reports:
The American Association for Suicidology says economic recessions don’t normally affect suicide rates. “Although US suicide rates did increase slightly during the years of the Great Depression, reaching a peak rate of 17.4/100,000 in 1933, subsequent US recessions have not been found to lead to increased national rates of suicide in the period of or immediately following each recession,” the group says. The latest numbers suggest suicide rates for middle-aged Americans now surpass the peak during the Depression. And there’s another possible explanation. “There is a clear and direct relationship between rates of unemployment and suicide,” the suicidology group says in its statement. “The peak rate of suicide in 1933 occurred one year after the total US unemployment rate reached 25 percent of the labor force. Similar findings have been documented internationally. At the individual level, unemployed individuals have between two and four times the suicide rate of those employed.” The group also raises concern about the home foreclosure rate.
Indeed, it is likely that more people have lost their jobs during this “Great Recession” than during the Great Depression … especially when you look at the masses of people who have given up altogether and dropped out of the work force.
And it is possible that more people have lost their homes through foreclosure than during the Great Depression as well.
No wonder there are so many suicides …
Postscript: If you suffer from depression, this may help.Italy is gorgeous, with its history, art, gelatos, vineyards and canals. But it also has a brilliant coastline to boot! So while most travellers dream of the cobbled streets of Rome, the art of the Vatican museums, the piazzas of Florence and the dreamy gondolas of Venice, the coastal towns have a charm of their own, and Oh My God, are they gorgeous or what?
Here is a list of 8 coastal towns that you MUST add to your Italy plan this year! We have definitely earmarked this blog! So here are the coastal Italian towns to die for!!
8. Polognani a Mare, Puglia
This beautiful fairy town rises dramatically over a cliff which overlooks the Adriatic Sea. With a history dating back centuries, this coastal town has also been a key port for the country. Various settlements have left their mark here, but currently, it is a very pretty town overlooking the azure waters of the Adriatic, with whitewashed buildings and an intricate cave network. It also offers a great cliff diving location.
Don’t forget to dine at the Ristorante Grotta Palazzese, which is one of the world’s most amazing dining experiences, with the cave lit up by aquamarine reflections. Located 34 km from the Bari airport, it isn’t so hard-to-get.
7. Portofino, Genoa
It was the quintessential Mediterranean fishing village in the Italian Riviera. But now yachts and private sailboats are a frequent spotting on the crescent-shaped harbour here. Located in the Genoa district of the Italian Riviera, it is a gem. A great coastline, awesome cuisine, shopping avenues and a pretty, pretty demeanour, makes it a favourite with the travellers. Many of whom can be seen on the silver screen, when not sunbathing on their yachts here.
Portofino is 45 km. from Genoa airport. Trains from Milan and Rome also come to Genoa, from where it is a short bus/train ride away.
Also check: 10 Amazing adventure travel experiences in Sri Lanka
6. Manarola, Cinque Terre
The smallest but prettiest village in the Cinque Terre hiking trail, Manarola has some iconic appeal. The locals speak Manarolese and the town is very picturesque, as you can see its image is pretty much a postcard for Coastal Italy. The Cinque Terre hiking trails have gained so much fame, that the locals have put a limit on the number of people who can visit.
Manarola is also 10–17 min. by train from La Spezia, where you can change for trains throughout Italy like Rome, Florence and Pisa.
5. Capri, South Italy
An island of pleasure, located off Naples, it is home to some amazing beaches, great places to eat, leather souvenirs and limoncello liqueur. Places of attraction here are the uphill Ana Capri and the Blue Grotto, a cave with beautiful aquamarine illumination. An idyllic destination for roman emperors, revolutionaries from Russia and the rich and famous, it is quite the star on the Italian Coastal trail.
You can get a ferry across from Naples to get here. Naples is connected by trains to the rest of Italy and is just 2 hours away from Rome.
Also check: 5 Unique experiences in the Andamans
4. Cefalu, Sicily
Located an hour away from Palermo, which is the capital city of Sicily, Cefalu has completely offbeat and laid back vibe. Like other islands off Italy, it has a history that dates back thousands of years, but the natural beauty of Cefalu is its biggest badge. Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean and thinks of the movie The Godfather when you think Sicily. It is a different experience altogether, being here.
One can take a ferry to cross the Strait of Messina to get here from the mainland, Alternatively, Sicily has 3 airports.
3. Cagliari, Sardinia
The capital of Sardinia, Cagliari’s Sardinian name ‘Casteddu’ translates into ‘Castle’. With golden-hued palazzi and domes dominating the horizon one should make it here by the sea, it is an experience to remember. A generous selection of Roman ruins, a fashionable beach town and a rich history, makes this town a gem in the Mediterranean. A great hiking destination this is too.
Despite being one of the most isolated islands in Europe, one can reach here by Ferry from ports of Italy, Spain and France. Olbia airport has flights connecting Sardinia to the rest of Europe.
Also check: Delicacies from The North East everyone must eat
2. Ravello, Amalfi Coast
As you start your drive from Sorento, the cliff faces are dramatic, the hairpin bends and the ocean below makes the ride a thrilling albeit beautiful one. Beyond the small beaches of the Amalfi town, as you go higher you reach Ravello, a quaint little town, with cats and orange trees for company. Beautiful villas overlooking the Mediterranean will make your stay worthwhile. Also, if you are in this region, try to make a day trip to the ruins of Pompeii, though the views from here will make a strong case for giving it a skip!
1. Positano, Amalfi Coast
Oh! The pastel coloured buildings perched atop mountains that rise up from the sea are a delight for the travellers who come here, looking for their sweet spot. Head out to the beach to sunbathe, or stay back at the bars frequented by the legendary John Steinback during his stay here in the 60’s. The Moorish architecture, the elegant harbour, the beautiful beaches will make you fall in love with this town, on the southern end of the Amalfi coast, and if you are looking for a trip to Capri, hop onto a ferry. Get to Capri and then take a ferry back to Naples to head back to base.
Also check: 7 Reasons why Iceland is awesome in winter
The Blueberry Trails organises amazing holiday packages for the traveller in you. For our upcoming tour schedule and International tours from Mumbai and for custom made Holiday Packages from India write to us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call at +91 8080 122 441 for further information.Image caption Mr Qahtani was arrested on 3 May after a note about the plot was found
An alleged al-Qaeda militant detained in Iraq has given details about a plan he had to attack the World Cup in South Africa next month.
The Saudi man, Abdullah Azam Saleh al-Qahtani, told reporters he had suggested an attack on the Dutch and Danish teams in revenge for cartoons drawn of the Prophet Muhammad.
But he said senior al-Qaeda leaders had not yet approved the plan.
On Monday Iraqi police claimed to have prevented an attack on the World Cup.
The claims prompted phone calls from South African police, trying to find out what was going on.
'Target fans'
Mr Qahtani was arrested after Iraqi forces found a note detailing the plan in a hideout used by two senior al-Qaeda figures, killed in April.
"We discussed the possibility of taking revenge for the insults of the prophet by attacking Denmark and Holland," Mr Qahtani told the Associated Press.
"If we were not able to reach the teams, then we would target the fans."
The plan would have included car bombs and gun attacks.
The plan had not been approved, but had been awaiting the green light from al-Qaeda's number two man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mr Qahtani said.
"It was only an idea to blow up the World Cup," he said.
"It was relayed through other men, but I didn't get a reply."
Details discovered
It is not clear if al-Qaeda in Iraq has the resources to carry out a complicated attack that far away from their home base.
A note detailing the plan and Mr Qahtani's name, was discovered in a joint US and Iraqi operation in which top al-Qaeda in Iraq operatives Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi were killed.
Mr Qahtani was arrested by the Iraqi authorities on 3 May.
In 2006 a Danish newspaper published 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, including one that showed a bomb in his turban.
In the Netherlands, anti-Islamic politicians have called the Koran a "fascist book".
Fifa has said it will not comment on any specific or potential threats to the World Cup.
South African police spokesman Vish Naidoo said the South African police had only heard about the plan through the media and had not received any information from the Iraqi authorities.
Mr Qahtani arrived in Iraq from Saudi Arabia in 2004 after the US invasion. He was arrested in 2007 and held for two years in Camp Bucca, AP reported.Three serving policemen and a retired police officer have been arrested as part of an inquiry into potential fraudulent activity at the Police Federation of England and Wales.
Surrey Police are investigating an alleged transfer of about £1m to a charitable account in August last year.
One of those arrested is understood to be Will Riches, who quit as federation vice-chairman earlier this week.
Scotland Yard has said two of the men are Met police officers on secondment.
The Police Federation says it is cooperating with the enquiry.
The organisation represents thousands of officers of constable, sergeant and inspector rank.
"We are carrying out a detailed and thorough investigation into allegations of fraudulent activity involving significant amounts of money," said Detective Superintendent Karen Mizzi from Surrey police.
The four men, two in their 40s and two in their 50s, remain in custody while inquiries continue, Surrey Police said.
The federation's chairman, Steve White, general secretary, Andy Fittes, and treasurer, Martyn Mordecai, are understood not to be among those arrested, the BBC's Danny Shaw says.
Specialist officers from Surrey Police's economic crimes unit were involved in the probe, Det Supt Mizzi said.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has also been notified.
The Police Federation of England and Wales first raised concerns with Surrey police - the federation's local force - on Tuesday.
The federation then made a formal allegation relating to accounts held by the Federation's Constables' Central Committee on Wednesday.
Det Supt Mizzi said Surrey police had contacted the relevant police forces to inform them of the arrest of their officers.
The force would also be contacting the Charities Commission, she said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Serious and Organised Crime Team on 101, quoting Operation Rutland.The Air Force is now blocking the web sites of the New York Times, the Guardian, and other news outlets that have posted diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks.
According to the Wall Street Journal and Reuters, the Air Force ordered the sites blocked from personnel computers last month. An Air Force spokeswoman told Reuters that the Air Force “routinely blocks Air Force network access to websites hosting inappropriate materials or malware (malicious software) and this includes any website that hosts classified materials and those that are released by WikiLeaks.”
She said 25 sites have been blocked.The move goes further than those made by other branches of the armed services and the Pentagon, which has advised servicemembers to avoid looking at the Wikileaks documents on military computers.
As TPM has reported, civilian federal agencies have also instructed employees not to read the cables and, in some cases, blocked the Wikileaks site.
According to the Journal, the message, “ACCESS DENIED. Internet Usage is Logged & Monitored,” appears when servicemembers try to access the blocked sites. The message also warns that personnel looking at unauthorized sites may be punished.
The Air Force had told personnel in August not to go to the Wikileaks site or download any of the cables, according to a memo obtained by TPM.
[Additional reporting by Ryan J. Reilly]An Austrian cardinal who is one of the frontrunners to be the next pope has warned of an "Islamic conquest of Europe".
According to reports of his speech to mark the 333rd anniversary of the Battle of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn said: "Will there be an Islamic conquest of Europe? Many Muslims want that and say: Europe is at its end."
“God have mercy on Europe and on thy people, who are in danger of forfeiting our Christian heritage,” the cardinal reportedly prayed.
He claimed that this was already being felt "not only economically, but above all, in human and religious matters".
The speech was made on Sunday at the "Holy Name of Mary" church festival, which marked the 333rd anniversary of the Battle of Vienna in 1683 in which Christian forces defeated the Ottoman Empire army.
Cardinal Schönborn, 71, is a conservative who was a former student of Pope Benedict XVI - and has even been referred to as the former pope's "spritual son".The Steelers' quarterback situation just got a little more complicated after Landry Jones' MRI results were revealed on Monday.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Jones has a "pretty severe" low ankle sprain after getting hit during the first quarter of Sunday's win over the Browns. Rapoport also said to expect Michael Vick to serve as the team's No.2 quarterback following the team's bye week.
Vick, who missed several games while recovering from a slight hamstring team in the Steelers' Week 6 victory over the Cardinals, hasn't played in over a month, and was a healthy scratch for Sunday's game after emulating Cleveland quarterback Johnny Manziel during practice last week. Vick has completed 60.6 percent of his passes this season, for 371 yards with two touchdowns and an interception while going 2-1 as a starter.
The good news is the current status of Ben Roethlisberger, who relieved Jones on Sunday and threw for 379 yards and three touchdowns on 22 of 33 passing. After the game, Roethlisberger, who played despite suffering a mid-foot injury the previous week against the Raiders, said that he experienced no setbacks following Sunday's win over the Browns.Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) issued the following statement Thursday after Senate Republicans released the revised version of their plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act: "The |
back on,” he said. “We had our best Friday-Saturday as a company in terms of volume.”
Williamson estimated that more than 50 percent of the accounts are back in business, although a handful have said they won’t re-open due to damage suffered.
The majority of the company has returned to work, Williamson said, and he’s anticipating a busy fall selling season.
“May is our busiest month in terms of volume,” he said. “We’re going to have Mays in September, October, November and December because of the rebuild.”
Del Papa’s building and fleet of vehicles avoided any major damage, and about 20 percent of the company’s workforce was impacted in some way by the storm, Williamson said.
Williamson said many clients have been out of beer, and his sales teams can’t replenish the shelves quick enough. For example, a Walmart store in Alvin, Texas, received 22 pallets last Friday and “still had holes,” he said.
“The pipeline fill is going to be very strong in the coming days,” he said.
Saint Arnold Brewing Company owner Brock Wagner told Brewbound that his brewery, which sits on high ground, was unscathed despite nearby Interstate 10 becoming “a moat.” Of Saint Arnold’s 90 full-time employees, four people were affected by either significant flooding or minor flooding and one person lost a vehicle.
Operations at Texas’ oldest running craft brewery returned to normal yesterday as many employees were finally able to reach the site, Wagner said.
“When you only have 40 to 50 percent of your employees who can reach the brewery, there’s very little you can do,” he said. “We’re back to normal now, but people are still trying to figure out how to get into the regular flow of life.”
In the wake of the storm, Wagner said on-premise sales in bars and restaurants have suffered, while grocery store sales have been “tremendous.”
Wagner told Brewbound that the greatest need in the community now is money. After being approached by several breweries about brewing collaboration beers, Wagner said he decided to start #ReliefBeers in which breweries, restaurants and bars from across the country donate $1 for every pint sold on Friday, September 8, to the Houston Food Bank. As of Wednesday morning, Wagner said about 35 breweries had signed on.
In addition to #ReliefBeers, Saint Arnold will donate $1 from every case of Oktoberfest sold through the end of the season, Wagner said.
“Hopefully that will raise $30,000 to $40,000,” he said.
Oskar Blues’ CAN’d Aid Foundation is partnering with Live for Live Music on a Hurricane Harvey Relief Concert on September 12 in Boulder, Colorado, in which all of the proceeds will go to the foundation’s relief efforts to provide canned drinking water to the relief efforts. The company has so far shipped 220,200 cans of water to Texas.
Smaller breweries that reported damage are resuming operations. City Acre Brewing general manager Mandy Jeronimus told Brewbound that the brewery’s tasting room is on track to reopen today after water-damaged drywall was replaced. Jeronimus said a few customers showed up over the weekend to help with the repairs.
“They’ve definitely earned some store credit,” she said.
In an effort to catch up, City Acre will “double up” its brew days, Jeronimus said
“We were really lucky,” she said. “The beer survived just fine, but the building took a pretty good hit.”
Galveston Island Brewing Company suffered “only minor wind damage and water in the building,” according to Charday VanOrstrand, the company’s executive administrator of operations. Despite the damage, the brewery resumed operations last Thursday.
“We are back to brew operations and normal tap room hours,” she said.
Meanwhile, Eureka Heights Brewing Co. is also recovering from flooding in its brewery following the breach of the White Oak Bayou, according to a Facebook post. However, the brewery has reopened and is now serving as a donation drop off point.
One brewery wasn’t so lucky. In a Facebook post, Houston-based 160ft Beerworks reported that its security cameras showed at least two feet of water in the building last week. The company said it would “shut down indefinitely” as it assessed the damage to the building and equipment.
The world’s biggest brewery have also helped with the relief efforts. Anheuser-Busch InBev announced last week that the company was donating $1 million to the American Red Cross’s Disaster Giving Program.
A-B InBev spokeswoman Gemma Hart told Brewbound that the company has also sent 11 truckloads of emergency drinking water to Louisiana and Texas, and the company halted production at its Cartersville brewery on Monday to replenish the stock of water.
In a letter to MillerCoors’ distributor partners, CEO Gavin Hattersley highlighted the relief efforts of its wholesalers.
Hattersley wrote that Andrews Distributing in Dallas made a six-figure donation to the Mayor’s Fund in Corpus Christi and Crescent Crown Distributing in Louisiana made a six-figure donation to disaster relief in Houston. Andrews along with the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys raised millions of dollars during a drive, he added.
Additionally, Admiral Beverage in Wyoming delivering a truckload of water to Beaumont area. Giglio Distributing and the company’s local sales team are helping to deliver 300,000 cans of water donated by MillerCoors to United Airlines, which is working with FEMA to help evacuees at George Bush Intercontinental Airport and surrounding shelters, to Beaumont.
“We’ve been in regular communication with our distributors in the affected areas and beyond, and their compassion and willingness to help in any way has been awesome,” Hattersley wrote. “The storms may have subsided, but the impact of Hurricane Harvey will endure in Texas and Louisiana. So will our commitment to helping those impacted.”
Constellation Brands is donating $100,000 to the Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief Fund and will match employee contributions up to another $100,000, according to Beer Business Daily.
Meanwhile, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau posted information on how industry members and taxpayers affected by natural disasters with questions about excise tax filing or reporting may contact the agency at 877-882-3277 or submit an online inquiry.
Several breweries are lending a hand in the relief effort. Lone Star Brewing, which is owned by Pabst Brewing, is donating $2 for every $1 donated by employees in its GlobalGiving campaign. The beer company has raised more than $28,000 toward its $250,000 goal.
Kentucky-based Braxton Brewing announced last week that it will use its canning line Thursday to package 1,000 cases of drinking water to be sent to Houston and Louisiana to support the flood relief efforts. Additionally, the brewery will be donating $1 per pint and accepting donations of nonperishable food items and cleaning supplies.
For every beer sold at Tennessee Brew Works’ Taproom and the company’s airport kiosk on Sundays in September, the company will donate $1 to the American Red Cross to help with the relief efforts in Texas.
A variety of other organizations are accepting donations. Among them:
The American Red Cross
Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund
Houston Habitat for Humanity
Americares
Austin Pets Alive
Shrinking Time Between Disaster and Recovery
The Salvation Army
A list of Texas craft breweries collecting supplies for flood victims can be viewed here.Man charged over stabbing of a mother and two children in Brisbane suburb of Carina
Updated
A man has been charged with attempted murder after a mother and two children were seriously injured in a stabbing at a Brisbane home.
Police responded to an emergency call from within the home on D'Arcy Road at Carina about 6:30am AEST on Saturday.
They found a 39-year-old woman, a nine-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy with multiple, life-threatening stab wounds.
A 41-year-old male family member, who was also found at the house, was taken into custody and this afternoon charged with three counts of attempted murder and two counts of grievous bodily harm.
He will appear in Roma Street Magistrates Court today.
Ambulance Service operations supervisor David Wilson says the children have been taken to Brisbane's Mater Hospital.
"All with stab injuries, quite serious in nature," he said.
Police Senior Sergeant Murray Crone says a number of knives were seized and officers found evidence of a violent attack at the scene.
"It is currently being examined by the forensic police and further investigations will be made with the scene and it could be held onto for some time today," he said.
Senior Sergeant Crone says support will be offered to emergency services personnel who attended the scene.
"Particularly when children are victims, yeah, it's very confronting for the officers and also the ambulance who attended.
"We have systems in place so those officers will be offered counselling if they require it."
Neighbours 'heard screams from the house'
Neighbours have reported hearing screams from the house, which remains cordoned off as a crime scene.
They say they are shocked by the incident in what is normally a quiet neighbourhood.
Meanwhile, a 40-year-old man has been charged with murder over a separate stabbing on the Gold Coast on Saturday night.
A 32-year-old man was stabbed in the lower body at a unit block in Heron Avenue at Mermaid Beach.
Ambulance officers tried to revive him but he died at the scene.
The 40-year-old man is in custody and is due to face the Southport Magistrates court this morning.
Topics: crime, law-crime-and-justice, carina-4152, qld, australia
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On Saturday, anti-Muslim activists held a number of sparsely attended protests across the United States. The ostensible reason for the demonstrations was opposition to Islamic law, or sharia, a cause that animates the lobbying organization that called the marches. But critics of that group, which has close ties to the Donald Trump campaign, argue that its anti-sharia posturing is a smokescreen for much broader hostility toward Muslims — a charge that can be similarly leveled at President Trump's administration.
In various U.S. cities, the anti-sharia marches were confronted by a far larger number of counterprotesters, including Jewish groups that mobilized in solidarity with Muslims and people who described themselves as antifascists. In a few places, the two sides engaged in brief clashes that were broken up by police.
An anti-Muslim activist group, ACT for America, organized nationwide protests on June 10. The "March Against Sharia" was met by counter protesters across the country. (The Washington Post)
The demonstrations were coordinated by ACT for America, an organization designated as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks right-wing extremism in the United States. Its leaders, as my colleagues reported, “have labeled Islam a 'cancer,' propagated theories of a secret plot by Muslims, Democrats, communists and the media to destroy the country from within, and sponsored lectures on how to monitor and oppose U.S. mosques.”
Never mind that there's no vast Muslim American conspiracy to impose sharia law. Never mind that there's no vast Muslim American conspiracy to take over institutions of power in Washington. Never mind that Muslim Americans form one of the most economically successful and well-educated communities in the United States.
Counterprotesters stand behind a line of police across the street from an “anti-sharia” rally Saturday in Seattle. (Ted S. Warren/Associated Press)
False claims about the Muslim peril abounded among those who attended the rallies. “There’s rampant rape happening because of Syrian immigrants, and we have to stop that from coming to America,” Joseph Weidknecht, a 25-year-old construction worker who attended a march in Austin, said to my colleagues.
ACT for America's founder, Brigitte Gabriel, “has said that she is anti-sharia, not anti-Muslim, a point that a number of the group’s speakers repeated Saturday,” wrote The Washington Post's Abigail Hauslohner, who covered an ACT for America protest in New York City that was dwarfed by its opponents. “But Gabriel also has said that all practicing Muslims adhere to sharia, and speakers on Saturday made sweeping statements about Islam as an enemy of the state.”
Such rhetoric is, of course, familiar to those who paid attention to Trump's election campaign. As a candidate, Trump fear-mongered over the threat posed by Muslim refugees, urged blanket monitoring of mosques and even once declared that “Islam hates us.” He repeatedly inveighed against “radical Islam,” but critics suggested he was actually demonizing an entire faith with more than a billion adherents.
Trump's ousted national security adviser, Michael Flynn, is listed as a member of ACT for America's board of advisers. Gabriel reportedly also went to the White House for a meeting with Trump's team in March.
Since taking office, Trump has somewhat moderated his message. Although he initially called for a ban on all Muslim arrivals to the United States, his so-far-unsuccessful executive orders apply only to certain Muslim-majority countries, as well as Syrian refugees. He also has wooed various Muslim-majority nations, including Saudi Arabia, whose foreign policy priorities in the Middle East have been wholeheartedly embraced by the White House. But while Trump may change his tune out of expedience, many of his allies and supporters, like the few who marched on Saturday, seem more committed.
“In New York, a dozen members of Identity Evropa, which seeks a whites-only state, came to support the ACT rally, wearing tucked-in dress shirts, sunglasses and slicked-down side-parts,” wrote Hauslohner. “In Harrisburg, Pa., a group that has claimed credit for white nationalist posters on college campuses said they wanted Muslims out of the United States entirely.”
Such extremism does not reflect the policies or beliefs of most Americans on the right. But it has found alarming encouragement from the occupants of the White House and certain hard line GOP politicians. Last week, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) wrote on Facebook that “all of Christendom … is at war with Islamic horror” and that the only solution is to “kill them all.”
The belief in a kind of clash of civilizations seems to hover around the Trump administration — a polarizing message that would never have been propagated by previous administrations, whether Democratic or Republican. Consider, for example, the declarations of White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, which I cited in an earlier report on how some Trump supporters are obsessed with the Crusades.
“If you look back at the long history of the Judeo-Christian West struggle against Islam, I believe that our forefathers kept their stance, and I think they did the right thing,” said Bannon at a meeting of European conservatives in 2014. He spoke of “a global war against Islamic fascism” and invoked two famous medieval battles in which largely Christian forces in Europe repulsed Muslim armies. “I think they kept it out of the world, whether it was at Vienna, or Tours, or other places. … It bequeathed to us the great institution that is the church of the West,” he said.
In the fever swamp of the alt-right — an online world of ultranationalists, white supremacists and Islamophobes — memes proliferate showing Trump as a holy warrior of Christendom.
Trump the Crusader!! MAGA!! pic.twitter.com/Z7csrVXk2U — bob morrissey (@majik7out) May 12, 2017
The Latin phrase “Deus Vult” — “it is the will of God” or “God wills it,” supposedly uttered by Pope Urban II in 1095 when he launched the First Crusade — has become a popular hashtag among the alt-right. The irony here, of course, is how they mimic the worldview professed by Islamist militants, who cloak their violence in appeals to a mythic past and a glorious civilizational struggle.
In both cases, any understanding of the real history would undermine their misguided zeal. But given Trump's various misreadings of the past, it's no surprise that his supporters exult in fictions about the enemy — and exhibit some of the worst instincts of the very people they seek to defeat.
Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions to know? Sign up for the Today's WorldView newsletter.Both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee are shown to have benefits in a new US study (AFP Photo/Stan Honda)
Miami (AFP) - People who report drinking three to five cups of coffee per day are less likely to die prematurely from heart disease, suicide, diabetes or Parkinson's disease, US researchers said Monday.
Both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee were shown to have benefits, said the study by researchers at the Harvard University Chan School of Public Health published in the November 16 edition of the journal Circulation.
The study compared people who don't drink coffee, or drank less than two cups daily, to those who reported drinking "moderate" amounts of coffee, or up to five cups daily.
The study did not prove a cause-and-effect for coffee and the reduced likelihood of certain diseases, but uncovered an apparent link that aligns with previous research, and that scientists would like to probe further.
"Bioactive compounds in coffee reduce insulin resistance and systematic inflammation," said first author Ming Ding, a doctoral student in the Department of Nutrition.
"That could explain some of our findings. However, more studies are needed to investigate the biological mechanisms producing these effects."
No protective effect was found against cancer in this study. Some previous research has pointed to a link between coffee consumption and a lower risk of certain cancers.
The study was based on data gathered from three large, ongoing surveys including some 300,000 nurses and other health professionals who agree to answer questionnaires about their own medical conditions and habits at regular intervals over the course of 30 years.
"In the whole study population, moderate coffee consumption was associated with reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease, and suicide," said the findings.
Researchers also accounted for potential confounding factors such as smoking, body mass index, exercise, alcohol consumption, and diet. But the fact that the research relied on surveys, which use self-reported behavior, could raise questions about its reliability.
And experts warned that coffee -- a substance adored by many devotees -- may not be right for everyone.
"Regular consumption of coffee can be included as part of a healthy, balanced diet," said senior author Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard.
"However, certain populations such as pregnant women and children should be cautious about high caffeine intake from coffee or other beverages."In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Heavenly Mother or the Mother in Heaven is the mother of human spirits and the wife of God the Father. Those who accept the Mother in Heaven doctrine trace its origins to Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. The doctrine became more widely known after Smith's death in 1844.
The heavenly Mother doctrine is taught by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church),[1] the Restoration Church of Jesus Christ,[2][3] and branches of Mormon fundamentalism, such as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.[citation needed] The doctrine is not generally recognized by other denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement, such as the Community of Christ, where trinitarianism is predominant.
In the LDS Church, the doctrine of "heavenly Mother" or "heavenly parents" is not frequently discussed; however, the doctrine can be found in some church hymns and has been briefly discussed in church teaching manuals and sermons.[4]
Origin of the theology [ edit ]
The theological underpinnings of a belief in Heavenly Mother are attributed to Joseph Smith, who shortly before his death in 1844 outlined a controversial view of God that differed dramatically from traditional Christian consensus.[5] Smith's theology included the belief that God would share his glory with his children and that righteous couples might become exalted beings, or gods and goddesses, in the afterlife.
Although there is no known record of Smith explicitly teaching about heavenly Mother, several of Smith's contemporaries attributed the theology to him either directly, or as a natural consequence of his theological stance. An editorial footnote of History of the Church 5:254, quotes Smith as saying: "Come to me; here's the mysteries man hath not seen, Here's our Father in heaven, and Mother, the Queen." In addition, a secondhand account states that in 1839, Smith had told Zina Diantha Huntington, after the death of her mother, that "not only would she know her mother again on the other side, but'more than that, you will meet and become acquainted with your eternal Mother, the wife of your Father in Heaven'".[6]:65
In addition, members of the Anointed Quorum, a highly select leadership group in the early church that was privy to Smith's teachings, also acknowledged the existence of a Heavenly Mother.[6]:65–67[7] The Times and Seasons published a letter to the editor from a pseudonymous person named "Joseph's Speckled Bird", in which the author stated that in the pre-Earth life, the spirit "was a child with his father and mother in heaven".[8] The apostle Parley Pratt even taught in an official church periodical that God may have had multiple wives before Christ's time, and that after the death of Mary (the mother of Jesus) she may have become another eternal wife.[9][10]
In 1845, after the death of Smith, the poet Eliza Roxcy Snow published a poem entitled "My Father in Heaven", (later titled "Invocation, or the Eternal Father and Mother", now used as the lyrics in the Latter-day Saint hymn "O My Father"), which acknowledged the existence of a heavenly Mother.[11] The poem contained the following language:
In the heavens are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare.
Truth is reason: truth eternal
tells me I've a mother there.
When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
in your royal courts on high?
Some early Mormons considered Snow to be a "prophetess".[12] Later, church president Joseph F. Smith (a nephew of Joseph Smith) explained his own belief that "God revealed that principle that we have a mother as well as a father in heaven to Joseph Smith; Joseph Smith revealed it to Eliza Snow Smith, his wife; and Eliza Snow was inspired, being a poet, to put it into verse."[6]:65 A companion hymn "Our Mother in Heaven" was published in the church's Juvenile Instructor four decades later.[13][14]
The doctrine is also attributed to several other early church leaders. According to one sermon by Brigham Young, Smith once said he "would not worship a God who had not a father; and I do not know that he would if he had not a mother; the one would be as absurd as the other."[15]
Worship and prayer to Heavenly Mother [ edit ]
Orson Pratt, an early apostle of the LDS Church, opposed worshiping a heavenly Mother, because, he reasoned, like wives and children in any household, heavenly Mother was required to "yield the most perfect obedience to" her husband.[16]
Early leader George Q. Cannon thought that "there is too much of this inclination to deify 'our mother in heaven'", arguing that she is not part of the Godhead and that to worship her would detract from the worship of heavenly Father.[17]:78 However, early 20th-century church leader Rudger Clawson disagreed, arguing that "it doesn't take away from our worship of the Eternal Father, to adore our Eternal Mother... [W]e honor woman when we acknowledge Godhood in her eternal prototype."[17]:79
Some church leaders have interpreted the term "God" to represent the divinely exalted couple with both a masculine and feminine half. Erastus Snow, an early Mormon apostle, wrote "'do you mean we should understand that Deity consists of a man and woman?' Most certainly I do. If I believe anything that God has ever said about himself... I must believe that deity consists of a man and woman." This notion was reaffirmed by later church leaders Hugh B. Brown, James E. Talmage, Melvin J. Ballard, and Bruce R. McConkie.[17]:79–80
Some Mormon feminists have adopted the practice of praying to the heavenly Mother. However, LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley opposed this practice, saying that Mormons should not pray to the heavenly Mother because Christ instructed his disciples to address the heavenly Father in their prayers.[18] When a feminist professor was fired from Brigham Young University in the 1990s, it was revealed that one of the reasons was her public advocacy of praying to heavenly Mother.[19] Other Mormon women have been excommunicated for similar publications such as teaching that Heavenly Mother is the Holy Ghost.[20]
Acknowledgment by the LDS Church [ edit ]
One early authoritative statement from the entire First Presidency on the subject is the "origin of man" letter by the on the 50th anniversary of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species.[21] The church also later implied the theology in the 1995 statement "The Family: A Proclamation to the World", where the church officially stated that each person is a "spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents". Other references to heavenly parents can be found in Latter-day Saint speeches and literature.[22] In 2015, an official essay was published on the church website which surveyed 171 years of statements about a Mother in Heaven and confirmed that it is part of church doctrine.[23]
Statements by church leaders [ edit ]
Various LDS Church leaders throughout the history of the church have spoken openly about the doctrine of a heavenly Mother.
Brigham Young, who taught Adam is Heavenly Father, taught that his wife Eve is heavenly Mother: "I tell you more, Adam is the father of our spirits... [O]ur spirits and the spirits of all the heavenly family were begotten by Adam, and born of Eve.... I tell you, when you see your Father in the Heavens, you will see Adam; when you see your Mother that bore your spirit, you will see Mother Eve."[24] (Since the LDS Church has formally denounced since the 1970s the Adam–God doctrine as taught by Young,[25] today this statement is doctrinal only to certain groups of Mormon fundamentalists.) Young also preached that resurrected "eternal mothers" would "be prepared to frame earths like unto ours".[17]:80
Susa Young Gates, a daughter of Young and a women's rights activist, stated that the "great Heavenly Mother was the great molder" of Abraham's personality. "Gates speculated that Heavenly Mother has played a significant role in all our lives, looking over us with 'watchful care' and providing 'careful training.'"[17]:75
Early 20th-century church leader B. H. Roberts pointed out that the heavenly Mother doctrine presents a "conception of the nobility of women and of motherhood and of wife-hood—placing her side by side with the Divine Father."[17]:77 Apostle John A. Widtsoe, a contemporary of Roberts, wrote that the afterlife "is given radiant warmth by the thought that... [we have] a mother who possesses the attributes of Godhood."[17]:78 In 1894, Juvenile Instructor, an official publication of the LDS Church, published a hymn entitled "Our Mother in Heaven".[26] A 1925 First Presidency statement included the lines "All men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother.... [M]an, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents.... [and] is capable, by experience through ages and aeons, of evolving into a God."[27][28][29]
There has also been some more recent discussion of heavenly Mother by LDS Church leaders. In a speech given at BYU in 2010, Glenn L. Pace, a member of the LDS Church's First Quorum of the Seventy, said, "Sisters, I testify that when you stand in front of your heavenly parents in those royal courts on high and look into Her eyes and behold Her countenance, any question you ever had about the role of women in the kingdom will evaporate into the rich celestial air, because at that moment you will see standing directly in front of you, your divine nature and destiny."[30]
Controversy [ edit ]
According to historian Linda Wilcox, heavenly Mother "is a shadowy and elusive belief floating around the edges of Mormon consciousness".[6]:64 Though the belief is held by most Mormons, the doctrine is not actively advertised by the LDS Church, though heavenly Mother is sometimes mentioned in talks or sermons in sacrament meetings and in Sunday School classes.[citation needed] The topic is most often consistent with the theology discussed above.
The lack of focused teaching and more information about her has caused speculation among Mormons that this de-emphasis may have a divine purpose, such as to avoid drawing attention to her and to preserve the sacredness of her existence. In 1960, an LDS seminary teacher published in a Mormon encyclopedia that "the name of our Mother in Heaven has been withheld" because of the way God the Father's and Jesus Christ's names have been profaned.[31]
Margaret Merrill Toscano writes that "[w]hile no General Authority has made an official statement denying belief in a Heavenly Mother nor stating that her existence is too sacred to discuss, several factors may influence the current trend that sees even a mention of Heavenly Mother as treading on forbidden ground. Members take their cues about what is acceptable doctrine from talks of General Authorities and official church manuals and magazines".[32] These materials rarely mention heavenly Mother directly. The publicly discussed church discipline of feminists like Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, Maxine Hanks, Janice Merrill Allred, and Margaret Toscano, all of whom were disciplined in part for statements related to the heavenly Mother, may add to the general sense that discourse about her is strictly forbidden.[32] However, Brigham Young University professor David L. Paulsen has argued that such a belief finds no official backing in statements by church leaders, and that the concept that the heavenly Mother is consigned to a "sacred silence" is largely the result of a relatively recent cultural perception.[17]:75
Though LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley has said the prohibition on praying to heavenly Mother in no way "belittles or denigrates her", some[who?] feel that it makes her seem less important than heavenly Father. Others assume that both heavenly parents are equally important and expect that more will be revealed when we are ready.[editorializing] Mormon fundamentalists believe that heavenly Father has multiple wives, and that although humankind shares the same heavenly Father, they do not all share the same heavenly Mother.
The question of how heavenly Mother is regarded ties into a larger set of questions among many Mormons about power in relationships between men and women. When asked why God said that Adam would rule over Eve, Hinckley said, "I do not know... My own interpretation of that sentence is that the husband shall have a governing responsibility to provide for, to protect, to strengthen and shield the wife. Any man who belittles or abuses or terrorizes, or who rules in unrighteousness, will deserve and, I believe, receive the reprimand of a just God who is the Eternal Father of both His sons and daughters."[33]
Reported visions of Heavenly Mother [ edit ]
Heavenly Mother is absent in the visionary experiences in Mormon scriptures. The only recorded visionary experience is related by Zebedee Coltrin and recorded in the journal of Abraham H. Cannon.
One day the Prophet Joseph asked him [Coltrin] and Sidney Rigdon to accompany him into the woods to pray. When they had reached a secluded spot Joseph laid down on his back and stretched out his arms. He told the brethren to lie one on each arm, and then shut their eyes. After they had prayed he told them to open their eyes. They did so and saw a brilliant light surrounding a pedestal which seemed to rest on the earth. They closed their eyes and again prayed. They then saw, on opening them, the Father seated upon a throne; they prayed again and on looking saw the Mother also; after praying and looking the fourth time they saw the Savior added to the group.[34]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]Head Coach Doug Pederson announced the first team offense will stay in much longer this week against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Philadelphia Eagles will take the field to battle the Pittsburgh Steelers tonight, kicking things off for the second week of pre-season. Many Eagles fans may tune this one out due to the Carson Wentz injury, but there’s still a lot to be excited about. Keep in mind these teams also meet in week three of the regular season.
Eagles plan to play starting QB Sam Bradford for 1.5 quarters Thu in PIT. Steelers will once again sit Roethlisberger, Brown, Bell, DeAngelo — Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) August 16, 2016
Doug Pederson announced Sam Bradford and the starting offense will be playing for the entirety of the first quarter. They may even play a few drives into the second. Pederson surprisingly pulled the first team offense after one 3 play drive against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Thursday. It’ll be a relief to not have to watch the Eagles backups for the entire first half again.
MORE FROM EDITORIALS
It was nice to see the Birds capitalize on a fumble and score quickly, but it didn’t exactly tell us a whole lot about the first-team offense. Ryan Mathews had two solid runs for 15 total yards and a touchdown. His 2015 season was very productive as well, but he’s going to have to shoulder much more of the load this year. Given his injury history, it’s going to be important that guys like Kenjon Barner and Wendell Smallwood step up.
The offensive line looked solid despite limited action, but it also served as a reminder of how important Lane Johnson is to this offensive line. None of the Eagles’ backups along the offensive line managed to impress. That’s a cause for concern.
Want your voice heard? Join the Inside The Iggles team! Write for us!
Some of the hostility toward Bradford in Philly may be unfair. He is still the Eagles’ best shot to be competitive this season. He threw a grand total of one pass last week, a 3 yard completion to Brent Celek. Every wide receiver not named Paul Turner seemed to vanish last week. It’s going to be crucial that someone steps up and becomes a reliable target for Bradford, or it’s going to be a long year for this team and its fans. Newly acquired wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham won’t be active for this game, but he’ll eventually be in the thick of things soon enough.
The first team defense, overall, was very impressive against the Buccaneers last week, and that’s encouraging considering how they made the Bucs look like “The Greatest Show On Turf” last year. Still, this should be a great test for them despite the fact that the Steelers will be sitting a majority of their offensive play-makers. We would have much rather seen the Steelers at full capacity to test this hungry Eagles defense.The Buffalo Bills are plummeting toward their 13th straight season without a playoff berth. Four losses in their last five games are the wrong steps toward that elusive goal.
Now they must play the team that has dominated them for a decade in a stadium where they've never won.
Beat the New England Patriots? The Bills have done it just twice in their last 21 matchups.
"They've obviously had our number," Buffalo quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said. "We're kind of down right now. We don't think we're out. I think there's still a positive vibe in the locker room. I think you have to have that, otherwise you're beat before you go play."
It's not that the Bills haven't been competitive in Foxborough.
In 2009, they led 24-13 but lost 25-24 when Tom Brady threw two touchdown passes in the last three minutes. In 2010, they led 24-23 with two minutes left in the third quarter but lost 38-30. And last season, they led 21-0 after one quarter then collapsed and lost 49-21.
So the Patriots (5-3) don't expect an easy game as they try to improve to 11-0 against the Bills (3-5) at Gillette Stadium. A victory takes on more urgency since they lead the Miami Dolphins by just one game in the AFC East.
"It's always tough against a division opponent, no matter what the guys' records are," New England defensive tackle Vince Wilfork said.
The Patriots will be rested after having a bye last week. They went into it after their best game of the season, a 45-7 win in London in which they held St. Louis scoreless after allowing a touchdown on the Rams first possession.
In that game, Brady threw a season-high four touchdown passes without an interception or a sack, Stevan Ridley ran for 127 yards and Rob Gronkowski caught two touchdown passes for the second consecutive game.
In their first meeting with the Bills this year, the Patriots trailed 21-7 early in the third quarter then scored touchdowns on six straight possessions and pulled away for a 52-28 victory. It was just the second game in NFL history in which a team had a 300-yard pass rusher, two 100-yard receivers and two 100-yard rushers in the same game.
"They are very balanced now," Buffalo linebacker Kelvin Sheppard said. "It is not just the Tom Brady show. It's not just that they are going to line up five wide and throw the ball around. Now they do have the run dimension and they are averaging about 150 yards a game and that is definitely something that we are going to have to handle."
That Bills were 2-1 going into that loss to the Patriots and followed it up with a 45-3 rout by the San Francisco 49ers in which they became the NFL's first team to allow 300 yards passing and 300 yards rushing in the same game.
Buffalo's only win in its last five games was in overtime, 19-16 over the slumping Arizona Cardinals.
Now it must try to stop the team that leads the NFL with 32.8 points and 440.8 yards per game with a defense that has allowed the second most points (31.0 per game) and yards (417.9).
"It's (about) everybody knowing their job, playing fast and saying, 'hey, you know what, they're going to make a play, but it's not letting one play turn into two, and not letting two turn into three,' " Bills defensive tackle Kyle Williams said.
Even a strong start won't mean much, not after Buffalo raced into the lead |
opens the gates, all zombie hell breaks loose. Look for the breath-taking finale, which is the most existential in all zombie films.
In these three movies, the classic slow-moving, flesh-eating zombies are represented, and they are the blueprint for the modern zombie, as seen in The Walking Dead.
Honorable Mention:
Fido: 2006 in a world where zombies are commonplace, a boy keeps a pet zombie, Fido. Fido eats the neighbors, to the annoyance and embarrassment of his parents. Starring Billy Connolly, this film is unique in that it has a poignancy generally missing from zombie flicks.
Rec: 2007 Spain: (Badly remade in the United States as Quarantine…ignore that version). Documentarian rides with a fire truck responding to an apartment building emergency with sick folk who turn into flesh-eating zombies. Shaky cameras capture the disaster as all are quarantined and left to fend for themselves.
With thanks to my friend Doug, I suggest you who embrace and celebrate creatures of the undead flesh-eating variety rent or buy these movies to educate and inspire your inner gore hound this Halloween season. ***
And if you encounter one of these in a cemetery at sundown, remember: Aim for the brain.
*from The Night of The Living Dead
**Don't think for a minute we'd include Night of the Living Dead (1968), Re-Animator (1985), Dawn of the Dead (1978) or Zombie (1979) on this list. Note to anyone who ever declared themselves a fan of the zombie movies: If you haven't seen those above, go back to gore grade school.
***these movies are NOT for children or even most teens, unless you want them obsessing about being cornered by the undead and ripped apart, ultimately resulting in expensive therapy.
Less Than Zombie
Bright Lights Big Zombie
The Zombies of Madison CountyMax Keyboard is a proud manufacturer of high-end computer keyboards and accessories. We work to equip our customers with products of premium quality, while maintaining reasonable prices. We acknowledge build-quality as the common foundation for an excellent keyboard and customization as the perfect tool to refine it. We at Max Keyboard incorporate this philosophy into every product in order to present keyboards and accessories of only the highest standards.
OUR MISSION
We at Max Keyboard are dedicated to providing a comprehensive range of high-quality products that meet even the most specialized keyboard and accessory requirements. The only thing we believe can parallel the importance of a high production standard is superior customer service. Our customers are the reason we exist. We hope to keep our customers happy and to turn all one-time purchases into lifelong customers.
We aim to provide clear, accurate, and detailed descriptions for all of our keyboards and accessories. These are available to all of our customers via our website, email, and telephone. As it becomes easier and more efficient to purchase online rather than in person, we hope that our superb range of quality products will meet your expectations, as well as save you time and money.
Feel free to contact us if you have any suggestions or ideas that you would like to share. Thank you.
IMPORTANT NOTE
Our products have been confused with keyboards of similar outer casings, such as those belonging to the "X" brand. However, we would like to emphasize that we are neither the same brand, not are they a re-branding of Max Keyboard. Our keyboards have completely different internal AND external components:
Circuit designs
LED controllers
Firmware
Keycaps
Wrist pads
Braided cables
Gold-plated connectors
Etc.
For your convenience, we have included below a comprehensive list of different features. Please feel free to contact any Max Keyboard representative with any further questions, comments, or concerns. When you purchase an authentic Max Keyboard product, we want you to rest assured that you will receive both a top-notch product and guaranteed support!
Max Nighthawk X Series "X" brand keyboard MAX keyboard uses red color dual layer printed circuit board with a very different electronic and circuit design. Nighthawk X series uses heavy duty braided cord for USB cable and Audio cables. As you can see our Nighthawk X series only required 1 USB to power everything. "X" brand needed 2 connectors. MAX Nighthawk X series uses different font and icon MAX Nighthawk X series keycap uses special coating method to make sure all the surface of the key cap is evenly coated. As you can see "X" brand keycaps are not evenly coated / painted. Authentic MAX NIGHTHAWK SERIES will come with a foam type wrist pad, not a plastic type wrist pad.
Above are just some noticeable differences between our MAX Nighthawk X series and "X" brand keyboard. There are more differences such as components being used, features and performance. We stand behind our products & services with confidence! Our goal is to provide top-quality products backed by outstanding customer service. MAX, our brand name says it all!SAA volcanic ash flight cancellations
20 Jun 2011
Update Monday: Seems like flights are leaving on schedule. Passengers are advised to call their airlines before heading for the airport, to make sure their flights are leaving on time (this is good practice whether or not there's volcanic ash floating about).
“In total, around 13 departing and 12 arriving flights were affected. We immediately deployed additional ground staff to assist passengers with information and to provide support to the airlines. We also increased staff at the security check point in order to make sure people passed through quickly once the flights were back up and running. Through our Airport Management Centres at the three main international airports, we ensured that all parties took decisions in a collaborative manner and were able to quickly respond as and when required.” said Deon Cloete, The General Manager of Cape Town International Airport.
Volcanic ash from Puyehue
Kulula and SAA cancelled a number of flights to and from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London as a result of the eruption of the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic complex in Chile. Puyehue is part of the Andes Mountain range and is over 2200m high. On the 4th June 2011 Puyehue started spewing volcanic ash 10,000m into the sky. Kulula also cancelled 2 flights to Cape Town.
SAA Travel Advisory : 22 June
Advisory No: 19
Time: 10h30 (GMT +02)
Chilean Volcanic Ash - Latest Update for flight departures to Australia
All flights to Perth are operating as scheduled. Qantas has updated its schedule for today (June 22) following a further assessment of operating conditions:
QF63 (SA7701)/ 22 Jun Sydney to Johannesburg expected arrival 23h20 (7h05m delay)
QF64 (SA7700)/ 22 Jun Johannesburg to Sydney expected departure 00h50, 23 Jun (6h35m delay)
Passengers with onward connections in Sydney will be rebooked once the flight has departed from Johannesburg.
Operating conditions in Australia and Tasman (New Zealand):
- Canberra and Melbourne operations have resumed.
- Sydney still planned to resume 14h00 (local time).
- Hobart closed for all operations today
- New Zealand ports closed for all Qantas operations today
Please note that the ash cloud movements continue changing and it is very difficult to provide accurate updates.
Check the status of your flight before travelling to the airport. If you booked through a travel agent, tour operator or other carrier please contact them directly.
You may change your booking by contacting the call centre:
South Africa: (011) 978 1111 or 0861 606 606 from 06h00 to 22h00 RSA local time
Australia : 1300 435 972
What to do if your flight has been cancelled:
If you are affected by flight cancellations, you can choose to rebook on an alternative flight or claim a full refund.
Customers travelling to or from Australia and who do not wish to travel may:
- Rebook to the same destination at a later date.
- Refund the ticket to the original form of payment - admin fee to be waivered.
Rebooking options available:
If you are booked to travel on a flight that is cancelled, you can either:
- Rebook onto another South African Airways flight at a later date at no extra charge and subject to availability in the same booking class.
If the same booking class is not available, the lowest booking class in the same cabin of travel may be booked. Service fees where applicable
will be waived.
OR
- Cancel your booking and claim a full refund to the original form of payment - admin fee to be waivered.
If your booking also includes any other SAA flights, including SA marketing flights that are not cancelled you will be able to change these flights at the same
time at no additional charge.
Next update : Should the situation change
SAA Travel Advisory : 21 June
Date: Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Advisory No: 17
Time: 14h00 (GMT +02)
Chilean Volcanic Ash - Latest Update for flight departures to Australia
South African Airways (SAA), advise customers that our flight operations to Perth for today, Tuesday 21 June will be maintained as per our schedule.
Due to the high concentration on ash cloud over Sydney Airport, Qantas has confirmed that it will not operate any flights to Sydney from 15h00 (local time in Sydney) today, Tuesday 21 June 2011. This will affect the SAA and Qantas codeshare flight for today, Tuesday 21 June as follows:
SA7700 operated as QF 064 / 21 June 2011 Johannesburg Sydney / Depart 22h20(GMT+02) – will be diverted to Brisbane today 21 June 2011
SAA advises passengers affected by this change that they may :
- Rebook to the same destination at a later date.
- Refund the ticket to the original form of payment - admin fee to be waivered.
SAA with Qantas will continue to closely monitor the situation and customers will be advised accordingly.
For further assistance please contact the SAA Call Centre or Travel Agent
Contact details
South Africa
SAA Call Centre numbers:
Johannesburg (27 ) 11 978 1111 or 0861 606 606
Next update : Wednesday, 22 June 2011 at 08h30(GMT+02)
SAA Travel Advisory : 20 June
South African Airways (SAA) advises customers that our flight operations into and out of Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London, that were disrupted due to Volcanic Ash on Saturday, 18 June and Sunday 19 June, have returned to normal schedules, as of today Monday, 20 June 2011.
SAA will continue to closely monitor the situation and customers will be advised accordingly of any changes.
SAA Travel Advisory : 19 June
Date: Sunday, 19 June 2011
Advisory No: 16
Time: 19h00 (GMT +2)
Volcanic Ash - Latest Update
South African Airways (SAA) advise customers that we will maintain our flight schedules into and out of Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London for this evening, Sunday 19th June 2011 and tomorrow morning, Monday 20 June 2011, subject to any change in flight circumstances. SAA will continue to closely monitor the situation and customers will be advised accordingly.
For further assistance with flight rebooking please contact the SAA Call Centre or your Travel Agent. It is recommended that passengers do not go to the Airport, unless they are in possession of a confirmed flight reservation to or from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London for today Sunday, 19 June 2011 and tomorrow morning Monday 20 June 2011.
SAA Travel Advisory : 19 june
Date: Sunday, 19 June 2011
Advisory No: 15
Time: 15h00 (GMT +2)
Volcanic Ash - Latest Update
The safety of all South African Airways (SAA) customers will not be compromised, and the airline has elected to cancel flights only as a safety precaution. All customers are continuously advised of the situation and will be accommodated on the next available flight. For the remainder of today, Sunday 19 June 2011, we will maintain the flight schedules into and out of Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London subject to any change in flight circumstances. SAA will continue to closely monitor the situation and customers will be advised accordingly.
For further assistance with flight rebooking please contact the SAA Call Centre or your Travel Agent. It is recommended that passengers do not go to the Airport, unless they are in possession of a confirmed flight reservation to or from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London for today Sunday, 19 June 2011.
SAA Travel Advisory : 19 June
South African Airways (SAA) has only cancelled the following flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town for today, Sunday 19 June 2011.
SA 3367 Johannesburg - Cape Town Depart 06h00
Johannesburg - Cape Town Depart 06h00 SA 308 Cape Town - Johannesburg Depart 08h40
Cape Town - Johannesburg Depart 08h40 SA 307 Johannesburg - Cape Town Depart 07h00
Johannesburg - Cape Town Depart 07h00 SA 322 Cape Town - Johannesburg Depart 09h50
The safety of all SAA customers will not be compromised, and the airline has elected to cancel these flights only as a safety precaution. All customers are continuously advised of the situation and will be accommodated on the next available flight.
The following SAA flight for this morning were/will be operated as follows
SA 313 Johannesburg - Cape Town Depart 08h30
Johannesburg - Cape Town Depart 08h30 SA 3377 Johannesburg - Cape Town Depart 08h30 (additional flight)
Johannesburg - Cape Town Depart 08h30 (additional flight) SA 314 Cape Town - Johannesburg Depart 08h30
Cape Town - Johannesburg Depart 08h30 SA 9220 Cape Town - London Depart 09h00
For the remainder of today Sunday 19 June 2011, SAA will maintain the flight schedules into and out of Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London subject to any change in flight circumstances.
SAA will continue to closely monitor the situation and customers will be advised accordingly.
SAA Travel Advisory : 18 June
Date: Saturday, 18 June 2011
Advisory No: 11
Time: 16h00 (GMT +2) Volcanic Ash - Latest Update South African Airways (SAA) advises customers that all flight departures for today Saturday, 18 June, to and from Cape Town from 17h45, Port Elizabeth from 17:15 and East London from 17h05 onwards have been suspended due to ash clouds. The Cape Town to London flight (SA220) scheduled for departure tonight from Cape Town will night stop and depart tomorrow morning as SA9220 at 08h00. All affected flights will be closed for sale for this evening. Customers scheduled to depart on these flights are advised NOT to go to the airports. SAA will continue to closely monitor the situation and customers will be advised accordingly.
Customers are advised to contact SAA or their travel agent. Contact details
South Africa
SAA Call Centre numbers:
Johannesburg (27 ) 11 978 1111 or 0861 606 606 Next Update: Subject to change in circumstances
ACSA announcement 2
JOINT RELEASE: – 16h00
AIRPORTS COMPANY SOUTH AFRICA (ACSA) AND AIR TRAFFIC AND NAVIGATION SERVICES (ATNS)
Update on Volcanic Ash Cloud in South African Airspace
Johannesburg, 19th June 2011
Further to information provided yesterday, Airports Company South Africa would like to advise all passengers that flight operations are returning back to normal. ACSA wishes to advise travelers that despite flight operations returning to normal there could be rotational delays on certain flights as the backlog is being cleared.
To support the airlines ACSA has deployed additional staff on the ground in order to assist passengers where necessary. ACSA has also increased staff at the security check point in order to make sure people pass through quickly and through its Airport Management Centres at the three main international airports, ACSA is ensuring that all parties make decisions in a collaborative manner and that we are all able to quickly respond as and when required. ATNS is constantly monitoring the situation with the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Action Centre (VAAC) and is regularly updating airlines.
Passengers travelling today and in the next few days are advised to contact their airline in order to confirm their flight details before going to the airports.
All airport role players are working together to help minimise the inconvenience to the passengers.
At this point in time the areas affected by the Volcanic Ash Cloud are the Cape Town coastal areas up to East London and Port Elizabeth, whilst inland the risk is low to medium and weakening. The Ash Cloud is riding the Frontal Cold Weather System and is closely linked to that movement. The system is characterised by heavy rain and strong winds.
Currently the Ash Cloud is from surface to 20 000 feet and in some places it is at 35 000 feet and the density varies. ATNS will continue to work closely with the airlines and the Airport Authorities to ensure the optimum and safe use of the airspace.
ACSA and the Air Traffic and Navigation Services Company are monitoring the situation and will update travelers as and when new information becomes available.
ACSA Contact:
Solomon Makgale
Group Manager Communications
Corporate Office
Airports Company South Africa
Direct: +27 (0) 11 723 1536
Fax to E-Mail: +27 (0) 86 602 0132
Cell: +27 (0) 82 781 8863
E-Mail: Solomon.Makgale@airports.co.za
Web: http://www.acsa.co.za
ATNS Contact:
Anna Sanfilippo
Internal Communications Officer
Air Traffic and Navigation Services South Africa
Private Bag X15
Kempton Park
Gauteng
1620
Tel: +27 11 961 0313
Fax: +27 11 961 0413
Cell: +27 82 569 9863
E-mail: annas@atns.co.za
Visit our website: www.atns.co.za
ACSA announcement 1
Volcanic ash in Cape Town airspace Saturday, June 18, 2011 | 00:00 Airports Company South Africa would like to advise all passengers travelling today and in the next few days to contact their airline in order to confirm their flight details as volcanic ash has been sighted in the Cape Town airspace and has impacted various flights in and out of Cape Town International, Port Elizabeth and East London airports.
Other airports will be affected as well. ACSA and the Air Traffic and Navigation Services company are monitoring the situation and will update travellers as and when new information becomes available.
Announcement from South African Civil Aviation Authority
MEDIA STATEMENT
14 June 2011
SACAA AND ATNS MONITORS VOLCANIC ASH SITUATION
The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) and the Air Traffic and Services (ATNS)
are currently monitoring the Volcanic Ash situation.
A teleconference was held between ATNS and the Volcanic Ash Action Centre in Toulouse
France at 11h00 today, 14
th
June 2011. The situation is being closely monitored and a new
forecast is expected at 14h00.
The SACAA and ATNS are also closely interacting with the airlines and Airport Authorities and
at present there is no operational impact. Operators have been informed through the
aeronautical publications.
More information will be released as it becomes available.
-ENDS-
About the SACAA:
The South African Civil Aviation Authority (“SACAA”) is a juristic body established in terms of the Civil Aviation Act, 2009 (Act
No. 13 of 2009) (“the Act”). SACAA is governed and controlled by the Civil Aviation Authority Board (“the Board”). In terms of
mandate, the SACAA is tasked with promoting and maintaining a safe, secure and sustainable civil aviation environment, by
regulating and overseeing the functioning and development of the industry in an efficient, cost-effective, and customer-friendly
manner according to international standards.
For more information contact:
Ms Phindiwe Gwebu
Senior Manager: Corporate Communications and Marketing
SA Civil Aviation Authority
Tel: (011) 545 1086
Cell: 083 461 6070
E-mail: gwebup@caa.co.za
ATNS announcement
(12 June 2011)
VOLCANIC ASH MAY AFFECT FLIGHTS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN AIRSPACE
Volcanic ash from a Chilean volcano which has travelled around the world and may start affecting some flights in southern South Africa and may also affect air traffic for the next few days.
With the assistance of the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) Toulouse and South African Weather services (SAWS), Central Airspace Management Unit (CAMU) is closely monitoring a large volcanic ash plume resulting from the eruption of Cordón Caulle in Southern Chile on 4 June. The initial eruption was estimated to reach a height of 50,000ft (15 km), with eruptions still continuing to 30,000ft (9 km).
While the main ash cloud is expected to pass to the south of the African mainland it has reached airspace in the Cape Town FIR and Johannesburg Oceanic Airspace. The Current density of the ash cloud is low. Crews have reported the ash as smog or smoke with a smell of smoke while flying through.
The northern edge of the cloud is expected to reach Namibian southern border, De Aar, and towards Durban, but it is also diffusing. This part of the ash cloud is not expected impact the Johannesburg FIR for the moment, but other parts of the ash cloud are being closely watched in case they move over South Africa.
Volcanic Ash Advisories have been issued by Toulouse, Darwin and Wellington Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres (VAACs) for ash clouds which extend over parts of the Atlantic Ocean, southern Africa, the Indian Ocean and Southern Ocean.
ATNS’s Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) Specialists in the CAMU are working with airlines to minimise disruption by providing advice and if required rerouting advice to aircraft wherever possible through area control centres. CAMU will release updates regularly to the Industry.
Due to the current low density predications of the ash cloud, the decisions on whether or not flights will operate will be made by individual airlines and operators. Detailed information on the volcanic ash cloud is being provided to the airlines, SACAA and ATNS by the VAAC Toulouse. The airlines will make decisions on how flights operate based on a careful assessment of this information. If the ash cloud becomes denser, then the SACAA will assess the situation and may close parts of the airspace in collaboration with CAMU.
For the latest information refer to the VAAC Toulouse website. This contains current maps and forecasts of ash movements in relation to the African Continent.
For more information:
Toulouse VAAC: http://www.meteo.fr/vaac/evaa.html
South African Weather services: http://aviation.weathersa.co.za/#aviation/metars?type=sigmet
Kind regards,
Central Airspace Management Unit
Air Traffic and Navigation Services
Tel: +27 11 928 6433
Fax: +27 11 928 6420
E-mail: camu@atns.co.zaIsrael is tightening its crackdown on Palestinian, Israeli and international activists. Ryan Rodrick Beiler
An Israeli citizen is claiming asylum in Canada, citing his government’s escalating repression of political activism, particularly the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
Gilad Paz told The Electronic Intifada that he landed at Montreal airport on 11 August, after traveling from Tel Aviv, and immediately asked for political asylum.
He said he told the Canadian asylum officer that he is a BDS and human rights activist.
Paz, 34, is an attorney who specializes in civil cases and employment law. He has also been a member of Amnesty International’s Israel section and the leftist Zionist party Meretz for several years.
He said he did his obligatory military service at a desk job in the Israeli air force and that he never had a combat role.
Paz, who was born in Israel, is pessimistic about the country’s future without a fundamental change. “I don’t see a future for this country. Maybe with the two-state solution, but I do not see any horizon for that right now,” he said. “It’s a dream that is never going to come true.”
Alternatively, he said, there could be a one-state solution with equal rights for all: “Maybe this is the best solution. Maybe it is the only moral solution.”
But nothing is going to happen if people can’t push and advocate for change, and he sees that right under growing threat.
“Evil intentions”
Gilad Paz
Paz says his BDS advocacy has taken place online, especially on Facebook, and he acknowledges that he has yet to face any personal consequences for speaking out.
Long-time activists in Israel familiar with BDS circles there told The Electronic Intifada they did not know Paz in person.
While Israel has jailed many Palestinians over mere Facebook posts, it has not used this kind of repression against Israeli Jews.
“There is nothing that was done yet, but I am assuming that after the speeches of Erdan it will become a reality very soon,” Paz said.
He was referring to recent speeches by public security minister Gilad Erdan, the Israeli official in charge of combating the BDS movement domestically and internationally.
Earlier this month, Erdan and interior minister Aryeh Deri formed a task force to prevent the entry of foreign activists Israel claims are affiliated with organizations that support BDS and expel those who have already entered territories under Israeli control.
“This is a necessary step, given the evil intentions of the delegitimization activists working to spread lies and distortions about the reality in our region,” Erdan said.
Paz told The Electronic Intifada he had been thinking seriously about seeking asylum since a speech Erdan gave in June at the Herzliya conference, a high-profile annual gathering of Israel’s political and military elites.
“The message has to be that it’s not worth being a BDS activist,” Erdan said. “Anybody who works to delegitimize Israel, to bring an end to the Zionist enterprise, they should know that there will be a price.”
“I made the decision after the speech of Gilad Erdan; I concluded that I am not going to have any choice,” Paz said. “I am assuming that this speech and the [transparency law] was aimed to give a clue to people that we do not have any more place in Israel.”
Denying entry
The crackdown against Palestinian and international activists is already intensifying.
Earlier this month, members of a delegation of five US citizens were interrogated about their political activities and denied entry by Israel.
And last week, Charlotte Kates, coordinator for the prisoner solidarity group Samidoun, was denied entry as she attempted to join a group of European parliamentarians and lawyers traveling to Palestine in support of hunger striker Bilal Kayed.
Kates, a US citizen, said she was interrogated about her support for BDS and her online activities. She said she was denied entry after refusing to provide lists of names of contacts and activists.
Perhaps the highest-profile assault on freedom of expression so far has been Israel’s effective travel ban on Omar Barghouti, the Palestinian human rights defender and co-founder of the BDS movement.
Israel imposed the ban in April, soon after public threats by Israeli ministers.
Attacks and threats
At the time, Amnesty International strongly condemned these threats, warning that “an escalation of acts of intimidation by the government and attacks and threats by settlers and other non-state actors have created an increasingly dangerous environment” for human rights defenders in Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The group expressed particular concern for the “safety and liberty of Palestinian human rights defender Omar Barghouti, and other boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) activists, following calls alluding to threats, including of physical harm and deprivation of basic rights, made by Israeli ministers.”
Paz also cited the so-called transparency law as part of the reason he now feels unsafe in Israel. The new law will require more than two dozen Israeli human rights groups to prominently declare that they receive more than half their funding from foreign governments.
“The law, written in a way to exempt many organizations that support government policies and settlement activities, including those that receive foreign private donations, sets back freedom of association in Israel,” Human Rights Watch has said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was “deeply troubled” by the law.
Even the European Union, which rarely criticizes Israel, said that the requirements “imposed by the new law go beyond the legitimate need for transparency and seem aimed at constraining the activities of these civil society organizations working in Israel.”
September hearing
In 2013, Canada’s then Conservative government added Israel, excluding the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to a list of designated “safe countries” where the presumption is that “it is less likely for a person to be persecuted compared to other areas.”
In 2015, a Canadian federal court threw out government rules that limited appeals by aslyum seekers from these supposedly safe countries, calling them discriminatory.
From 2004-2013, Canada gave permanent residence to a total of 684 refugees and their dependents from Israel, roughly the same number as from the “State of Palestine,” Honduras, Angola and Egypt.
The acceptance rate for applicants from Israel has varied from year to year. Statistics, however, cannot predict what will happen to any particular person since all cases are supposed to be decided on individual merit.
Gilad Paz is preparing for his asylum hearing he says is scheduled for 29 September. His claim would have to succeed despite the fact that he has a thin resumé as an activist, notwithstanding Israel’s clear moves against human rights defenders.
Asked what he would do if his claim is rejected, he said, “In this case I will have to appeal or take the risk and come back to Israel and see what will happen.”
“I’m very, very afraid what is going to happen because the Israeli government knows I claimed asylum,” Paz added.Bernie Sanders continues to grow his Latino outreach staff, adding Cesar Vargas, a high-profile DREAMer activist who has fought for undocumented youth to be able to serve in the military and advocated for Obama's executive actions on immigration last year.
Vargas, who will initially focus on Nevada, joins the growing Hispanic outreach team led by Arturo Carmona, who recently left advocacy organization Presente to serve in the role as well as the southwest political director.
Vargas, 31, will work to mobilize young voters, particularly in the Southwest, where Nevada is the third state on the Democratic nominating calendar.
"I joined the campaign because the senator believes not only that we should meet DREAMers but that DREAMers should be part of the conversation to champion policies for the Latino community," Vargas said in a statement to BuzzFeed News.
A source with knowledge said Sanders's campaign said they are excited about the hire because of Vargas place at the heart of the DREAMer movement, which will help build a bridge to young Hispanics.
Vargas, who has tried to become the first undocumented lawyer to practice in New York, joins Javier Gonzalez, who was named the Nevada state field director. Gonzalez previously worked in labor for the SEIU, on organizing efforts like the million people "negra marchas" — marches for immigration efforts — in 2006.
Reached for comment, Carmona said Gonzalez hire will help Sanders in Nevada.
"It's a huge deal. Javier Gonzalez comes from a line of organizing that has amassed a number of political victories organizing Latinos, immigrants, janitors and undocumented immigrants," he said of his work in California where they worked together.
Vargas, who was with Arizona's Dream Action Coalition, is the second DREAMer activist hired by a Democratic presidential campaign, joining Lorella Praeli, formerly of United We Dream (UWD), who became Hillary Clinton's Latino outreach director earlier this year.
While the Sanders campaign has garnered massive, organic enthusiasm from progressives, Clinton's operation in Nevada features experienced operatives who have been in place since April and were part of Obama's successful 2012 efforts in the state.
Cristina Jimenez, the managing director of UWD, said the hires speak to the power of the immigration movement, and considers it a positive that these campaigns have people within them who have been undocumented, but she said organizations like hers have to look out for the community.
"What I said to Lorella and would say to the others is: I’ll see you on the battlefield," she said. "You have a boss now and you're going to be working for their interest."You and “Old Geoff” spent a lot of time together. Did you have any scrapes during your travels?
I suppose the nearest I came to believing I was in real danger was when I got lost in a whiteout in Tibet. I was up there in the winter and that’s not advisable, especially if you’re ill equipped. I was cycling up into the mountains and it started to snow, and then it slowly became a blizzard. I lost the track and was pushing through knee-deep snow. Then, just when I was thinking about digging a hole and sleeping in the snow, I came across a small hut where a Tibetan family let me stay with them for the night. It was sort of miraculous. If I believed in fate, this would have been it.
Isn’t it quite tricky to get into Tibet as a solo traveller?
Yeah. I realized the only way I could do it would be to get into China first and then sneak in, because if you want to go officially then you need a driver and a guide. So one night, at about 3am, I managed to cut a hole in the fence at the military base that guards the entrance to Tibet. I got caught after three weeks, but it was interesting while it lasted.
Didn’t you also have a near-miss with an elephant in Botswana?
I did indeed. I was following the road in the north east of Botswana called the “Elephant Highway”. The elephants are perfectly used to vehicles, but a silent vehicle moving at speed with an animal-type shape is quite unnerving. They’re not used to bicycles. There was a large bull grazing on the roadside, so I just cycled past him, but as I went past he stepped up towards the roadside and flapped his ears out and started waving his trunk and trumpeting. In that instance he looked like a double-decker bus. Just huge. He started chasing me, so I had to keep pedalling as hard and fast as I could. He eventually slowed off, but there was about a hundred metres where I was too afraid to look back.
Mongolia, by Charlie Walker
What was the most memorable meal you had on the road?
In one supermarket in Sweden there was a pyramid display of cheap, tinned meat. The label was a white sticker with cartoony pictures of fish on it. They were disgustingly cheap – and that’s the key word. It was gelatinous and not very tasty. Then the next time I stocked up in a supermarket I saw the same can was surrounded by animal food… I had been eating cat food for three days.
Anything more… exotic?
I inadvertently ate pig’s penis in China. It didn’t taste that bad.
Which was the friendliest country that you visited?
Iran, hands down. There are such negative preconceptions about that country, but as a rule, the more suppressive or autocratic the regime, the nicer the people are in defiance of that. On a daily basis I was invited into people’s homes, and I couldn’t accept every offer because I never would have got anywhere. It’s just part of the culture; one of the pillars for Islam is hospitality for travellers because of the Hajj – the pilgrimage to Mecca.
So did people join you during your round-the-world pilgrimage?
I met a German guy in Vietnam called Micky. We were in a bar, and late that night he said: “You know, I think I’ll sell my motorbike and buy a bicycle, and we will cycle to Beijing together”. And we did. In the DRC I bought a dugout canoe with a Scottish guy and we spent a few weeks going down a river. So yeah, some people joined the adventure.
Thai monk, by Charlie Walker
You took some stunning photos on the road. Is there one picture that stands out as a favourite?
There was one I took of a very old monk in Thailand. I was sleeping on the floor in his room at a Buddhist temple. He was 75 and had been a monk since he was five, and he’d started to lose his mind a little bit – he was wandering around and peeing in the corner of his room. In the morning he posed for a picture and the planets aligned. He’s got a very austere, wise expression. And by chance, in the background there’s a nice golden statue of the Buddha. That’s probably my favourite photo.
How has it been adjusting to normality now that you’re back?
Easier than I thought. During the last six months I was quite ready to come back. I got quite ill. In the Congo I had malaria and typhoid at the same time, and I was very weak for a while after that. So from then on I was really looking forward to getting home. By the time I was going through France I had a couple of weeks by myself to reflect on everything, and when I crossed over to Dover suddenly it just felt right and comfortable.
A lot of people dream of embarking on an adventure like this but never quite get around to it. What would you say to inspire someone to get out and just do it?
Anyone can do it. I’m not a sportsman. I’m not rich, I never stood out in sports teams at school. I’m not a cyclist, as such. The biggest thing is just to decide to do it and go. Set yourself a date and cancel your phone contract – then you’re really stuffed and you’ve got to go. And you don’t need to cycle around continents. Just walk out your door, hitchhike to Dover and see where it takes you. I think there’s so much to be said for just roaming for a while in a chaotic, quixotic fashion.
You can read about Charlie’s adventures on his award-winning blog. He is fundraising for two charities, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and Future Hope.How to avoid creating additional columns for child classes using RoR 4 and PostgreSQL 9.3, with an example based on social media users data.
The most common argument against STI (Single Table Inheritance) is that you have to create an additional column for every new |
library as if they were visiting our home. We need to remember it is their library, not ours, and they are paying for it.”Books with more than 100 pages are a turn-off Gossip magazines and song lyrics are the favourite reading material of children aged 11 to 14, says a study. The National Year of Reading report shows that more youngsters are choosing online sites as a reading source. Not all parents are comfortable with this shift and many have told off their children for choosing material that is not "proper reading", says the survey. Anything set for homework, and Shakespeare, come out as the least favourite reading materials. The Read Up, Fed Up report is an insight into the reading habits of young people and the conclusion of a month-long research project co-ordinated by National Year of Reading and online teen community Piczo. In the Read Up section of favourites, Heat magazine came first with Bliss magazine and online song lyrics joint second. We may be only just starting to understand the dynamics of online reading, but adults need to feel more positive about it and to learn more about it
Honor Wilson-Fletcher, director, National Year of Reading Other favourites in the top 10 were the Harry Potter series, Anne Frank's Diary and the BBC website. The Fed Up column had homework in first place, followed by Shakespeare and books with more than 100 pages. Others in this list of 10 least favourites included "reading about skinny celebrities in magazines", "the books I am made to read by school/my teachers" - and the Financial Times. More than 1,300 young people took part in the survey, which found that 45% of youngsters had been reprimanded by parents for reading something that was not "proper reading". Gender differences National Year of Reading director Honor Wilson-Fletcher said: "Young people are web natives - exposed to a wider variety of reading material than any previous generation through the explosion of digital media. "It seems not all adults are comfortable with this shift, and are often discouraging teens from taking advantage of this new reading landscape. "Accessing the digital universe is absolutely central to life's opportunities for teens. "We may be only just starting to understand the dynamics of online reading, but adults need to feel more positive about it and to learn more about it." The research found a gender divide to reading with 31% of boys saying they love reading because it helps them become better at their hobbies, like sport, films or music. On the other hand 39% of girls said they loved it because it is an escape - quiet time they can enjoy on their own. Schools Minister Jim Knight said: "It is vital that young people have the opportunity to read widely. "It is wonderful that 80% of the teenagers surveyed write their own stories and keep up-to-date with current affairs by using sites like BBC Online. "It's wonderful that Anne Frank's Diary is still proving so popular among teenagers 60 years after it was written." Compiling their own online blogs came fourth in the Read Up rankings and 80% of those taking part said they had written their own story, film, play or song.
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StumbleUpon What are these?While the world’s media is suitably distracted by the Olympic Games in Brazil, the war in Syria and beyond continues to see thousands of people – men, women and children – killed each week and many more attempting the perilous journey as refugees to seek safety.
from Undercover1 nfo with thanls
Meanwhile in the last two months there has been a deafening silence in the media about the plight of the thousands of refugees still stuck in Greece. Only 2500 refugees have so far been granted asylum status – the process is excruciatingly slow and most of those granted this status have yet to be relocated.
A report by the Greek Centre for Disease Control recommended all 16 of the refugee detention centres it inspected be closed due to unsanitary conditions and poor water supply. But while the Greek authorities seem unable to move forward, grassroots activists – anarchists – have yet again taken matters into their own hands and are providing shelter and food to those in need. However, this is not charity, or the result of a philanthropic endeavour, but direct democracy in practice.
Anarchists in Greece have been providing squatted accommodation – abandoned schools, hotels etc – for refugees – since the current conflicts in Syria began. And as soon as the Greek authorities organised evictions of these premises, more buildings have been squatted.
Now there is a vast network of squatted refugee centres, all organised by anarchists: an estimated 200 centres, large and small – far too many for the authorities to deal with.
Perhaps the most well known squatted refugee centre is Notara 26, in the centre of Athens. The building was first squatted last September and can house around 100 refugees at any one time. For the first three months alone, more than 1700 refugees and migrants stopped over at the centre before travelling on.
Nursery school at Notaro
Another squatted refugee centre in Athens is an abandoned hotel – the City Plaza. Others include Orfanotrofeio ( at present evicted) and Hurriya in Thessaloniki.
Nearby to Notara is EL CHEf, a food collective, set up in 2008 at the height of the economic collapse in Greece and now providing food not just for the homeless but refugees as well. Like Notaro, EL CHEf is not a charity, but organised by local grassroots activists.
Another food kitchen, Nosotros, which invites refugees to join them for cooking and meals, is just down the road from Notaro.
Other social centres include Micropolis and Steki Metanaston in Thessaloniki and Votanikos Kipos in Athens. There are many others.
Also, the occupied self-managed factory of Vio.Me in Thessaloniki became a warehouse for the collection, storage and transportation of basic items like clothes, sanitary items and baby food that had been gathered by solidarity collectives from all over Greece and Europe, prior to their shipment to the Eidomeni border, to be handed out to refugees.
It should be emphasised that these centres are run more like collectives, with decisions made by everyone – locals and refugees – on an equal basis. Likewise, all activities – cooking, cleaning, social events, etc – involve every person at the centre.
In short, these collectives are mini-societies, practising democracy on a day-to-day basis.
The anarchists who are organising these refugee centres do not look to the state for help, but seek to supplant the state and empower people to run their own lives. They are achieving this.
Their efforts are in stark contrast to leftists in not just Greece but everywhere who depend on the ‘goodwill’ of parliamentary politicians and parties to make society fairer. Anarchists have no truck with parliamentary ‘democracy’ and prefer direct action to achieve social justice.
Statement by Notaro 26:
Day by day thousands of people struggle to cross the borders, having to confront the rough sea conditions, the Evros fence, the smugglers, Coastguard and Frontex. Chased by the weapons of totalitarian regimes, western military operations and the horror of religious fundamentalism.
Humans trying to escape from extreme poverty. Those who manage to enter Fortress Europe come face to face with states who profit from the migrant-refugee flow and the emergence of cheap labour, paying no interest to human life and dignity.
They are confronted with xenophobia and racism, institutional or not. In this suffocating context, we are squatting an empty public building in Athens, 26 Notara Str., in order to territorialize our solidarity towards refugees/immigrants to cover their immediate needs (shelter, food, medical help).
This project doesn’t stand for philanthropy, statal or pivate, but rather for a self-organized solidarity project, wherein locals and refugees-immigrants decide together. The decisive body is the squat’s open assembly where everyone is welcome to participate with no exclusions.
Totally aware of the difficulty of our effort, we call every collective and individual not only to participate and support, but also to expand and create new projects for the same cause. We want to coordinate and interact with the numerous individual and collective initiatives throughout Greece and abroad to strengthen our solidarity to refugees and immigrants; we want to build our common future together.
Let’s make the refugee’s Odyssey of survival, a journey of humanity towards freedom!
No Borders- Freedom of movement
Against Fortress Europe
Legalise immigrants – Grant asylum to refugees
Against racism and xenophobia
Against all detention centers
Against the war- No deaths for their profits
See also: Where refugee solidarity & the alternative economy converge: the anarchist refugee centres of AthensBITCOIN
In this interview with CalvinAyre.com, nChain chief scientist Dr. Craig Wright discusses how Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash can transform the gambling industry.
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For years, the online gambling industry has been plagued with misguided government policies that aim to protect state-owned gambling monopolies and restrict a citizen’s freedom to decide how to spend their entertainment dollars.
This is the reason why Bitcoin holds particular appeal for the industry, although some operators are still on the fence on how the cryptocurrency can transform gambling. Dr. Craig Wright, chief scientist of blockchain technology and research development outfit nChain, finds the skepticism over bitcoin’s capabilities “quite interesting. After all, the digital currency’s first real application was in gambling.
“Most people don’t realize that the first real applications on the use of the bitcoin and other blockchain networks were poker. This is way back in the distant past,” Wright told CalvinAyre.com. “With bitcoin, you know that the funds cleared, once they’re cleared you can play safely. If you can play safely, the operator knows that the man is there then your fees are lower. And that means you have more opportunity to actually win. And that’s better for everyone—the operator and the player.”
Bitcoin has been embroiled in many controversies and debates, the most heated of which concerns network scaling. This debate has led to the creation of Bitcoin Cash last August 1. Despite being a new coin in the market, Bitcoin Cash has been receiving support from members of the community, particularly those who have been pushing for a blocksize increase. Early Bitcoin investor Roger Ver is a Bitcoin Cash fan himself as he believes it is “much more in line with the original version of Bitcoin.”
Wright said for people in the gaming industry, the question of why Bitcoin Cash is superior to legacy Bitcoin comes down to one thing—lower transaction fees.
“You want to be able to move your money in and out of a game without having to pay a lot of it to someone who’s running the network. The reality is, who do you want to pay? Do you want to pay a network operator to have larger and larger fees every time? One of the [Bitcoin] Core developers was saying thousand-dollar fees would be OK. If you’re going to have a poker game and you’re putting down $500, do you really want to put double what your pot is going to be just to have a game in the first place? That’s important.”
CommentsMinneapolis
AT THIS PARTICULAR TIME in history, it is a matter of note that Congress is about to re ceive its first Muslim member. Keith Ellison, currently a Minnesota state representative, is poised to succeed 14-term incumbent Democrat Martin Sabo in the Fifth District, which includes the city of Minneapolis. Ellison's endorsement by the Demo cratic-Farmer-Labor party is tantamount to his election in what is one of the safest Democratic seats in the country. Thus, at age 43, Ellison stands positioned not only to win that office but also to hold it as long as he chooses.
Ellison's Muslim faith has generated no controversy in the campaign. On the contrary, it has served to insulate aspects of his public record from close scrutiny in a city whose dominant news organ, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, is a paragon of political correctness. With the exception of columnist Katherine Kersten, the Star Tribune has scrupulously avoided examining Ellison's long train of troubling associations, foremost among them his ties to the Nation of Islam.
Ellison's record also includes a multitude of embarrassments of the traditional kind. He fell afoul of the IRS after failing to pay $25,000 in income taxes; he ignored fines that he had incurred for parking tickets and moving violations so numerous that his driver's license was suspended more times than he can remember; he was fined for willful violation of Minnesota's campaign finance reporting law. It amounts to a striking pattern of lawbreaking since he undertook the practice of law in 1990.
But it was the link to the Nation of Islam that stood as the most serious impediment to Ellison's primary campaign. He addressed it in a letter to the local chapter of the Jewish Community Relations Council following his endorsement by the DFL in May. In the letter, Ellison asserted that his involvement with the Nation of Islam had been limited to an 18-month period around the time of the Million Man March in 1995, that he had been unfamiliar with the Nation of Islam's anti-Semitic views during his in volvement with the group, and that he himself had never expressed such views. The Star Tribune has faithfully parroted these assertions as facts.
As a result, the three assertions have become the cornerstone of Ellison's campaign, securing him the support of prominent Minneapolis Jews and the endorsement of the Minneapolis-based American Jewish World newsweekly. Nevertheless, a little research reveals each one of them to be demonstrably false. Ellison's activities on behalf of the Nation of Islam continued well beyond any 18-month period, he was familiar with the Nation of Islam's anti-Semitic views, and he himself mouthed those views.
Ellison was born Catholic in Detroit. He states that he converted to Islam as an undergraduate at Wayne State University. As a third-year student at the University of Minnesota Law School in 1989-90, he wrote two columns for the Minnesota Daily under the name "Keith Hakim." In the first, Ellison refers to "Minister Louis Farrakhan," defends Nation of Islam spokesman Khalid Abdul Muhammad, and speaks in the voice of a Nation of Islam advocate. In the second, "Hakim" demands reparations for slavery and throws in a demand for an optional separate homeland for American blacks. In February 1990, Ellison participated in sponsoring Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) to speak at the law school on the subject "Zionism: Imperialism, White Supremacy or Both?" Jewish law students met personally with Ellison and appealed to him not to sponsor the speech at the law school; he rejected their appeal, and, as anticipated, Ture gave a notoriously anti-Semitic speech.
Ellison admits that he worked on behalf of the Nation of Islam in 1995. At a rally for the Million Man March held at the University of Minnesota, Ellison appeared onstage with Khalid Abdul Muhammad, who ran true to form: According to a contemporaneous Star Tribune article, "If words were swords, the chests of Jews, gays and whites would be pierced."
Even in 1995, Ellison's work on behalf of the Nation of Islam extended well beyond his promotion of the Million Man March. That year, he dutifully spouted the Farrakhan line when Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, was indicted for conspiring to murder Farrakhan. Ellison organized a march on the U.S. attorney's office in Minneapolis demanding that Shabazz be released and alleging that the FBI itself had conspired to kill Farrakhan. In a November 6, 1995, column for the Minneapolis periodical Insight News, Ellison wrote under the name "Keith X Ellison." He condemned a Star Tribune editorial cartoon that was critical of Farrakhan as a role model for blacks because of his anti-Semitism. Ellison argued to the contrary.
Then, in February 1997, Ellison appeared as a local spokesman for the Nation of Islam with the last name "Muhammad." He spoke at a public hearing in connection with a controversy involving Joanne Jackson of the Minnesota Initiative Against Racism (MIAR). Jackson was alleged to have said, "Jews are among the most racist white people I know." Jackson denied making the statement or insisted that it had been taken out of context. Ellison appeared before the MIAR on behalf of the Nation of Islam in defense of Jackson's alleged statement. According to the Star Tribune and the full text of the statement published in the Minneapolis Spokesman-Recorder, Elli son said:
We stand by the truth contained in the remarks attributed to [Ms. Jackson], and by her right to express her views without sanction. Here is why we support Ms. Jackson: She is correct about Minister Farrakhan. He is not a racist. He is also not an anti-Semite. Minister Farrakhan is a tireless public servant of Black people, who constantly teaches self-reliance and self-examination to the Black community.... Also, it is absolutely true that merchants in Black areas generally treat Black customers badly.
The last sentence alluded to another of Jackson's alleged statements, providing a personal basis for characterizing Jews as "the most racist white people" she knew. Ellison's May 28 letter acknowledges only that others supported Jackson's alleged statement in that controversy while falsely denying that he himself did so.
Ellison first emerged as a candidate for public office in 1998, when he ran for the DFL nomination for state representative as "Keith Ellison-Muhammad." In a contemporaneous article on his candidacy in the Insight News, Ellison is reported still defending Louis Farrakhan:
Anticipating possible criticism for his NOI affiliation, Ellison-Muhammad says he is aware that not everyone appreciates what the Nation does and feels there is a propaganda war being launched against its leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan.
Ellison says now that he broke with the Nation of Islam when "it became clear to me that their message of empowerment intertwined with more negative messages." However, Ellison himself was the purveyor of the Nation of Islam's noxious party line in his every public utterance touching on related issues over the course of a decade. Moreover, Ellison's unsavory associations were not limited to the Nation of Islam.
Perhaps the lowest moment in Minneapolis's history was the September 1992 execution-style murder of police officer Jerry Haaf. Haaf was shot in the back as he took a coffee break at a restaurant in south Minneapolis. The murder was a gang hit performed by four members of the city's Vice Lords gang. The leader of the Vice Lords was Sharif Willis, a convicted murderer who had been released from prison and who sought respectability as a responsible gang leader from gullible municipal authorities while operating a gang front called United for Peace.
The four Vice Lords members who murdered Haaf met and planned the murder at Willis's house. Two witnesses at the trial of one of the men convicted of Haaf's murder implicated Willis in the planning. Willis was never charged; law enforcement authorities said they lacked sufficient evidence to convict him.
Within a month of Haaf's murder, Ellison appeared with Willis supporting the United for Peace gang front. In October 1992, Ellison helped organize a demonstration against Minneapolis police that included United for Peace. "The main point of our rally is to support United for Peace [in its fight against] the campaign of slander the police federation has been waging," said Ellison.
Willis was the last speaker at the demonstration. According to a contemporaneous report in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Willis told the crowd that Minneapolis police were experiencing the same fear from young black men that blacks had felt from police for many years. "If the police have some fear, I understand that fear," Willis said. "We seem to have an overabundance of bad police.... [W]e're going to get rid of them," Willis said. "They've got to go." The Pioneer Press account concludes with Ellison's contribution to the demonstration: "Ellison told the crowd that the police union is systematically frightening whites in order to get more police officers hired. That way, Ellison said, the union can increase its power base."
Ellison publicly supported the Haaf murder defendants. In February 1993, he spoke at a demonstration for one of them during his trial. Ellison led the crowd assembled at the courthouse in a chant that was ominous in the context of Haaf's cold-blooded murder: "We don't get no justice, you don't get no peace." Ellison's working relationship with Sharif Willis came to an end in February 1995, when Willis was convicted in federal court on several counts of drug and gun-related crimes and sent back to prison for 20 years.
The various themes of Ellison's public commitments and associations all came together in a February 2000 speech he gave at a fundraising event sponsored by the Minnesota chapter of the far-left National Lawyers Guild, on whose steering committee he had served. The event was a fundraiser for former Symbionese Liberation Army member Kathleen Soliah after her apprehension in St. Paul (under the name "Sara Jane Olson") for the attempted murder of Los Angeles police officers in 1975.
Ellison weirdly referred to Soliah/ Olson as a "black gang member" (she is white) and thus a victim of government persecution. He described her as one of those who had been "fighting for freedom in the '60s and '70s" and called for her release. (She subsequently pleaded guilty to charges in Los Angeles and to an additional murder charge in Sacramento; she is serving time in California.) Still toeing the Nation of Islam line, he recalled "Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, [who] was prosecuted in retribution against Minister Farrakhan." He also spoke favorably of cop killers Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assata Shakur. (Shakur has been on the lam in Cuba since 1984; last year she was placed on the FBI's domestic terrorists list with a one million dollar reward for her capture.)
Having spoken out over many years as an advocate of the Nation of Islam under guises including Keith Hakim, Keith X Ellison, and Keith Ellison-Muhammad, Ellison might reasonably prompt Fifth District voters to wonder where he really stands. His recent account of the nature and extent of his relationship with the Nation of Islam cannot be squared with the public record. During his congressional campaign, Ellison has nevertheless held himself out as a friend of the Jewish people and of Israel. As if to shore up his identity as a Muslim activist, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Nihad Awad, flew to Minneapolis to appear as a featured guest (along with Ellison himself and Guantánamo chaplain James Yee) at an Ellison fundraiser in suburban Minneapolis on August 25. Awad is notable, among other things, for his past expressions of support for Hamas.
The Star Tribune didn't get around to reporting on the fundraiser until several days after Ellison won the September 12 primary. Ellison commented to the Star Tribune regarding issues raised by Awad's attendance at the fundraiser: "The Republicans are in a tough position. Iraq is a failed policy. They haven't done much for homeland security. We still have a health care crisis. The Earth is warming up, and they're not doing anything about it. What else are they going to do? They have to try to engage in smear politics."
Unfortunately, it won't be necessary for Ellison to come up with a more compelling response than that before he makes news in November as America's first Muslim congressman.
Scott W. Johnson is a Minneapolis attorney and a contributor to the Power Line blog.Kopin is touting a new prototype VR headset featuring their 4K OLED ‘Lightning’ microdisplay that they say is made specifically for VR. At nearly half the size of other headsets, and made from lightweight materials, the device feels featherlight compared to VR products on the market today.
Update (8/19/17): Following my hands-on with Kopin’s ‘Elf’ headset at E3 where I got to look at the form-factor, I recently met with the company at the Silicon Valley offices of Goertek—Kopin’s manufacturing partner—to get a look inside a working demo of the headset.
Side and Weight
The functional Elf headset prototype was the same impressively small form-factor as I saw previously, featuring a pair of Kopin’s 1-inch ‘Lightning’ displays each with a 2,048 x 2,048 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. The headset isn’t just significantly more compact than others—at just 220 grams it’s less than half the weight of the Rift and Vive (though at this point it’s lacking integrated audio, IPD adjustment, or positional tracking tech, which would require additional hardware and weight).
Connection
The headset connected to the host PC with DisplayPort and USB plugs which came together into a single thin cable that plugs into the headset with a USB-C connector. Kopin has developed an OpenVR driver to allow the headset to operate with SteamVR content.
Dark (for now)
The demo I was shown through the Elf prototype was a SteamVR game called InMind 2 VR. In the demo I was looking at models of brain neurons. The first thing I noticed when I put on the headset was how dark the image was. I could see fine, but it definitely seemed darker than it should be. When I asked Kopin about this they said that the display isn’t finalized and they expect to double the brightness by the time they are manufacturing them for sale.
Field of View
The second thing I noticed was the field of view which felt much closer to Google’s Daydream headsets than what you’d be used to with the Rift, Vive, or PSVR. Kopin said the prototype I was looking through was a 70 degree field of view, and that they’re working on developing different lenses to offer 80 and 100 degree fields of view (and I got to look through early versions of those lenses; more on that later). On the 70 degree prototype, the ‘binocular’ feeling (of having very noticeable dark circles around your field of view) was quite apparent. Despite the incredibly smooth and sharp image I was seeing, the low field of view is an immersion killer so it’s a good thing that Kopin is also developing lenses with a wider view.
Image Fidelity
With more than three times the pixels than the Rift and Vive (2,048 x 2,048 vs. 1,080 x 1,200), it looked stunningly sharp (pixel density in this case is getting an extra boost from the lower field of view too). Individual pixels are all but invisible, and I couldn’t make out any screen door effect. Since the 70 degree FoV lens isn’t Fresnel, I didn’t see any god ray artifacts (which are prevalent on the Rift and Vive), nor did I spot any chromatic aberration. I didn’t see any obvious mura issues which is good, but would want more time in the headset to be sure that there is none. Also, because this is a micro OLED display, the blacks were very deep. However, I didn’t get a chance to see the right scene to assess whether or not there was any black-smearing present.
Distortion and Correction
The Elf headset is made entirely to show off the display and lenses, so right now there’s no positional tracking tech built in. That means that in my demo the headset was only tracking rotation. The tracking felt fine and seemed exceptionally ‘smooth’ (likely thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate) though as I turned my head I noticed quite a bit of distortion warping the view around the periphery which seemed to be due to the lenses. Kopin says they are still working on the driver for the headset and tweaking the distortion correction; they seem confident that once the lenses and driver are finalized they’ll be able to eliminate the warping.
The Cost of a Wider Field of View
I also got to see prototype versions of Kopin’s 80 and 100 degree field of view lenses (backed by the same Lightning display) which were hooked up to a test board rather than built into a headset. The 80 degree lens was a two-element Fresnel and was much brighter than the 70 degree or 100 degree. It was clear that the field of view on the 80 was wider, but since it wasn’t hooked up to a headset with headtracking, it was difficult to get a good sense for how immersive it could feel.
The 100 degree lens was a two-element non-Fresnel and it was dark like the 70 degree lens. Although the lens itself may provide a 100 degree field of view, at that field of view you can see the edges of the display which, in my opinion, is less immersive than having a smaller field of view where you can’t see the edges of the display.
Kopin plans to develop larger displays in the future, which could mean a larger field of view without visible edges, but they won’t be ready for several years yet. Given that, Kopin’s 80 degree field of view option seems to be the best sweet spot presently for immersion and image fidelity. The big question will be: to what extent are consumers willing to trade field of view for image fidelity?
Elf is a Pitch, Not a Product
One important thing to remember about all of the above is that Elf headset is not going to become a product, it’s simply a pitch for Kopin’s VR microdisplays and Goertek’s manufacturing capabilities. The company’s hope is that a consumer electronics company will want to produce a product based on the Lightning display, and the Elf headset is the demo to sell them on the form-factor that it enables. Goertek says that the companies are “actively marketing” the Elf headset to potential consumer electronics companies. That means that an end product containing Kopin’s Lightning display might end up looking quite a bit different than the Elf headset today. In fact, although Elf is tethered, Kopin says that the foundation of the headset is also suitable for all-in-one mobile VR headsets.
The original article continues below, which speaks to Kopin’s long term plans for developing VR displays (including those of higher resolution and large size), and the microdisplay vs. traditional approach to VR displays.The legend of Kaptain Koivu will be told as a tale of huge expectations and never ending misconceptions about his playing ability and worth to the Minnesota Wild. The lightning rod for the fan base when things go awry and instant reactionary take being the lack of goal scoring has squarely pitted Wild fans against each other season after season when it comes to what the present and future in the State of hockey should be for Koivu.I think the most common misconception about the play of Koivu by fans has been if he is not scoring goals than he is not playing well or being productive. Koivu gets the brunt of the blame for this team’s failing power play and lack of goal scoring in general it seems. Koivu’s demeanor and answers to relevant questions tend to come across as lacking passion & accountability especially when things are not going well for the Wild.To understand what it is that makes Koivu the type of player that the front office personnel, coaches, teammates, and opponents revere and respect you have to dig deeper into his ability to affect the game with his size, intelligence, and defensive abilities. Koivu is the backbone of the Wild’s ability to limit opponents offenses as his commitment to the defensive aspects of the game as a forward filter to this team’s other forwards young and old.Koivu plays a rugged brand of hockey and makes opponents earn every inch while in possession of the puck or along the boards in both zones. Koivu’s work ethic and discipline have created a precedence here that each player must be accountable to the back check and contribute in a 200 foot brand of hockey. Koivu gets banged up playing the way he does which he usually get criticism rather than credit for but I think it is fair to say if he was pulling up on hits and gliding around preserving himself the negative affect with his teammates and the fans would be much more damaging.I think there exists very tangible advanced statistics evidence whether it be possession stats, quality of opponents, etc to prove that the Wild is a better team with Koivu on the ice and finding his replacement would be a very tough task. Koivu’s strengths as a two-way center with the size & strength combination allow him to matchup with nearly any line in the NHL which is maybe the most marketable trait in the league as we are sure to see when/if Ryan Kesler is traded and when Paul Statsny signs a new deal via unrestricted free agency in July.The Wild transitioned from its ONLY superstar in franchise history Marian Gaborik to Koivu as the face of the franchise. Gaborik who besides scoring a ton of goals, making a ton of money, had also been elected the captain at different points. There is a clear difference between Koivu and Gaborik in just about every aspect but the will forever be tied together because of their history and prominence with the Minnesota Wild. Gaborik did the thing that casual hockey fans latch onto in scoring highlight goals and creating signature moments with his all-world speed and excellent hands.In Gaborik the franchise enjoyed national attention from the major media outlets and it was able to market their team/brand outside of the loyal hockey community that had fought hard to prove returning the NHL to the State of Hockey was the right thing to do. The separation of Gaborik and Koivu has everything to do with how they have conducted themselves and competed within the system and to the benefit of the front office, coaching staff, teammates, and fans.Gaborik has become a well traveled talent because he’s a me-first type of player and person. The NHL is a business so I would never expect Gaborik to not leverage his situation but there has been clear moments of destructive confrontations and troubling lack of effort for him to the determent of his team. That has never happened with Koivu in his NHL to the point that despite receiving very little help from the front office bringing talent here, he still reinforced the system despite a clear lack of talent.Koivu is never going to put up huge goal numbers here in Minnesota or anywhere else. Sure his contract with 4 years left at a $6.75 Million per year cap hit doesn’t seem to matchup with his overall production numbers but his worth to the Wild does. Koivu’s role with the Wild is sure to evolve during the next 4 seasons should he remain in Minnesota through the end of his current deal. As soon as next season his deployment could easily become specialized by head coach Mike Yeo given the emergence of young centermen Mikael Granlund & Erik Haula.To trade Koivu would require the universe to align in truth because he has 4 years left on his current contract and a no-trade clause. To move Koivu in a trade Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher would need to receive a center with an NHL future near guaranteed and soon because the organization does not a have a player that profiles currently as possible Top 6 centermen. I would argue that Koivu’s trade value is most likely peaking right now but to actually complete a trade would leave the Wild with more questions than answers at this point.For those Wild fans that go off on a tangent about Koivu’s inability to score goals especially in the playoffs, I am right there with you but a better understanding of what Koivu does well leads to a conclusion that he is never going to carry this team scoring goals. The challenge will be for the young forwards to become the goal scorers for this team and put Koivu’s stout 200 foot effort and complimentary offensive abilities to good use.Last thought being that although Zach Parise and Ryan Suter wanted to return to near their homes to continue their NHL careers, this team is modeled around Kaptain Koivu’s heart and soul effort that sold them on what was being built here. Parise being on the squad doesn’t mean he wants to be the captain because as we have seen heavy is the head that wears that crown.I love the look of this purse and watched it for a long time on Amazon until it got down to its lowest price before buying it. The problem is the description was not clear enough for me to realize that the black and white stripes on this purse are a soft delicate fabric and not leather. I read in some reviews that it will easily get dirty but it wasn't clear to me at the time why. The striped fabric is delicate, thin, and stretchy which is not the best fabric for the outside and bottom of a purse. I know it will rub up against my jeans and turn blue, I know I will soon spill something on it or get it dirty as I carry it around, throw it in my car, have it laying around my house. And I'm not sure it's all that easy to clean. Why purse Gods, why would you create this purse to be so beautiful but not very practical??? For the price, it's not worth keeping. I'm returning it and perhaps getting a different color that is all leather.
I actually bought this purse to use on weekends and when traveling as my day-to-day large purse is getting too heavy for such excursions. This is not a large purse but big enough for a phone, keys, glasses, and a very small wallet. I'm 5'2" so I have difficulty finding purses that are in proportion to me and this one is a nice size for my height.CHICAGO -- Derrick Rose is expected to rejoin the Bulls on Wednesday as he continues to recover from a fractured left orbital, according to Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg.
"Follow-up [exam] went very well," Hoiberg said after Saturday's practice. "They've advised him to continue to let that sight heal, and they think the best way to do that is for him to stay at home at this time. We plan on him being back Wednesday morning."
The timeline for Rose's return to action hasn't changed. He has been told by doctors to have no basketball activity for two weeks after surgery on Wednesday, but Hoiberg noted that some Bulls coaches will visit Rose in his home on Saturday to help him learn the new portions of Hoiberg's system that have been installed at practice.
"We're going to actually get over there and watch some film with him today because we've added new sets, new things," Hoiberg said. "So we'll get him caught up by a couple coaches going over and seeing him at his house."
Hoiberg still isn't sure exactly when Rose will be able to return to game action, but he's hopeful that his point guard will be ready for the regular-season opener on Oct. 27 against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"Everything's the same on that [timeline]," Hoiberg said of the initial plan of having Rose sit out two weeks. "After those two weeks he should be able to resume full activity. It's just these two weeks he'll be very inactive. They don't really want him doing much of anything except walking back and forth, just getting a lot of rest. And not doing anything where he can dilate his blood vessels is kind of what we heard."NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks climbed on Monday |
during the leadership contest that 'I have fought Islam, I have been blown off my feet by an Islamic suicide bomber, I have been on the sharp end of this'.
The comments were highlighted by Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) which works with the Government to highlight anti-Islam 'hatred'.
Mr Bolton said: 'What I was referring to then was some of the operational work that I've done out of the ground which is a very different context to here.
'If you want to go out and spend 27 months in Helmand and if you want to go out and deal with things going on in the North Caucases, you will see what I'm talking about.
'That's what I've done, I am proud of what I've done for my country and serving my country and I hope to continue doing so in this role.
'So I'm not taking that context and putting it into let's take on any religion here.'
Mr Bolton told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I think it's going to be incredibly difficult to achieve a deal'
Ukip's new leader Henry Bolton says he does not believe Britain will reach any Brexit deal and says the UK should not let the negotiations drag on
HENRY BOLTON'S WIFE GAVE BIRTH ON A COMMUTER TRAIN Mr Bolton hit headlines last year when his wife Tatiana Smurova-Bolton, gave birth on a packed train The new Ukip leader hit headlines last ear when his wife gave birth on a busy commuter train. Henry Bolton was travelling with his wife Tatiana Smurova-Bolton into London last May when she suddenly went into labour. After coming to a halt at platform 13 shortly after 4pm, the carriage was cleared by staff to give the expectant mother, who is married to Henry Bolton, some privacy. And Mr Bolton's third child, his daughter Victoria, was safely delivered by paramedics. Mr Bolton, 54, said he was very happy with how the unusual delivery unfolded. He said: 'One of the reasons I think it went so well is because it was in a natural situation and it wasn't in a hospital with loads of things going on,' he said. The baby, who weighed 3.82 kg (8.4 lbs).
In the interview, Mr Bolton also watered down Ukip's past promises to cap immigration while calling for an Australian-style points-based immigration system.
In 2015 the party promised a temporary block on low-skilled and unskilled migration, and a limit of 50,000 high-skilled immigrants a year, while in 2017 the party committed to zero net migration.
Mr Bolton said: 'I'm not going to put a number on it.
'In different years there's going to be different amounts.
'For me what is important is that we as a society and as a government and as an administration providing services to the citizens of this country, we must be able to manage the inflow of immigration without putting undue pressure on our policing, on our hospitals, on our schools, on our road network, on our housing, on our economy.'
He added: 'Anybody who says put a figure on it is actually being entirely unrealistic and trying to paint politicians like me into a corner that gives you a nice thing to hang a comment on, but you're not going to get it from me because actually we need to be a lot more practical and operational about it.'
Mr Bolton also told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I think it's going to be incredibly difficult to achieve a deal.
'I actually do not credit some of the people in the European Union with any wish whatsoever to have a smooth deal.
'The other thing is, I do not believe for a moment that we should be pushing this out and allowing the negotiations to be endless before we leave.'
And asked if he would 'ban the burka', Mr Bolton said: 'I don't think it's about banning the burka, is it? It's about 'What is the problem here?'
Ukip grandee Nigel Farage welcomed his appointment as party chief, calling him a'man of real substance'
And asked if he would 'ban the burka', Mr Bolton said: 'I don't think it's about banning the burka, is it? It's about 'What is the problem here?'
'Now if we've got a security problem with identifying people, it's not just about the burka, is it? It's about full face covering. So, if indeed there is a problem with full face coverings, then the burka obviously is included in that.'
He added that his own personal opinion is if anything is making it difficult to identify an individual on the streets, it is'something that we need to address'.
Discussing his political background, he said it was 'a long story', saying: 'I got into politics because when I was a United Nations administrator - effectively a district governor - in Kosovo. I was mandated, amongst other things, to help local political parties organise themselves and prepare for the first local government elections.
'At that time I knew very little about the internal structures and governance of political parties. And the only way I could really find anything out was by joining one of them, and I wasn't going to join the Conservatives or the Labour Party and it was a simple case of going for the one in the middle, which was the Liberal Democrats.'
Mr Bolton said he believes in 'old-fashioned, classical liberalism', but feels it has 'lost its way a bit'.
The new leader will set out his vision for how the party aims to re-establish itself as an electoral force on Saturday.
Henry Bolton has already stressed he will seek to unite Ukip after defeating a candidate whose description of Islam as 'evil' had threatened to split the party.
The second day of Ukip's conference in Torquay has seen the controversial ex Tory Neil Hamilton, who leads some of the party's Assembly Members in Wales, speak
Delegates of UK Independence Party clash with anti-austerity protesters during the party's annual conference
He is Ukip's fourth leader in a turbulent year marked by infighting which saw the party suffer a dismal general election, gaining just 1.8 per cent of the vote share, down from 12.6 per cent in 2015.
Mr Bolton said Ukip had avoided becoming the 'UK Nazi Party' after his defeat of Anne Marie Waters.
On Friday night, Ms Waters made her displeasure at the result clear.
She tweeted: 'Today: Jihad - 1 Truth - 0.'
She added: 'My Labour past was mentioned every day (I never hid it), but a Lib Dem past is fine.. No mention.'
The 54-year-old former soldier comes to the role after a distinguished career as a diplomat - having been awarded an OBE for services to international security in 2013.
Ukip grandee Nigel Farage welcomed his appointment as party chief, calling him a'man of real substance'.
New Ukip leader Henry Bolton (pictured yesterday after being declared the winner) emerged from obscurity to defy the bookies and beat the two front-runners in the contest to replace Paul Nuttall
Despite being relatively unknown, the ex-Thames Valley police officer, who joined the party in 2014, is no stranger to running for elected posts.
He stood for the Liberal Democrats in Runnymede and Weybridge in the 2005 general election, finishing third behind current Chancellor Philip Hammond.
More recently, the Sandhurst alumnus stood for Ukip as Police and Crime Commissioner in Kent in 2016, finishing second.
Mr Bolton, who describes himself as 'an expert in borders, security and foreign policy', has worked as a diplomat for the United Nations, Foreign Office and the EU, according to his website.
Henry Bolton with his wife Tatiana Smurova-Bolton, who gave birth to their baby daughter on the 3.43pm Southeastern service from Ashford International to St Pancras International on Sunday May 15, 2016
The ex tank crew member arrived on the diplomatic scene after service in the military, having been deployed in Germany, Belize, Cyprus and Bosnia
It adds he was deployed to countries like Croatia, Kosovo, Libya and Ukraine on diplomatic missions for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
The ex-tank crew member arrived on the diplomatic scene after service in the military, having been deployed in Germany, Belize, Cyprus and Bosnia.
After leaving the army, he worked as a police officer for eight years and received a commendation for bravery.
Last year, his wife gave birth to their daughter Victoria on a train that had just pulled into St Pancras Station - his third daughter.
After his surprise triumph, he called on the party to united behind him to deliver its aims.
He said: 'I do not see myself now as simply being your leader, I see myself as serving this party.
'You are the party, not me, and this party needs to serve its country.
'There is no greater calling than that and I would call on all of you, whether you voted for me or not, to rally around the party, to be united.'
He lives in Kent with his children and wife Tatiana Smurova-Bolton.Everyone else is giving the surface answer, but there's a deeper rationale too: the number of "characters" is a difficult-to-define question and can be surprisingly expensive to compute, whereas a length property should be fast.
Why is it difficult to define? Well, there's a few options and none are really more valid than another:
The number of code units (bytes or other fixed size data chunk; C# and Windows typically use UTF-16 so it returns the number of two-byte pieces) is certainly relevant, as the computer still needs to deal with the data in that form for many purposes (writing to a file, for example, cares about bytes rather than characters)
The number of Unicode codepoints is fairly easy to compute (although O(n) because you gotta scan the string for surrogate pairs) and might matter to a text editor.... but isn't actually the same thing as the number of characters printed on screen (called graphemes). For example, some accented letters can be represented in two forms: a single codepoint, or two points paired together, one representing the letter, and one saying "add an accent to my partner letter". Would the pair be two characters or one? You can normalize strings to help with this, but not all valid letters have a single codepoint representation.
Even the number of graphemes isn't the same as the length of a printed string, which depends on the font among other factors, and since some characters are printed with some overlap in many fonts (kerning), the length of a string on screen is not necessarily equal to the sum of the length of graphemes anyway!
Some Unicode points aren't even characters in the traditional sense, but rather some kind of control marker. Like a byte order marker or a right-to-left indicator. Do these count?
In short, the length of a string is actually a ridiculously complex question and calculating it can take a lot of CPU time as well as data tables.
Moreover, what's the point? Why does these metrics matter? Well, only you can answer that for your case, but personally, I find they are generally irrelevant. Limiting data entry I find is more logically done by byte limits, as that's what needs to be transferred or stored anyway. Limiting display size is better done by the display side software - if you have 100 pixels for the message, how many characters you fit depends on the font, etc., which isn't known by the data layer software anyway. Finally, given the complexity of the unicode standard, you're probably going to have bugs at the edge cases anyway if you try anything else.
So it is a hard question with not a lot of general purpose use. Number of code units is trivial to calculate - it is just the length of the underlying data array - and the most meaningful/useful as a general rule, with a simple definition.“We’d love to share our message in far more places if only the mainstream media would stop keeping the Libertarian viewpoint from Americans,” Benedict said. “Almost everybody thinks Fox News is biased toward Republicans and CNN is biased toward Democrats. For Americans too dense to figure out that RT is biased towards Russia, registering as a foreign agent won’t help.”The United States has its own government-funded media operations that broadcast in many other countries throughout the world.
“The hypocrisy of the Justice Department’s strong arm tactics is mind-boggling,” Benedict said. “The Voice of America has been broadcasting news in Russian and 40 other languages since 1942. I’m sure that Russia considers those VOA broadcasts to be propaganda.”
According to political scientist Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University the United States attempted to influence foreign elections at least 81 times between 1946 and 2000, and it did not stop then. In 2014, while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, a high-ranking State Department official named Victoria Nuland was caught in a taped conversation with the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, conspiring together on how to affect an election in that country.
The U.S. Justice Department’s violation of freedom of the press for RT will not only set a terrible precedent for the rights of Americans, there will undoubtedly be retaliatory consequences elsewhere, including censorship of American news outlets in Russia. According to Russian State Duma Chair Vyacheslav Volodin, the Russian legislature will probably extend regulations on foreign agents in Russia to include news media organizations.
“Less consumer choice in news in both the United States and Russia is a lose-lose proposition for the people of both countries,” Sarwark concluded.Sequence Breaking Pokemon FireRed
The Original Idea
This is the story of my quest to Sequence Break Pokemon FireRed Version. I decided a good place to begin my quest would be Fuchsia City instead of Palette Town. This is what happened...In the zoo in Fuchsia City in front of the Safari Zone, there is an extinct Pokemon. This Pokemon will be either Omanyte or Kabuto -- which one it is depends on which fossil you chose in Mt. Moon. So the question was, If you could get to Fuchsia City without having chosen a fossil, what Pokemon would be shown at the zoo?
So, I set out to sequence break Pokemon Fire Red version. I decided to use walk through walls cheats to get to Fuchsia City as soon as it was convenient. I had to play the game long enough to get a starter Pokemon (I chose Charmander) and a Pokedex, because the game does extremely weird things if you cheat and start battling and capturing Pokemon without having these two items first.
My level 7 Charmander. My level 7 Charmander.
So, enable the cheat codes and get out of Palette Town!
The Walk Thru Walls cheat and Level 1 Wild Pokemon The Walk Thru Walls cheat and Level 1 Wild Pokemon
I couldn't find a cheat code that would disable random battles entirely, so I used a "Level 1 Pokemon" cheat so any random battles I do get into will be with Pokemon of reasonable levels.
Getting to Fuchsia City
Walking south towards Cinnabar Island. Walking south towards Cinnabar Island.
A wild Tentacool decided to fight me. Good thing it's only Level 1.
Finally arrived at Cinnabar Island.
Cinnabar Island with no badges and only 1 Pokemon!
Finally arrived in Fuchsia City.
Now that we've finally arrived in Fuchsia City, let's check out the zoo and see what extinct Pokemon is there!
Looks like the default is a Kabuto. Mystery solved! Looks like the default is a Kabuto. Mystery solved!
If you didn't choose a fossil Pokemon, it looks like the default is to show Kabuto in the zoo. Remember that ordinarily it's not supposed to be possible to get to Fuchsia City without having chosen one of the fossils, because the fossils block your path through Mt. Moon.
Getting Caught Up
Now that we're in Fuchsia City, can we try to continue the game from here without cheating any more? We should be able to! I only have a level 7 Charmander and every Pokemon in this part of Kanto is around level 30, so what can I do about that?
Use the Safari Zone! I can catch wild Pokemon here without having to battle them, and the Pokemon levels will be comparable to the average level of Pokemon in the Fuchsia City area.
And I have $3,024 to spend on the Safari Zone game! And I have $3,024 to spend on the Safari Zone game!
Entering the Safari Zone!
The first wild Pokemon I run into is a Lv31 Nidorino!
Captured!
Remember also that the Safari Zone contains the Surf HM. But, I can't use Surf outside of battle until I defeat the Fuchsia City gym leader. Good thing I'm in Fuchsia City!
I found the Surf HM inside the Safari Zone. I found the Surf HM inside the Safari Zone.
From the Safari Zone, I've captured a Nidorino, Ryhorn, Nidoran♀, Paras, Exeggcute, and Venomoth. Unfortunately none of my Pokemon are able to learn Surf, so even if I do defeat the Fuchsia City gym leader, how will I escape?
But wait! There's a Fishing Guru in Fuchsia City! I can get a fishing rod from him!
I got the Good Rod. I got the Good Rod.
I was wondering for a minute how the fishing rods worked. Ordinarily you find the first Fishing Guru in Vermilion City, and you get the Old Rod which can only catch Magikarp. Then you get the Good Rod from Fuchsia City which can catch Goldeen, Poliwag and Magikarp. And then the Super Rod can catch more Pokemon.
I was wondering if maybe the rods were incremental, and that the Fuchsia City Fishing Guru would give me the Old Rod since I talked to him first. But apparently the rods are hard-coded, so I got the Good Rod. With this I caught myself a Level 10 Goldeen from the pond in the Fishing Guru's back yard.
My party so far... My party so far...
Before taking on the Fuchsia City gym, I need to level up my Pokemon some more. The best place to do that is to head out on Route 15.
Route 15 from Fuchsia City to Lavender Town. Route 15 from Fuchsia City to Lavender Town.
My Charmander is too weak to battle, but my other Pokemon aren't. I can power-level Charmander by putting it out first in battle and then switching it with someone else. The first few battles caused Charmander to level up 2 or 3 times at once. Three short battles later, and...
Charmander is evolving! Charmander is evolving!
Level Grinding on Silence Bridge
After battling my way through the Bikers and Bird Catchers, I finally made my way to the bottom of Silence Bridge.
Silence Bridge - Route 12. Silence Bridge - Route 12.
It's a straight shot north to Lavender Town!
The Fishing Guru's house. The Fishing Guru's house.
I found the other Fishing Guru's house and got a Super Rod. With this I can catch Dratini in the Safari Zone. Dragon Pokemon are cool, right? And I don't even have a single gym badge yet!
A sleeping Pokemon blocks the way! A sleeping Pokemon blocks the way!
And, here's Snorlax. This Pokemon blocks my access to Lavender Town to the north, and Vermilion City to the west. I can't get a PokeFlute to wake up Snorlax until I've already been to Lavender Town and Celadon City.
But look! I could Surf right around Snorlax and get to Lavender Town! Now I have my plan. I just need to defeat the Fuchsia City Gym Leader, teach my Goldeen how to Surf, Surf around the Snorlax and get to Lavender Town!
My party so far... My party so far...
My Exeggcute knows Confusion, which is Super Effective against poison type Pokemon. The Fuchsia City gym is full of poison types, so Exeggcute is my best bet for beating the gym leader.
Used Exeggcute to defeat Koga, the gym leader. Used Exeggcute to defeat Koga, the gym leader.
Now I can Surf around Snorlax! I caught a Level 10 Goldeen with the Good Rod, now let's teach it how to Surf.
Sequence breaking at its finest. Sequence breaking at its finest.
Welcome to Lavender Town!
Now that we've gotten to Lavender Town, it will be really easy to get back on track. At this point we can Surf, but we still don't have any Pokemon that knows how to Cut. But we can easily find our way back to Vermilion City and Cerulean City from here! Just watch...
Taking the Underground Path from Lavender Town to Celadon City. Taking the Underground Path from Lavender Town to Celadon City.
Here we are in Celadon City!
Now I've made it to Celadon City. There's a lot of exciting things I can do here! For starters, I can buy a Leaf Stone to evolve my Exeggcute.
I bought myself a Leaf Stone. I bought myself a Leaf Stone.
I evolved Exeggcute with it! More power!
While I'm in Celadon City, I'd love to be able to get straight to the gym and completely destroy the Grass-type Pokemon there with my Charmeleon, but I can't get in!
I don't have Cut! I don't have Cut!
Rain check! I need to get to Cerulean City and defeat the water Pokemon gym leader to be allowed to use Cut, and I need to get to Vermilion City to actually get my hands on the Cut HM to teach it to one of my Pokemon!
In the virtual Game Freak headquarters in Celadon City, you get the Hot Tea, which you then give to the guards that surround Saffron City and then they allow you into the city. Saffron City is the central hub between Cerulean City, Celadon City, Lavender Town, and Vermilion City. This will allow us to get back to all the major Kanto cities. Now we're getting back on track!
Giving the Hot Tea to the Saffron City guards... Giving the Hot Tea to the Saffron City guards...
Here we are in Saffron City!
We've made it to Saffron City now, and we only have a single gym badge! :D
Now, the next place I should go is north to Cerulean City. You can get in to the city without Cut, but you can't get back out. I'll need to see Bill anyway to get the S.S. Ticket, so I can get the Cut HM from the S.S. Anne. So, north it is!
North to Cerulean City, south to Vermilion City. North to Cerulean City, south to Vermilion City.
On the Road to Cerulean City
The south border to Cerulean City. The south border to Cerulean City.
See, this is why you need Cut to get out of Cerulean City. I'm supposed to be on the other side of this wall. But, somebody's stupid Slowbro is in the way anyway.
This is how you get into Cerulean City. This is how you get into Cerulean City.
I'm not supposed to be on top of this ledge. When I jump down, I'll be stuck in Cerulean City until I complete the "go see Bill" side quest. But, I must see Bill so that I can get the S.S. Ticket!
Since the Cerulean City Gym is right here, let's go and beat Misty real quick so we'll be allowed to use Cut once we finally get it.
I know Rhyhorn is weak against Starmie, but c'mon. I know Rhyhorn is weak against Starmie, but c'mon.
Even Misty's strongest Pokemon is no chance against mine.
Thanks! This is what I came here for! Thanks! This is what I came here for!
Oh look, it's my rival, Blue!
My rival Blue challenges you when you try to leave Cerulean City to see Bill to the north. Ordinarily, if you play the game properly, you're trapped in Cerulean City with nowhere to go but north.
Blue's Pokemon though are super weak compared to mine. Completely destroying him takes no effort at all. And then I'm off to see Bill, destroying any trainer who gets in my way.
I got the S.S. Ticket from Bill here. I got the S.S. Ticket from Bill here.
And with the S.S. Ticket, I'm able to get out of Cerulean City and head south. I cut through Saffron City instead of taking the underground tunnel and arrive in Vermilion City.
Welcome to Vermilion City! Welcome to Vermilion City!
I head straight for the S.S. Anne to get my Cut HM.
Now, this is where the first really interesting quirk happened with my sequence breaking. I didn't waste time battling trainers on the S.S. Anne since they don't stand a chance against me anyway, and I headed straight for the Captain's Cabin.
Ordinarily, your rival will challenge you to a battle right before the Captain's Cabin. But, Blue was absent! He didn't show up to challenge me. I wonder why? Is it because I have the Fuchsia City gym badge already?
Where are you, Blue? Are you too embarrassed to battle me again? Where are you, Blue? Are you too embarrassed to battle me again?
I went ahead and got the Cut HM from the Captain.
Now, with the Cut HM, I can challenge the Vermilion City gym leader.
Bye-bye, S.S. Anne! Bye-bye, S.S. Anne!
Time to take on the Vermilion City gym!
The gym trainers stood no chance against me.
The gym leader also lost spectacularly to my overpowered Pokemon.
Now with the Vermilion City gym out of the way, I went back to Celadon City to pwn my way through their Grass-type Pokemon with my Charmeleon.
Now, when I defeated the Vermilion City gym, I'm able to use Fly now. I can get Fly in Celadon City, so, let's go get it. Also, I captured a random Pidgey I found in the grass so that I'd have a Pokemon to teach Fly to.
Received HM02 - Fly. Received HM02 - Fly.
My gym badges so far. I never got the 1st badge.
Breaking Mt. Moon
Where should I Fly to next? Where should I Fly to next?
As you can see, I've now been to every city except for Pewter City and Indigo Plateau (but the latter is normal, as that's the very last city you go to).
I'm gonna fly to Cerulean City because I have an idea on how I can further sequence-break this game. Since I can Surf, I can escape from Cerulean City going west and get to Mt. Moon, and enter Mt. Moon from the wrong side.
This will place me on the other side of the fossils, and let me choose my fossil without having to battle the Pokemon trainer who guards them!
Surfing here to get out of Cerulean City! Surfing here to get out of Cerulean City!
The Cerulean City cave.
This trainer is blocking the entrance to the Cerulean City Cave, where Mewtwo lives, because you can't get in there until you've beaten the entire game. But I'm not interested in that cave, I'm going to head west to Mt. Moon!
Mt. Moon - The back entrance. Mt. Moon - The back entrance.
The fossils!
And here we are. Ordinarily, I would be on the opposite side of the fossils, and I'd have to battle the trainer down there first. After winning, he'd let me choose a fossil, and he'd take the opposite one. But I'm standing right by the fossils right now!
I'll take the Kabuto fossil! I'll take the Kabuto fossil!
The trainer automatically goes and takes the other one.
As I expected, taking the fossil has triggered the trainer to take the other one. But, I've skipped the battle with him now! See, look!
I know, I've been to Cinnabar Island! I know, I've been to Cinnabar Island!
Through Mt. Moon, onward to Pewter City!
I'm positive that you are mistaken. I've never been to Viridian Forest!
All this excitement has caused my Charmeleon to evolve!
Oh. Thanks for the warm welcome to Pewter City.
I've encountered Pewter City's "invisible wall" from the wrong side. The invisible wall is this trainer who's supposed to stop you from leaving Pewter City until you've defeated the gym leader, Brock.
I'm sure I have the right stuff, buddy. I'm sure I have the right stuff, buddy.
Brock doesn't know what he's getting himself into...
Brock's strongest Pokemon doesn't even stand a chance.
With Brock defeated, I've now run out of ways to sequence-break this game. I have the first 5 badges and have unlocked the paths to every city in the game. This is the point at which the game played legitimately and my sequence-broken game converge.
I guess I can head south to Viridian City though...
Dude, I was catching Pokemon since before you were programmed. Dude, I was catching Pokemon since before you were programmed.
This old man stopped me on my way in to town to teach me how to catch a Pokemon. Because I never talked to him before I left for Fuchsia City at the beginning of my quest.
And at this point I'm out of ideas. I guess I could've held off on fighting Brock, and headed straight for the Pokemon League and had a little battle with my rival Blue and completely kicked his ass...
My last idea is to head back to the Fuchsia City Zoo, and see that extinct Pokemon one more time. Since I took the Kabuto fossil, I shouldn't expect to see a Kabuto at the zoo now...
It's an Omanyte! What happened to Kabuto? It's an Omanyte! What happened to Kabuto?
Apparently they didn't like their Kabuto anymore after they saw I took the Kabuto fossil, and they replaced him with Omanyte. :)
Here's my final party. Here's my final party.
At this point I'm done with my experiment. From this point in the game, the plot has caught up with me and I'm no longer sequence breaking anymore. I'm at a state in this game where I could've gotten to the same place through legitimate means.
So this is where my quest comes to an end. If anybody has any new ideas, feel free to leave me a comment about them. :)Canning by-election: Liberal candidate Andrew Hastie wins by-election
Updated
Former SAS captain Andrew Hastie has won the Canning by-election, retaining the West Australian seat for the Liberal Party after Malcolm Turnbull's prime ministerial coup helped defuse voter dissatisfaction with the Coalition Government.
Key points Liberal candidate Andrew Hastie wins Canning by-election
Mr Hastie denies ousting of Tony Abbott distracted voters
6.86 per cent swing not enough for Labor's Matt Keogh to win
Mr Hastie stuck doggedly to his pitch on local issues despite the ousting of his strong supporter Tony Abbott, and denied the turmoil in Canberra had been a major distraction.
With 52 of 56 polling places returned, Mr Hastie held 54.95 per cent of the two-party preferred vote to Labor's Matt Keogh on 45.05, a swing of 6.86 per cent to Labor.
The 4.95 per cent margin for the Liberals was down from the 11.8 per cent buffer commanded by Don Randall, whose death triggered the by-election.
In his victory speech to supporters at the Pinjarra Bowling and Recreation Club, Mr Hastie said it was "an honour and a privilege to stand before you as the Member-elect for Canning".
He raised a toast to Mr Randall.
"As the incoming Member of Canning, I hope to honour Don's memory with the same spirit of service to the community here," he said.
Federal frontbenchers including Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and Justice Minister Michael Keenan were among those gathered at Pinjarra.
Mr Hastie thanked his family for their support and also paid tribute to Mr Abbott.
"I want to thank and honour the service of Tony Abbott," he said.
"From day one, he wanted me to succeed.
"I was immensely proud to have him visit and support me and my family on this campaign and I'm grateful for his support and guidance."
He also thanked Mr Turnbull.
"He's shown great support for me and my campaign.
"I thank him for his support and I look forward to working with him to deliver for the people of Canning."
Mr Turnbull tweeted his congratulations to Mr Hastie.
"Congratulations Andrew Hastie and your Liberal team for well-deserved Canning win. Courage, confidence and vision trumped fear," the tweet read.
Mr Keogh conceded defeat at an ALP function in Mandurah, thanking Canning's 112,809 enrolled voters for their support.
"Together today, and over the last four weeks, we have fought a noble fight, we have fought a strong fight," he said.
"We are looking at swings across the seat on a two-party preferred of 6 per cent.
"That is a huge effort. Thank you very much."
Mr Keogh also thanked Opposition Leader Bill Shorten for his leadership, saying he was popular with voters in the electorate.
Local issues, leadership spill top of voters' minds
Mr Keogh and Mr Hastie campaigned hard on local issues including jobs, road infrastructure, employment, telecommunications, crime and ice, and that reportedly resonated with voters.
"I'll be thinking about more jobs coming in," voter Helena said, arriving at the Kelmscott polling station on Saturday.
"We need a police station which should be 24 hours," another voter George said.
"Not part-time police for the area we've got here."
With the elevation of Malcolm Turnbull, I think a lot of people decided to switch to the Liberal Party and that was in Andrew Hastie's favour. Peter Kennedy, political commentator
But the Liberal leadership turmoil was foremost on other voters' minds.
"I've listened to them all, I've listened to their speeches," said Carol, "but it's what's at the top that really matters."
Political commentator Peter Kennedy said the result would have been closer if Mr Abbott was still prime minister.
"The issue was that while Tony Abbott was leader, the polls showed that the Liberals were just ahead," he said.
"But with change of leadership it seemed that the vote was quite decisive.
"With the elevation of Malcolm Turnbull, I think a lot of people decided to switch to the Liberal Party and that was in Andrew Hastie's favour."
Mr Kennedy said it was a disappointing night for the minor parties because they battled to get recognition.
"The major parties benefited from endorsing strong candidates," he said.
"I guess there's a lesson for the major parties there — endorse strong candidates and the voters will support you."
Unlikely characters appear at booths
Election day brought out some unusual characters alongside the usual volunteers for the 12 candidates contesting the by-election.
Three people dressed as Star Wars stormtroopers flanked a Darth Vader at a polling booth in Serpentine-Jarrahdale.
And Ms Bishop was photographed with Mr Hastie and a man dressed as Wolverine.
But it was a Labor placard showing her embracing Mr Abbott, along with the word "loyalty" which drew her ire.
The stunt mirrored a similar ploy used by the Coalition before the last election, featuring Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.
Ms Bishop said Labor was trying to distract voters from local concerns.
"This is not about me," Ms Bishop, the senior WA Liberal said.
"This by-election is about Andrew Hastie versus the other candidates that have been put forward. And I will back Andrew Hastie over any of them, any time."
Neither Mr Hastie nor Mr Keogh were allowed to vote, having moved into the electorate too late to enrol.
Topics: elections, government-and-politics, armadale-6112, kelmscott-6111, serpentine-6125, mandurah-6210, pinjarra-6208, dwellingup-6213
First postedImage copyright EPA Image caption The IOC says it wants to protect the Olympic Movement in Kuwait from undue government interference
Kuwait has filed a lawsuit in a Swiss court seeking $1bn (£670m) in damages from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over the suspension of its Olympic committee.
The IOC and world football governing body Fifa suspended Kuwait in October citing domestic laws that permit government interference in sports.
But Kuwait says the IOC ban was imposed without proper investigation.
It says it may not be allowed to take part in the Rio Olympics in August.
"It's totally unacceptable that Kuwait is treated in this unfair way and barred from international sports activities without any appropriate probe being conducted," Information Minister Sheikh Salman al-Humoud Al-Sabah was quoted by the official Kuna news agency as saying on Wednesday.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Kuwait competed successfully at trap shooting events in the London Olympics
"From the very beginning Kuwait did it its utmost to prevent the IOC suspension and showed a sincere desire to co-operate, but all to no avail.
"We sent a UN-sponsored delegation to Geneva to explain to the sports body that the Kuwaiti government by no means intervenes in sports activities."
The minister complained that Kuwait had been left in "an embarrassing position" in sports circles where it was viewed as an "outlaw".
Sheikh Salman added that he hoped recent parliamentary amendments to the country's sports laws would create "a common vision".
But critics say the changes are more likely to prolong the IOC and Fifa bans because the government still has the power to dissolve sports clubs and federations, as well as Kuwait's Olympic Committee.
Sixteen other international sporting federations have blacklisted Kuwait in addition to the IOC and Fifa, correspondents say.1 It’s the first set of byes on the fixture, save Port and Gold Coast’s time off for their China sojourn. It’s something of a throwback to the days of the 12-team VFL, except every match is on TV. And even in reduced portions, this round contains some intriguing matches, as well as another of these fast-catching on Thursday night games.
2 Red-letter date of this weekend is definitely Cats-Crows on Friday at Simonds, the old Dangerfield Bowl, as an American might describe it. It’s also looms as a key checkpoint for this season – when the story of 2017 is told, it’s highly possible that this match will be referenced as a turning point for Adelaide or Geelong, in either direction. For league-leading Adelaide, which really got back on course with its destruction of Fremantle last week, there’s an |
Elihu Grant was the principal between 1901 and 1903. Both the Boys' and Girls' Friends Schools were designed and built by Dahoud Saah of Ramallah.[5]
Location [ edit ]
The Lower School and kindergarten (Friends Girls' School) is located near the centre of the Old City of Ramallah.The girls' school is located at The upper School campus (Friends Boys' School) is located along al Nahdha Street, al-Bireh[6] The boys' school is located at
Curriculum [ edit ]
The Friends Schools have offered, in both Arabic and English,[7] various educational curricula. As of 2011, they only offer the IB curriculum, optionally IB-no exam for those who wish to take the American SAT examination, but those students will have to apply through the AMIDEAST as it is no longer provided to students. The schools used to offer local governmental examinations: ‘Tawjihi’. The school was certified to provide the IB curriculum in 2001 by the International Baccalaureate organization.
During the first Intifada the Friends School was closed by the Israeli authorities—as was the case with all schools in Ramallah—during the years of 1988 and 1989, but it was reopened after the intifada.[8]
Swift House [ edit ]
The Friends International Center regularly hosts meetings with other NGOs such as the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and the Christian Peacemaker Teams.[9]
Notable alumni [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]A strong argument can be made that Mark Giordano was the NHL's best defenseman last year. This may be an unpopular notion amongst the greater hockey community, especially amongst those who don't care for advanced stats, but there is plenty of evidence to support his case.
However, Giordano was not treated as a genuine Norris Trophy candidate by most members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, who gave him just one first-place vote. Duncan Keith, Zdeno Chara and Shea Weber were viewed as those most worthy, and Keith ultimately won despite a soft defensive workload.
Truth is, the previously undrafted Giordano never stood a chance. He wasn't a star in a big market like Keith and Chara, and he wasn't a big name who just helped his country to an Olympic gold medal like Weber.
Rather, he was a little-known commodity on a bad team.
The Flames are still fairly bad, but Giordano's profile has risen considerably of late. This year, mainstream media outlets are discussing him as a potential Norris winner, and on Jan. 25, he'll partake in his first NHL All-Star Game at Nationwide Arena.
Indeed, the 31-year-old has come a long way over the last few seasons -- both on the ice and in the eyes of the public.
Giordano has been heralded by analytics writers for some time now, but it took a roaring start in 2014-15 to gain widespread attention. This came after he racked up 18 points in his first 16 contests and was named the NHL's first star of the week on Nov. 10.
And his production hasn't slowed much since: through 43 games, Giordano has tallied 36 points (10 goals, 26 assists), just one point fewer than Kevin Shattenkirk's defenseman-leading total.
Also impressive is the influence Giordano has on his teammates. While the Flames are mediocre possession-wise, that often changes when he hops over the boards. The impact he makes is staggering, to say the least, and it can be illustrated by comparing shot differential numbers with and without him on the ice.
Overall, the Flames have taken 47.2 percent of even strength shot attempts with Giordano and 42.4 percent without him. That's a big difference, one that only becomes more impressive when we consider how Bob Hartley deploys his star D-man.
The Flames' blue line is a complete train-wreck when the bottom two pairings are used -- regardless of how much they're sheltered. But when Giordano and T.J. Brodie are out there, which happens almost 25 minutes per game, Calgary tends to perform at a competitive level.
Essentially, Giordano is handling the opponents' best players, starting a high number of shifts in his own zone, driving play at an elite rate and creating lots of offense.
This is what separates him from the pack. No one else is doing so much under such harsh conditions.
Drew Doughty's name has been tossed around as a Norris favorite, as has Keith's, but other than their higher ice time and slightly more productive work on special teams, there's little reason to believe they've been more valuable than Giordano.
Question is, would Doughty or Keith be in this conversation if they were put on the Flames' top pairing? Doughty might, but it's hard to see Keith doing well enough in that environment to garner hardware.
The Norris Trophy is supposed to be rewarded to the "defensive player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position." Right now, no one fits this description better than Giordano.Even though she won't be a candidate in the upcoming election, Eve Adams isn't staying out of politics.
The former Conservative parliamentary secretary, who lost the Liberal nomination in Toronto's Eglinton-Lawrence riding, had some eyebrow-raising words for Stephen Harper on Twitter Tuesday, referencing his ex-chief of staff Nigel Wright and the ongoing refugee crisis in Syria.
Harper to caucus meeting on Nigel: When a drowning man is sinking..."helping him only drowns you". Must explain position on tragic refugees. — Eve Adams, MP (@EveJAdams) September 8, 2015
The Conservative leader cited security concerns for his refusal to committing to do more to help Syria's refugees.
Adams also tweeted about a pregnant girl who allegedly fainted at the end of a question period prep meeting, claiming Harper tried to block others from helping her:
So so many questions. Why did Harper force everyone to ignore the pregnant girl who fainted. — Eve Adams, MP (@EveJAdams) September 8, 2015
Only 4 people standing in the room. Rest had chairs. The long working-female who fainted was pregnant. When 3 of us tried to help, screams! — Eve Adams, MP (@EveJAdams) September 8, 2015
"That was the moment I realized I worked for a jerk. He yelled at us to retake our seats," she wrote in an email to Huffington Post Canada.
"The meeting was already OVER. He did nothing for her. Directed no one to help- Actually, and specifically, yelled at us for helping her."
Adams said she did not want to name the pregnant girl to protect her privacy.
She did not elaborate on Harper's alleged comments about Wright, nor why she was tweeting about this story now.
The Conservatives had not responded to a request for comment at time of publication.
ALSO ON HUFFPOST:The BBC is to axe 75 more posts in news and the English regions in the latest round of cuts as part of its £700m Delivering Quality First cost savings initiative.
James Harding, the new BBC director of news and current affairs, announced the redundancies on Thursday in a move he conceded would "add to uncertainty after what has been a trying year".
In a memo to staff, Harding said: "I also appreciate the concern that cost savings come at a time that so many people are working hard to make the most of new technologies and striving to deliver the best journalism in the world. The reality is that we have to live within the terms of the licence fee settlement, requiring us to deliver more for less."
The 75 post closures are part of the BBC's DQF cost-cutting plans outlined in 2011, which are attempting to save £700m across the corporation and shrink BBC News headcount by 600 staff by the financial year 2016/17.
The latest job losses are expected to save £11m from the BBC News and English regions budget, which has committed to saving £60m a year – the equivalent of 13% of its annual spend.
Thursday's announcement is likely to spark a fresh row with the broadcasting unions, the National Union of Journalists and Bectu, which have fought a running battle with the corporation over job cuts since 2011.
Harding said in his memo that he was determined to avoid compulsory redundancies but "we cannot guarantee that will always be possible".
He added: "These are demanding times for everyone working in news, both in the BBC and beyond. UK licence fee payers provide us with £650m to deliver the best service in news locally, nationally and internationally. BBC News and Current Affairs employs more than 8,000 people and we do – and must – strive to deliver the best possible value for money.
"I believe that BBC News provides outstanding value for money to licence fee payers. I also believe that the public measures the value of what we do not simply in financial terms, but in the quality of our work. I hope you share my pride in what we put on screen and on air and, based on the quality of our output, my confidence that BBC News will continue to command the trust and respect of our audiences."
In an email to staff, the BBC said it had been able to reduce costs by making redundant a person responsible for booking guests for the BBC News channel since completing the move to New Broadcasting House, its new headquarters in central London, in March.
The NUJ general secretary, Michelle Stanistreet, responded to the announcement by attacking the "shabby, behind-closed-doors deal with the government" forged by former BBC director general Mark Thompson in 2010.
"His decision to agree to freeze the licence fee until 2017 and take on an extra £340m in new financial responsibilities, such as the World Service and the provision of fast broadband, has proved a disaster for the corporation," said Stanistreet.
"Last week we watched Thompson and members of the BBC Trust defending £1m payoffs to former executives, this week we hear hard-working journalists committed to the BBC and public service broadcasting are to be shown the door."
The latest job cuts follow plans announced last March to close 140 BBC News posts, which squeezed programmes including Radio 4's In Business and Law in Action.
Radio 5 Live's late-night Phil Williams show will be affected by the post closures announced on Thursday, with management ending dedicated presentation of business news on the programme.
BBC journalists were told that 17.5 newsgathering jobs will be closed within the next year, including the Moscow bureau editor post and one senior management post.
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@theguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and FacebookBuyer beware. It's a mantra that serves us photographers very well. We spend significant sums of money on very hi-tech equipment. Most of us have our heads screwed on well enough to recognise a scam, a switch and bait or just a misused second hand camera. It would take a clever and cunning plan to fool us. Sadly, the world of the con artist knows no bounds and as savvy as we are as buyers there will always be someone out there thinking of new ways to acquire our hard earned money. We are all aware of fake goods, it's pretty commonplace, fake Rolexes and Ray-bans abound but the idea of fake Nikons. How does that work?
How can you fake a Nikon?
Well it would seem, quite easily. Today we are going to take a look at the mysterious case of the fake Nikons.
Fakes have got little more sophisticated since this effort, by Acadia3D, on Flickr
Where Did it Start?
In late 2014 Nikon technicians started to notice something strange. Nikon D800Es being returned for repairs or routine services were not all they seemed. On the outside, they were perfect, the body a bona-fide 800E however, when they opened up the cameras, they found something extra – an anti-aliasing filter.
Nikonistas will know that the D800E is a more expensive version of the D800. More expensive because oddly it has one part removed, the bayer filter. It seemed that the scammers were somehow getting hold of the D800E body components and putting D800s inside.
More recently Nikon have issued a warning that the same thing is happening with the D610, its innards being replaced with the much cheaper but outwardly similar D7100. This as you may know is an APS-C sensor camera compared to the D610's full frame.
More worryingly there are now reports coming in that the flagship model the Nikon D4s is being faked with the D4 components.
D800s are being re-cased as D800Es, by Justin Higuchi, on Flickr
Is All This True?
There is no doubt that there are multiple cameras that have been effected by this mystery, but theories abound as the why it is happening. Firstly the price difference between the D800 and the D800E is not all that great, perhaps $200-$300, why would scammers go to such extraordinary lengths for such small margins. The answer to this one might lie in the fact that the D800 and 800E are now mid-life products. As such it is possible that there are broken D800Es out of warranty that can be picked up cheaply on places such as eBay. Working D800s are also relatively cheap secondhand so the margins may be greater than initial reports suggest.
Secondly the D800E scam may have been a proof of concept test. If they could get away with the relatively simple body swap of these two cameras, it may lead to greater rewards with by swapping D7100s into D610 bodies.
One of the more controversial theories suggests that Nikon is covering a huge manufacturing error in its plants although the more recent discoveries of fake D610s and D4Ss would tend to suggest this is not the case.
A Nikon coverup is unlikely, by Peter Dutton, on Flickr
Is Mine Fake?
The simplest way to check you have the genuine article is display an image in the camera’s playback mode and select the overview display option. The exact camera model will be displayed in the top right of the screen
How Can I Avoid Buying a Fake?
As we said at the top, buyer beware. The normal rules apply when buying complex electronics. If at all possible, buy from a reputable, bricks and mortar store where you can handle the camera and check everything. If that is not possible and you have to buy online, again pick only well know companies and make sure they have acceptable returns policies. Check the seller ratings sites if your country has one.
Buying from an established store is the safest, by Vladimir K, on Flickr
If buying off eBay, scrutinise the sellers feedback. If he has a long history of selling camera equipment and very good ratings, you will probably be fine. Avoid sellers with low feed back or with high feedback but only has only been selling small items.
We will always be in a battle with the scammers and con artists, but if you keep a level head and trust your instincts the chances are very high that you will get the correct, bona-fide Nikon. The number of fakes out there is very low but knowing they are out there will help you make a more informed purchase.Kieran Foran walked out on the Parramatta Eels earlier this year.
Embattled Kiwis star Kieran Foran is reportedly to set sign with the New Zealand Warriors.
Australian publication Rugby League Week claims Foran has agreed to a one-year deal, with the Warriors hoping to extend his stay at the club if he succeeds.
The deal is expected to be completed within the next 24 hours.
Warriors managing director Jim Doyle could not be reached for comment, although sources close to the club dismissed the story as speculation at this stage.
READ MORE:
* Warriors close to Foran deal
* Bookmaker rejected A$30,000 deposit in Foran's account
* Hurdles to overcome before Foran can join Warriors
The report said that the Warriors have beaten several clubs to Foran's signature, most notably Canterbury who are coached by his former mentor at Manly, Des Hasler.
Warriors coach Andrew McFadden confirmed ahead of their last game of the season against the Eels that there were people at the club dealing with Foran and his possible move to New Zealand next season.
Foran was also reported to have visited Auckland two weeks ago to see the Warriors' facilities and meet with club management
The 20-test playmaker has been in the spotlight since walking out on a lucrative contract with Parramatta midway through the season to deal with mental health issues.
He has also come under scrutiny for his relationship with Australian gambling identity Eddie Hayson.
Earlier this year, Hayson was reported to be a person of interest as police looked into alleged match-fixing, although he has denied any involvement.
Despite his off-field issues, the recruitment of Foran would be a huge boost for the Warriors, who are currently undergoing an end-of-season review after missing the finals for a fifth-straight year.
Foran is regarded as one of the best playmaker's in the NRL and teaming him with Shaun Johnson, Issac Luke and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck would give the Warriors the spine of the Kiwis test side.
The NRL would have to ratify his return to football but it is hoped a year away from the spotlight of the Sydney media would help him get his life back on track.
Doyle is also widely respected in the NRL having been a key figure in the formation of the competition's integrity unit during his time as the NRL's chief operating officer.
The Pac-12 is blessed with an abundance of returning starting quarterbacks in 2014. With 10 starters coming back, many are wondering if the league is on pace for its best quarterback year ever. We conclude the 10-part series with Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota.
Name: Marcus Mariota
School: Oregon
Grade: Junior
After a stellar first two seasons, expectations for Oregon junior quarterback Marcus Mariota are higher than ever. AP Photo/Don Ryan
2013 passing stats: Completed 245 of 386 passes (63.5 percent) for 3,665 yards with 31 touchdowns and four interceptions. Posted a raw QBR of 84.2 and an adjusted QBR of 88.0.
Career passing stats: Has completed 475 of 772 passes (65.8 percent) for 6,342 yards with 63 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Has a raw QBR of 83.3 and an adjusted QBR of 87.2.
2013 rushing stats: Rushed 96 times for 715 yards with nine touchdowns.
Career rushing stats: Has rushed 202 times for 1,467 yards and 14 touchdowns.
What you need to know about Mariota: Following the departure of Darron Thomas, Mariota was locked in a nearly eight-month competition with Bryan Bennett. Mariota winning the job was considered a mild upset at the time because many thought it would be Bennett, considering he’d backed up Thomas and saw action in nine games the previous season. But a week before the start of the 2012 season, then-coach Chip Kelly pulled the trigger on Mariota, and the Ducks have benefited with a 23-3 mark with him as the starter. He’s a heavy Heisman favorite heading into the season, and many are predicting him to be the No. 1 pick in the 2015 draft.
Career high point: Mariota has been lights out against nearly every Pac-12 team, save last year’s loss to Arizona and a pair of losses to Stanford. He’s bested Washington twice with eight passing touchdowns (plus one rushing) to one interception in two games. He’s topped UCLA and won a pair of bowl games. He's been so good in so many games, but for now we'll pick winning the 2013 Fiesta Bowl over Kansas State as a high point. The only thing left to accomplish (besides a national championship, an annual expectation in Eugene) is to get over the Stanford hump. The Cardinal have limited him to just 57 percent passing and three passing touchdowns in two games.
Career low point: Either Stanford game would be a suitable choice. Both times the Ducks were undefeated and on their way to a potential spot in the BCS national championship. But the loss to Arizona last season was a stinger for Mariota and the program. He saw his interception-free streak come to an end by tossing a pair of picks (though he did throw two touchdowns), and the loss knocked Oregon out of the Pac-12 championship game and out of an at-large berth in a BCS bowl. It's worth noting that he played through a knee injury in the final six games of last season.
When he was a recruit: Few recruiting classes provide specific positions with more talking points than Oregon’s quarterback chase in the 2011 class. At one point, the Ducks held commitments from Jerrard Randall and Johnny Manziel, as well as a third quarterback. After Manziel decommitted and Randall didn’t qualify, the Ducks were stuck with the third guy, the No. 123 signal-caller in the country, the lowest-rated commitment in the Ducks’ class -- some kid named Marcus Mariota. Oregon extended the offer before Mariota ever took a snap as a starter and the quarterback committed to the Ducks prior to his senior season. His ESPN Recruiting Nation profile doesn’t exactly project greatness -- few outside of the Oregon coaching staff did at the time -- but it did hit on some key points. “Mariota is a tall and lanky quarterback prospect that is part pocket passer and part runner as he is really athletic... Mariota could be a guy that develops later down the road and needs to be in the spread offense where he can use his athleticism.”
Opposing head coach’s take: “He’s the best quarterback in the nation. And I think the last couple years he’s been the best quarterback in the nation. I don’t care what they say about anybody else. Tall, fast, athletic, accurate, strong arm, great decision-maker, great kid. He’s one of those guys that you root for until you have to play him. Then you’re scared to death of him.”
Scouts' take: A humble and charismatic individual. The entire athletic department and school faculty speak highly of him. On the quiet side by nature but a strong leader by example. Has become more vocal as he gains experience and showed willingness to get in teammates' faces last year. Excellent work ethic. Willing to put the necessary time in and pay the price.... A highly competitive and even-keeled player who rarely seems rattled on tape. Benefits from spread, uptempo attack that simplifies reads and creates bigger throwing windows. Has been a very sound decision-maker throughout his first two years as a starter (63-to-10 TD-to-INT ratio). Still will take unnecessary risks at times with late throws he should not make.... Has a unique ability to deliver accurate throw on the run or from an unbalanced platform. Improved deep-ball projection and overall accuracy.... Dynamic athlete who has the ability to put stress on a defense with his mobility, both as a thrower and a runner. Very good body control and balance when evading pressure and has excellent escape ability. Has natural improvisational instincts when working off schedule. Above-average elusiveness and rare straight line-play speed. Has a very similar running style to Colin Kaepernick in terms of stride length and deceiving straight-line speed to ruin pursuit angles.
What to expect in 2014: Is it too much to ask for a Heisman? Because that’s the national expectation for Mariota. It’s not his -- or at least something he thinks about (according to multiple interviews) -- but that’s how the rest of the country sees him. It’s more than fair to say Heisman voters were turned off after Mariota suffered a partially torn MCL against UCLA (which was kept quiet for as long as possible), which contributed to losses against Stanford and Arizona. Before that, he was the runaway winner. This season should provide more of the same. Accuracy, efficiency and dazzling dual-threat numbers that make voters gush. But bigger than personal accolades, Mariota returned because of how the Ducks finished the last two seasons. As noted, he’s yet to beat Stanford and thus, he’s yet to win a Pac-12 championship. The Ducks are again the favorites heading into the season. He lost a key receiver in Bralon Addison and a key lineman in Tyler Johnstone to unfortunate preseason injuries. But there is more than enough speed and talent around him for Mariota to elevate the play of his teammates. Mariota is possibly the best player in the country. And the Pac-12 blog expects him to live up to that hype in 2014.
Erik McKinney and Kevin Weidl contributed to this report.For the past five years, Troy Casey has worked for AC Golden, the MillerCoors-owned beer incubator in Golden that makes everything from
to
Continue Reading
to the
that just won an award at the Great American Beer Festival.
Over that time, Casey has helped AC Golden develop a cachet and a distinctive reputation among craft beer drinkers despite its corporate parent and its lack of a tasting room.
Now Casey is leaving to open his own artisan brewery in or near Glenwood Springs, Casey Brewing & Blending, where he will focus on "the art of blending beer."
See also: AC Golden's Checkpoint Charlie and five other Colorado-made Berliner weisses
The process will work this like: Casey will hire Chase Engel, who is planning to open a brewery, Roaring Fork Beer Company, in Carbondale next spring, to contract-brew his wort, which is what beer is called before it has been fermented.
Then Casey will transport the wort to his own facility (he is still looking for a location) in order to add a variety of different yeast stains and to age all of it in oak barrels. After that, he'll "bring together unique flavors from several different barrels to create beers with characteristics that are impossible to create any other way."
It's similar to what Crooked Stave's Chad Yakobson does in Denver, as well as what some of the old-world Belgian lambic brewers did, Casey says.
"The most romantic part is the actual brewing process, but I've always loved the fermentation," he explains. "I have no problem having someone else brew my wort because that is not where my talents will be shown. Mine are in adding the yeast strains and in blending the beers. If I never brew, I won't have a problem with that."
Casey, who has a master's degree from the University of California at Davis, got his start brewing in Colorado Springs, but joined AC Golden in 2008, shortly after MillerCoors created the tiny enterprise. Since then, he's focused on lagers, which is what AC Golden specializes in, but has also produced a variety of barrel-aged ales.
AC Golden started its sour and wild ale program in April of 2009. "We had no idea what we were doing, we just knew we liked those beers," he says. Over time, though, they became some of the most sought-after sours in Colorado and helped to change people's opinions about AC Golden and MillerCoors.
AC Golden uses almost entirely Colorado-grown malt, hops and fruit in its beers, and that is what Casey plans to do with his own brewery. "We'll be really close to the growing regions on the Western Slope, and I'm really excited about that," he says.
Casey chose the Glenwood area because his girlfriend moved there earlier this year for a job, but also because he loves the Roaring Fork Valley and wants to be located in a part of the state where people go on vacation -- similar to what Elevation Beer Company did when they opened in the mountain town of Poncha Springs in 2012.
"If I opened in Denver, I'd be able to sell more beer through the tasting room. This way, I'll be packaging a lot more than some new breweries might. But we want to be in the mountains, and we figure, if we brew it, people will come," he explains.
One of Casey's best memories from college was making the three-hour trip from Davis to Chico, California, to visit the home of Sierra Nevada. "It was such a destination place, and that is what we want. The fact that we won't be in the majority of our consumers's backyards will make that experience more exciting for them when they come to visit."
Casey will leave AC Golden next week and begin hunting for a location; he hopes to get open sometime in 2014. One of his first beers will likely be a saison that takes three months to make, which is a long time for a beer, but short compared to most of the beers he plans to produce. "That will allow me to age some of the others," he says.
All of his beers will be fermented or aged with brettanomyces, lactobaccilus and other agents to varying degrees, even the saison. "There will be wild ales that are reminiscent of lambics because that is what I like to drink. It will be a beer lover's paradise."
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's Beer Man on Twitter at @ColoBeerMan and on Facebook at Colo BeerManA taste of the graphene sandwich
12 Feb 2013
University of Manchester scientists have discovered a way to create high-quality graphene capacitor, which could deliver high-frequency electronics.
Sun rising reflected on the sea made from the Landau level fan diagram
Writing in PNAS, University of Manchester graphene researchers found that sandwiching a layer of the wonder material between boron nitride could produce highly-accurate capacitors.
Capacitors could pave the way for flexible and superstrong electronic devices.
Wonder material graphene was first isolated in 2004 at The University of Manchester by Professor Andre Geim and Professor Kostya Novoselov. Their work earned them the 2010 Nobel prize for Physics.
Graphene is the world’s thinnest, strongest and most conductive material, and has the potential to revolutionise a huge number of diverse applications; from smartphones and ultrafast broadband to drug delivery and computer chips.
Combining graphene with other materials, such as the ideal insulator boron nitride, has been a particular area of success for the Manchester researchers – creating heterostructures which have unique properties.
Capacitors made this way could prove cheaper and easier to make than traditional transistors. The team used quantum capacitance spectroscopy to investigate the exceptional properties of graphene, as this measurements shows better accuracy.
The University of Manchester is the world’s leading centre for graphene research. Work will begin shortly on the £61m National Graphene Institute, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
Notes for editorsDespite what constituents outside of Washington might think, members of Congress are underpaid, a House Legislative Branch appropriator suggested Thursday.
Virginia Democrat James P. Moran said he plans to highlight the injustice by introducing an amendment to the Legislative Branch bill during its full committee markup, and at floor consideration of the bill. Moran made the comments while the bill that funds members' $174,000 salaries was being marked up in the Legislative Branch subcommittee.
(Related: Jim Moran, John Boehner Sought Congressional Pay Raise Reform as Freshmen) “I think the American people should know that the members of Congress are underpaid,” Moran told CQ Roll Call. “I understand that it’s widely felt that they underperform, but the fact is that this is the board of directors for the largest economic entity in the world."
The senior appropriator pointed out that some members have taken to living out of their offices to save money, while others have "small little apartment units" that make it impossible to spend the time they should with their families.
(Related: The 50 Richest and 10 Poorest Members of Congress; Moran One of the Poorest) Most state legislatures provide their members with a per diem allowance, Moran argues, so the federal government should do the same.
The Legislative Branch appropriations bill introduced by Republicans on Wednesday aims to show the chamber's commitment to austerity by holding spending at current levels. It would continue a freeze on lawmaker salaries that has been in place since 2010.
As for a dollar amount, Moran hasn't yet thought that through. He said it would probably be consistent with what the federal government provides to other employees.
According to the Congressional Research Service, members began receiving a $6 per diem in 1789. The rate was eventually raised to $8 and remained there until 1856, when members began to receive annual salaries.
Moran assumes the amendment will not pass, admitting “this is wholly quixotic,” but he may bring it up on the House floor to garner attention.
"Our pay has been frozen for three years and we're planning on freezing it a fourth year.... A lot of members can't even afford to live decently in Washington," he said.
Moran isn't the only Member of Congress to spark a debate on member pay in recent years.
Moran recently announced he would retire from Congress. Roughly a dozen Democrats are making a bid for the seat in Virginia’s 8th District, which includes the inner suburbs of D.C. The seat is considered Safe Democratic by the Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call.
Tamar Hallerman contributed to this report. Get breaking news alerts from Roll Call on your iPhone or in your inbox. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Correction : An earlier version of this story misidentified what bill Moran would seek to offer an amendment to.Michael Oliveira, The Canadian Press
TORONTO -- Ian Everdell knows exactly where people's eyes generally go when browsing a web page, and how women act a little differently than men when it comes to reading online.
If you can even call it reading.
Everdell has it on good authority that Internet users typically aren't really reading at all on most web pages. Their eyes impatiently dart across the screen in search of something specific, or something interesting to pique their attention, but there's not much actual reading going on.
He knows because of the eye-tracking technology at the Toronto office of the marketing company Mediative, where web users sit down to do a little surfing and have their flits of vision recorded and studied. Web designers and advertisers can then see what viewers are looking at and what they're not paying attention to.
As it turns out, not too much has changed in the years that Mediative has been watching web surfers.
"The biggest and most interesting thing we know about eye tracking from how we read is that we don't actually read. We spend probably about 80 per cent of our time just scanning through web pages," said Everdell, the company's manager of user experience and research.
"At the beginning of a headline, or a heading, or paragraph, people are seeing at most 12 to 15 characters -- you're not getting a whole sentence, you're not getting six words, you're getting two or three.
"That means that the content of the writing has to be front-ended, because something like 'Welcome to the...' is all they're going to see, so doing that is not going to catch their attention and get them to read further."
Men and women generally surf similarly, but there are some differences in how the sexes scan for information, Everdell said.
"We ultimately end up looking for the same pieces of information, but if you look at the order that we look at things in, men are very sort of all over the place. We'll pull things out from here and there. There's no real structure or method to the way we scan a page," he said.
"Women are more methodical. They're very sort of item by item. We end up looking at the same things, but the way we look at them is different."
At Mediative's office, test subjects are parked in front of a computer monitor that has two built-in infrared cameras which track their eye movements and record audio and video of the web-surfing session.
"Our eyes jump around three to five times a second and when they're still we call that a fixation: that's when we're actually gathering visual information," explained Everdell.
"We're very much hunting and pecking for that information that's relevant to our intent."
At the end of the session, graphs illustrate where the most fixations took place and for how long. A heat map highlights the most-seen areas in red, followed by hues of yellow and green.
Studying users' behaviours on search engines revealed a pattern that became known as the Golden Triangle, a hotspot of red and yellow in the upper left corner of a search results page. The consistent pattern suggests users mostly focus on the first few search results down the page and only about a third of the way horizontally across the screen.
Sometimes the red and yellow hotspots appear more like a capital F, but one thing's for sure: the right side of the page, where ads are typically laid out, does not get much attention.
"The general pattern hasn't changed (over the years). You see people might glance quickly at the paid ads (but) then jump over them very quickly," Everdell said.
"The scanning through the page really goes down that left side."
Another type of graph, called a gaze plot, draws a chronological line between the different user fixations across a page, typically creating a messy web of zigzagging lines that jump across the screen.
Everdell said the eye-tracking technology is important for researchers because surveys don't always tell the full story of what users were looking at and why.
"We're so bad at self-reporting why we do something. This sort of gives us a window into the brain," he said.
"We can understand what's attracting visual attention and what isn't attracting visual attention, which arguably is often more important."
These days, many eye-tracking experiments are being done on mobile devices, which are exposing a new set of user habits.
"One of the interesting behaviours we see on the mobile device, which is somewhat different than what we see on a desktop, is that people will actually focus their eyes in one spot and move the results with their finger, instead of moving their eyes through the results," Everdell said.
"There's a lot more keeping the eyes in one spot and reading as stuff flies by."SALT LAKE CITY — As Mayor-elect Jackie Biskupski gears up to take over operations at Utah's capital city, she and her transition team are preparing to decide what city employees will stay and who will go.
There's a climate of nervousness and curiosity at the Salt Lake City-County Building, said David Everitt, Mayor Ralph Becker's chief of staff, as Biskupski readies to interview all of the city's department heads to evaluate their place under her administration.
"There are a lot of unknowns for everybody," Everitt said. "There is certainly no expectation that the mayor |
in the "Wish Book". I did find over 1600 pages of pure ugly.
I present the highlights from this catalog. Some of the pictures inspired stories, comments and questions. Other pictures do not need any commentary at all.
Several brand names of polyester and rayon appear in this catalog. Feel free to use them to name your children. Just remember to spell it with a "y": Fortrel, Dacron, Orlon, Estron, Avril, Acrilan, Kodel, Hockanum, Quintess and Celanese
In case you are wondering, I did research on this particular catalog and at most it is worth $2.00. I felt it was more valuable as entertainment.
A small plea: If you appeared in the Fall 1971 Catalog, please drop me a line at toonrage@gmail.com I would like to know how your modeling experience has affected you.
Disclaimers:
I am not a Sears employee. My association with Sears is as an occasional customer. I bought a car battery and a vacuum cleaner from my local store. I do walk through my local store when visiting the mall because the Sears entrance has the least crowded parking area and it is closest to the stores in the mall that I want to go to.
I am not an expert on all Sears catalogs. Please don't ask me to appraise your catalog. I am not an appraiser. I suggest you visit eBay to find a possible value for your catalog. Search "Sears Catalog" and then on the left side of the results page click on completed auctions.
I am not a child model agency. I'm sure your child or grandchild is really as cute as you say and that they would be a great model for the Sears catalog but I do not work for Sears or the model agency that Sears employs. I do not know how to get your kid into the Sears catalog. Try searching for model agencies. Do NOT send me pictures of your kids or grandkids.
I am not a search and scan service. I often get requests to find something in my catalog, scan that page and send it or simply find some information about an item that appeared in the catalog. If I have the time, I will look but I rarely have the time. If you make a request do not expect a quick answer. Although a bit of money placed in my PayPal account will buy you some time and expedite an answer.From left to right, Jenni Medley, Tony Burgess and Beau Burgess stand by aquaponic vegetatble beds at the Burgesses’ Shellfish Avenue home.-Photo by Michael Armstrong, Homer News
Update: This article has been updated with a note at the end of the article noting that tilapia fish are illegal to grow in Alaska.
In midwinter when Homer seems gray and gloomy, the prospect of fresh vegetables at the Homer Farmers Market can’t come soon enough. Two growers experimenting with aquaponics, the merger of aquaculture with hydroponic gardening, have introduced into local markets something that might seem unimaginable in January: fresh, vibrant green veggies.
At Blood, Sweat and Food in the East Hill area, growers Tony Burgess, his son Beau Burgess and Jenni Medley raise and sell vegetables to Two Sisters Café and The Bagel Shop. Up Baycrest Hill off the Sterling Highway on Saltwater Drive, Sonja Martin Young and Tom Young and their Alaska Aquaponics have taken the community supported agriculture, or CSA, approach, where customers pay $60 a month to get a box of vegetables every week.
Although the two operations differ in approach, they both create a growing cycle where excretions from fish create nutrients for plants and byproducts from plants filter water for fish.
“The fish condition the water for the plants,” Tom Young said. “The plants condition the water for the fish.”
Blood, Sweat and Food is in an 80-square-foot room off the Burgesses’ super insulated, energy-efficient house. Alaska Aquaponics is in a 790-square-foot greenhouse next to the Martin Young and Young’s home facing Kachemak Bay. Walking into either is like taking a trip to Hawaii: a blast of warm, moist air and an explosion of greenery.
“I like being in here with the garden,” Martin Young said. “Even on a gray day, it feels comfortable. It took care of any seasonable-affective disorder I might have.”
In hydroponics, plants grow suspended in water that has all the nutrients a plant needs. Blood, Sweat and Food uses a dirt-like growing media. The vegetables sit in water-saturated soil made of spruce wood chips, compost and ground oyster shells. Beds are stacked in two rows.
At one end of the growing beds, koi, goldfish and blue tilapia swim in a fish tank in the bottom row. Water flows from the fish tank into a sump tank and is pumped up to the plant beds. The water drains from the plant beds into a bucket where the water gets aerated, putting oxygen back into the water tank for the fish.
Tony Burgess compared the process to the human body. Air comes in through the lungs, nutrients come from the stomach and intestines, and blood takes oxygen and nutrients to the cells to keep them alive and growing.
Key to the process are nature’s little helpers, microbes, which convert nitrite from ammonia — the main chemical in fish urine — into nitrate that can be used by plants. It took about six weeks for enough microbes to make the system work.
Tony Burgess knows all about the importance of microbes. He has a master’s degree in botany and a doctorate in biology, and designed the savannah and thorn scrub sections of Biosphere II, an experiment in Arizona to duplicate a living ecosystem separate from earth. That was a big lesson of Biosphere II.
“All the heavy lifting is done by the microbes,” Tony Burgess said.
Aquaculture for the sale of fish as food is illegal in Alaska, but growing fish as pets is OK. Both operations use fish commonly found in aquariums and fish ponds. Alaska Aquaponics has a fish tank, but it’s temporarily empty after the fish died from an unknown cause. For now the plants are fertilized with fish meal.
At Alaska Aquaponics, Martin Young and Young have been experimenting with several types of growing platforms. In one that’s similar to Blood, Sweat and Food, plants grow in a bed of clay pellets. Water flows over the pellets and drains back into the fish tank. In another growing platform, plants are stuck into foam rafts that float on a big tank. The nutrients and water from the fish tank (when it’s back working) flow into the little pond.
Martin Young and Young also grow plants in towers, a commercial product called ZipGrow, that’s a long, square tube open at each end with a slit. Synthetic material that looks like a scrubby sponge goes in the tube, with plant starts inserted between a folded-over section of the material and sticking out the slit. The towers hang from a rack and water with nutrients dripping through it.
Both operations keep plants growing in the winter with grow lights, either fluorescent lights or more energy-efficient LED lights. Both growers also heat with natural gas.
The result has been a small infusion of winter-grown vegetables into the local market such as kale, dill, carrots, cilantro, Swiss chard, chives, mint and chervil. Medley said she likes the partnership with restaurants. She can meet with chefs and get ideas for crops they might need or tell them what’s in production. They place orders and get vegetables “as fresh as it can be” that day, Medley said.
“It’s nice to go to these restaurants,” she said. “They’re dedicated to making great food.”
At Alaska Aquaponics, four customers right now get the CSA boxes. Martin Young said they hope to produce more and take on new customers in the near future. People can call her to get on a waiting list.
While experimental and innovative, as happened with Homer’s high-tunnel greenhouse boom of a few years ago, aquaponics is working to not only expand the growing season of crops, it’s making food available year-round, fresh and green — even in the dark of winter.
Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.
Update:
On Feb. 12, Alaska Department of Fish and Game sport biologist Scott Ayers, Anchorage, contacted the Homer News and noted that growing tilapia — one of the fish grown at Blood, Sweat and Food — is illegal in Alaska. The Alaska law on finfish farming allows the rearing and sale of ornamental finfish for aquariums or ornamental ponds provided they are not released into state waters and sold as food. Ornamental fish are defined as fish not used for sport fishing or human consumption, such as tropical fish, aquarium fish and goldfish. Because tilapia are raised elsewhere in the world for food, Ayers said it would be illegal to raise that species of fish in Alaska. Ayers said that if aquaponics operations are found to be growing tilapia or other food fish, the department would ask that the fish be destroyed. Tony Burgess, one of the partners in Blood, Sweat and Food with Jenni Medley and his son Beau Burgess, said he would cooperate with Fish and Game and remove and destroy tilapia from their aquaponics operation.
Aquaponics in Homer
Alaska Aquaponics
Sonja Martin Young and Tom Young
1776 Saltwater Drive
299-1800
Blood, Sweat and Food
Tony Burgess, Beau Burgess and Jenni Medley
834 Shellfish Avenue
399-8280
Both operations will do small tours; call to set up times.
Plant towers hang next to a floating raft with vegetables, two of the ways Sonja Martin Young and Tom Young grow plants in their year-round greenhouse. A grow light travels on the rail across the plants.-Photo by Michael Armstrong, Homer NewsTraditional welcome greets President Eyring in Fiji.
Cyclone disrupts Suva Fiji Temple youth cultural celebration.
President Eyring rededicates Suva Fiji Temple in hours after Cyclone Winston strikes
SUVA, FIJI
Among all the cultural celebrations held in conjunction with temple dedications throughout the world over the past few decades, the youth in Fiji are the only ones who have performed on the eve of a temple dedication and on the day after the sacred event.
As the winds and rains of Cyclone Winston intensified here Feb. 20, Church leaders made the difficult decision to put an early end to the Suva Fiji Temple youth cultural celebration held in the Vodafone Arena.
The necessary decision, made for the safety of the participants, came as the Fijian government implemented a mandatory curfew for everyone in Fiji.
But the youth who had been practicing dances that represent the Pacific islands of the temple district — Fiji, Vanuatu, Kiribati and the Solomon Islands — were disappointed.
So members of the Church’s Pacific Area Presidency, who live in New Zealand, stayed in Fiji an extra day so the teens could finally have an opportunity to dance, this time on the campus of the Church College of Fiji.
The decision of the young people to perform for the Area Presidency came at great personal cost; the majority live on the west side of Fiji’s largest island, Viti Levu — the area hardest-hit by the cyclone.
Cyclone Winston struck Fiji with up to 175-mile-per-hour winds in the hours between the Church’s youth temple cultural celebration and the temple rededication. The powerful Category-5 storm left dozens dead, knocked out power and destroyed entire villages.
In the storm's wake, Church leaders are assessing the needs of Latter-day Saints in Fiji and working with relief agencies in the country to provide emergency response, said Elder O. Vincent Haleck, a General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the Church’s Pacific Area Presidency.
All missionaries — who were brought into Suva to participate in the temple rededication and cultural celebration — are safe. Elder Halek said the Church is sending welfare representatives to the islands. “We stand ready to work to try to assist where we can,” he said.
Solomoni Kaumaitotoya, president of the Lautoka Fiji Stake, said because bridges are out between Suva and the west side of Fiji’s main island, it will take longer to get the youth home. Since they had a great desire to perform for Church leaders, the young people and the area leaders postponed their trips home.
“They have painted their faces, put on their costumes,” President Kaumaitotoya said. “A Category 5 wind storm didn’t move their faith.”
Elder S. Gifford Nielsen, a General Authority Seventy and second counselor in the Pacific Area Presidency, also spoke of the faith of Fijian members — who stayed in Suva to dance “not knowing what they will see when they go home.”
“They have their costumes on, they have smiles on their faces, for they want to participate in the rededication of the temple,” he said. “The spiritual side of their lives are more important than their temporal side.”
[email protected] @SJW_ChurchNewsSecond of two parts: read part one here.
In the summer of 2011, officials from three Louisiana financing firms came to Maine to lay the foundation for a community investment program that three years later would eventually put millions of taxpayer dollars into their pockets.
The firms – Stonehenge, Enhanced and Advantage Capital – are in the business of using government subsidies to arrange financing for companies in low-income communities. But first, they persuade state legislatures to create these subsidized tax-credit programs that eventually benefit their clients. The financiers then draft laws, lobby legislators for their passage and contribute liberally to political campaigns.
Maine’s rural, citizen-led legislature and its shortage of sophisticated lawmakers makes it attractive to the architects of these programs, according to those who have followed them.
Stonehenge and its counterparts have orchestrated 10 deals in Maine totaling $195 million in investments under the Maine New Markets Capital Investment program. The arrangement requires that Maine taxpayers give the investors 39 cents for every dollar invested, for a total of $76 million to date.
A five-month Maine Sunday Telegram examination shows that nearly half of what was invested in low-income communities – $91 million on paper – never made its way to the designated companies for new upgrades or expansions. Instead, the money was used to pay off old loans or stayed on the books for less than 24 hours.
Five of the 10 deals used a questionable financing instrument called a one-day loan where $64.4 million flowed in and out of the businesses in the form of one-day loans – issued by a lender and paid off the very same day. Only $6.7 million made its way to the designated businesses to use in upgrades, expansions or other new uses. Still, Maine taxpayers are on the hook to pay $38.5 million to the investors who financed the deals.
The point of the one-day loan is to inflate the total value of the financing package in order to trigger the highest possible tax credits. The bigger the deal, the more taxpayer dollars go to the investors.
And it’s all legal.
Roger Katz, a Republican senator from Augusta and co-chairman of the Government Oversight Committee, said in retrospect he’s sorry he voted for the bill to create the program.
“Collectively all the various parties involved in this ought to get an F for what happened, and that certainly includes the Legislature,” he said, adding that the oversight committee is now considering holding a public hearing to start a process to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
The most egregious example of the one-day loan occurred in 2012 when $40 million was ostensibly committed to revive Great Northern Paper – a foundering paper mill in East Millinocket owned by private equity firm Cate Street Capital of New Hampshire. Of that $40 million, more than $32 million was in the form of one-day loans, $7 million paid off existing high-interest debt and $1 million went to brokers’ fees. None was used to upgrade or modernize the mill as intended in the company’s application to the New Markets program. The mill went bankrupt and more than 200 people lost their jobs, but Maine taxpayers will be paying investors $16 million through 2019.
The financing firms that came to Maine to set up these tax credit programs have done so in other states. Modeled after a federal program, they all promise to direct outside investment to the poorest parts of a state. But the success of the New Markets programs elsewhere has been spotty, with at least one state opting to cancel the program outright and others trying to do so. And now the federal program that provided a template for the state plan is under scrutiny from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
“It’s a very similar pattern of hardball lobbying, a lot of outlays at the state level, to get these bills passed that will benefit pretty much just them,” said Julia Sass Rubin, a professor at Rutgers University who studies community economic development programs. “They’ve learned to live off taxpayers very effectively.”
Rubin has had Stonehenge and its two Louisiana companion firms, Enhanced Capital and Advantage Capital, on her radar for more than a decade and has watched them go from state to state creating these types of programs.
Stonehenge, Enhanced and Advantage didn’t respond to repeated requests for interviews.
Louisiana financiers first appeared in Augusta in 2009 when their representatives lobbied for a precursor to the New Markets tax credit program that had been passed in other states. But their efforts failed.
Two years later, representatives from Stonehenge approached local attorney Chris Howard of the Pierce Atwood law firm to draft language for a bill that would establish the program. Then-Senate President Kevin Raye agreed to sponsor it.
The three financial firms then hired Josh Tardy, the Republican House leader from 2006 to 2010, to lobby legislators to encourage the bill’s passage. They also made roughly $16,000 in campaign contributions to the bill’s sponsors and to legislative leadership. That bill, L.D. 991, was approved and its language was ultimately wrapped into the state budget.
At the time, the lawmakers responsible for the program didn’t envision a situation where the investors would get back more in tax refunds than the businesses received in direct investment. But the complexity of the program and the number of players involved in the financing creates a morass of financial mumbo-jumbo and makes it vulnerable to exploitation, according to interviews with dozens of financial experts.
Despite the problems, a bill is now making its way through the Legislature that would expand the money available under the program. The Finance Authority of Maine, or FAME, the agency that administers the program, has introduced an amendment to L.D. 297 to eliminate the use of one-day loans.
A QUESTIONABLE FINANCING TOOL
The Great Northern Paper deal was the first to use a one-day loan that resulted in more taxpayer money being sent to investors than was received by the low-income community business. But it wasn’t the last.
John Burns, director of the Maine Venture Fund, has been putting together financing deals for 15 years, but had never heard of a one-day loan before having the Maine New Markets Capital Investment program explained to him. But the purpose is clear, he says.
“No one makes a one-day loan for any reason other than as a mechanism to make something else happen, or to put something on somebody’s books for a short amount of time,” he says. “It’s a tool, … it’s not a standard financing product for lenders.”
Charles Colgan, a former state economist and professor of public policy at the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine, hadn’t heard of a one-day loan before the Great Northern deal was explained to him. But he wasn’t surprised.
“This is financial engineering in the 21st century,” Colgan said. “This is the way deals are engineered to take advantage of tax law, and it’s true of state law and federal law.”
The federal New Markets program also offers a 39 percent tax credit, but there’s one big difference. In Maine’s program, the tax credits are refundable, which means the investor can redeem them for cash if they don’t pay any Maine income taxes.
The federal and state governments determine a finite amount of tax credits that taxpayers ought to bear – in Maine’s case the credits are capped at $97.5 million, but the Legislature is considering doubling that to $195 million through L.D. 297. The tax credits – which in the Maine program are redeemable over seven years – are then allocated to financing agencies, known as community development entities, or CDEs. Stonehenge, Advantage and Enhanced are all CDEs.
It’s the CDEs that act as middlemen – matching businesses in distressed communities with investors who want the tax credits. They also arrange the financing, including the one-day loans.
In addition to Great Northern, here are the other four deals approved by FAME that used one-day loans:
• In May 2013, Midwest Community Development Fund II, a CDE affiliated with Advantage Capital, invested roughly $24.8 million in JSI Store Fixtures, a manufacturer in Milo. The board approval came despite a recommendation from FAME staff to reject it because of the one-day loan. Of the total investment figure, $15.8 million was immediately returned to Advantage Capital in a one-day loan and the remaining money was used to refinance high-cost debt. That deal will trigger $9.7 million in taxpayer payouts.
• In January 2014, a CDE that is a subsidiary of U.S. Bank (which is involved in every aspect of New Markets deals as a lender, investor and middleman) got the OK to invest $10.1 million in Nova Seafood to allow the seafood distributor, located on Commercial Street in Portland, to open three seafood restaurants in the city. However, $7.5 million of that total investment is a one-day loan that would leave Nova Seafood with $2.5 million. Meanwhile, taxpayers would be on the hook to pay $3.9 million. This deal has not officially closed. Angelo Ciocca, Nova Seafood’s owner, said his restaurants are stuck in permitting, so the tax credits have not been released to the investor.
• Also in January 2014, the same U.S. Bank subsidiary was approved for a $10.2 million investment in a facility at Brunswick Landing that serves autistic children, which involved a one-day $1.7 million “bridge equity.” Similar to a one-day loan, the bridge equity was used to leverage tax credits and immediately returned to the U.S. Bank subsidiary. After more than $6 million was used to pay old debt and brokers’ fees, the company was left with $1.7 million. It will trigger a $3.97 million tax credit.
• In December 2014, CEI Capital Management, Maine’s only CDE, got the OK to invest $10 million in the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, which wanted to renovate its museum and grounds. This is a complex deal that also included federal New Markets tax credits, but on the $10 million Maine side of the investment, $7.4 million was a one-day loan, which left the museum with $2.5 million to invest. The deal will cost taxpayers $3.9 million.
While the use of one-day loans in the Great Northern, JSI Store Fixtures, and Nova Seafood deals appears to be at odds with the intent of the program, not all deals that use them should be painted with the same brush, according to Charlie Spies, CEO at CEI Capital Management, a Portland-based firm that, like Stonehenge and Enhanced, arranges investments using the New Markets program.
When used correctly, one-day loans have a legitimate function, said Spies, who offered the Farnsworth deal as an example.
Farnsworth wanted to renovate its museum and grounds, but didn’t have the cash flow to secure conventional financing because 96 percent of its assets were tied up in endowments for the art and real estate. CEI Capital Management used a one-day loan to release the value of those assets, he said.
“What we were able to do then was take some existing value they had in their real estate and basically release that with an appraisal and a loan against it using a one-day loan structure,” Spies said. “And that’s a situation where now they can go forward with those improvements where before they really had no other place to turn.”
The investment deal, which closed earlier this year, will allow the museum to make capital improvements and avoid serious budget cuts that would put at risk 39 full-time staff members at the museum, according to CEI Capital Management’s application to FAME. Even so, the New Markets deal will cost taxpayers more than the initial investment Farnsworth received.
Christopher Roney, the general counsel for FAME, does not believe legislators envisioned, let alone intended, that financing agencies would use one-day loans when they created the program. He has called for new rules to prevent their use, which state lawmakers are considering now.
“We have grown concerned about some instances of ‘one-day loans’ and simple transfers of existing businesses between owners, where investors obtain valuable tax credits for investments that do not result in a commensurate amount of additional spending on goods or services in the low-income communities where the businesses are located,” Roney testified on March 3 at a public hearing on the tax credit program’s expansion.
Spies, though he defended the Farnsworth deal, said he supports FAME’s attempts to change the law to disallow similar deals using one-day loans in the future.
Gov. Paul LePage, who supported the creation of the program to help the East Millinocket mill, said Tuesday through a spokeswoman that the changes proposed by FAME are “good first steps.” On Friday, he declined to expand, but intends to respond more fully in an op-ed to this newspaper, expected this week.
OTHER PROGRAMS, OTHER STATES
Maine is not the only state debating the worth of its New Markets tax credit program. Fourteen other states have their own variations, some of which were created by the same trio of financing firms – Stonehenge, Enhanced and Advantage – that appeared in Maine four years ago. Stonehenge and Advantage cut their teeth on how to persuade state lawmakers to adopt tax credit programs first with CAPCO, a widely criticized program that offers credits to insurance companies that fund investments to small businesses. The firms pushed CAPCO programs through the 1990s before turning their attention more recently to New Markets.
A 15th state, Georgia, recently approved legislation to create its own state-level New Markets tax credit program – five months after Stonehenge gave $20,000 to the Georgia Republican Party, which controls the state’s General Assembly. This despite opinions that Georgia’s program “is expensive, overly complex and a massive tax break for insurance companies with little to no economic benefit in return,” according to Wesley Sharpe, a policy analyst at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
At least one state has already rid itself of its New Markets program. Missouri chose not to renew its program in 2013.
While the Missouri program’s supporters claimed it had created nearly 6,000 new jobs since it was launched in 2007, the Missouri Department of Economic Development’s own study concluded that the state’s $120 million investment created only 823 actual new jobs.
A little farther south, Arkansas legislators are considering a bill to eliminate its New Markets program, only two years after it was created in 2013.
As in Maine, Stonehenge, Enhanced and Advantage were all involved in lobbying for the creation of the Arkansas program, according to Grant Tennille, the former director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.
Tennille said he opposed the creation of the program from the beginning, but the bill had 70 co-sponsors and too much momentum to stop.
“Like most of them, it had one of those great names,” Tennille said. “I think ours was the New Market Job Act and the subtitle said all kinds of things about creating economic opportunity, particularly in areas of the state that haven’t had access to it before.”
Tennille said the lobbying efforts by the CDEs were impressive – “It became the Lobbyist Employment Act.”
Like FAME, his agency was tasked with administering the program. And like Maine, it’s a state with a small population and not a lot of demand for deals that can’t be handled through conventional financing like bank loans.
As a result, the CDEs “started getting goofy creative trying to slide projects by us and we managed to rebuff pretty much all of them.”
“I’m not going to tell you that all the projects that got done are bad projects,” Tennille said. “There are some great ones. My objection all along has been that this is a woefully inefficient way for the state government of Arkansas to try to inject capital into the economy. … Half (of the money) is disappearing into the maw of financial institutions and lawyers.”
He argues that the authority to issue tax credits should be taken away from for-profit CDEs and instead be given to state agencies – like Maine’s FAME – that already assist businesses in securing financing.
“Let them market (the tax credits) and we’ll put 100 percent of the money we get back into deals,” Tennille said. “Because that’s our job. We get paid a salary to put money into the deals and none of us get to go in and scrape off our management fee or our consulting fee or any of those sorts of things.”
Florida and Arkansas created state-level New Markets programs in 2013. Texas legislators considered creating a New Markets program that year, but the bill failed to pass. Other states, such as Massachusetts, are currently considering creating their own programs.
WHO’S MINDING THE STORE?
At the public hearing last month to expand Maine’s program, it was apparent that members of the legislative committee overseeing the expansion of the New Markets program didn’t understand its complexities. The fact the tax credits are refundable, for example, wasn’t mentioned.
Of the 13 members of the labor committee, none has a background in banking, accounting or investing. As representatives of a citizen legislature, the members represent a cross section of people from the general public, including mechanics, office managers and building contractors.
“I’m having a hard time following. This is like nothing I’ve worked on in my life,” said Rep. Paul Gilbert, a Democrat and retired supermarket manager from Jay, and a member of the labor committee. “I don’t think anybody on the committee was aware of anything like this. That one-day loan is baffling to me. It doesn’t sound right.”
A lack of sophistication among lawmakers is one reason the engineers of the New Markets program came to Maine in the first place, according to Rutgers’ Rubin and Arkansas’ Tennille.
“I’m betting that again Maine looks a little bit like Arkansas in that there are probably not many appointees to the FAME board who are forensic accountants or heavy-duty investment bankers,” Tennille said. “Very, very few human beings are able to understand one of these (deals) on its face with the stuff those folks are going to tell you until you unpack all of it and say, ‘Hang on a second, this is all phony baloney accounting tricks.’ It’s just hard to find. What everybody wants to believe is, ‘Oh, look! We found a way to turn $16 million into $40 million and pump it into the paper mill. Good for us. Aren’t we smart?'”
Peter Mills, a widely respected lawmaker when he served in the Maine Legislature from 1995 to 2010 and now the head of the Maine Turnpike Authority, said the lack of financial acumen among lawmakers concerns him, especially as it applies to legislation as complicated as New Markets. He said when he served in Augusta there were, on average, about 15 lawyers in the Legislature and now there are four or five.
“Most of the people in the Legislature – me included – have remarkably little experience in high finance and it’s getting worse,” Mills said, adding that the most important class he ever took was one on double-entry bookkeeping while he was in the Navy 50 years ago. “Just that little bit (of knowledge) has kept me out of trouble at various levels my whole life. I’m astonished by the sophistication of the financing tools available. At least I know enough to ask the right questions.
“It is hard to understand how the one-day loan shenanigans worked exactly, but it leaves egg on the face of those who promoted the program,” he said.
Katz, of the Legislature’s oversight committee, concurred. An attorney by trade and the only practicing lawyer in the Senate, he said he understands complicated law issues, but investment banking isn’t his strong suit.
“This (New Markets program) was presented to us as a way of saving this mill and I think most of us trusted there were appropriate safeguards built in to make sure the risk was minimized,” he said. “I’m not casting blame at anyone, but all of us, including myself as a legislator, didn’t really perform terribly well.”
FAME, the agency charged with investing money in the public’s interest, has struggled with ensuring accountability in the New Markets program.
Roney at FAME has singled out one-day loans as an unintended tool that is putting Maine taxpayers on the hook for investments that are not making their way into low-income communities and circumvent the original intent of the program.
While the Legislature created a program with no requirements for how businesses use the investments they receive, Roney tried to build some accountability into the program when he was charged with writing its rules. At the time, he included a sentence that required “substantially all” of the investment is spent in the low-income community – a requirement that is a departure from the federal program.
But it didn’t last.
FAME’s staff used the sentence as a basis to recommend the board reject Advantage Capital’s $24.8 million investment in JSI Store Fixtures in Milo, which included a one-day loan of $15.8 million. But FAME’s board backed down when Advantage Capital threatened to pull its more than $30 million investment from Maine, which included $7 million to Putney Inc., a Portland-based pet pharmaceutical company, and roughly $500,000 to Quoddy Inc., a shoemaker in Lewiston. Advantage’s lawyer, Chris Howard, argued that because the deal would be OK under the federal program, it should be allowed under Maine’s.
Three months later, FAME’s board voted to remove the accountability phrasing that required the investment be “expended” in the low-income community.
Since then, Roney says he has begrudgingly accepted deals featuring one-day loans, hamstrung by precedent and the loss of the accountability rule.
In a memo to the board regarding the recent Farnsworth deal, Roney wrote: “While FAME staff continues to have concerns about whether the one-day loan structure fulfills the intent of the program, given the board’s prior guidance and decisions on such matters, the transaction meets the program requirements, so long as it would meet the federal program requirements.”
GOOD INTENTIONS
While the Maine New Markets tax program reveals a troubling trend that benefits out-of-state banks and financial firms more than Maine taxpayers, supporters point to appropriate and successful uses of the program.
In 2013, a Chinese investment firm announced that it would build a new tissue paper mill in Baileyville that could create 80 new jobs. In Washington County, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state, the $120 million St. Croix Tissue project is important to the economic health of the region.
“This investment would not have happened without Maine’s New Markets Capital Investment Program,” wrote Jim Oliver, St. Croix Tissue’s controller, in testimony he submitted to the Legislature’s Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee in support of L.D. 297, the bill to expand the state New Markets program by doubling its cap from $250 million to $500 million.
In the St. Croix Tissue deal, the mill’s parent company, International Grand Investment Corp., put $24 million of its own money into the New Markets program to attract an additional $16 million in private capital through the state and federal New Markets programs. CEI Capital Management, Enhanced and U.S. Bank were the CDEs that brokered the deal, which FAME’s board approved in November 2013.
“Overall, the program’s track record is showing that it’s creating positive returns for the General Fund and creating significant jobs in the state,” CEI’s Spies said, referencing the results of an economic impact report CEI Capital Management had commissioned Colgan to complete.
The report showed that nine businesses that have received investments via the New Markets Capital Investment program through December 2014 will create or retain 1,178 jobs by 2017, not counting those lost when Great Northern Paper closed its mill. Over a 10-year period, Maine’s General Fund will receive $1.56 for every $1 of tax credit it lost, according to Colgan’s calculations.
Colgan’s report is based on an assumption that all of the jobs created or retained are attributable to the New Markets investment. But that isn’t the case, for example, with Putney, the pet pharmaceutical company. The company has been growing exponentially in the last few years and now employs 80 people. It recently closed on $16 million of private financing. Yet Colgan counts all 80 jobs as a result of the $7 million New Markets deal.
MORE COMPLEX, LESS ACCOUNTABLE
The federal New Markets Tax Credit program has released $40 billion in tax credits to investors since it was created in 2000. It has also grown more opaque as the deals have grown in complexity, according to an August 2014 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
“Complete and reliable information is a vital component of assessing program effectiveness,” the report says. “While the complexity of the NMTC financial structures makes gathering information a challenge, there are several aspects of these structures where better information would aid in understanding the effectiveness of the program.”
More pointed criticism comes from former U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, who wrote a report arguing that there’s “little available evidence” to demonstrate that the federal New Markets program is effective.
“This tax credit intended to benefit the poor is instead lining the pockets of the well-off, such as big banks and other private investors that claim more than $1 billion in (New Markets Tax Credits) annually,” which is revenue the U.S. Treasury is not collecting. “Because it is funded by taxing the labor of Americans, NMTC is essentially a reverse Robin Hood scheme paid for with the taxes collected from working Americans to provide pay outs to big banks and corporations in the hope that those it took the money from might benefit.”
The federal program is expected to cost the country $5.1 billion in lost revenue between 2013 and 2017, according to Congress’ taxation committee.
The increasing complexity of the federal program is due in part to the creation of more state-level New Markets programs that are sometimes used in combination with federal New Markets tax credits, according to the report.
Despite the report’s call that the U.S. Treasury introduce more accountability into the program, it concludes that it has likely resulted in investments that would not have happened otherwise.
And that’s the problem facing the Maine program now.
The decision to allow for-profit companies – such as Advantage, Enhanced and Stonehenge – to dictate where such investments are made |
here, there is no anger toward the United States.
“We just think that our own government is ignoring our concerns in favor of keeping good relations with the U.S.,” the 31-year-old said.
Fears over radiation from the THAAD radar are also taking a toll on the district’s housing market, according to a realtor who did not want to give her name.
“Many families just bought apartments here and there is already one school and two more will open soon,” said local resident 38-year-old Baek Seung-hee, a mother of two. “Now, because of THAAD, they just want to move out.”Overwatch Competitive Format Concept
Given the recently discussed post on the Blizzard forums of a point-based system to address some issues with payload and attack/defend point capture maps in Overwatch in lieu of stopwatch as a competitive format, I wanted to chime in. While this represents a major improvement from both a competitive and viewer excitement standpoint, I think it still falls short of adding sufficient depth and strategic specialization for prospective professional teams. A point-based system for rewarding faster completion times also warps the king of the hill maps by forcing those matches to conform to a bo3 instead of a bo5, which represents an unnecessary change that limits the competitive depth of those maps as well.
With payload currently, or any attack/defend map including Temple of Anubis and Hanamura, I think the main issue stems from the fact that there is insufficient reward for completing the objective faster than the opposing team, thereby leaving any tie at the mercy of a single king of the hill point. This unfairly stacks the deck of the competitive scene in favor of teams that excel at king of the hill and makes teams that emphasize skill at payload inferior strategically, since as long as the match ends there is no difference in completing the objective in 3 minutes or 7 minutes or for advancing the payload further than the opponent if both teams fail to complete the obejective. The end result is the same, which strips away a lot of strategic diversity between teams who could excel at different game modes.
While I agree that stopwatch is unappealing from a spectator perspective and leads to anti-climatic finishes, I propose a system that makes the attack/defend maps more rewarding for teams who perform well in these modes. In the instance of payload, I think the match should consider the time in which the payload was captured as part of the difficulty of the final king of the hill tiebreaker. For example, if Team A completes the payload delivery in 3.5 minutes and Team B completes the payload delivery in 7 minutes, then Team A begins the king of the hill tiebreaker with 50% capture time on the final point. If neither team delivers the payload, but if Team A moves the payload 70% of the way along the route while Team B moves the payload 35% of the route, then similarly Team A would start with a 50% capture time on the final point. Obviously if one team delivers the payload and the other does not, then the team that delivers the payload automatically wins the map. This could also work on Temple of Anubis and Hanamura as a percentage based system depending on how fast both points are taken OR how many “tics” on each point are completed if both teams fail to capture two points. Clearly, this would need some playtesting to find the optimal percentage given to teams based on completion time, but it is a rough idea.
Furthermore, I also believe that the king of the hill tiebreaker must also be changed. Currently, king of the hill points are too short to accurately gauge a team’s skill and right to win at the end of a payload or attack/defend match. When king of the hill is represented in best of five, teams have multiple chances to win and therefore each individual point matter less, but I might also increase the capture time on these maps as well. The main issue with a single king of the hill is it makes one teamfight too crucial to determining the outcome of an entire payload match at the professional level, and it tilts it even more in this direction when you include the proposal for rewarding faster completion with percentage points on the king of the hill match. Therefore, I suggest that the tiebreaker king of the hill be double or triple the length of a normal king of the hill point to reflect the gravity of the tiebreaker. At double length, a team with a 50% advantage would only have to hold the point for the duration of a normal king of the hill while the underdog team would have to hold it for twice as long, for example.
Why do I suggest these changes? When discussing a competitive system and strategic identities for teams it is important to have defined strengths and weaknesses between squads. I fear that the current system weights teams proficient at king of the hill unfairly because they just have to be “good enough” at payload to deliver it at the last second regardless of their opponent’s skill at the gametype before they switch to their better mode. In my model, the team that excels at king of the hill can still demonstrate their dominance at the mode by mounting an impressive comeback to break the tie, leading to much more exciting potential finishes and simultaneously rewarding teams who want to focus on payload proficiency. Since map vetoes and selections will undoubtedly form a large part of the competitive scene, this gives many more strategic considerations rather than payload becoming a diminished aspect of the game since it can simply end in a disappointing, quick king of the hill.
While most traditional sports are zero-sum games when it comes to time, and therefore points scored are always worth the same, Overwatch does not fit this same rubric. In football, a team that takes a long time to score a touchdown can reap strategic rewards by taking time off the clock and denying the opposing offense the chance to score since there is a finite game clock. Overwatch is not zero-sum since a team cannot drag a payload delivery out for 59 minutes and give the enemy team 1 minute to deliver their payload. It is necessary to reward faster completions to foster depth across gametypes and heighten the drama and skill of a tiebreaker.
— Christopher “MonteCristo” MyklesThe Chicago Cubs are the most dependably futile franchise in sports, an IRL manifestation of Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. Right now they boast a triple-digit loss column and somehow, miraculously, are not in last place, depriving fans the consolation of saying, “Well, things can only go up from here.”
You have to wonder about the stadium. Like a pet fish that gets sick from old, feculent water, you have to wonder if Wrigley Field, pungent with the stank of defeat and seven-dollar Old Style, is haunting these Cubs teams, if the ghosts of 104 years of crappiness are mouth-breathing on the players’ necks, moaning, “You guys are gonna suck so baddddd, and why shouldn’t youuu??? No one has any expectatttttions.”
It’s possible. But even more possible is that waves and waves of germs are slowly weakening the players’ immune systems, wearing down their bodies and munching away at their talent.
A new study of the cleanliness of MLB stadiums found that Wrigley Field is the least sanitary ballpark in baseball. Graded on 79 different health-related criteria, Wrigley flunked spectacularly, giving basic human hygiene the ol’ Steve Bartman treatment.
On many occasions, researchers spotted vendors working without gloves, handling customers’ money — and then their food — with the same bare hands and hairy knuckles and bacteria-hoarding fingernails.
But the real wellsprings of nastiness were the men’s bathrooms, where the 30-man urinal troughs can accommodate way more streams than the sinks can hands*. Accordingly, 79 out of 100 men (the number observed in the study) don’t wash their hands after using the bathroom, meaning that everything at Wrigley should probably be quarantined in plastic like the house in “E.T.,” or at the very least power-blasted with Purell.
Gross. Very, very gross. Indeed, it is not a good time to be a Cubs fan. But keep those chins up, North Siders, you still have a lot to be happy about:
• The Cubs made it to each and every game this year. Perfect attendance!
• Darwin Barney is good at catching stuff.
• Fifty-cent tickets!
• Eddie Vedder likes the Cubs, so you get to have something in common with Eddie Vedder.
• Sam the Eagle from the Muppets likes the Cubs, so you get to have something in common with Sam the Eagle.
• The Cubs won a road game against the NL West.
• All the players did a great job staying hydrated this year.
• No one died or caught on fire.
•... sportsmanship?
What are some other nice things we can say to Cubs fans? Let us know in the comments.
* Vaguely related: Ex-Bear Tommie Harris was arrested and charged with publicly urinating in Wrigleyville on Monday night.It’s already sold more than 33 million copies and generated $1 billion. But Grand Theft Auto V on next-gen still needs some work if it’s going to be the definitive version of the game.
When Sony announced at E3 last month that Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V would be coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC this year, it was one of the highlights of the show. There are plenty of games getting a remake and a HD clean up for next-gen consoles – some we would never have asked for – but GTA V was always at the top of that list.
Now it’s finally happening I’m going to act more entitled than Jimmy De Santa and ask Rockstar for these big improvements…
Don’t make heist missions platform exclusive
We thought we were getting heist missions ages ago and we’re still waiting. I see a lot of people dissing Rockstar for not delivering on the promise yet, but I don’t think the good will is gone. If you’ve bothered to level to 100 I reckon you’ll come back for heist missions.
Pat wrote a piece about it last week asking what the hell was going on. The fear we have now is that one of the platform holders has signed heist content as a timed exclusive. There was a reason GTA V was shown at Sony’s press conference at E3 last month and not during rival Microsoft’s presentation…
Remember that last generation, GTA IV’s The Ballad of Gay Tony and The Lost and the Damned came out on Xbox 360 over a year ahead of the PS3 release – a deal that reportedly cost Microsoft $50 million. There’s going to be a lot of upset players if something like that happens again.
GTA Online from day one
When Grand Theft Auto V launched last year it was a whole month later that the online portion of the game became accessible. There’s a lot of reasons to do this (delaying trade-ins of the boxed game, for example) but it more than likely allowed for extra, live technical testing. GTA Online is still an unstable beast 10 months on, but we’re hoping Rockstar is confident enough to have it ready for release day on new consoles.
No day-one online disasters
This isn’t a Rockstar problem, this is a problem that affects pretty much all online games. It can go either way – a continuous Battlefield 4 disaster or a Titanfall hiccup.
We’re at the point where we accept that there will be some issues on day one – it’s a given unfortunately – but hopefully it will only be a few stumbles rather than a complete collapse into the Los Santos gutters. The fact Rockstar coughed up half a million R$ to online 360 and PS3 players after problems last year suggests it was no surprise to the developers – if it’s got a compensation plan in place it expects to have to pay out.
Encourage modding for the PC version
Sure, GTA Online is going to get modded to hell and back and that’s cool. But it would be even cooler if Rockstar helped out where it could and didn’t try to enforce anything stupid to hinder the creativity of the user. Just, you know, continue to turn a blind eye to copyright infringing Batman mods and the entire cast of Call of Duty: Ghosts. And all the real-world cars, Corvo from Dishonored’s sword, the hair, cloth, tattoo and eyebrow textures – you get the picture.
There are people out there that are considering buying a console version to play through the game again and a PC version for the mods. Don’t put them off Rockstar, you’ll be leaving money on the table.
Let us pay for single-player DLC
Can you believe we’re asking for DLC that we pay for? I am. I can. A criticism of Grand Theft Auto V is that there hasn’t yet been any single-player content confirmed or released. GTA V for next-gen will ship with all current updates, such as the Hipster and Business updates, the new weapons, apartments and missions that have been added, but that’s all multiplayer stuff.
What we’re hoping for is single player content along the lines of The Lost and the Damned or Red Dead Redemption’s Undead Nightmare. It’s bound to happen – will there be extra single-player missions added to the initial release, or can we expect more content to come in 2015? And will it be next-gen only content to encourage 360 and PS3 players to upgrade?
Fix the online code
I don’t pretend to know technically how the game works online, but I know when it doesn’t work. There always seems to be a lot of patience and teeth grinding involved. Just joining an online game can take a couple of attempts, and trying to get in a game with your friends or Crew members can be a real ball ache. “I’ll invite you, you invite me, let’s try a private session, DON’T PRESS ANYTHING LET ME TRY THIS”.
We’d really appreciate some stability here. And don’t throw us out of a game part-way through a mission, that shit is infuriating.
Crush the bugs, unglitch the glitches
What is it with helicopters in GTA Online that makes them disappear so much? Not just from in front of your eyes, but from under the feet of the player? And why does my hat and hair disappear when I smoke a bong in my apartment? And the stutter-pause when I’m getting in someone else’s car after a liquor store hold-up – it’s kind of a crucial time, you know? It’s not in anyway game-breaking but it’s annoying. Grand Theft Auto? More like Glitch Fest Auto amirite?
Improve the character animation
We already know GTA V on PS4 and Xbox One is going to look hotter the Blaine County sun. We’ve seen the trailer for a start, and Pat has already shit himself about it. And let’s be clear: Grand Theft Auto V on last-gen consoles still looks beautiful. Fly over the city at night time, taking in the lights of the pier fairground. Wander through Stab City and check out the beautiful trash life of the bikers, or the graffiti-and-guns glamour of any number of districts in Los Santos.
But we’d also like to see the character animation improved, with clothing and hair a little less stiff. We love our online characters and great take care and time dressing and grooming them. The better they look, the better we feel and the more we’ll spend on cosmetic enhancements. We’re vain like that.
Release on time
A “Fall” release is fairly open. It’s noncommittal. The concern we have is that Rockstar almost always delays its games. In fact, we can’t think of a recent Rockstar game that has hit its original release date – GTA V itself was bumped four months from its planned release. We worry that Take-Two’s confirmation that it will release a Rockstar game before March 2015 gives the developer plenty of slippage room if it needs to change “fall 2014” to “spring 2015”.Published online 22 July 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.370
News
FDA investigation at Columbia University serves as warning to other centres, say experts.
PET scans use compounds tagged with radioactive isotopes to reveal the inner workings of the brain. SCIENTIFICA, VISUALS UNLIMITED /SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
The work of a leading brain-imaging centre has been suspended after an investigation found that researchers had injected impure psychiatric drugs into clinical-trial volunteers.
Experts say that the episode should prompt other centres to review their practices, and it highlights the shortcomings of an oversight system in which academic labs are largely self-policing.
Researchers at Columbia University's Kreitchman PET Center in New York used radioactive isotopes to label trace amounts of drugs and other compounds, inject them into human volunteers, and track their radioactive decay with positron emission tomography (PET) to visualize how the compounds bind to neural receptors.
However, the chemicals used by researchers at the Kreitchman Center repeatedly failed purity tests and were not correctly authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Permissive approach
Most experimental drugs in the United States are regulated through an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the FDA. But radioactive drugs used in research pilot studies do not require an IND, and can rely instead on approval from the research institution's Radioactive Drug Research Committee (RDRC). Researchers are typically expected to file for IND status after 30 trial injections have allowed them to refine their procedure. Even when IND status has been granted, however, the FDA only audits research laboratories in response to complaints, and such complaints are exceedingly rare.
Marc Laruelle, a psychiatrist at Imperial College London who worked at the Kreitchman Center from 1996 to December 2005, says that its problems can in part be traced to the autonomy granted to PET investigators in the United States. Laruelle says that he saw researchers at Columbia taking a permissive approach to regulations, injecting several hundred patients with compounds that only had RDRC approval, rather than filing the necessary IND application. In 2003 he complained about the lax oversight to officials including radiologist Ronald Van Heertum, then director of the centre, but nothing was done. Van Heertum did not respond to Nature's requests for an interview.
After discovering a problem with the centre's radiolabelled compounds used in his own research, Laruelle contacted the FDA with his concerns in 2004 and, when the FDA audited the centre the same year, it found a slew of problems. For example, radiolabelled compounds that had failed quality-control tests were not properly investigated by researchers, and were still injected into patients.
As a result of FDA sanctions following the audit, production of radioligands — the radioactive molecules that bind with receptors in the body — was shut down for nine months. Laruelle's grants were frozen, and he had to dismiss technicians he could no longer pay.
Gordon Frankle, a psychiatrist who was a junior faculty member at the Kreitchman Center at the time, says that he was not confident that the problems with the lab's procedures were being solved after the audit. He moved to the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in June 2006. "It was not clear when and how the questions the FDA was raising were going to be addressed," he says.
Repeated violations
FDA inspectors returned to the centre on 3 June 2008. They found that it was repeating the old violations — and making some new ones, such as injecting volunteers with drugs that were not sufficiently sterile. In the aftermath of that visit, Columbia brought in Chester Mathis, a radiochemist who directs the PET facility at the University of Pittsburgh, as a consultant to advise on their production of fludeoxyglucose, a commonly used radiolabelled compound. He says that he made several recommendations, but does not know if they were incorporated into the centre's protocols.
At the time, Mathis also noticed that radioligand records relating to a drug trial in which he was involved were inconsistent, and production methods did not comply with the paperwork that the sponsoring drug company had filed with the FDA. Mathis declines to name the drugmaker but says that he "brought it to the company's attention".
In January this year, the FDA went back to the centre to check on its progress. Investigators found that technicians had given researchers ten batches of drugs that exceeded impurity limits, sometimes more than doubling them, according to FDA documents seen by Nature. The lab was also using a faulty equation to calculate impurity levels, and an impurity signal found in the computer record of a gas-chromatography test on a radiolabelled compound had mysteriously disappeared from the filed printout. The results of the investigation were reported in The New York Times on 16 July.
Fundamental reorganization
In a 6 July letter responding to the FDA, Columbia said that it had reviewed patient records and found no evidence of harm. Paul Harris, a Columbia biochemist who has used the Kreitchman Center's services for research into insulin-creating β-cells and diabetes, claims that most of the 'impurities' reported by the FDA were simply the radioligands' decay products, which are expected to form following injections. And although experts contacted by Nature agreed that the violations were alarming and a breach of patient trust, they were less certain whether the impurities would have caused any negative health effects or affected the outcome of studies. "With brain receptors, we really must be careful," says radiologist Barry Siegel of Washington University in St Louis. "But my gut feeling is that we have a large margin of safety."
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Columbia declined to answer Nature's specific questions about the case. David Hirsh, Columbia's executive vice-president for research, told The New York Times that the university is now "fundamentally reorganizing the lab's management and operations". The university has hired an external consultant to guide this process, and the Kreitchman Center's radioligand lab is expected to restart production in January.
Some Columbia researchers have been able to obtain their radiolabelled compounds from commercial sources or other institutions, but research depending on short-lived isotopes, such as carbon-11, has been suspended. Van Heertum and psychiatrist John Mann are no longer co-directors of the centre, according to Harris and Laruelle.
Abass Alavi, a radiologist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, says that imaging centres across the country should take note of the case. "This is a big lesson for all the major institutions that they are going to have to tighten their internal reviews."Melania Trump’s website was yanked offline in July when discrepancies surfaced about her claim that she graduated with a degree in architecture from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. She, in fact, did not graduate, rather she only attended classes before moving on to a modeling career and coming to the United States under possibly illegal visas.
Now it seems, new evidence shows that Trump may have lied about her degree under oath, which would make her guilty of perjury.
The case involved a now-defunct caviar skincare line, which Racked.com recalls Melania Trump promoted on “Good Morning America,” her husband’s show “The Apprentice” and on CNBC, but ultimately never made it to the market. The contract Trump had with a cosmetic company called New Sunshine LLC imploded when friend Steve Hilbert was fired from the company by another Trump friend, John Menard.
The extensive investigation about the bizarre world of cosmetics outlines a business catastrophe that ended up in court, where Trump was asked to testify. She revealed the frustration and anger with the company that never launched a product she worked so hard to promote around the world. But the kicker comes when the attorneys were asking Trump basic questions about who she was and where she was from.
“Where were you born, Mrs. Trump?” the attorney asked.
“I was born in Slovenia,” she answered.
“Would you please explain to the Judge your formal education including what schools you attended and from which you graduated?” the attorney requested.
“I attended and graduated from design school, from fashion and Industrial Design School and also attended, graduated from architecture degree, bachelor degree,” she testified under oath.
As was revealed in July after Trump’s plagiarism scandal, that isn’t an accurate account of Trump’s educational background. She does not have an architecture degree, nor did she graduate with a bachelor’s degree.
Below is a scanned copy of the court transcript via Racked.com:
Perjury is a criminal offense punishable up to five years in prison and fines for a federal case, and at least a year in prison for state crimes.The Old Trafford youth product is to be rewarded for his progress with an improved five-year contract, with the midfielder likely to sign in the New Year
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By Greg Stobart Manchester United midfielder Tom Cleverley has agreed in principal a new five-year contract that will almost double his salary to £60,000-a-week,can reveal.The 23-year-old is expected to officially put pen to paper early in the New Year as Sir Alex Ferguson continues to secure United’s future by tying the club’s best young players down to long contracts.Goal.com revealed in October that talks were imminent over a new deal for Cleverley to increase his current £35,000 weekly salary - rising to £40,000 including bonuses - to bring his wages in line with the likes of Chris Smalling and Phil Jones.Cleverley only signed his existing deal, which runs until 2015, last October but United were keen to reward him for his impressive form having promised to renegotiate the terms once he became firmly established in the first-team.It is the same stance taken with the likes of Smalling, Jones, Danny Welbeck and Javier Hernandez, who have all penned new deals in the last 13 months and are considered the future core of the squad at Old Trafford.Cleverley’s performances this season have been rewarded with a place in the England starting line-up for the Three Lions’ last four World Cup qualifiers as he begins to fulfil his billing as the so-called ‘new Paul Scholes’.He scored his first Premier League goal for United in their win at Newcastle earlier this month and is now a regular in Sir Alex Ferguson’s side after injury troubles restricted him to just 15 appearances last season.Cleverley, a versatile central midfielder, broke into United's first-team squad last term having previously spent time on loan at Leicester, Watford and Wigan.(NaturalNews) The presence of heavy metals in infant formulas has been a long-standing cause for concern. Even back in 1988, researchers discovered that aluminum contaminated many formulas, though some more than others. This early study noted that in human breast milk, aluminum appeared in fairly low amounts – about 50 micrograms per liter.Way back then, researchers from the University of Alberta discovered that highly processed formulas, such as soy formula, preterm infant formula and formulas for specific metabolic disorders, contained up to 2,346 micrograms per liter. Now, that may may seem rather concerning – given that it is many times more than what is found naturally in human breast milk. In fact, it is not just concerning; it is downright alarming.According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), the EPA's current limits on aluminum in drinking water are between 0.05 milligrams and 0.2 milligrams per liter. A limit of 0.2 milligrams equates to about 200 micrograms. The ATSDR reports that the FDA's limit on aluminum for bottled water is also 0.2 milligrams per liter.For some bizarre reason, there is no FDA limit on the amount of aluminum that can be added to food or medicine – which is why even though there is a limit on what is allowed in water, there is no limit on what can be present in baby formula. Supposedly, the limit in water is simply in place for taste and visual appearance. However, in spite of this, the effects of aluminum still seem to be poorly understood. From the ATSDR's own website:That's just, isn't it? They don't know if it will cause birth defects, and they don't know what effects it will have in children either. The agency states that in animal studies, young animals exposed to aluminum appeared to be less active and were weaker and less coordinated. Exposure also appeared to negatively impact memory. Might that suggest that aluminum has some kind of negative impact on neurological function, or at the very least, the peripheral nervous system? You'd think so, but the bureaucratic government agency simply states that these effects "are similar to those that have been seen in adults." Apparently, that makes it okay.Sadly, because of this kind of nonsense, aluminum has continued to remain prevalent in infant formulas. A 2010 study from Keele University found that high levels of aluminum were present in 30 of the top-selling and most widely available infant formulas. Of course, manufacturers maintain that the toxic heavy metal is not "knowingly added" to the formula. It's quite obvious that while they may not be intentionally adding thisto these formulas – many of which are often given to sick babies – they are likely turning a blind eye to their questionable suppliers.It takes akind of person to willingly and knowingly give newborns toxic food Many researchers believe that this contamination may be coming from somewhere within the supply chain. The researchers from the University of Alberta noted almost 30 years ago that "raw materials such as soybean, additives such as calcium and phosphorus, manufacturing processes and storage containers are potential sources of contamination of infant formulas."Professor Exley, from Keele University, a world-renowned expert on aluminum, believes that regulatory bodies need to do their part to ensure that manufacturers actually try to reduce the amount of this toxin that is present in baby products. Exley states, "There is evidence of both immediate and delayed toxicity in infants, and especially preterm infants, exposed to aluminium."Get the biggest Arsenal FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Arsene Wenger is finally preparing to spend, spend, spend until the end of the transfer market.
Wenger has got big targets in his sights, with Real Madrid pair Karim Benzema and Angel Di Maria at the top of his hit-list.
Newcastle’s Yohan Cabaye, Sevilla midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia and Valencia keeper Vicente Guaita are there, too.
The Gunners also seem certain to re-sign Mathieu Flamini - currently back training with the club he served from 2004-08 after his AC Milan contract expired - as a utility man capable of covering both full-back positions as well as midfield.
Arsenal are set to go back to Newcastle with a £16million offer for France midfielder Cabaye, who wants Champions League football but would prefer a move to French champions Paris Saint-Germain.
Meanwhile, Arsenal could sell Lukas Podolski after Schalke became the latest club to come in for the Germany forward, following earlier enquiries from Bundesliga sides Wolfsburg, Borussia Dortmund and Turkey's Galatasaray.
Podolski has been on the bench for the Gunners’ first two games of the season and feels uncertain of his future at the club.
But the Londoners would be unwilling to sell the 28-year-old - bought from Cologne for £11m a year ago - unless they A) Got their money back and B) Also brought in a top-class replacement, as they are already short of players.
It all leaves Wenger facing another last-minute trolley dash - but this one could be of epic proportions
While, two years ago, the Frenchman was shopping in Primark, he is now going wild in the aisles of Harrods as the club has pledged to back him to the tune of £70million-plus.
(Image: Paul Gilham)
Arsenal's top brass are acutely aware that the fans are screaming out for a big-name striker, and France international Benzema is now their prime target, having seen efforts for Luis Suarez, Wayne Rooney and Gonzalo Higuain all fall away.
But they face a major fight to win the 25-year-old over, as Real are currently trying to tie him down to a new contract. His current deal only has two years left.
However, the transfer merry-go-round could yet throw up Liverpool's Suarez and Tottenham star Gareth Bale both moving to the Bernabeu - and Real boss Carlo Ancelotti then becoming willing to part with Benzema.
One thing is for sure, Arsenal cannot afford to miss out on another big name, and there is a hope that Benzema is a real possibility despite him being reluctant to move unless he gets told by the Spanish giants that they want him to go.
Real are willing to sell Argentina winger Di Maria, although it is still uncertain whether he wants to leave, but that would be a move to please the fans.
Arsenal are also determined to sign a new keeper.
They have been scouting Stoke’s Asmir Begovic and other targets in Spain, but Guaita now seems in pole position.
Arsenal have had a £6m bid turned down, with Valencia saying they want £12m, but it is believed a slightly improved bid may see them sell.
Wenger is certain to go back for Cabaye after having a £10m offer refused. Newcastle are demanding £20m.
France international Kondogbia, 20, is another possibility, although he is in demand, with Chelsea and Monaco interested.
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Sevilla appear to be bracing themselves to sell as they are set to sign QPR’s out of favour Stephane M’bia as a replacement, allowing them to bank around £20m for Kondogbia.
Clearly, Arsenal are not going to buy ALL of these players, but Wenger is under pressure from the board and elsewhere within the club to spend big and build a strong, competitive team.
They have the resources to do so after striking major sponsorship deals with sportswear firm Puma and airline Emirates to give them an “escalation of financial firepower”, as chief executive Ivan Gazidis put it.
Wenger’s conscience is also now clear to spend, as they seem certain to qualify for the Champions League after their impressive 3-0 win at Fenerbahce.
One deal straight out of the Wenger textbook is the re-signing of Flamini.
His versatility may mean that defensive options such as Swansea's Ashley Williams and Micah Richards of Manchester City are put on the back-burner and the midfield and attack are made priorities.
Flamini has been hugely impressive in training and, after being released by Milan, could slot straight into the team in a variety of positions.
The fact he can play right-back would also mean Bacary Sagna could cover at centre-back.Congratulations On 20 Years Of The 501st Legion
Posted by Dustin on
Around twenty years ago Albin Johnson and his friend Tom Crews were getting ready to troop the re-release of the original Star Wars trilogy in its new official "Special Edition" format to celebrate the then 20th anniversary of Star Wars. Little did they know that their passion for playing "plastic white spacemen" would turn into a global organization that helps raise millions of dollars for charity.
The internet played a large role in forming the 501st Legion. Still considered to be in its infancy, the internet helped connect Star Wars fans around the world with chat rooms, internet pages, websites, and email. To post an image online you still had to take the photo on a camera, have it developed, then scan it in if you were indeed lucky enough to own a scanner. Albin had started a website to help connect fans and before he knew it he was getting email from all over. It was soon after that Albin and Tom started the 501st Legion.
I've seen the 501st in action at various events across the United States over the years and am always impressed with their level of dedication down to the finest detail both in their costume design and when they are in character. I am friends with many of them, including Albin and just wanted to say "Thank You!" Everyone involved in the 501st Legion bring the Star Wars galaxy to us, and along the way give hope to those who need it by raising awareness through charity. Congrats on 20! Here's to 20 more of the Mighty Fighting 501st - Vader's Fist!
From Wiki:
In 1997, Albin Johnson set up a Geocities website called "Detention Block 2551" as a place to post photos of himself and his friend Tom Crews in their homemade Stormtrooper costumes. Arnie DeHerrera started "Stormtrooperland" at the same time in 1997 and started email conversation with Albin and Tom. Shortly after that, Scott McArthur of Canada got involved and developed the original logo with the words, "The Fighting 501st!" as its catch phrase with a stormtrooper helmet with red eyes in front of a purple Imperial logo. This evolved quickly into the current red, black, and white logo with the phrase, "Vader's Fist" to express the force with which the 501st led. Within weeks of launching the sites, Albin was fielding email requests from people across the country and around the world looking to be featured on his website in their own homemade Stormtrooper armor. What he started soon blossomed into a global phenomenon a fan-based costuming club unlike any other. The Legion ranks swelled, and regional subdivisions called Garrisons, Squads, and Outposts were created to facilitate the organization of events and appearances on a local level.
While the Legion was initially based only on the white-armored stormtroopers stationed aboard the Death Star, as the group expanded, it grew to encompass every other canon trooper variation, and other villains from the Star Wars saga, such as Sith Lords, bounty hunters. Custom creations are generally not eligible for membership, and all applicants are reviewed by their local units and Legion Membership Officers prior to approval into the member database.
Early events attended (or "trooped") by the Legion were mostly science-fiction and comic book conventions or related to the release of the Star Wars movies in theaters and on video. But members were looking for more frequent reasons to meet up with their new-found Legion friends and show off their costumes together. The Legion then became a force for doing good, expanding into a charitable organization that has been likened to a Shriners or Lions Club for a modern generation.
A decade after Albin and Tom founded the Legion, on January 1, 2007, two hundred members of the Legion marched in the annual Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, with George Lucas himself as the Grand Marshal. At this watershed moment for the club, Lucas and Johnson discussed the future of the rapidly growing Legion, and an unofficial partnership was born. Lucasfilm would grant the Legion a limited use of their copyrighted characters, as long as members of the 501st promised never to use their costumes for personal profit and that they represent the franchise in a positive and respectful manner.
The Legion does not charge for its services or appearances; however, event hosts are encouraged to make donations to a charity in the Legion's name in lieu of compensation.
Since its inception, the membership numbers have grown by thousands, and the 501st has |
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While speaking with press after Wednesday's Windows 10 keynote, Xbox Head Phil Spencer clarified the process of purchasing games across both PC and Xbox One. According to Spencer, whether or not games can be purchased once and played on both systems will be determined by the publisher.
"We're [Microsoft] the platform," he said. "So, we will enable what the publisher wants to do with their content. I think giving away anybody's content to someone else is not our role. How you end up with the game on both platforms is going to be dependent on who's selling the game."
Games such as free-to-play and regular retail releases, Spencer explains, will have differing circumstances between platforms. "...we're just going to let the publishers decide the business model they have for their titles. It will be a game-by-game basis."
Exit Theatre Mode
Windows 10's Xbox Live integration will allow for cross-play in certain games between PCs running Windows 10 and the Xbox One, which Spencer stated he's excited about.
"I'm just really excited to see how the creative community takes the ability to link both of these large gaming worlds," he said, continuing to speak about the possibilities for players to interact across both platforms. To Spencer, linking the two is Microsoft's attempt "just to bring those social communities together."
Currently, Fable Legends is the first game announced to use the cross-play functionality between PC and Xbox One. To learn more, check out IGN's complete list of Windows 10 announcements.
Cassidee is a freelance writer for various outlets around the web. You can chat with her about all things geeky on Twitter.Lucy was discovered in 1974 by anthropologist Professor Donald Johanson and his student Tom Gray in a maze of ravines at Hadar in northern Ethiopia. Johanson and Gray were out searching the scorched terrain for animal bones in the sand, ash and silt when they spotted a tiny fragment of arm bone. Johanson and Gray named their fossil skeleton Lucy, after the Beatles song 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'. Lucy may have looked something like this. Discovery of a lifetime Johanson immediately recognised it as belonging to a hominid. As they looked up the slope, they saw more bone fragments: ribs, vertebrae, thighbones and a partial jawbone. They eventually unearthed 47 bones of a skeleton - nearly 40% of a hominid, or humanlike creature, that lived around 3.2 million years ago. Based on its small size, and pelvic shape, they concluded it was female and named it 'Lucy' after 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds', the Beatles song playing on the radio when Johanson and his team were celebrating the discovery back at camp. An upright chimp Like a chimpanzee, Lucy had a small brain, long, dangly arms, short legs and a cone-shaped thorax with a large belly. But the structure of her knee and pelvis show that she routinely walked upright on two legs, like us. This form of locomotion, known as 'bipedalism', is the single most important difference between humans and apes, placing Lucy firmly within the human family. "Bipedalism is the most distinctive, apparently earliest, defining characteristic of humans," says Johanson, now director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. Admired from Afar Johanson named Lucy's species Australopithecus afarensis, which means'southern ape of Afar', after the Ethiopian region where Hadar is located. 3.5 million years ago, Australopithecus afarensis foraged for fruit, nuts and seeds in a mixture of savannah and woodland. It may also have obtained animal protein from termites or birds' eggs. In 1975, Michael Bush, one of Johanson's students, found the remains of more than 13 afarensis individuals buried together following a natural disaster - possibly a flash flood. The find yielded vital information about afarensis' social organisation. "It is clearly a mixed sample of young and old, large and small - meaning several females and several males. It looks very much like the composition of afarensis groups was like what we see in chimpanzees," Johanson explains. Walking on two legs was one of the earliest defining characteristics of humans. Standing tall While Lucy undoubtedly walked upright, some scientists, such as Randall Susman of Stony Brook University in New York, doubt that she walked with straight legs like humans. Instead, they argue, she kept her hip and knees bent, like chimps do when they walk upright. Chimps usually walk on all fours, but occasionally walk upright for short periods of time. Professor Robin Crompton of Liverpool University has used computer modelling to reconstruct how Lucy walked based on the proportions of her skeleton. He assumed that Lucy could either have walked upright with a bent hip and knees like a chimp, or with straight legs like a human. Forest origin Crompton found it was mechanically effective for Lucy to walk like a human. But there was an even closer match between Lucy's proportions and a type of bipedalism shown by orangutans. This single finding could illuminate how our ancestors first started walking upright. Orangutans live 20-40 metres above ground in the forests of Indonesia. They spend most of their time in an upright position, but suspend themselves from branches with their long arms. However, orangutans sometimes walk on branches without aid, raising their arms for balance. Orangutans are not as closely related to humans as chimps. But this behaviour was recently observed in wild chimpanzees living in dense forest, suggesting it could be an ancestral trait common to all great apes. Chimp cousins Chimpanzees are our closest relatives. Genetic studies show humans and chimpanzees shared a common ancestor that lived in the African rainforest 7-8 million years ago. The descendants of this common ancestor split into two lineages - one that led to chimps and another that led to us. It is thought that the human lineage developed routine bipedalism as a strategy for living on the ground when climate change decimated the forest, leaving wide belts of open terrain with no trees. Crompton believes the forest canopy bipedalism shown by orangutans provided the kick-start for routine bipedalism when our ancestors came down from the trees and began living on the ground. Hit the ground walking "This behaviour is a good place to start in terms of what pre-adapted the hominid body, particularly the hip joint and knee joint, for the adoption of habitual (routine) bipedalism," Crompton explains. Once our ancestors were forced to adapt to living on the ground, some drew on this behaviour from their existing repertoire as a method of terrestrial locomotion. The challenges of spending more time on the ground would have favoured those hominids whose anatomy and behaviour gave them a reproductive edge over their peers, however slight. Hominids that were good bipedal walkers were clearly at an advantage in this terrestrial environment, because millions of years later, we walk on two legs instead of four.Natalie Matthews-Ramo
You don’t need to be a Lyotard scholar to recognize the différend in the current American political and social climate. Yes, that particular word and so many others that vaguely register as human Earth language but strangle the tongue on their way out—performativity, focalizer, intermodal, becoming as a noun—make up contemporary academic jargon, ever the punching bag of those who seek to mock, harangue, and threaten into silence any feckless scholar unwise enough to criticize dominant institutions and power structures using highfalutin’ prose.
The latest nibble unto this low-hanging fruit comes courtesy of noted academia-lover George Will, who in a recent Washington Post column kindly reanimated the corpse of a 20-year-old hoax in order to get in some slow-motion pot shots at the near-extinct profession of professing. In 1996, a physicist named Alan Sokal submitted a fake, nonsense paper, composed entirely in jargon, to the journal Social Text—which accepted it enthusiastically. Sokal wanted to show that the humanities and humanistic social sciences had become, as he told the Chronicle of Higher Education in a recent retrospective on his hoax, “ingrained and self-referential,” and so “disdained critiques from outsiders … that an ordinary type of intellectual critique was precluded.”
You’d think that the damn Feminazis and ethnics would somehow to be to blame for contemporary academic irrelevance—but the fault actually lies with a bona fide Aryan: Friedrich Nietzsche, who, according to Will, wrote that “there are no facts, only interpretations … shortly before going mad at age 44.” (If later descents into mental illness negate great work, I eagerly await Will’s denunciation of Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall.)
Yes, yes, Nietzsche and his successors, Heidegger and Foucault and Derrida: They’re fer’ners who’ve begat hundreds of thousands of gibberish-spewing offspring who’ll use the word reproblematize to obliterate your guns and freedom. I get it. Jargon is fun to make fun of. I myself have taken a swipe or two at the pendulous plums weighing down the proverbial tree of overintellectualization.
But now that we’ve just watched a sociopath with a fifth-grade vocabulary take the oath of office, I wonder: Is academic jargon verily so problematical vis-à-vis its labyrinthine potentialities qua trans-resistive reactionings? (Yep, four years out of the professoriate, and I still got it.) Yes, today, Phenomenology of the Spirit help me, I have no choice but to come to jargon’s defense. Don’t worry: I’ll do it using small words.
Sure, the primary vilification of academese comes courtesy of good old anti-intellectualism, and its practitioners aren’t exactly jumping to read an unapologetically intellectual defense such as this. But Alan Sokal is hardly an anti-intellectual—and, egad, neither, really, is George Will. They do have a point that words (or quasi-words) like performativity are alienating, and perhaps intentionally so. Also, here’s a dirty little secret of the intellectual class: Sometimes people use jargon because it’s actually easier to talk that way—in a sort of shorthand, where deterritorialization can call up an entire philosopher’s corpus and all of the nuances contained therein—than it is to explain something clearly. (Just ask Wittgenstein.)
Still, though, nobody begrudges Sokal and other “hard” scientists their vocabulary. (Ooh, a mass spectrometer! Somebody thinks he’s better than me!) Nobody ever demands that the winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry dumb down his vocabulary so as not to seem snooty. Because humanities fields are often dismissed and derided as useless, their specialized language doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt.
Well, guess what, America? The humanities are also full of difficult concepts—insignificant crap, like the meaning of life—which is why we should acknowledge their need for specialized vocabulary. Difficult concepts sometimes call for big words. Deconstruction is hard. Heidegger is hard. Nietzsche, bless his giant moustache, is hard.
Speaking of which: Alas, Will’s excoriation of lieber Friedrich’s influence is also technically correct, if by accident. In the somewhat obscure, posthumously published essay “On Truth and Lie in the Extra-Moral Sense,” Nietzsche attacks the concept of “truth” as “a mobile army of metaphors, metonyms and anthromorphisms”—before himself launching into several apt metaphors that illustrate why this is the case. A century and change later, Nietzsche’s radical skepticism creeps around the edges of slightly kookier-sounding versions of the same problem, such as when NYU philosophy professor Avital Ronell chides a documentarian for introducing the concept of “meaning” without acknowledging its “fascistoid nonprogressive edges.” But that doesn’t mean Nietzsche didn’t have a point. When, as he said, I write “the stone is hard,” how am I to know that anyone reading is going to conjure the “correct” concepts of “stone” or “hard” in their big fat noggins? I can’t. (Language skepticism. BOOM.) And even if you don’t believe that “meaning” has fascistoid nonprogressive edges—which I don’t, at least I don’t think I do—it’s interesting to talk about why people think it does.
So where, then, does that leave the perpetually maligned users of the term resurgently normative as we transition from the most unabashedly intellectual president in modern history to his satsuma-tinted polar opposite? To demonstrate a utopia under a new class of real intellectuals who properly worship the Western canon without all of that pesky big wordage, one must look no further than that nonofficial inauguration poem you may have seen, which itself may or may not be another fun hoax:
Academe now lies dead, the old order rots,
No longer policing our words and our thoughts;
Its ignorant hirelings pretending to teach
Are backward in vision, sophomoric in speech.
Now we learnèd of mind add ourselves to the crowd
That cheers on the Domhnall, the best of MacLeod!
Just in case you were wondering what its author, the (possibly nonexistent) self-published American poet Joseph Charles McKenzie, thinks of academic jargon, the work helpfully dispenses with such hogwash literary devices as allusion, symbolism, allegory, or any evocative language whatsoever. If this was an intentional demonstration of the state of the American university under Trump, it’s a brilliant sendup of a terrifying reality of watch lists and witch hunts; if it’s sincere, then, great; it is that terrifying reality. No more “policing” of words and thoughts—unless, of course, those words and thoughts are remotely critical of President Trump’s new Anglo-Celtic word order, in which case whoever said or thought them should be fired.
Perhaps the answer moving forward, then, is not to join in the mockery of jargon, but to double down on it. Scholars of Yiddish studies are happy to tell you the thousand-year-old language developed as a kind of secret code so that its speakers could talk freely under the noses of their oppressors (and, yes, sometimes mock them). Perhaps academic jargon could serve a similar purpose. Yes, perhaps the last hope to problematize fascistoid nonprogressive edges, so to speak, is to reterritorialize the oppositional vernaculars. But perhaps that was the point all along, and jargon has been lying patiently and usefully in wait for all this time, a secret code in search of a foolish tyrant.I provide my justifications for and explore the viability of, using the Free Hit chip for GW10, or any single gameweek, as an alternative Fantasy Premier League strategy to using it in a blank gameweek
Ladies and gentlemen, I have activated my ‘Free Hit’ chip this week.
Particularly for those who aren’t high in overall rank right now, I believe this week could be a brilliant time to play the new ‘Free Hit’ chip that we’ve been provided with this year and here’s what my team currently looks like (although it’s likely to change several times before the deadline);
In the rest of this article, I will provide the justifications for my decision and explore the benefits and drawbacks of using the Free Hit chip in a single gameweek and a blank gameweek.
No Clear-Cut Captain Candidate
Lukaku: 53.7% ownership, Vs Spurs (H)
Whilst undeniably consistent so far this year, Lukaku hasn’t exactly been captain material in the last 4 games, where he’s scored 7, 6, 2, 5 FPL points. This against teams that Lukaku should be putting away with ease and now he faces a defence that really know how to defend, but more than that, Mourinho knows how to shut these ‘bigger’ games down – like he did at Liverpool where Lukaku got 1 sniff at goal and fluffed it, aside from that chance, he looked completely isolated and I can see the same happening again on the weekend. Mourinho will look to play a slow, controlled game and I can see this being a low-scoring one, which doesn’t bode well for Lukaku.
Kane: 41.9% ownership, Vs Man United (A)
I had a justification here, but now Kane has officially been confirmed OUT of the United match with a minor hamstring injury – the only justification that’s needed.
Salah: 32.5% ownership, Vs Huddersfield (H)
Now you might argue that this is a stand-out captain option this week, but I would argue against that. Huddersfield have just come off the back of a monumental win against United and they will be well and truly up for another massive game at Anfield. They will come to Anfield and sit deep, this will restrict the space for Salah to make the kind of run in behind the defence that he did for his goal against Spurs on the weekend. Liverpool also historically struggle to put the so called ‘weaker’ teams away at Anfield and with them just taking a hammering at Wembley, I’m predicting either a low-scoring win or for Huddersfield to knick something. Either way, I don’t see it as a game with lots of goals for Liverpool, perhaps only if they get a goal early on, then perhaps they could blow them away and that’s why I’ve included both Salah and Coutinho, but I’m not overly confident of it happening.
Jesus: 21% ownership, and Agüero: 14.8% ownership, Vs WBA (A)
Guessing the City line-up each week is really starting to become an issue for us FPL managers and it’s because of this I don’t see either Jesus or Agüero as a solid captaincy choice this week, as many managers will tell you through experience last gameweek. Jesus came off early in the Carabao cup on 81 minutes, after being a surprise inclusion in Pep’s team before Sterling and Agüero, who both played 120 minutes. Again, it’s a guess, but for me, Jesus starts and Agüero is on the bench for the weekend with Jesus coming off around the hour mark for Agüero. Captaining a player who’s either liable to rotation or being taken off early, is never a good option in my opinion, regardless of how well the player is playing, so a no-go for either of these for me.
Morata: 16.6% ownership, Vs Bournemouth (A)
Before his injury, I’d probably have no doubt whatsoever advocating this man as a fantastic captain candidate this week, but since coming back from injury, he’s looked a little rusty and last week he was poor, before being substituted on the hour mark for Batshuayi, who went on to pretty much win Chelsea the game with his brace. I still think he’ll start and is a good choice this week, but it’s not clear-cut in my eyes as, if he doesn’t perform, he’ll be hooked off early for Batshuayi who seems to play the impact Striker role perfectly with his late goals from the bench.
This leaves one man…
Alexis Sánchez: 2.3% ownership, Vs Swansea (H)
Alexis is well and truly back, and to his best it would seem. Against Everton, he had 11 penalty area touches, fired in 7 shots, 4 of which were inside the box, as well as a minutes per attempt ratio of 12.9, oh and don’t forget the goal and assist! Whilst Swansea have been very solid, defensively, away from home, the Gunners have been very good in attack at the Emirates with 11 goals, 85 goal attempts, 13 big chances created – only City (31) and United (16) have created more – and have the second best ‘minutes per chance’ ratio (4.4) behind only Liverpool (4). Sánchez will be the key instigator in the majority of their attacking play and now they have Lacazette, Sánchez and Özil all now playing together, I can’t see anything other than a Sánchez haul.
Given the ridiculously low ownership, as well as everything mentioned above, a Sánchez haul this weekend with the armband on him would provide a huge overall rank boost on it’s own, let alone creating a whole other 10 players just for this gameweek to compliment it.
Fixture Changes/Avoiding Hits
I own Kane and Davies who have a poor fixture this week (United away), who then have a gorgeous fixture the following week (Palace at home).
With so many getting rid of Davies over the last few weeks, having Davies for the visit of Palace – a game he should play with Rose being slowly re-introduced after such a long time in the injury room – will be brilliant, as the potential for a big score in that game is very good.
Also, tripling up on Arsenal just for this plum fixture is perfect, as very few to no managers will have triple Arsenal assets, given that the fixtures after Swansea are looking pretty grim.
Furthermore, in a week where many are considering taking hits, with the fluctuations in personnel week to week at City, Davies missing out a lot through mystery illnesses and the return of Rose, the impressive performances/form of Brazilian talent Richarlison, as well as the fixture swings for the likes of Arsenal, Spurs and United after GW11, I can avoid taking the hit I was looking at, before hitting the Free Hit button.
Single Gameweek (SGW) Vs Blank Gameweek (BGW)
The general consensus amongst FPL experts and boffins, is that using the Free Hit chip in a BGW would be the most efficient way to use it.
For those that aren’t sure what ‘blank gameweeks’ are, they’re gameweeks where some teams don’t play due to them getting to the latter stages of tournaments, usually the FA Cup.
What has happened before this new chip, was that we would attempt to form a transfer strategy to navigate the BGW, once the fixtures had been confirmed for the cups and the teams had been identified to miss a certain GW.
This usually involved using our precious free transfers, or taking hits to bring in those who would play in the BGW for those who would miss out. The problem with this, is that after that, you’d be stuck with players that you didn’t want from that point onwards.
So, you would have to make numerous transfers going into the BGW and then make numerous transfers to tidy your team up after the BGW had passed, which usually involves hits.
With the Free Hit however, we wouldn’t need to use any of our free transfers or take hits whatsoever.
Convenience wise, this does make the most sense and if I was high in overall rank, I would definitely be using it in a BGW and I advocate to those who are doing well to hold the Free Hit chip precisely for that, but for those that aren’t, I think you can definitely have success with it in a SGW to give you an overall rank boost.
I think the ceiling for potential total points is higher for using it in a SGW, as ALL of the teams are involved in a SGW, whereas in a BGW, you’re limited for choice, as some teams will miss out and these teams are invariably good teams, as it’s the better teams that usually make it to the latter stages of tournaments.
When you look at the overall picture however, the longer term benefits of using the chip in a BGW probably just outweigh using it in a SGW, as you can save yourself many free transfers and hits, whereas, I will now have to use my free transfers and probably take hits to navigate the BGW.
The predicted outcomes of both these strategies are just conjecture however – we can’t ever really know for certain what the best way to use it is, as it ultimately comes down to luck i.e., which teams are/aren’t involved in the BGW (which we can’t know until it’s announced much later down the line), how the players/teams perform on the actual day etc.
It might work and it might not, but in my current predicament (2.4m overall rank), I need a boost and I think based on the above rationale, this is a good week for it.
Good luck to all for GW10 and once again, thanks for reading.A former primary school governor has been found guilty of importing an “obscene” life-sized child sex doll into Britain. A surge in seizures of such dolls by border officials has led investigators to identify previously-unknown suspected pedophiles.
Churchwarden David Turner, 72, of Ramsgate, Kent, also admitted to possessing more than 34,000 images of child abuse. Some contained images of children as young as three.
Although he admitted importing and having sex with the 3ft 10in (117cm) doll – which is anatomically detailed and correct – he asked a judge for a ‘trial of issue’ to decide whether being in possession of a child sex doll was “indecent” or “obscene” in law.
Ex-school governor and church warden guilty in landmark child sex doll ruling https://t.co/gSiYWYYcYzpic.twitter.com/Jy9GKIGysC — NationalCrimeAgency (@NCA_UK) July 31, 2017
In what is being hailed as a landmark ruling by the National Crime Agency (NCA), Judge Simon James, sitting at Canterbury Crown Court, turned down the application on Monday to dismiss the charge.
Border Force officers arrested Turner in November last year after they intercepted a doll and a fishnet body stocking which he was trying to import from China.
Read more
When NCA officers searcher Turner’s home in December, they found two child sex dolls which he kept in his study, and seized a computer, tablets and external hard drives.
Analysis of Turner’s computers showed he viewed websites selling items advertised as “flat chest love doll” and “mini silicone sex doll 65cm little breasts,” according to the NCA.
Officers also found 29 fictional stories, which described sexual abuse of children but fell outside the Obscene Publications Act, when they searched Turner’s home in Kent.
While being interviewed by police, Turner admitted to buying clothing for the doll and claimed he had bought it as a “companion” for him and his wife.
He also admitted that his preference was to view indecent images of children aged four to 10 and to “secretly” taking photographs of girls aged six to 11 in public places.
Border officials are reporting seeing more lifelike silicone sex aids, which weigh around 55lb (25kg), imported into the country. They can cost thousands of pounds, and are sold on sites such as Amazon and eBay, the NCA said.
Read more
The dolls, often manufactured in China and Hong Kong, are a “relatively new phenomenon” in the UK and should be criminalized, NCA’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP) Hazel Stewart said in a statement.
“We know their purchase can indicate other offences against children, as was the case against Turner who had a sickening stash of abuse images.
“Importers of such obscene items should expect to have law enforcement closing in on them.”
Border Force officers have seized 123 dolls since March 2016, and so far seven people have been charged with importing them, including one man who was jailed last month.
Of the seven men charged with importing the dolls so far, six also faced child porn allegations.
Dan Scully, deputy director for intelligence operations at the Border Force, said this showed those who ordered the models often strayed into sex crimes.
“What’s critical, I think, for this investigation, these items were going to individuals, in many cases, who were committing other offences in relation to harm of children.
“They were also, critically, people who were otherwise unknown to UK law enforcement in having an interest in sexual activity with children.
“By identifying these importations, working with partners, what we’ve identified is a whole set of people with interests in sexual activity with children who were completely unknown.”
The trial of Turner has been described as setting an “important” precedent in how suspects can be prosecuted. While other men have been convicted for importing child sex dolls, this was the first case where the question of whether a doll is indecent or obscene has been tested by the courts.
Turner was unable to be sentenced on Monday because a pre-sentence report had not been prepared. Judge Simon James said the importation of a child sex doll was an “unusual offence” and that it “adds a degree of complexity.”
He will be sentenced on September 8. The maximum sentence is seven years.It's been an icon of Sydney's gay community for more than 40 years, a safe place where even the powerful and famous could hide out in relative obscurity (or at least until they hit the footpath outside, as former police minister David Campbell learnt in 2010) but now Ken's at Kensington, Sydney's self-proclaimed "best gay sauna", is to close.
"It is with regret I confirm that Ken's at Kensington will be closing due to the sale of the building," Ken's owner, Reiner Becker, said in a statement to Sydney's gay community.
Ken's at Kensington. Credit:Ben Rushton BGR
"Sunday, May 20, will be our last day of trading and we'd love to see our'regulars' for a'steamy goodbye'."
The infamous sex-on-premises venue on Anzac Parade started life in 1973 after original owner Ken "Kandy" Johnson moved into what had been the home of another Sydney gay icon, the Purple Onion drag venue.
The site was originally known as Ken's Karate Klub, then Kensington Karate Klasses, an in-joke at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in NSW to explain why there were rubber mats all over the floors and "occasional sounds of groaning" from within.
Becker said he had no plans to relocate the business to a new location and that the farewell, when it comes, will be a low-key affair.A deputy investigating an emergency call in Olivenhain Friday fatally shot a man who emerged from a home carrying a long-barreled gun, authorities said.
The events that led to the deadly shooting began shortly before 9:30 a.m., when someone dialed 911 at a residence on Shadytree Lane near Glen Arbor Drive, then hung up without saying anything, according to sheriff's officials.
Deputies went to the neighborhood, where they spoke to a resident of the house from which the call had been made, Lt. John Maryon told reporters. The woman told the patrol personnel that her 56-year-old husband was inside with a shotgun, saying he wanted to die.
A neighbor then informed the deputies that the distraught man was in a nearby grassy area behind some homes at the terminus of the dead-end street, armed with a shotgun. They went to the spot, finding the man sitting on the ground with the weapon pointed at himself, Maryon said.
"When the deputy ordered (him) to drop the shotgun, he told the deputy to shoot him and began to point the shotgun in the direction of the deputy," the lieutenant said. "Fearing for his safety, one deputy fired several rounds from his issued AR-15 rifle, striking the (man) an unknown amount of times."
The resident fell, then again tried to point the shotgun at the deputy, prompting him to open fire a second time, according to sheriff's officials.
Witnesses described hearing a total of four shots.
The wounded man, who did not fire his gun, died at the scene. His name was withheld pending full family notification.
Deputies had been called out to the same house earlier in the week and had been apprised that there was " a history of weapons" there, Maryon said.
The deputy who fired on the man has been employed by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department for less than five years, the lieutenant said. His name was not immediately released.
To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.Two photographers have captured incredible pictures of bioluminescent sea fireflies shining brightly on a rocky shoreline in Okayama, Japan.
The pictures were taken at night by Trevor Williams and Jonathan Galione of Tdub Photo, a company that specialises in commercial and editorial photography in Japan. The unique collection of images shows Vargula Hilgendorfii, more commonly known as sea fireflies or “umihotaru”, lighting up an area of the Seto Inland Sea, the body of water that separates the Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu islands of Japan.
The tiny crustaceans are only three millimetres long and live in the sand in shallow water. Although they can wash up on the shoreline, in order to photograph such a large collection at the same time the, pair had to get inventive.
“We bought several big glass jars from a hardware store, the kind Japanese people often use for making sake at home. We drilled a few holes in the lid before covering them with heavy duty tape and rope. Next, we added bait in the form of raw bacon, putting a few pieces into each jar and securing the lids before setting them into the water,” Jonathan explained.
“It’s important to spread the jars out and not to just drop them all in one area. That way you can maximise your catch. This is where the rope comes in handy. By running the top back to the beach and tying it a rock or stick, you can ensure that you don’t lose track of your jars and prevent them from getting washed out with the tide,” Trevor said.
After that, Jon and Trevor let the jars sit for an hour before pulling them out to reveal a catch of hundreds of sea fireflies that were then let loose on the shore and photographed.
Jonathan and Trevor have been living and working in Japan for several years, shooting a wide range of subjects. “A big part of what we do is working as a team. Our subjects are often difficult to photograph alone but we enjoy getting the opportunity to shoot dynamic things that are not common in photography. It’s also very nice to be outdoors working with creative friends”, said Trevor.This post was contributed by a community member.
According to one local activist with SF Bay Food Shed, about 300 protesters and food justice advocates marched from a Berkeley rally "and occupied the Gill Tract around 1:30."
They immediately started working the land and planting the 10,000 veggie starts they have with them. They are also in the process of setting up chicken coops and other farm infrastructure."
The movement aims to take over the, owned by the University of California, and turn it into an urban farm.
One activist,, said Sunday that a number of people planned to stay overnight.
McKnight said that local students, gardeners and farmers had been planning the action since November: "Green houses as far away as Santa Cruz have been nurturing more than 15,000 starts for us to plant."
McKnight said, at about midnight, there appeared to be 40-50 tents, including a "community tent" with 20 people sleeping in it.
"There are probably less than 100 people sleeping here tonight but well over 300 have been here throughout the day," McKnight said.
At their 'General Assembly,' meeting McKnight said that "everyone was super concerned that this action stay 100% children friendly and non-confrontational. And guess what? Everything is super chill and positive."
McKnight said a community potluck and sign-making party is planned for 6 p.m. Monday.
"We welcome everyone to come down and see what we are doing," he wrote.
According to the city of Albany and university planners, the Gill Tract spans about 15 acres on the corner of a 77-acre piece of land that composes. The land is used for agricultural experiments by UC Berkeley's School of Natural Resources.
In 2010, Damon Lisch, who was a research scientist in plant and microbial biology at UC Berkeley, said "About half the field is for research by the USDA Plant Gene Expression Center, and the other half is U.C. Berkeley research. Some of the world's premier research in plant biology is going on in this field."
As of about 12:30 a.m. Monday, University police had not responded to a request for information about how they planned to deal with the occupation, and there had been no coordinated police activity within the site.
Two UC police officers spoke peacefully with Occupy participants at 12:30 a.m., and asked them to keep the area clean, and said the action would likely garner much more attention from authorities Monday.
Activists said, via a live-streaming video feed, that police told them to leave the property by 10 p.m. Sunday, or possibly face consequences.
RELATED COVERAGE
**
EMAIL FROM OCCUPY THE FARM
From: OccupyTheFarm
Date: Sun, Apr 22, 2012 at 2:43 PM
Subject: Occupy the Farm Activists Reclaim Prime Urban Agricultural Land in SF Bay Area
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 22, 2012
Occupy the Farm Activists Reclaim Prime Urban Agricultural Land in SF Bay Area
Contact: GillTractFarm@riseup.net
(Albany, Calif.), April 22, 2012 – Occupy the Farm, a coalition of local residents, farmers, students, researchers, and activists are planting over 15,000 seedlings at the Gill Tract, the |
of the Carnivora (Mammalia): Assessing the impact of increased sampling on resolving enigmatic relationships. Systematic Biology 54(2):317-337.
Flynn, J. J. and M. A. Nedbal. 1998. Phylogeny of the Carnivora (Mammalia): Congruence vs. incompatibility among multiple data sets. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 9:414-426.
Fulton, T. L. and C. Strobeck. 2006. Molecular phylogeny of the Arctoidea (Carnivora): Effect of missing data on supertree and supermatrix analyses of multiple gene data sets. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 41(1):165-181.
Gaubert, P., W. Wozencraft, P. Cordeiro-Estrela, and G. Veron. 2005. Mosaics of Convergences and Noise in Morphological Phylogenies: What's in a Viverrid-Like Carnivoran?. Systematic Biology 54(6):865-894.
Gittleman, J. L., ed. 1989. Carnivore Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution. Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
Hunt, R. M. Jr. and R. H. Tedford. 1993. Phylogenetic relationships within aeluroid Carnivora and implications of their temporal and geographic distribution. Pages 53-73 in Mammal Phylogeny. Volume 2. Placentals. (F. S. Szalay, M. J. Novacek, and M. C. McKenna, eds.) Springer Verlag, New York.
Ledje, C. and U. Arnason. 1996. Phylogenetic analyses of complete cytochrome b genes of the order carnivora with particular emphasis on the Caniformia. Journal of Molecular Evolution 42:135-144.
Ledje, C. and U. Arnason. 1996. Phylogenetic relationships within caniform carnivores based on analyses of the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene. Journal of Molecular Evolution 43:641-649.
Lento, G. M., R. E. Hickson, G. K. Chambers, and D. Penny. 1995. Use of spectral-analysis to test hypotheses on the origin of pinnipeds. Molecular Biology and Evolution 12:28-52.
McKenna, M. C. and S. K. Bell. 1997. Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. Columbia University Press, New York.
Nojima, T. 1990. A morphological consideration of the relationships of pinnipeds to other carnivorans based on the bony tentorium and bony falx. Marine Mammal Science 6:54-74.
Nowak, R.M. 1999. Walker's Mammals of the World. Sixth Edition. Volume I. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
Ridgway, S. H. and R. Harrison (eds.) 1981. Handbook of Marine Mammals. Volume 1. The Walrus, Sea Lions, Fur Seals and Sea Otter. Academic Press, San Diego.
Schreiber, A., K. Eulenberger, and K. Bauer. 1998. Immunogenetic evidence for the phylogenetic sister group relationship of dogs and bears (Mammalia, Carnivora : Canidae and Ursidae) - A comparative determinant analysis of carnivoran albumin, C3 complement and immunoglobulin mu-chain. Experimental and Clinical Immunogenetics 15:154-170.
Slattery, J. P. and S. J. O'Brien. 1995. Molecular phylogeny of the red panda (Ailurus fulgens). Journal of Heredity 86:413-422.
Van Valkenburgh, B. 1999. Major patterns in the history of carnivorous mammals. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 27:463-493.
Veron, G. 1995. The phylogenetic position of Cryptoprocta ferox (Carnivora). Cladistic analysis of the morphological characters of modern and fossil Aeluroidea Carnivora. Mammalia 59:551-582.
Wang, X. M. 1997. New cranial material of Simocyon from China, and its implications for phylogenetic relationship to the red panda (Ailurus). Journal Of Vertebrate Paleontology 17:184-198.
Wolsan, M. 1999. Oldest mephitine cranium and its implications for the origin of skunks. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 44:223-230.
Wolsan, M. and B. LangeBadre. 1996. An arctomorph carnivoran skull from the Phosphorites du Quercy and the origin of procyonids. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 41:277-298.
Wozencraft, W. 2005. Order Carnivora. Pages 532-628 in Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. 3rd ed. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder, eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
Wyss, A. R. and J. J. Flynn. 1993. A phylogenetic analysis and definition of the Carnivora. Pages 32-52 in Mammal Phylogeny. Volume 2. Placentals. (F. S. Szalay, M. J. Novacek, and M. C. McKenna, eds.) Springer Verlag, New York.
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Zhang, Y. P. and O. A. Ryder. 1993. Mitochondrial-DNA sequence evolution in the Arctoidea. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 90:9557-9561.SDDS, DTS, Most common speaker configuration for 5.1; used by Dolby Digital THX, and Pro Logic II. Each black square depicts a speaker. The centre speaker in the top line of the square is used for dialogue. The left and right speakers on either side of the centre speaker are used to create stereo sound for music and other sound effects in the film. The left and right rear speakers create the surround sound effect.
5.1 surround sound ("five-point one") is the common name for six channel surround sound audio systems. 5.1 is the most commonly used layout in home theatre.[citation needed] It uses five full bandwidth channels and one low-frequency effects channel (the "point one").[1] Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, DTS, SDDS, and THX are all common 5.1 systems. 5.1 is also the standard surround sound audio component of digital broadcast and music.[2]
All 5.1 systems use the same speaker channels and configuration, having a front left and right, a center channel, two surround channels and the low-frequency effects channel designed for a subwoofer.
History [ edit ]
A prototype for five-channel surround sound, then dubbed "quintaphonic sound", was used in the 1975 film Tommy.[3]
5.1 dates back to 1976[citation needed] when Dolby Labs modified the track usage of the six analogue magnetic soundtracks on Todd-AO 70 mm film prints. The Dolby application of optical matrix encoding in 1976 (released on the film, Logan's Run) did not use split surrounds, and thus was not 5.1. Dolby's first use of split surrounds was with 70mm film, which received wide release in 1979 with Apocalypse Now. Instead of the five screen channels and one surround channel of the Todd-AO format, Dolby Stereo 70 mm Six Track provided three screen channels, two high-passed surround channels and a low-frequency surround channel monophonically blended with the two surround channels.
When digital sound was applied to 35 mm release prints, starting with Batman Returns in 1992, the 5.1 layout was adopted. The ability to provide 5.1 sound had been one of the key reasons for using 70 mm for prestige screenings. The provision of 5.1 digital sound on 35 mm significantly reduced the use of the very expensive 70 mm format. Digital sound and the 5.1 format were introduced in 1990, by KODAK and Optical Radiation Corporation, with releases of Days of Thunder and The Doors using the CDS (Cinema Digital Sound) format.
5.1 digital surround, in the forms of Dolby Digital AC3 and DTS, started appearing on several mid 90s Laserdisc releases, with among the earliest being Clear and Present Danger and Jurassic Park (the latter having both AC3 and DTS versions). Many DVD releases have Dolby Digital tracks up to 5.1 channels, due to the implementation of Dolby Digital in the development of the DVD format. In addition, some DVDs have DTS tracks with most being 5.1 channel mixes (a few releases, however, have 6.1 “matrixed” tracks). Blu-ray and digital cinema both have eight-channel capability which can be used to provide either 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound. 7.1 is an extension of 5.1 that uses four surround zones: two at the sides and two at the back.
A system of digital 5.1 surround sound has also been used in 1987 at the Parisian cabaret the Moulin Rouge, created by French engineer Dominique Bertrand. To achieve such a system in 1985 a dedicated mixing console had to be designed in cooperation with Solid State Logic, based on their 5000 series, and dedicated speakers in cooperation with APG.[4] The console included ABCDEF channels. Respectively: A left, B right, C centre, D left rear, E right rear, F bass. The same engineer had already developed a similar 3.1 system in 1973, for use at the official International Summit of Francophone States in Dakar.
Application [ edit ]
Channel order [ edit ]
The order of channels in a 5.1 file is different across file formats. The order in WAV files is (not complete) Front Left, Front Right, Center, Low-frequency effects, Surround Left, Surround Right.[5]
Music [ edit ]
Suggested configuration for 5.1 music listening.
Regarding music, the main goal of 5.1 surround sound is a proper localization and equability of all acoustic sources for a centered positioned audience. Therefore, ideally five matched speakers should be used.
For play-back of 5.1 music recommendations of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have been released and propose the following configuration (ITU-R BS 775):[6]
five speakers of the same size for front, center and surround
identical distance from the listeners for all five speakers
angle adjustment regarding viewing direction of audience: center 0°, front ±22.5° for movies ±30° for music, surround ±110°
See also [ edit ]Michael Hastings participates in a panel dicussion on May 1, 2012 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for The Guardian
Journalist Michael Hastings wrote an email to his colleagues hours before he died last week in which he said his “close friends and associates” were being interviewed by the FBI and he was going to “go off the radar for a bit.” The 33-year-old journalist said he was “onto a big story,” according to KTLA that publishes a copy of the email that Hastings sent at around 1 p.m. Monday June 17. Hastings died at around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday morning in a fiery one-vehicle car crash. Staff Sgt. Joseph Biggs, who knew Hastings from Afghanistan, supplied a copy of the email to the network.
“It alarmed me very much,” Biggs, who was blind-copied on the email, said. “I just said it doesn’t seem like him. I don’t know, I just had this gut feeling and it just really bothered me.” The FBI has denied Hastings was under investigation. But WikiLeaks published a message on Twitter last week that said Hastings contacted the organization’s lawyers hours before he died, “saying the FBI was investigating him.”
The email with the subject “FBI Investigation, re: NSA” reads:
Hey [redacted] the Feds are interviewing my “close friends and associates.” Perhaps if the authorities arrive “BuzzFeed GQ,” er HQ, may be wise to immediately request legal counsel before any conversations or interviews about our news-gathering practices or related journalism issues.
Also: I’m onto a big story, and need to go off the radat for a bit.
All the best, and hope to see you all soon.
Michaelmitre is used as a symbol of the bishop's ministry in Western Christianity.
This article largely discusses presence of openly gay, lesbian or bisexual bishops in churches governed under episcopal polities. The existence of homosexual bishops in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and other traditions is a matter of historical record, though never, until recently, considered licit by any of the main Christian denominations.[1] Homosexual activity was engaged in secretly. When it was made public, official response ranged from suspension of sacramental duties to laicization.[2]
The higher prominence given today to the presence of homosexual clergy, including bishops, in the life of the church reflects broader issues, both socially and ecclesiologically (see List of Christian denominational positions on homosexuality), concerning issues of social tolerance and the relationship between social change and doctrinal development. The issue has attracted greater attention in recent years following the development of the gay rights movement, and the increasing discussion within some Christian churches over the legitimacy of gay clergy in senior positions.
This has precipitated crises in various Christian denominations, resulting from divergent construals of Christian ethical doctrines (see Homosexuality and Christianity), which in turn are associated with the interpretation of the Bible (exegesis and hermeneutics). Traditionally, Christian doctrine has categorised homosexual activity as sinful. It was not until the late twentieth century, with the growing tolerance and understanding in Europe and North America towards sexual orientation and gays and lesbians, that bishops and other clergy have begun coming out. However, the controversial nature of the issue in many churches has meant that such revelations normally emerge as a result of public scandal.
A 2006 survey of weekly church-goers in United States, for example, found that there remained significant opposition in some US congregations to the idea of gay pastors and bishops serving openly. This is most marked among Evangelical Christians, who are 80% opposed; to around opposition among half of Catholic congregations. Even amongst those who rarely or never attend church a disapproval of 40% was observed.[3]
Historical context [ edit ]
It was customary in the past for individuals – whether clergy or not – to remain secretive (in the closet) about their sexual orientation and activity. This was mainly because there was generally low tolerance for homosexuality across society, and those caught faced severe criminal sanctions (often including death). Nor is it straightforward to identify individuals before the 19th century as homosexual or "gay" in the modern sense of the world.
Nevertheless, as far back as the sixth century (CE) the Greek chronicler John Malalas wrote about Isaiah, Bishop of Rhodes and Alexander, Bishop of Diospolis in Thracia who had been punished by the Prefect of Thrace (Victor) for "homosexual practices". Isaiah was tortured severely and exiled, while Alexander had his genitals amputated and was subsequently paraded around the city on a litter. As a result the Emperor Justinian decreed that all caught for pederasty should have their genitals amputated. Many homosexual men were arrested in the wake of this, and died from their injuries. An atmosphere of fear followed.[4]
In the eleventh century, Ralph, Archbishop of Tours in France had his lover Jean installed as Bishop of Orléans in France. Neither Pope Urban II, nor his successor Paschal II took action to depose either man from the episcopacy.[5]
Baldric of Dol (c. 1050–1130), abbot of Bourgueil and subsequently Bishop of Dol-en-Bretagne in France, wrote passionate letters to a man simply called "Walter": "If you wish to take up lodging with me, I will divide my heart and breast with you. I will share with you anything of mine that can be divided; If you command it, I will share my very soul."
Several of the poems of Marbodius of Rennes (d. 1123), Bishop of Rennes in France, speak of handsome boys and homosexual desires although stop short of consummating physical relationships (An Argument Against Copulation Between People of Only One Sex). Poems, such as the one where he sent an urgent demand that his beloved return if he wished the speaker to remain faithful to him, have been interpreted to indicate that more than poetic invention was involved.[6]
After the reformation in the Roman Catholic Church, public scandal touched upon the fondness of Cardinal Scipione Borghese (Archbishop of Bologna) for Cardinal Stefano Pignatelli (his likely lover). In the 16th century in Italy, Pope Julius III (Bishop of Rome) was rumored to have a romantic relationship with a teenage boy named Innocenzo.[7] In the 18th century notable examples of emotional and perhaps romantic relationships among bishops include Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart and Giovanni Lercari (the Archbishop of Genoa).
William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1645)
In the Anglican Communion, John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury in England (1583–1604), formed a close relationship with Andrew Perne while at university in Cambridge. Perne went on to live with Whitgift in his old age. Puritan satirists would later mock Whitgift as "Perne's boy" who was willing to carry his cloak-bag – thus suggesting that the two had enjoyed a homosexual relationship.[8] William Laud (d. 1645), also Archbishop of Canterbury, managed homosexual leanings discreetly, but confided his erotic dreams about the Duke of Buckingham and others to a private diary.[9] In the 19th century Cardinal John Henry Newman remained close to Ambrose St. John and was attacked by contemporaries for his "lack of masculinity". The two were buried in the same grave.
John Atherton (1598–1640) served from 1634 as Bishop of Waterford and Lismore in the Church of Ireland. In 1640 Atherton was accused of buggery with a man, John Childe, his steward and tithe proctor. They were tried under a law that Atherton himself had helped to institute. They were both condemned to death, and Atherton was executed in Stephen's Green, Dublin. Reportedly, he confessed to the crime immediately before his execution, although he had proclaimed his innocence before that.[10]
Modern day [ edit ]
Anglican Communion [ edit ]
U.S. Episcopal Church [ edit ]
Gene Robinson, former Bishop of New Hampshire
It is in contemporary Anglicanism that the issue of homosexuality and its relationship to people in the episcopate has been confronted openly. Indeed, the first large mainstream church to ever consecrate an openly gay bishop who was not celibate has been the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, a member of the Anglican Communion, who consecrated Gene Robinson diocesan bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003.[11]
Robinson was elected bishop coadjutor in 2003 and succeeded as diocesan bishop in March 2004. Before becoming bishop, he served as Canon to the Ordinary to the VIII Bishop of New Hampshire. His sexual orientation was privately acknowledged in the 1970s, when he studied in seminary, was ordained, married, and started a family. He went public with his sexual identity and divorced in 1986.[12] He entered a formal relationship with his second partner, Mark Andrew, in 1988. When delegates to the Episcopal convention were voting on the ratification of his election, it became an issue of controversy. His election was ratified 62 to 45. After his election, many theologically conservative Episcopalians in the United States abandoned the Episcopal Church, formed the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and aligned themselves with bishops outside the Episcopal Church in the United States, a process called the Anglican realignment.
There have been documented cases of other openly gay Anglican bishops, however. The first bishop to come out as gay was the US Episcopal bishop Otis Charles, who did so soon after his retirement in 1993. He subsequently divorced from his wife.[13] He had been a bishop in Utah from 1971 to 1993, and after coming out became vocal in his support for LGBT rights while remaining a member of the Episcopal House of Bishops. In 1999 he was arrested and escorted away in handcuffs after a protest at the Episcopal church national convention against the church's historical treatment of gay people. He went on to legally marry his partner, Felipe Sanchez-Paris in 2008.[14]
The Rt Revd Mary Douglas Glasspool, who is openly gay and lives with her partner of 20 years, was elected as a suffragan bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles in December 2009 and was consecrated on May 15, 2010.[15] Her election has attracted worldwide attention, including an expression of concern from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.[16] In response to expressions of concern that her election would be viewed as a threat to the cohesion of the Anglican Communion, Glasspool said, "I've committed my life as a life of service to the people of Jesus Christ, and what hurts is the sense that anybody might have that my name or my servanthood could be perceived as divisive."[17]
Bishop Thomas Shaw of Massachusetts, a celibate monk who previously served as superior of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, discussed his experiences as a gay monk, priest, and bishop in the 2012 documentary Love Free or Die, about Robinson's election. A longtime supporter of the full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church, he had avoided broaching the subject of his own sexuality because as a monk "he did not want to send the message that, as some conservatives argue, gay people should be celibate."[18]
Church of England [ edit ]
In 1993 Peter Ball resigned from his position as Bishop of Gloucester after admitting to an act of gross indecency with a 19-year-old man.[19]
In 1994 the gay rights campaign group OutRage!, led by Peter Tatchell, began to concentrate on religious homophobia. It was revealed in the press that the new Bishop of Durham, Michael Turnbull, had a conviction for a gay sex offence and OutRage! disrupted his ordination ceremony. There were other bishops known or suspected to be gay in private and OutRage! held a demonstration outside Church House in London naming ten bishops and urging them to "Tell the truth!" Although the ten bishops were not named in the British press, their names were published in an Australian gay newspaper, the Melbourne Star Observer, and has since been published on the internet. They included Timothy Bavin (Bishop of Portsmouth), Br Michael (Fisher) (assistant bishop, Ely), John Klyberg (Bishop suffragan of Fulham), Michael Marshall (assistant bishop, London), Brian Masters (area Bishop of Edmonton), John Neill (assistant bishop, Bath & Wells), Jack Nicholls (Bishop suffragan of Lancaster), Mervyn Stockwood (assistant bishop, Bath & Wells) and Michael Turnbull (Bishop of Durham).[20][21] However, OutRage produced no evidence for any of its claims.
At the same time, Tatchell began a dialogue with the Bishop of London, David Hope, who had not been named as the group thought that he could be persuaded to come out voluntarily.[22] Press stories speculating about the personal sexuality of bishops led Hope to fear the worst and he called a press conference in February 1995 at which he denounced OutRage! for putting him under pressure. While admitting that his sexuality was "a grey area", he had "sought to lead a celibate life" and was "perfectly happy and content".[23]
Mervyn Stockwood, who was gay, was bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark, but also celibate. He even gently rebuked a parish priest for initiating the blessing of same-sex unions in the late 1970s.
Appointed as the suffragan Bishop of Edmonton (London) in 1999, the Rt Revd Peter Wheatley is gay and has been living with his partner saying that he is "a celibate Christian living by Christian teachings".[24] This does not appear to have generated any significant controversy. Bishop Wheatley is opposed to the ordination of women to the episcopate.[25]
In 2003, the Very Revd Jeffrey John, at the time Canon Chancellor and Theologian of Southwark Cathedral, was chosen to be the Bishop of Reading (a suffragan of the Bishop of Oxford).[11] John has been in a relationship with another male priest for many years, though he also says that their relationship is celibate.[26] As a result of the ensuing controversy, however, John withdrew his acceptance of the appointment. He was subsequently appointed Dean of St Albans. John again emerged in the debate over gay bishops in July 2010 following widespread media reports that he was the Crown Nomination Commission's preferred candidate for appointment by the Queen as Bishop of Southwark[27] though subsequent reports suggested that this was not the case or that his name had been rejected following leaking of the proposal.[28]
In 2013, it was announced that the Church of England's House of Bishops had approved plans to allow gay men to become appointed as bishops if they were celibate, including those such as Jeffrey John who are in civil partnerships.[29]
In 2016, Bishop Nicholas Chamberlain, the bishop of Grantham in the diocese of Lincoln, announced he was gay and in a same-sex partnership becoming the first bishop to do so in the Church of England.[30]
Anglican Church of Southern Africa [ edit ]
Bishop Merwyn Castle was consecrated Bishop of False Bay (a suffragan of the diocese of Cape Town) in 1994, but because most Anglicans outside South Africa were unaware of his homosexuality, and because he was celibate, no comparable controversy took place. The Anglican Church of Southern Africa has no official position on homosexuality.[31]
Scottish Episcopal Church [ edit ]
In 1995, Bishop Derek Rawcliffe, retired Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway in the Scottish Episcopal Church, disclosed his homosexuality.[32] Like Terry Brown (see below), Rawcliffe had also served as a bishop in Melanesia.
Church of Melanesia [ edit ]
Bishop Terry Brown, of Malaita in the Solomon Islands, attended the 1998 Lambeth Conference (which declared same-sex relationships "incompatible with Scripture") as an openly gay man (he also attended the 2008 Lambeth Conference).[33]
Anglican Church of Canada [ edit ]
Barry Hollowell, who resigned as Bishop of Calgary in the Anglican Church of Canada in 2005, came out publicly in 2008 after the death of his wife, who had been aware of his sexual orientation at the time of his election to the episcopate.[34] In 2016, the Diocese of Toronto elected as a suffragan bishop, an openly gay and partnered priest, the Reverend Canon Kevin Robertson.[35] He was consecrated on January 7, 2017 as Bishop of York-Scarborough.[citation needed]
Roman Catholic Church [ edit ]
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a retired Catholic bishop in the Diocese of Detroit, has consistently been a supporter of New Ways Ministry and has also called for homosexual priests and bishops to "come out" and be truthful to themselves and others.[citation needed] Gumbleton has acted as a keynote speaker at Call to Action conferences. In 1995 he wore a mitre at a church service on which were symbols of the cross, a rainbow and a pink triangle in solidarity with the gay community.[36] Later, he came into the public eye before the Vatican's Instruction with regard to the ordination of homosexual men was released, arguing against Fr. Baker's article on the issue in America.[37]
Francis Cardinal Spellman
Francis Spellman, Cardinal Archbishop of New York, was long rumored to have been gay, according to a book by John Cooney, who said that many whom he interviewed took his homosexuality for granted.[38] In addition, a book published in 1998 claims that during World War II, Spellman was carrying on a relationship with a chorus boy in the Broadway revue One Touch of Venus.[39] Spellman defended Senator Joseph McCarthy's 1953 investigations of subversives and homosexuals in the federal government.[citation needed]
Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, Wisconsin retired on May 24, 2002 following the revelation that he had used $450,000 in archdiocesan funds to settle a lawsuit accusing him of sexual harassment. In a statement one week later, he admitted the falsity of his previous assertion that income he had earned outside of his priestly occupation (and turned over to the Church) exceeded the $450,000.[40] In 2009 he confirmed that he was gay, but did not reveal any details of his relationships.[40][41][42][43]
The auxiliary Roman Catholic Bishop of Cape Town, South Africa, Reginald Cawcutt, resigned in July 2002 following allegations that he outed himself as gay on a sometimes-sexually charged website set up for gay priests. Bishop Reginald Cawcutt blamed the scandal on the conservative U.S. organization Roman Catholic Faithful which infiltrated the now closed website, called St. Sebastian's Angels, and traced posting addresses.[44]
In 2003, Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër was removed from office by John Paul II for alleged sexual misconduct with younger men who were students in his care. Officially, the Pope accepted the resignation letter which Groër had written on the occasion of his 75th birthday. This made Groër, who had adamantly refused to ever comment in public on the allegations, one of the highest-ranking Catholic clerics to become caught up in the sexual abuse scandals.[45]
In 2005, Juan Carlos Maccarone, the Bishop of Santiago del Estero in Argentina was forced to resign after images were released of him engaged in sexual activity with another man. Suggestion was made that the former state governor Carlos Juarez had been involved in the release after criticism of the governor's human rights record.[46]
Francisco Domingo Barbosa Da Silveira, the Bishop of Minas in Uruguay, was forced to resign in July 2009, following a gay sex scandal in which he had faced extortion.[47][48]
In February 2013, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, leader of the Catholic church in Scotland, was forced to resign as archbishop three months ahead of planned retirement because of allegations of inappropriate acts with four priests during the 1980s, but also more recently. O'Brien had been a vocal critic of the UK Government's plans to introduce same-sex marriage.[49]
In October 2016, a group in favour of marriage equality in Mexico called the Pride National Front (FON) outed a number of Catholic leaders who they said were homosexual. The list included Hipólito Reyes Larios, Archbishop of Xalapa in Veracruz.[50]
Lutheranism [ edit ]
In 2008 the gay German priest Horst Gorski was nominated for election as a bishop in the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church, Germany. He lost against Gerhard Ulrich. In 2015, however, Gorski became the first homosexual to serve as head of office for the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD) and Vice-President of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD).[51]
In May 2009 the Diocese of Stockholm in the Church of Sweden elected Eva Brunne as its bishop. She won the vote by 413 votes to 365 and officially succeeded Bishop Caroline Krook in November 2009. Brunne is married to her partner, Gunilla Linden, who is a priest and with whom she has a son. Brunne is believed to be the world's first openly lesbian bishop.
Following her appointment, Brunne said: "I am happy and very proud to be part of a church that encourages people to make their own decisions." She added: "Diversity is a big wealth."[52]
In May 2013, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) elected its first openly gay bishop, Bishop Guy Erwin, to office as the bishop of the Southwest California Synod.[53]
In 2015 the Church of Sweden elected Mikael Mogren as bishop of Västerås, and thus got their first openly gay male bishop. He came out publicly as gay in one of his books published in 2013,[54] without much public attention to the fact neither then nor at the time of his election. In one of the interviews following the election that mentioned his orientation, Mogren explained that he is "not a single-issue party".[55]
Also in 2015, Bishop Kevin Kanouse, a bishop in the ELCA, came out as gay.[56]
United Methodist Church [ edit ]
In 2016, the Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church elected its first openly gay and partnered bishop.[57] Before being elected, Bishop Karen Oliveto had served as senior pastor of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco.[58] Earlier in 2016, the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church had ordained the denomination's first openly LGBTQ clergy.[59] At the United Methodist Church's General Conference, the delegates voted in favor of a motion to defer the issue of human sexuality to the Council of Bishops to reexamine the Book of Discipline.[60] On May 7, 2018 the Council of Bishops in the United Methodist Church proposed allowing individual pastors and regional church bodies to decide whether to ordain LGBT clergy and perform same-sex weddings, though this proposal can only be approved by the General Conference.[61]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]My contribution to the programming contest held by the German „FreiesMagazin“ got a third place out of 13 submissions. This is quite good, considering that I only wrote a small wrapper around the generic game-tree Haskell library by Colin Adams, and hardly gave any serious thought into the problem.
All entires are available for download. I have annotated the table containing the results with the line count as given by ohcount:
W D L Points Language Code lines 1. Kroschinsky 904 242 54 2954 Python 589 2. Schulz 858 263 79 2837 Python 544 3. Breitner 837 281 82 2792 Haskell 264 4. Jackermeier 754 306 140 2568 Perl 183 5. Roth 574 338 288 2060 C++ 1731 6. Eitel 567 355 278 2056 Ruby 352 7. Reichel 342 328 530 1354 Python 266 8. Zimmermann 303 400 497 1309 Java 1070 9. Apensiv 190 353 657 923 Perl 410 10. Maraun 150 300 750 750 C++ 690 11. Golemo 131 319 750 712 Python 104 12. Ziegelwanger 120 337 743 697 C++ 868 13. Fuest 32 254 914 350 Python 645
Note that the line count for my haskell program includes the game-tree library, which I bundled in my submission. Without it, it’s 156 lines of code I had to write, which is second best in the code golf category.
If you look at the timing statistics, you will see that my program took the longest. When the contest was started, the timelimit was one minute per round – which I of course tried to use as much as possibly, by increasing the search tree depth. Later into the contest, the rules were changed to limit it to one minute for a whole game, and that long-running programs will get points deducted. I did some minor changes based on a profiling run, but did otherwise not care too much about performance. I would have tried to improve the runtime by using Haskell’s good ability for parallelization. But when I asked on what kind of machine the code will be run, but they would not tell me. They said that this is a hobby programmer’s contest where allowing for parallelization were not fair, so I did not work in that direction.
All in all it was a positive experience, showing of Haskell’s qualities as a language that you can quickly get good results with.Share. Building a new Riverdale isn't cheap. Building a new Riverdale isn't cheap.
Archie Comics has been the source of some online controversy this week. And this time, it's not because they killed off Archie or turned Jughead into a zombie. On Monday the company announced a new Kickstarter drive aimed at funding a trio of new comics spinning out of Mark Waid and Fiona Staples' relaunched Archie series. That led to some significant backlash among readers and creators, resulting in the cancellation of that Kickstarter only five days in. The core argument is that Kickstarter is supposed to be an outlet for the little guy, not big companies. However, I think this situation serves as a reminder that when it comes to comics, everyone that isn't Marvel or DC counts as "the little guy."
Granted, there were and still are many valid concerns about the Kickstarter. I don't blame anyone for feeling outraged or taking the company to task. Why was a major publisher with its own resources and connections relying on crowdfunding? Why focus on expanding the rebooted Archie franchise now when readers haven't even had a chance to read the new Archie #1? Where was this money actually going, and were the creators themselves going to be fairly compensated? Perhaps most important of |
ago. Years of suffering have made the energy sector more efficient.
Cenovus said last week that it can break even at $41 crude. Analysts estimate that Suncor's numbers are lower than that.
"Those kind of economics were not reality there three years ago, not even close," said Mark.
Surviving, though, is not growing and the oilpatch needs to grow in order to get people working again. Forrest said that by ARC's calculations sustained prices of $40 oil will hurt.
"We were assuming about $53 dollar WTI [West Texas Intermediate] this year that would generate $44 billion in free cash flow. Most of that goes to new drilling and capital expenditures," said Forrest. " At $44 [WTI], that really crimps that number, so you could see half the activity in the province going away if these prices are sustained."
ARC Financial's Jackie Forrest said OPEC members may be becoming frustrated with low prices. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)
The best hope for oil prices now is that the summer driving season will go as expected and there will be a significant draw down of inventories by early fall. That also depends on U.S. production coming in as expected and OPEC adhering to its cuts.
However, Forrest said OPEC members may be becoming frustrated with low prices, given that all of their cutting has not netted a substantially higher oil price.
"If prices stay down at this level, it probably does encourage some cheating. If OPEC starts to cheat and not comply with these cuts, it's going to be very hard to draw those storage levels down."R has come to.
SR01-JP000 Aither the Heaven Monarch (Ultra Rare)
SR01-JP001 Erebus the Netherworld Monarch (Ultra Rare)
SR01-JP002 Eidos the Netherworld Knight (Super Rare)
SR01-JP003 Idea the Heaven Knight (Super Rare)
SR01-JP004 Caius the Shadow Monarch (Normal Parallel Rare)
SR01-JP005 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch (Normal Parallel Rare)
SR01-JP006 Granmarg the Rock Monarch (Normal Parallel Rare)
SR01-JP007 Mobious the Frost Monarch (Normal Parallel Rare)
SR01-JP008 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch (Normal Parallel Rare)
SR01-JP009 Raiza the Storm Monarch (Normal Parallel Rare)
SR01-JP010 Lucius the Shadow Vassal
SR01-JP011 Mithra the Thunder Vassal
SR01-JP012 Landrobe the Rock Vassal
SR01-JP013 Escher the Frost Vassal
SR01-JP014 Berlines the Firestorm Vassal
SR01-JP015 Garum the Storm Vassal
SR01-JP016 Illusory Snatcher
SR01-JP017 Tragoedia
SR01-JP018 Dandylion
SR01-JP019 Mathematician
SR01-JP020 Level Eater
SR01-JP021 Battle Fader
SR01-JP022 Rainbow Kuriboh
SR01-JP023 Pandeity Monarchs (Super Rare)
SR01-JP024 The Dominion of the Legendary Monarch
SR01-JP025 March of the Monarchs
SR01-JP026 Return of the Monarchs
SR01-JP027 The Monarchs Stormforth
SR01-JP028 Strike of the Monarchs
SR01-JP029 Tenacity of the Monarchs
SR01-JP030 Soul Exchange
SR01-JP031 Enemy Controller
SR01-JP032 Mystical Space Typhoon
SR01-JP033 Soul Charge
SR01-JP034 The Original Monarch
SR01-JP035 The First Monarch
SR01-JP036 Escalation of the Monarchs
SR01-JP037 The Monarchs Awaken
SR01-JP038 The Monarchs Erupt
SR01-JP039 By Order of the Emperor
SR01-JP040 Pinpoint Guard(Chip East / Reuters)
What a quandary for Republicans. On the one hand, the guy who President Bush told us, constantly, was an evil doer who hated America and freedom and couldn't even understand the joy of Chanukah is dead. On the other hand, the Kenyan socialist with the fake birth certificate is responsible. Most of the potential Republican presidential candidates couldn't even bring themselves to mention the president's name, let alone praise him for his victory. And as for the rest? Do they dare give the president credit for doing what Bush could not? Or...
1. Criticize Obama for being opportunistic.
Via Media Matters:
Conservative media outlets and personalities have declared that the death of the world's most famous terrorist was just another opportunity for the president to "strut like [a] peacock" and make it all about himself.... CNN's Loesch Suggested Obama "Politicize[d] The Hell Out Of" Bin Laden Announcement. In a May 2 Twitter post, CNN contributor Dana Loesch wrote: "Geebus. All he had to do was walk out and fist pump. Not politicize the hell out of it."
How dare the president strut around, acting like he accomplished something! Who does he think he is? George Bush in a flight suit?
2. Criticize Obama for just trying to win re-election.
According to Rush Limbaugh:
If [Obama] was a shoo-in for reelection, Osama bin Laden would still be alive today. There would have been no need to undertake the mission.
See, if Obama's numbers were better, he wouldn't have even bothered to hunt down bin Laden. Even though Candidate Obama was saying, way back in 2008, that he'd take out bin Laden if given the chance, obviously following through with that promise is just a cheap political stunt.
3. Criticize Obama for not giving credit to the real hero, Dubya.
Sure, bin Laden was technically caught on Obama's watch, but really, this is all thanks to Bush and pals. And torture. As Joan reported earlier, Republicans from Dick Cheney to Rep. Steve King to the torture architect himself, John Yoo, are insisting that bin Laden would be alive today if not for that whole torture thing. So while Republicans think it's long past time for Democrats to stop blaming the state of our economy on the destructive policies of the Bush administration—because that was soooooo long ago—when it comes to killing the bad guy, this is Dubya's victory. And it is such a shame that at a time like this, Obama and the Democrats have to politicize this historic moment by trying to rob Dubya of his rightful praise.
4. Criticize Obama for not providing sufficient evidence that bin Laden is really, seriously, totally dead.
For those birthers having withdrawals, never fear. Via ThinkProgress, Andrew Breitbart's site is claiming that we're going to need a lot more proof that bin Laden is dead before we actually can believe bin Laden is dead:
The free world, particularly the United States, has a right to make sure Osama bin Laden is really dead. Every American has a right to walk right up to bin Laden’s corpse and view it. We are entitled to know for a fact that the witch is dead.
Because the CIA's facial recognition technology and DNA testing and photographs don't mean a thing until the body has been inspected by Orly Taitz and Donald Trump.Our first Canon 70D video tests show the DSLR’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF truly is a ‘game changer’
Our testing of the revolutionary Canon 70D DSLR continues here at Imaging Resource. We recently posted First Shots that showcased the still image quality of Canon's hot, new APS-C model. This time around we're taking a closer look at Canon's "game changing" Dual Pixel CMOS AF system, which aims to provide vastly improved autofocus performance not only for Live View still photography, but also for video recording. The new AF system, which uses on-chip phase-detect, is touted as providing much quicker, smoother and more accurate AF performance for video recording without the jittery back-and-forth hunting of regular contrast-detect autofocus.
We pitted the 70D against its closest APS-C DSLR rival, the Nikon D7100, as well as another Canon DSLR which features the still-new Hybrid CMOS II AF system, the Canon Rebel SL1. The SL1's Hybrid CMOS II system also features sensor-embedded phase-detection AF with the same coverage area as the 70D. The SL1, however, uses its on-chip phase-detection only to get in the ballpark, then fine-tunes with contrast-detection. (Thanks to Canon for clarifying the similarities and differences between the 70D and SL1!)
In our quick comparison tests, we shot a series of videos comparing the three cameras in daylight and low light, as well as how well they handled racking focus from near to far subjects. The results? Well, consider us thoroughly impressed with the Canon 70D's video and autofocusing capabilities. See below for yourself.
*Please note that our Canon 70D is considered to be a beta sample, and there could possibly be tweaks to the camera's imaging and video capabilities between now and when the production models hit store shelves next month.
In the first test, we shot in bright sunlight, and tried to show how each camera handled AF subject tracking on a moving target.
All cameras were set to f/5, ~24mm, ISO 100.
As you can see in the video above, the Canon 70D did a pretty stellar job of keeping our subject in focus, without any of the back-and-forth focus hunting "wiggle" that we see with cameras relying solely on contrast detection. There was quite a stark difference when we shot the same subject with the Nikon D7100: It really needed to hunt around to determine focus. We had all three cameras set to facial recognition tracking, and both the D7100 and 70D took a similar length of time to recognize the subject's face, but the D7100 had trouble maintaining focus on the subject as he moved toward the camera.
Finally, the SL1 behaved similarly to the 70D for the most part, but there's a hint of AF hunting as the contrast-detect system acquires focus, and it was slower to lock onto the subject's face. The SL1 also had issues refocusing once the subject it had been tracking moved out the frame, even when we shot a second take.
All cameras were set to f/4, ~24mm, ISO 3200.
With our low-light test, we initially tried a similar moving subject test, but noticed that the D7100 was having issues autofocusing at all -- even on a stationary subject. Instead we switched to a simpler test of focusing the cameras on a far subject, then introducing a foreground subject with a short distance of movement. We used FlexiZone - Single (with Movie Servo AF enabled, of course) on the two Canons and AF-F Normal on the Nikon.
The Canon 70D did brilliantly, quickly and easily refocusing to the foreground subject, and adjusting focus on the fly as he moved closer to the camera. The SL1 also did a great job, but there's a hint of AF hunting as the contrast-detect system acquires focus. The D7100, strangely, couldn't focus at all on the foreground subject. We're not sure why exactly. (And yes, we checked -- autofocus was enabled on the lens!)
Racking focusing demonstration between the 70D, D7100 and SL1.
In our third comparison test, we simply demonstrated how the cameras can change autofocus from near to far subjects. The Canon 70D was very smooth, accurate and acquired focus almost instantly. It's very much like a camcorder, just as Canon claimed. The SL1 also did a great job, but the speed at which it focused fluctuated. On one pass it looked very much like the 70D, but on another it was slower to nail focus. The D7100, finally, hunted back and forth quite a bit.
This test makes differences in AF noise particularly noticeable. The STM kit lenses on the 70D and SL1 (both use the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens) were near-silent. Perhaps in the quietest of rooms, one could make out some AF noise if you put your ear right next to the lens. On the other hand, the Nikon AF-S 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR DX lens included with the D7100 was much noisier, and very audible in the recorded video using the built-in mics -- even outside among loud cicadas, and with airplanes flying overhead.
Touch-to-focus on the Canon 70D. Both cameras sync'ed using audio waveforms.
This last video is a simple demonstration of the touch-focus ability of the Canon 70D. Canon touted this feature in its "Homemade" launch video, which we featured in our first impressions Canon 70D review, and we thought we'd give it a go. Touchscreen operation -- much like we found on the SL1 and EOS M -- is very nice, and using FlexiZone - Single AF and the touchscreen to quickly and easily rack focus is a breeze.
Overall, we're very excited about the Canon 70D's new Dual Pixel CMOS AF system, especially for video recording. The camera does indeed bring camcorder-like autofocus to the DSLR arena. With the Canon 70D's fast and accurate, full-time autofocus, intelligent subject tracking, low-light AF, and a great touch-to-focus system, serious filmmakers and consumer shooters alike will no doubt welcome its significant technological advancement.(CNN) — Everyone loves a good get-back-up, Rocky-style story.
But inspirational tales don't always have to star a guy in shiny shorts -- or a big city like Philadelphia.
Sometimes the best against all odds tales are real ones, taking place in unsung towns, led by regular citizens energized to resuscitate once thriving destinations just as they appeared flat on the mat.
Even big, star-studded cities face struggles and off decades, but what's kept Main Street, USA alive amid interstates, mega-malls, national chains and closed stagecoach routes? The heart and hard work of historic rebound towns like these.
Coronado, California: The little peninsula that could
Then: A storied SoCal getaway for adventure-seeking aristocrats and their servants stretching back to the Victorian era, Coronado suffered in the late 20th century with a 35 percent vacancy rate along its historic main drag, Orange Avenue, leaving locals wondering how to prevent this pretty peninsula on the far side of San Diego Bay from drowning.
Now: One of the country's most successfully revitalized coastal resort communities draws crowds of vacationers and window shoppers over the boomerang-shaped San Diego-Coronado Bridge onto streets lined with flowers and fully restored classical revival-style buildings.
Wow: The iconic The iconic Hotel del Coronado (aka "The Del") remains one of the world's grandest landmarks and most resilient beach hotels, with a who's who guest list of celebs and dignitaries several generations long.
Paducah, Kentucky Paducah Renaissance Alliance
Paducah, Kentucky: Small town with big art
Then: In the 1980s, historic Lower Town was 20 square blocks of once-beautiful homes blighted by crime and neglect. Its commercial center sat 70 percent vacant.
Now: More than $100 million in investment later, those same blocks are home to a vibrant arts and small business community that's now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. With brick- and tree-lined sidewalks that attract more than $200 million in annual tourist income, the town underwrites an Artist Relocation Program that's drawing resident artists and international visitors, and is considered a national model for utilizing the arts for municipal resurrection.
Wow: Held each May, the Held each May, the Lower Town Arts & Music Festival was recently tapped among the state's top spring festivals, featuring Western Kentucky's best art, music, theater and food.
New Iberia, Louisiana: Reborn on the bayou
Then: Founded by the Spanish in 1779 (originally called Nueva Iberia) and home to five brick factories in the 1890s, this vintage bayou town's main street was a barren row of boarded-up shops not long ago, with its decaying landmark art deco theater, the Evangeline, looking like the sad inspiration for a forgotten Jim Carrey movie.
Now: New Iberia's latest renaissance has yielded a Great American Main Street Award and a revitalized commercial district featuring hot (and hot) Cajun eateries, rows of new shops and the beautifully restored Evangeline (now Sliman) Theater -- home to Louisiana Live Cajun and "swamp pop" concerts.
Wow: High points of a town tour include the pin-up antebellum mansion, High points of a town tour include the pin-up antebellum mansion, Shadows-on-the-Teche, and the original Tabasco factory and 250-acre Jungle Gardens on Avery Island, just seven miles down the road.
Frederick, Maryland Frederick County Tourism Council
Frederick, Maryland: After the flood... cute shopping!
Then: Once a hospice for Civil War casualties, this proud Colonial-era city endured late 20th-century battle fatigue after getting sidestepped by a new interstate, losing its retail core to outlying shopping malls and being hit by a massive flood in the mid-1970s that turned nearly 100 acres of its historic downtown into a temporary swamp.
Now: Frederick is revived, with a nearly chain-proof red brick commercial district lined with indie shops, destination restaurants and weekenders from D.C. and Baltimore (both about an hour away) escaping here instead of the other way around.
Wow: Stroll along Carroll Creek Park's pedestrian bridges and brick pathways lined with public art and it's hard to believe this green space was originally a flood control project.
Ely, Nevada: The mettle of nowhere
Then: Originally a Pony Express station, this remote Nevada town's mineral mining fortunes boomed and busted through the 20th century, taking their biggest toll during the 1970s copper market crash.
Now: Copper is back, as is gold mining, but Ely's latest boom is as a weekend escape between Las Vegas, Reno and Salt Lake City (the nearest major town, 241 miles away).
Wow: You can augment the Western experience by boarding an authentic steam-powered train on the Ely-based You can augment the Western experience by boarding an authentic steam-powered train on the Ely-based Nevada Northern Railway for a 90-minute chug through the Silver State's timeless outback.
DeLand, Florida: Classic revivalist
Then: Conceived in the 1870s as an "Athens of Florida" (emphasizing education and culture) by baking soda baron Henry DeLand, the small but big-thinking central Florida community gave rise to grand Victorian homes and Stetson University before succumbing to financial hardship, deteriorating neighborhoods and 75 percent downtown vacancy in the mid-1980s.
Now: After a magical civic recovery an hour from Disney World, downtown DeLand's rows of shops, restaurants and museums along Woodland Boulevard and Indiana Avenue include the restored 1921 art deco After a magical civic recovery an hour from Disney World, downtown DeLand's rows of shops, restaurants and museums along Woodland Boulevard and Indiana Avenue include the restored 1921 art deco Athens Theater, nearby Artisan Alley and a revived Garden District that inspired an award-winning documentary about urban renewal.
Wow: Housed in the basement of an old bank building, the Housed in the basement of an old bank building, the Mainstreet Grill has been voted DeLand's best restaurant for more than a decade, and serves a "Spectacular Sunday Brunch Buffet" to prove it.
Libertyville, Illinois: Revival, take two
Then: Established as a bedroom community for Chicago's elite in the early-mid-20th century, Libertyville receded into drab suburb status in later decades. Its first stab at revitalization in the 1960s -- a poorly conceived series of modernization projects dubbed Operation Face-Lift -- led only to more boarded-up storefronts over the next 20 years.
Now: Unveiling its old Victorian facades and regaining its roots as a homey, Midwestern Americana detour from the big city, Libertyville's four-block epicenter along Milwaukee Avenue (35 miles from the Loop, and a world apart) is lined with boutiques, foodie shops and an important microbrewery ( Unveiling its old Victorian facades and regaining its roots as a homey, Midwestern Americana detour from the big city, Libertyville's four-block epicenter along Milwaukee Avenue (35 miles from the Loop, and a world apart) is lined with boutiques, foodie shops and an important microbrewery ( Mickey Finn's ) on Windy City pub hop maps.
Wow: If it's Thursday between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m., it's Farmer's Market time (June-October) on Church Street across from Cook Park -- a tradition for more than three decades.
El Dorado, Arkansas: Raising the boom
Then: Home to a 1920s oil rush that brought high hopes, rows of new buildings and 30,000 people to "Arkansas' Original Boomtown," the golden opportunity of El Dorado's namesake gave way to the Great Depression and perpetual economic hardship. By 1980, the town's commercial district was barely ticking.
Now: Thanks to one huge civic mobilization, mass restorations, a new $14.4 million conference facility and a roster of annual festivals, El Dorado has recouped its reputation as "the pride of south Arkansas." The once desolate downtown is now lined with more than 65 specialty shops, eateries, inns and the state's only operating art deco theater.
Wow: Each May, the Each May, the Bugs, Bands & Bikes festival features thousands of revving motorcycles gathered for a bike show/parade and a two-day Battle of the Bands -- all seasoned with hundreds of pounds of the region's best crawfish.This article contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. For an explanation of our Advertising Policy, visit this page
With road travel expected to peak this Thanksgiving Day long weekend, I thought I would share with you some of the most common “Secret” Gas Pump and Gas Station marketing tricks to get you to spend more money. With gas prices reaching highs again, you don’t need to spend anything extra.
While none of these are scientific, they are collected from various people I’ve spoken to, or from my own thoughts while pumping gas.
The Slow Pump
This is a great marketing trick, but it is annoying for most gas station consumers. Have you every gone to the gas station, and felt like the pump was setting a world record for being slow? Well, chances are it was setup that way. Gas stations make most of their money inside at the convenience store, not through gas purchases. As a result, they are trying to get you to come inside and spend some money. And the longer you are going to wait for gas, the more likely you are to come inside and shop while you wait. Sneaky huh?
A second explanation, which may be more probable, but even more scary, is that the speed of the gas pump is determined by how clean the filter is built inside the pump. These are supposed to be changed regularly, but many gas stations don’t to save on costs. As a result, you could be getting some nasty gas…no pun intended.
While I doubt one or the other contributes entirely, I think there is some truth to both.
The Cash Discount
Did you know that gas stations are not legally allowed to charge a customer more for a credit card purchase than a cash purchase? However, merchants are allowed to offer a cash discount, and that is what many gas stations do. Many will list on their signs a great price on gas, but in small print, it will say “Cash Only Price”. Once you actually pull up to the pump, you will notice that there are really two prices, one for cash, and a more expensive one for credit users. I would venture a guess that 99.9% of people will just accept that amount and pump rather than get back into their cars and drive to another station. In the end, the gas station got you!
Make It Easy on Yourself
Make getting gas easy on yourself – go places where gas is not the primary way the company generates money and customers. Think about Costco. They offer gas to members as a service, not as a primary means of customer generation. As a result, their pumps are fast, they are not trying to up-sell, and you CAN’T even pay cash at Costco for gas. I’m not advocating Costco gas (although it is pretty cheap), but there are other places that do this as well, such as some grocery store chains or other retailers. These are some great ways on how to save money on gas.
Readers, what other secret marketing tricks have you seen, heard, or fell victim too?Meet some of the curious characters linked to “Innocence of Muslims” film
At the ADL blog, a rundown of Anti-Muslim Christian Activists linked to the “Innocence of Muslims” film. One of them, anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller associate Joseph Nasralla, stars in the YouTube video above.
It's all too murky for me, still, to accept the story at face value. Laura Rozen has been a good source of analysis on Twitter; a blog post from her analyzing the loose threads is here.
Also: Nakoula Basseley Nakoula aka "Sam Bacile" aka was taken into custody today by federal authorities. The issue at hand may be whether the ex-con violated terms of parole by using a computer in the production of the YouTube video. In searing Los Angeles heat, Nakoula exited his home voluntarily, wearing a hat, sunglasses, a towel around his face, and a heavy winter coat. The LA Times reports that he and others associated with "Innocence" are receiving death threats.
The "Courageous Christians United" website today displays a statement distancing itself from Steve Klein, who has been identified as having been involved in the video's production.
Meanwhile, the protests have spread to... Australia.
Here's Boing Boing's archive of posts related to this wacky, still-evolving story.About halfway down the highway that dips and turns through the dairy land between Petaluma and Bodega Bay, a sign reads, “Welcome to Two Rock Valley. We’re Proud of It!” Your eyes scan the green hills for the promised two rocks, but all you see are scattered mounds of gravelly basalt. Suddenly, there they are: two moss-speckled boulders, sitting side by side like San Francisco’s Twin Peaks.
Once a trail landmark for American Indians, Two Rock sits in the middle of Marin-Sonoma’s historic dairy country. The area may not look all that different than it did a half-century ago, with low-slung milk barns and Victorian farm houses set among the tiny villages of Bloomfield, Tomales and Valley Ford. But take a closer look and you’ll see a younger generation of dairy farmers shaking off their traditional roles.
Rather than sell off all their milk to large milk companies or cheese makers, as they’ve done in the past, fifth- and sixth-generation ranchers, along with a handful of newcomers, are making their own brands of cheese, ice cream, yogurt and butter. These new businesses — actually a return to the pre-20th century dairy farm model — can be the key to saving the family farm.
“We have the desired milk for cheese and butter and yogurt. Why not make our own?” says fourth-generation rancher Karen Bianchi-Moreda of Valley Ford Cheese Co.
Though she still sells milk to Petaluma cheese company Bellwether Farms, Bianchi-Moreda began making cheese from the milk of her 500 Jersey cows in 2008 in a small dairy inside the farm’s 150-year-old milking barn. Now her sons Joe, 27, and Jim, 25, are slowly taking over cheese production and animal husbandry respectively after studying those subjects at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
“If it was just a fluid dairy (that sold only milk) it probably would have not been possible for her sons to return to the dairy,” says Steven Knudsen of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, referring to Bianchi-Moreda. “Because of that, they can continue the farming tradition that has been in her family for numerous generations.”
Farmstead creameries like Valley Ford are a different breed than companies like Cowgirl Creamery, which purchase milk from dairy farmers. Dairy farmers who also make their own branded cheese or yogurt — called value-added products in ag school — get a better margin for their milk. In recent years, as feed prices have gone up exponentially and animals have needed more supplemental food since the drought has resulted in less green grass for grazing, value-added products provide a better chance to earn a profit.
“The goat milk price barely covers the cost of what it is to run the dairy,” says Anna Hancock of White Whale Farm and Pugs Leap Cheese. “We knew that with making cheese the margin was so much higher.”
Petaluma has been the center of Bay Area dairy production since the Gold Rush. It’s now the headquarters of larger regional companies like Clover Stornetta Farms and Straus Family Creamery, which became the country’s first certified organic creamery 20 years ago. Many traditional cow milk producers in the area have since converted to organic to get higher prices, especially since they’re competing with large-scale producers in the Central Valley, who maintain much less land per animal.
Artisan cheese making in Sonoma and Marin, which adds up to $120 million in annual sales, according to UC Cooperative Extension, goes back to the founding of Marin French Cheese 150 years ago. When Laura Chenel launched her goat cheese company in 1979, she helped usher in a new era of regional cheese making. The latest entries to the dairy world work with a mixture of dairy animals and breeds, from East Friesian sheep to Italian water buffalo.
“There’s been a second wave of cheese and dairy culture in the Northern California area,” says Louella Hill, president of the California Artisan Cheese Guild, cheese-making teacher and author of “Kitchen Creamery,” which will be released by Chronicle Books next week (see Page 3). “There was this amazing momentum that happened in the ’70s and ’80s that got the cheese culture established. Those companies have transformed — they’re different and bigger. Now there’s this next generation.”
Marissa Thornton, 27, is part of that next generation. She’s slowly converting her family’s 160-year-old ranch to a farmstead creamery that will produce yogurt and butter labeled Marshall Home Ranch and Dairy.
Thornton’s ancestors founded the Tomales Bay town of Marshall and once owned 20,000 acres in the area. Her father almost lost the original 1,000-acre family ranch when he inherited it in 2000 because of estate taxes that added up to over half the land’s value. He was forced to sell off his dairy cows but avoided having to sell the land when the Marin Agricultural Land Trust provided an agricultural easement.
After a Kickstarter campaign that raised almost $50,000 last year, Thornton was able to reestablish the dairy and now milks about 75 sheep and 12 Jersey cows almost solo. She sells the milk to Bleating Heart Cheese, which has a creamery on the ranch, but when that cheese maker outgrows the space, Thornton’s plan is to make yogurt and butter there.
“I’m very proud of our ranch,” she says. “I feel very honored to have my ancestors coming from here, to be a sixth generation. I just want to brand that and to put my name on something.”
Despite her family’s troubles holding onto their land, Thornton still has an advantage over beginning farmers without property. Joe and Missy Adiego of Haverton Hill Creamery couldn’t afford to buy land when they started their sheep dairy in 2010, and they now lease three plots around Tomales. They built a mobile creamery in case they ever have to change locations.
Missy, 32, says theirs is the first sheep dairy in the United States to sell its own brand of bottled milk. They also sell sheep’s milk ice cream and butter.
“We felt like because we’re young we have to do something different,” says Missy. “That’s part of being younger and farming. We’ve got to keep it moving.”
Joe’s grandfather was a cattle rancher, and his father sells dairy equipment. But when Joe, 30, decided to sell sheep milk, everyone, including Missy, thought he was crazy. Because sheep produce so little milk — about half as much as goats — the milk retails for $10 a quart. But the milk has at least twice the protein as cow’s milk, and those who are lactose intolerant can usually drink it. After Whole Foods expressed interest, the Adiegos began bottling; the milk is now sold at dozens of Bay Area markets.
San Francisco native Anna Hancock, 32, and her now ex-husband, Daniel Conner, also took risks when they launched White Whale Farm goat dairy in 2008. She was a law student who had gotten hooked on the country life during farm camp. When Pugs Leap Cheese went up for sale, they bought it somewhat on the spur of the moment even though the creamery was located in Healdsburg, an hour’s drive away.
Hancock spent a year hauling milk cans in her Subaru to Healdsburg every other day. She took a break to take the bar exam — she passed — and then built a creamery inside the farm’s century-old barn in 2013.
“My ex realized he’s not a farmer, but I am,” Hancock says. The two split amicably. “You have to love the whole lifestyle.”
Sharing the farm with her enormous Anatolian shepherd, Samson, and her curly-haired Mangalitsa pig, Bubbles, Hancock employs a cheese maker and herd manager. Gypsy Cheese Co. also has been renting Hancock’s creamery and using her milk in its cheese, but Hancock’s goal is to use up the milk from her farm’s 120 goats in Pugs Leap cheeses by May.
No one in the local dairy industry is forging an easy path. Joe and Missy Adiego work nonstop, even with help from Joe’s parents, both in the business and in taking care of the Adiegos’ young daughters.
“I often joke I have tears in my ice cream,” says Missy. “It’s a wonderful lifestyle but it’s a hard lifestyle, especially with a family of four and 1,200 sheep. But we were really adamant about it being a farmstead operation. It’s super important to be hands on.”
Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taradugganWater-related conflicts are already happening, and security experts are bracing for more
ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Global ground water supplies, crucial for sustaining agriculture, are being depleted at an alarming rate with dangerous security implications, a leading scientist said.
"It's a major cause for concern because most of the places where it (ground water depletion) is happening are major food producing regions," James Famiglietti, a University of California professor who conducts research for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), said in an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"India is the worst off, followed by the Middle East, and the U.S. is probably number three... the Chinese, particularly on the north China plain, are more water limited than people believe."
Famiglietti's conclusions are based on his latest research paper "The global ground water crisis" published in the journal Nature Climate Change last month.
The study uses analysis of satellite images to warn that ground water in many of the world's largest aquifers is being exploited at a far faster rate than it can be naturally replenished.
Farming accounts for more than 80 percent of the United States' water use, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the figures are similar globally.
Famiglietti has been called to the Pentagon a number of times to discuss the potential impact of groundwater scarcity with leading military planners.
Water-related conflicts are already happening, he said, and security experts are bracing for more.
"In 90 percent of the world where there are violent conflicts, there are water scarcity issues," he said.
Water scarcity has been one component driving Syria's civil war, he said. The agricultural sector lacks sufficient water to farm, and a "young generation of unhappy farmers moved to the city and conflict ensued".
Oil-rich, water scarce countries in the Gulf currently rely on desalinated sea water for much of their water consumption.
Some analysts suggest that more countries will embrace energy-intensive desalination, particularly using nuclear technology, if current trends continue.
Famiglietti said this would not be a good option, as it requires too much energy, and won't be able to efficiently provide the volumes of water needed for large-scale agriculture.
Governments first need to acknowledge there is a problem, he said, and then factor scarcity into pricing, while investing in conservation and new technologies to promote efficiency. (Reporting By Chris Arsenault; Editing by Ros Russell)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.Frederica Mathewes-Green “The Jesus Prayer: The Ancient Desert Prayer that Tunes the Heart to God” [Paraclete Press, 2009]
“In the earliest centuries of faith, Christians in the deserts of Palestine and Africa sought a short prayer that could be easily repeated, in order to acquire the habit of “prayer without ceasing.” The result was The Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.”
This jewel of Eastern Christianity aims at enabling a person to be in God’s presence, rather than to focus on feelings or thoughts about God.
The first section of “The Jesus Prayer” offers a concise overview of the history, theology, and spirituality of Orthodoxy, so that the Prayer can be understood in its native context. Following, is a conversational question-and-answer format that takes the reader through practical steps for adopting this profound practice in everyday life.”
“About fifteen years ago I started to use the Jesus Prayer during these mid-night hours; “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” This very simple prayer was developed in the deserts of Egypt and Palestine during the early centuries of Christian faith, and has been practiced in the Eastern Orthodox Church ever since. It is a prayer inspired by St. Paul’s exhortation to “pray constantly”, and its purpose is to tune one’s inner attention to the presence of the Lord.
... How fast should I say the prayer? As you pray, you |
] was in those classed inactive, and that was consistent in normal weight, overweight and obese people.”
According to Professor Elkelund, cutting out inactivity throughout Europe would result in a drop in the mortality rate of 7.5 per cent, while cutting obesity would result in a 3.6 per cent fall.
"But I don't think it's a case of one or the other,” he explained. “We should also strive to reduce obesity, but I do think physical activity needs to be recognised as a very important public health strategy.
"I think people need to consider their 24-hour day,” he continued. "Twenty minutes of physical activity, equivalent to a brisk walk, should be possible for most people to include on their way to or from work, or on lunch breaks, or in the evening instead of watching TV."
Professor John Ashton, president of the Faculty of Public Health, urged the government to invest in cycling to encourage more people to ride bikes.
He told BBC News: "We need substantial investment in cycling infrastructure to make our streets safer.
"If more people cycled or walked to work or school, it would make a big difference in raising levels of physical activity."
His appeal was echoed by Philip Insall, Director of Health at the sustainable transport charity, Sustrans, who said: “This country cannot afford to continue ignoring the relationship between physically active transport and health.
“Inactive lifestyles are responsible for thousands of premature deaths and incur massive costs for our health system. Enabling people to walk and cycle for their everyday journeys is the tonic for the nation that must be prescribed immediately.
“This research comes as the new Infrastructure Bill is going through Parliament. The Bill presently proposes a huge investment in new roads, making the inactivity problem even worse.
“It is imperative for the sake of our health that investment in walking and cycling should be a central part to this new legislation.”
British Cycling’s campaign manager, Martin Key, commented: “This is another warning that as a society we need to urgently build activity back into our daily lives so our transport system has to prioritise people who walk or cycle.
“Our own research shows that if we cycled just one in 10 journeys then we would save 100,000 healthy life years annually through reduced physical activity-related diseases,” he added.PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN — An elephant with an appetite for durian raided a storeroom Sunday in the west of Thailand, eating about 40 of the fruit and causing 70,000 baht in damage.
At about 3am, the large male elephant used his tusks to knock down the wall of the Huai Sat Yai Agriculture Cooperative in Hua Hin, at which point he proceeded to devour the Pala-u durians inside.
“This happened twice in 10 days already,” Prasert Kanchanawanit, manager of the cooperative said Monday. “He ate almost 40 durian and broke the aircon, wall and door. The air conditioner alone costs 40,000 baht.”
Workers in the area tried to chase the elephant away, but he stood his ground and continued eating. The elephant only left after he was full of delicious durian, Prasert said.
The pachyderm plunderer struck just six days after repairs were completed on the storehouse from the last elephant who raided it. He thinks they’re working as a team.
“It’s not the same elephant,” he said. “They trade off who comes here.”
Prasert and his cooperative is weighing some preventative measures, such as posting more guards or installing an alarm, but they’re realistic about their prospects.
“If there wasn’t a guard here yesterday, the elephant would’ve eaten everything,” he said. “I don’t know how we’re gonna prevent it. They just come anyway.”By By Elizabeth Batt Dec 30, 2012 in Environment Taiji - As one group goes above and beyond to save a single juvenile striped dolphin in Spain, more than 6,000 miles away in Taiji, Japan, many striped dolphins, some mothers with calves, have been brutally slaughtered in the drive hunts this season. In Taiji, Japan, hundreds of dolphins are captured or killed every year in the Cove, a natural inlet that serves as ground zero for one of the most brutal cetacean massacres on the planet. Defenders of the hunt justify its existence with the use of key buzz words such as "tradition" and "sustenance", and to disagree with the nature of the practice is seen as a personal attack on the country of Japan and its citizens. But actions always speak louder than words. Now midway through the six month dolphin hunt season, the tradition of Taiji as a whaling town has transitioned into something far less honorable. It is not tradition, culture or a need for food that prompts these drives, but cold, hard cash. Reality of the dolphin drives Earlier this year, I Regular dolphin drive hunts date back only 43 years to 1969. Fishermen in Taiji don't want to give up their special privilege to hunt dolphins because they get profits. Currently only 8.5% of the people in the town of Taiji are employed in the fisheries and only about 100 people at the most depend on whaling or whaling-related activities for their livelihood. Historical records and demographic data do not support the contention that "Taiji is a ‘Whaling Town’ that cannot survive without whaling. The dolphin drive is an economic effort by a small town for profit rather than "traditional culture. Hemmi also acknowledged that the consumption of dolphin meat was dropping because of meat contamination. Yet the hunts continue, why? Facts about this season According to online marine mammal inventory Ceta-Base.com, Taiji has an established quota of 2,089 total animals from seven species for 2012/13 season. Since the start of the season on September 1st, 2012 a total of 824 dolphins from four species have been driven into the cove in Taiji, Japan. Of this total 391 were killed, 286 were released... 145 were live-capture. Species captured, sold & killed include: Bottlenose Dolphins (T. gilli), Risso's Dolphins (G. griseus), Short-finned Pilot Whale (G. macrorhynchus) and Striped Dolphins (S. coeruleoalba). It's important to note the figures here: 391 killed; 286 released; 145 live-capture. If there is a demand for dolphin meat purely as sustenance, then why have 286 dolphins been released? Look at the last figure, 145 live-captures. When coupled with Hemmi's assessment, it becomes more obvious that the drives continue for profit. If further proof is needed, look at the species killed versus captured. The hardest hit dolphins slaughter-wise this year, are from three species: pilot whales; Risso's dolphins and striped dolphins. Of 291 pilot whales driven into the Cove, only two were taken for captivity; 141 were killed and 148 were released. Of 110 Risso's dolphins, 97 were killed, nine were live-captured and four were released. Finally, of 124 striped dolphins, all but two were killed. None of the above-mentioned species are'money dolphins'. Hence, there is little demand from dolphinariums for them. In the case of striped dolphins specifically, a low survival rate in captivity means the industry is hesitant to part with its cash for a cetacean with a low survivability factor. These three species then are inevitably slaughtered, but dolphin meat is less financially viable than a live, trained dolphin. Money dolphins versus meat prices The money dolphins for Taiji, are the bottlenose dolphins or the 'Flippers' of the cetacean world. So far this season alone, 299 bottlenose dolphins have been captured in the Cove. Thirty-three were killed, 132 were live-captured and a further 134 were released. On Dec. 11, a In total, 101 juveniles and young dolphins were taken captive (most of the young in the pod), twenty-two animals were slaughtered and around 80 starving, injured dolphins, were finally released back to the ocean. According to Compare that to trained dolphins sold to Saudi Arabia recently. This Six of the dolphins were exported to Saudi Arabia, one cetacean was sent to Hong Kong in October 2012. Nakamura wrote: Cetaceans exported to Saudi Arabia were priced at 3.5 million yen ($43,750) each, which is average price for dolphins sold abroad from Taiji (untrained dolphins are sold for 800,000 yen ($10,000) by Taiji fishermen). At almost $44,000 for a trained bottlenose dolphin, the haul of 101 juveniles this month will net Isana Fisheries Union almost $4.5 million dollars. Let's compare that to profit earned by selling the meat. The maximum weight for a bottlenose dolphin is on average around 1,400 pounds, roughly 640 kilograms. At the cost specified by Japan Focus (US$16 a kilo), the dolphin meat is worth a little over $10,000 (this is including the inedible parts of a dolphin, skeleton etc. so would actually be less). One trained dolphin: $43K, meat value: $10K. Really, it speaks for itself. Saving a single dolphin Let's now travel more than 6,000 miles from Taiji to Spain. In a sheltered bay in Almerimar, a single baby Marcos was discovered alone close to the shoreline near Roquetas de Mar, and was clearly not in good health. For more than three months now, PROMAR has been rehabilitating the little dolphin in the hope that they can return him to his family. Recognizing the need for help with the little fella, PROMAR contacted one of the best, Ric O'Barry and his organization O'Barry spent several weeks in Almerimar, Spain, consulting with PROMAR and helping their volunteers work with Marcos. With a deeper sea pen needed in a better location for Marcos, the Earth Island Institutes' Dolphin Project, Marcos wanted to go home. PROMAR If there is a division between cultures it is only evident in the differences of cetacean perception. To the handful of fishermen who drive in the dolphins for six months of the year, these animals are fish. To many others, science tells us that cetaceans are intelligent, smart, and capable of great suffering. But marine mammals don't just appear in tanks, they are caught, captured and sold, and as the world demands more animals for public entertainment, a small fraction of Taiji, along with its local government, supplies them. Experts have long believed that if the demand for live dolphins went away, the drives would cease to be financially viable. Unfortunately, there is still a gaping divide in cetacean thinking that must be bridged. But accomplishing this is intensely difficult when it's already scaffolded by profit and demand. This mother and baby were two of 25-30 striped dolphins slaughtered in Taiji's cove in mid December. Image courtesy of SSCS Cove Guardians For some, these two polar opposites serve to show just how wide the divide really is between distinct cultures. But there is one common denominator that is often overlooked, money.In Taiji, Japan, hundreds of dolphins are captured or killed every year in the Cove, a natural inlet that serves as ground zero for one of the most brutal cetacean massacres on the planet. Defenders of the hunt justify its existence with the use of key buzz words such as "tradition" and "sustenance", and to disagree with the nature of the practice is seen as a personal attack on the country of Japan and its citizens.But actions always speak louder than words. Now midway through the six month dolphin hunt season, the tradition of Taiji as a whaling town has transitioned into something far less honorable. It is not tradition, culture or a need for food that prompts these drives, but cold, hard cash.Earlier this year, I interviewed Sakae Hemmi of Elsa Nature Conservancy, a group dedicated to ending the drives from within the country. Through education and raising awareness about the toxicity of dolphin meat, Elsa tackles the issues through education. Here are some key points that Hemmi shared with me during the interview:Hemmi also acknowledged that the consumption of dolphin meat was dropping because of meat contamination. Yet the hunts continue, why?According to online marine mammal inventory Ceta-Base.com, Taiji has an established quota of 2,089 total animals from seven species for 2012/13 season. Ceta-Base writes It's important to note the figures here: 391 killed; 286 released; 145 live-capture.If there is a demand for dolphin meat purely as sustenance, then why have 286 dolphins been released?Look at the last figure, 145 live-captures. When coupled with Hemmi's assessment, it becomes more obvious that the drives continue for profit. If further proof is needed, look at the species killed versus captured. The hardest hit dolphins slaughter-wise this year, are from three species: pilot whales; Risso's dolphins and striped dolphins.Of 291 pilot whales driven into the Cove, only two were taken for captivity; 141 were killed and 148 were released. Of 110 Risso's dolphins, 97 were killed, nine were live-captured and four were released. Finally, of 124 striped dolphins, all but two were killed.None of the above-mentioned species are'money dolphins'. Hence, there is little demand from dolphinariums for them. In the case of striped dolphins specifically, a low survival rate in captivity means the industry is hesitant to part with its cash for a cetacean with a low survivability factor. These three species then are inevitably slaughtered, but dolphin meat is less financially viable than a live, trained dolphin.The money dolphins for Taiji, are the bottlenose dolphins or the 'Flippers' of the cetacean world. So far this season alone, 299 bottlenose dolphins have been captured in the Cove. Thirty-three were killed, 132 were live-captured and a further 134 were released.On Dec. 11, a huge pod of bottlenose dolphins were driven into the Cove and held over several days. Systematically, as reported by Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians, the pod was raided of its youngest and prettiest dolphins.In total, 101 juveniles and young dolphins were taken captive (most of the young in the pod), twenty-two animals were slaughtered and around 80 starving, injured dolphins, were finally released back to the ocean.According to JapanFocus.org, dolphin meat isn't worth very much. A local wholesaler Mizutani Ikuo, said that the meat "sells for about 2,000 yen (about US$16) a kilo, cheaper than beef."Compare that to trained dolphins sold to Saudi Arabia recently. This screenshot captured by Sayaka Nakamura is from the Japanese Customs database, and lists seven cetaceans transported from Taiji.Six of the dolphins were exported to Saudi Arabia, one cetacean was sent to Hong Kong in October 2012. Nakamura wrote:At almost $44,000 for a trained bottlenose dolphin, the haul of 101 juveniles this month will net Isana Fisheries Union almost $4.5 million dollars. Let's compare that to profit earned by selling the meat.The maximum weight for a bottlenose dolphin is on average around 1,400 pounds, roughly 640 kilograms. At the cost specified by Japan Focus (US$16 a kilo), the dolphin meat is worth a little over $10,000 (this is including the inedible parts of a dolphin, skeleton etc. so would actually be less). One trained dolphin: $43K, meat value: $10K. Really, it speaks for itself.Let's now travel more than 6,000 miles from Taiji to Spain. In a sheltered bay in Almerimar, a single baby striped dolphin named Marcos is being held in a sea pen and watched night and day by a local organization called PROMAR Marcos was discovered alone close to the shoreline near Roquetas de Mar, and was clearly not in good health. For more than three months now, PROMAR has been rehabilitating the little dolphin in the hope that they can return him to his family. Recognizing the need for help with the little fella, PROMAR contacted one of the best, Ric O'Barry and his organization The Dolphin Project O'Barry spent several weeks in Almerimar, Spain, consulting with PROMAR and helping their volunteers work with Marcos. With a deeper sea pen needed in a better location for Marcos, the Earth Island Institutes' Dolphin Project, gave a grant to PROMAR to help them build the new pen.Although Marcos' future remains uncertain and a reunion with his pod or his mother is further complicated by the fact that striped dolphins are pelagic, neither PROMAR, The Dolphin Project, nor the many thousands of dolphin lovers who support the juvenile dolphin, will ever give up on seeking the best possible outcome for him.If there is a division between cultures it is only evident in the differences of cetacean perception. To the handful of fishermen who drive in the dolphins for six months of the year, these animals are fish. To many others, science tells us that cetaceans are intelligent, smart, and capable of great suffering.But marine mammals don't just appear in tanks, they are caught, captured and sold, and as the world demands more animals for public entertainment, a small fraction of Taiji, along with its local government, supplies them. Experts have long believed that if the demand for live dolphins went away, the drives would cease to be financially viable.Unfortunately, there is still a gaping divide in cetacean thinking that must be bridged. But accomplishing this is intensely difficult when it's already scaffolded by profit and demand. This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com More about promar, ric o'barry, save japan dolphins, dolphin project, taiji dolphin drives More news from promar ric o barry save japan dolphins dolphin project taiji dolphin drivesThe Environmental Protection Agency plans by next month to clear its backlog of hundreds of new chemicals waiting to be deemed safe enough to sell to the public.
So far, despite giving deference to the chemical industry and adding lobbyists to its ranks, the agency has flagged nearly half the new products submitted by companies for review.
Of the 373 new chemicals reviewed so far, 178 ― 48 percent ― were allowed to go to market only with significant limitations and guidelines. Eighty-one, or 22 percent, were given the green light to commercialize without restrictions. Just three were turned down for presenting an unreasonable risk, and none were banned.
“If you look at those statistics ― 22 percent go onto the market ― that’s 1 out of every 5, and it used to be the inverse of that,” Richard Denison, lead scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, told HuffPost by phone on Monday. “That’s a pretty dramatic change.”
The process for approving new chemical products changed last June when then-President Barack Obama signed into law an update to the Toxic Substances Control Act, mandating safety reviews for all new chemicals, replacing a cost-benefit standard with a health-based safety one and setting aggressive, enforceable deadlines for EPA decisions.
Andrew Holbrooke/Corbis via Getty Images The new Environmental Protection Agency administration declined to ban a pesticide linked to fetal brain damage after Dow Chemical protested the findings of multiple studies.
The EPA reviews about 1,000 chemicals per year, and the passage of the law forced the agency to reappraise droves of chemicals, creating a logjam. On Monday, the EPA said it planned to reach decisions on the remaining 150 chemicals by July.
“The EPA is flagging many more chemicals than it did in the past, and is imposing more restrictions or testing requirements on those chemicals than ever before,” Denison said. “I can’t give an independent judgment on whether what they’re doing is enough, but it’s a lot more than it used to be.”
The approval process for new chemicals was so lax before that companies used to submit chemicals they didn’t even plan to bring to market, Denison said. Now that the process is more onerous, companies are withdrawing chemicals they don’t plan to sell. Between June 2016 and May 2017, companies rescinded 111 submissions, freeing up regulators’ resources at a time when the agency has been facing historic budget cuts under the new administration.
The chemicals division has been largely spared the ax brought down by the White House on EPA programs that address climate change or environmental justice. Denison attributed the success of the new chemical guidelines to “the commitment by career program staff to implement this new law in the way Congress intended.”
But he said he is concerned about new rules for regulating existing chemicals already on the market. The EPA is still finalizing formal regulations to establish procedures for evaluating existing chemicals. During the requisite public comment period before issuing new rules, industry players made clear that they opposed the rules or wanted them significantly weakened.
I am concerned that the industry could have significant influence. Environmental Defense Fund lead scientist Richard Denison
To lead that effort, the Trump administration appointed Nancy Beck as deputy assistant EPA administrator in charge of the office that regulates the chemical industry. She previously served as a senior policy director at the American Chemistry Council, an industry group whose members include Exxon Mobil Chemical, DuPont and agricultural chemical giant Monsanto.
“It’s too early to know what the fact of those rules will be, but I am concerned that the industry could have significant influence,” Denison said.
In March, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt denied a decade-old petition seeking to ban chlorpyrifos, rejecting his agency’s own review that found the insecticide, commonly sprayed on crops such as strawberries and broccoli, caused damage to fetal brains and nervous systems. Despite multiple independent studies yielding those findings, Dow Chemical, which sells the pesticide under the brand Lorsban, argued that the evidence indicating harm was inconclusive.
One of the chemicals now under review is methylene chloride. The chemical, used in paint and coating stripper, is linked to the death of a 21-year-old Tennessee man, who suffered cardiac arrest after being overcome by fumes while refinishing a bathtub.
“There have been 50 of these kinds of deaths from different uses of this chemical in recent years,” Denison said. “There’s a hugely strong case for banning this, as the agency proposed to do in December. We’re urging the agency to complete that.”Arts & Culture
Schmekel: Your Friendly Neighborhood All-Jewish, All Transgender Punk Band According to the bio on their Facebook page, “Schmekel is New York City’s only All-Jewish All-Transgender Polka-Punk band. Their music sounds a bit like The Kinks crashed a Bar Mitzvah,while their lyrics combine bawdy humor and critical awareness, encouraging audiences … Read More By Jon Reiss / October 7, 2010
According to the bio on their Facebook page, “Schmekel is New York City’s only All-Jewish All-Transgender Polka-Punk band. Their music sounds a bit like The Kinks crashed a Bar Mitzvah,while their lyrics combine bawdy humor and critical awareness, encouraging audiences to laugh at butt jokes while deconstructing systems of oppression.” The band is fronted by guitarist and songwriter Lucian Kahn, Keyboardist Ricky Riot, Bassist Nogga Schwartz and drummer Simcha Halpert Hanson.
The originality literally drips from this band, whose Polka Punk sound in and of itself is incomparable but coupled with their trans-aesthetic and queer-themed, humorous lyrics; they’re like a cross between Weird Al, Pansy Division and The World Inferno. With lyrics like “It’s Hannukah in Brooklyn and I hope you’ll swing my way/ You think I’m kind of sexy, but you’re Christian and you’re gay/ You’ve never been with a guy like me and you have a vague aversion/But my position isn’t missionary and this isn’t a conversion.” Their song about a trans man who realizes that the testosterone he’s been taking has caused him to grow a foreskin, thereby forcing him to consult his Rabbi, Schmekel lays the humor on thick, while at the same time visiting some rarely touched upon issues, particularly in the Jewish community.
“I wanted some funny music to get me through the rough days of my gender transition, but most of the media about trans people that I found was either exceptionally depressing or created by people who weren’t trans. So I had this absurd idea to start an all-trans, all-Jewish punk band called Schmekel,” said Lucian Kahn when asked about the Band’s inception. At this point the band has played a couple shows throughout New York, the first of which at The Delancey to benefit for a Queer Collective called Idyll Dandy Arts.`
I asked the members of Schmekel whether they felt like there existed a specific link between the Jewish and LGBT community.
“I definitely feel like the only trans men, at least,that I’ve met and have become close with, are Jews, which is incredibly affirming. I say affirming because when I moved to New York, I was very religious and meeting other gender non-conforming Jews helped and continues to help combat the alienation I feel in the average synagogue community,” said drummer Simcha.
But what about Synagogue? According to keyboardist Ricky Riot,”There are several congregations here that openly trans people attend.There’s also Nehirim, which organizes retreats for Queer and trans people. I spent the high holidays at CBST(Congegation Biet Simchat Torah, an LGBT Synagogue) felt very welcome there; it was one of the most meaningful religious services I have ever been to. This community reassures me that I can be exactly who I am without being any less Jewish.”
I also took the opportunity to ask Schmekel my favorite question for any band, “What do you your parents think?”
“Joining the band actually prompted me to come out to my parents. They were accepting, but I think given the explicit nature of the lyrics, I would feel uncomfortable pushing them into water they likely aren’t ready to tread,” said drummer, Simcha.
Ricky Riot, whose parents live in New Jersey, said, “They know I’m in a trans Jewish band except they are probably picturing something more traditional, which is cute. My father is just starting to accept my gender identity, but my folks probably won’t take too well to us singing about butt sex with our kippot on.”
“My mom is still getting used to my transition, but when I told her I had started a band called Schmekel, she laughed for a solid minute,” Lucian Kahn tells me, “so I would say she’s a fan.”There is just one registered candidate in the race to lead the federal NDP but a number of high-profile New Democrats are weighing their options including former union leader Sid Ryan who says he would shift the party back to the left.
Mr. Ryan, a former president of both the Canadian Union of Public Employees's Ontario wing and the Ontario Federation of Labour, says he has not made up his mind about launching a campaign. But a web page created by his supporters is pushing him in that direction.
Last week, the site listed the names of more than a hundred key members of the party – riding association executives and union leaders – who have given him their endorsement.
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The creators of the website "have put together a platform that reflects the values and the principles that I fought for," Mr. Ryan said in a telephone interview. "I am giving it consideration based on the work that these folks have put into it and the type of people they are attracting across the country."
The platform includes such things as free postsecondary tuition, a re-examination of free-trade deals which Mr. Ryan says have cost Canadian jobs, an economic policy not centred on "austerity" and open promotion of the rights of Palestinians.
"There is a real opportunity for a party of the left that goes back to its socialist roots and starts to articulate those kinds of policies," Mr. Ryan said.
The New Democrats moved closer to the centre under former leader Jack Layton and have remained there under current leader Tom Mulcair – to the consternation of some party members who complained they were campaigning to the right of the Liberals during the 2015 election.
The leadership vote will not take place until October but the party is organizing a series of debates that will begin on March 12. So far, British Columbia MP Peter Julian is the only official candidate.
Mr. Ryan has run for the NDP in three provincial and two federal election campaigns without success – though he did come within a few hundred votes of the Conservatives in the federal race in Oshawa in 2004.
He may also be hampered by his inability to speak French. Mr. Ryan said those who are trying to convince him to run are proposing the concept of co-leadership with a woman from Quebec which, he said, would not eliminate the need to become bilingual as quickly as possible.
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Lack of bilingualism is what is keeping Olivia Chow, the widow of Mr. Layton who was herself an MP for eight years, from putting her name forward. "Jack spent a lot of time building up the Quebec team and the caucus and the connection with the Québécois," Ms. Chow said, "so I think it is really important to have someone who is a lot more fluent than what I can do."
One bilingual New Democrat who is potentially in the mix is Guy Caron, the MP from Rimouski, Que., and a former researcher and economist with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.
"I am talking with people who potentially might be supporting me. The decision is not made yet and will not be before, I would say, mid-February," Mr. Caron said in a telephone interview.
Mr. Caron was a New Democrat in Quebec before being a member of the party in that province was fashionable. He was drawn to the NDP by Mr. Layton and supported his leadership bid in 2003.
"I think we can look up to what Jack Layton did when he arrived," Mr. Caron said. "He had this unique quality of being with people and being able to inspire and make them realize what's possible and I think this is what we need at this moment."
Mr. Caron said he is weighing how a leadership run might affect his young family. He is also trying to build a competent team of people who share his vision for the country. "And obviously the fundraising question is also important," he said. "I want to make sure that I will be able to lead the campaign. I wouldn't want to leave [the race], should I decide to run."
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Other names that are being floated include Ontario MPP Jagmeet Singh, Manitoba MP Niki Ashton and Ontario MP Charlie Angus who says he is still assessing his chances.
"This is a very long race," said Mr. Angus. "It's going to take an enormous amount of resources to get to the finish line and, if I do [decide to run], it it has to be for the right reasons with something really clear and coherent to offer. So I am looking at this step by step and I haven't made a decision yet."The nation is in despair over the war in Iraq and the toll it is taking on our troops and their families. But President Bush shows no outward sign of inner pain.
He is chipper in his public pronouncements. His weekly bike rides and daily workouts have put a perpetual spring in his step. He's always ready with a wisecrack. He just hosted his daughter's wedding at his multi-million dollar estate in Texas. He takes more vacations than any president in history. He has made clear that he doesn't lie awake at nights.
And yet now it turns out that Bush has indeed made a personal sacrifice on account of the war. According to the president yesterday, his decision to stop playing golf five years ago wasn't just an exercise in image control or a function of his bum knee -- it was an act of solidarity with the families of the dead and wounded.
Here's the relevant exchange in an interview Bush gave to Mike Allen of Politico:
Allen: "Mr. President, you haven't been golfing in recent years. Is that related to Iraq?"
Bush: "Yes, it really is. I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be as -- to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."
Allen: "Mr. President, was there a particular moment or incident that brought you to that decision, or how did you come to that?"
Bush: "No, I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man's life. And I was playing golf -- I think I was in central Texas -- and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, it's just not worth it anymore to do."
This is the latest in a series of statements by Bush, the first lady and Vice President Cheney illustrating how far removed they are from the consequences of the decision to go to war -- and stay at war.
But giving up golf?
Not only is it a hollow, trivial sacrifice at best, Bush's story doesn't hold water. While he dates his decision to abjure golf to Aug. 19, 2003 -- the day a truck bomb in Baghdad killed U.N. special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello and more than a dozen others -- the Associated Press reported on Oct. 13, 2003, that he'd spent a "cool, breezy Columbus Day" playing "a round of golf with three long-time buddies.
"Bush played at Andrews Air Force Base with Clay Johnson, Office of Management and Budget deputy director, Richard Hauser, Department of Housing and Urban Development general counsel and another friend, Mike Wood."After years out of print the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction has roared back to life with a new website. The venerable publication is a massive directory of games, books, and other media that fall under the rather large banner of Science Fiction. Perhaps more importantly, the SFE also has a fairly extensive catalog of fan-zines and chronicles other delightful bits of SF culture that might otherwise have slipped away.
Getting the work back in the public eye has been something of an uphill struggle. Originally published in 1979, it was updated once in 1993, and again with a CD-ROM version in 1995. Despite winning Hugo awards for it’s ’79 and ’93 printings, work on the book went quiet for over a decade. In 2005 it was announced that the third edition or the encyclopedia would be revived as an online affair, but is only just now coming to these great wide Internets.
While it’s always good to see this stalwart member of the SF community find a new home in the 21st century, one wonders how it will fare against Wikipedia. That humongous online encyclopedia has the benefits of age and the benefit of having the SFE available as a resource for years. It can also be argued, perhaps justly, that Wikipedia also benefits from having links to subjects outside of SF, which can provide a larger context for the articles. The SFE, however, has the advantage of a set group of editors and its own editorial standards. This gives it a particular point of view, different and valuable in its own right from Wikipedia.
Currently released in a Beta version, the new edition of the SFE is still about a million words short of completion. According to the site, they are only 75% complete with text, but hope to have it all up and browsable soon. In the meantime, it’s yet another fascinating labyrinth of geek history to get lost in.
(via SF Signal, Wikipedia)
Relevant to your interestsEvery year at this time I am privileged to appear as a guest lecturer for my friend Adam Daifallah’s course on the history of conservative thought at McGill University. Below are lightly edited excerpts from tonight’s lecture.
In his essay, “What are universities for?” philosopher Leszek Kolakowski writes: “The greatest danger is the invasion of an intellectual fashion which wants to abolish cognitive criteria of knowledge and truth itself. The humanities and social sciences have always succumbed to various fashions, and this seems inevitable. But this is probably the first time that we are dealing with a fashion, or rather fashions, according to which there are no generally valid intellectual criteria.”
The counter-culture of the 1960s drew a bright line between all past and present understanding of what universities were for. Standing on one leg, one might say that in the past universities felt it was their mission to teach students how to think, and in doing so it was considered natural to use as a teaching guide, as the 19th century cultural critic Mathew Arnold put it, “the best which has been thought and said” in our culture. Arnold’s dictum governed my own university experience in the golden age of university expansion between 1945 and 1960. My courses were blessedly free of ideology, and devoted to cultivation of students’ critical faculties through exposure to a variety of opinions.
[np_storybar title=”John Carpay: Universities are buying ‘peace’ by condoning mob censorship” link=”http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03/10/john-carpay-universities-are-buying-peace-by-condoning-mob-censorship/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter”%5D“I can’t stand what you’re saying, therefore I will silence you.”
This sentiment is rapidly becoming the normal practice at Canada’s public universities, which accept mob rule as a way to censor controversial ideas on campus. Christie Blatchford was invited to speak at the University of Waterloo about her book Helpless: Caledonia’s Nightmare of Fear and Anarchy, but loud, unruly “protesters” forced the cancellation of this event in 2010. U-Waterloo’s president, Dr. Hamdullahpur, learned nothing from this incident, allowing MP Stephen Woodworth to be shouted down by “protesters” in 2013, while campus security watched passively.
In April 2014, the University of Ottawa condoned the forcible shut down of a presentation by Dr. Janice Fiamengo, by “activists” who disagreed with her opinions against radical feminism. This was consistent, of course, with Ottawa-U previously allowing a mob to prevent a scheduled speaking event with controversial author Ann Coulter from taking place.
Continue reading…
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Since the late 1960s, universities have considered it their mission to teach students what rather than how to think. Students soon internalize the catechism, summed up in the Twitter hashtag #whiteprivilege, meaning: Western civilization thrived on white, Christian, Euro-centric aggression against Others; Western literature and art are the patriarchy’s handmaid |
Sun, Philae will wake up and resume sending data for analysis. Not bad for technology that precedes the iPhone by several years.
6. Cassini
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
When we think about space exploration, it’s often challenging to maintain perspective on just how impossible the whole enterprise is. In a way, scientists and engineers are victims of their own success. “What?” the public cries. “Philae didn’t land on the comet like Mary Lou Retton in the 1984 Olympics? We can’t do anything right!” Sometimes it’s important to take a step back, clear your mind, and apply a moment’s thought to what the world’s space agencies are doing.
Cassini is a good place to start. In 1997, a joint NASA-ESA-ASI (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana—Italy’s space agency) spacecraft was launched into space with Saturn as its target. When Saturn and Earth are at their closest, they’re still 750,000,000 miles apart. Part 1 of the mission was to get there, which just shouldn’t be possible for a species that only learned to safely send an object into space 57 years ago. Along the way, the spacecraft took photographs of the Solar System, including the most detailed photo of Jupiter ever captured. (That wasn’t even the mission—it was just something scientists did because the Xbox hadn’t yet been invented and they needed some way to pass the time.) Four years after launch, scientists noticed that the probe’s camera was hazy. They had to work out a way to clean the lens from millions of miles away. They were successful. In October 2003—a year and a half later, and still seven months before the probe would reach Saturn—Cassini went ahead and confirmed Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.
Cassini arrived in the Saturn system in May 2004 and started collecting data on the planet and its moons. In December, it launched a probe called Huygens, sending it to Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. It arrived at the moon a couple of weeks later, where it safely parachuted to the surface, and returned data and photographs (at a distance of 750,000,000 miles away from Earth). Huygens holds the record for the farthest distance we’ve safely landed a spacecraft.
The mission didn’t end there. Cassini continued collecting data and stunning imagery of Saturn and its moons. In 2005, the spacecraft made a daring run at Enceladus and discovered that the Saturnian moon is venting geysers of water and ice into space. In 2008, Cassini’s mission was extended, and it collected samples from Enceladus’s geysers. In 2010, even though it had logged a total of 2.6 billion miles, Cassini’s mission was again extended because the thing just won’t quit. Through 2017, the spacecraft has hundreds of flybys and orbits planned. In other words, nine years after the craft’s shutdown date, it will still be expanding our understanding of the Solar System.
7. Hayabusa 2
JAXA’s Hayabusa 2 mission has a modest goal: to help determine the origin of life. Last week, Mitsubishi H-IIA rockets shot the probe into space, where it is scheduled to rendezvous with the inelegantly named (162173) 1999 JU3 asteroid in 2018. Here’s the plan: Once Hayabusa 2 reaches the asteroid, it will release three small, hopping sensors to its surface to collect data. It will also release five landing beacons, which the spacecraft will use to touch down on the asteroid and collect a sample. Easy, right? Just wait. Then the craft will lift off and release an “impactor” floating in space. Meanwhile, Hayabusa-2 will fly to the other side of the asteroid. Why? Because the impactor will ignite into a missile and bomb the asteroid. Hayabusa-2 will then fly back to the impact point and collect a new, much deeper sample from the giant hole it created. A deployable camera will capture the whole thing. In 2020, it will return to Earth will a bunch of samples of the asteroid’s surface and insides. The material and data it collects will help scientists continue piecing together what happened 4.6 billion years ago when the Solar System formed.
8. Pioneer 10 & Pioneer 11
NASA
To be clear, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 are no longer returning information to Earth, but the probes are still on a mission as interstellar ambassadors. Pioneer 10 was launched in 1972 and sent on a “planetary grand tour.” It was the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt (an astounding achievement—just think about it for a minute) and the first to get close-ups of Jupiter. It measured things like the planet’s magnetosphere (important because Jupiter’s magnetosphere is the largest continuous entity in the Solar System) and it determined that Jupiter is essentially a liquid planet. (These are things that “everybody knows” today, but we only know it because of this probe!) Eleven years after launch, it became the first spacecraft to pass Pluto, and then Neptune, and became the first probe to leave the Solar System. Until its final transmission in 2003, it returned information on solar wind and cosmic rays. Today it continues on a course heading for the star Aldebaran, which it should reach in two million years.
Pioneer 11 was launched in 1973 with the purpose of studying the asteroid belt, which is a pretty harrowing barrier between Earth and the outer planets. Like its big brother, it also studied Jupiter before collecting volumes of data on the Saturn system. NASA lost contact with the probe in 1995. Today it continues its voyage to the constellation Scutum, whose largest star is more or less 44,100,000,000,000,000 miles away.
Though we’re no longer receiving signals from either Pioneer spacecraft, when we talk about long term planning, these probes are not kidding around. At the behest of astrophysicist Carl Sagan, mounted to both probes are plaques, each depicting a man and woman (with an illustration of the spacecraft for scale); a map of the Solar System; our location in the galaxy; and an illustration of hydrogen atoms. In other words, the Pioneer spacecraft are the first interstellar ambassadors of humanity. Should an extraterrestrial species discover the probes, they will know who we are, where we live, and what we know.
9. Voyager 1
Like the Pioneer spacecraft, Voyager 1 was designed, and sent, to study the outer planets. On September 5, 1977, it launched from Cape Canaveral, with a full array of sensors and sophisticated communications equipment on board. Sixteen month later, it began observing the Jovian system. Some of the most famous and recognizable photographs of Jupiter and Saturn came from Voyager 1’s cameras. (Check out this compelling and strangely unnerving video at the Planetary Society.) Among its discoveries are the volcanoes on Io, Jupiter’s moon; the atmospheric composition of Saturn and its wild windstorms below; and the surface diameter of Titan. Voyager 1 then continued on its way toward the outer reaches of the Solar System.
In 1990, Voyager 1 took the first “family portrait” of the Solar System, including the famed “pale blue dot” photograph of Earth. In 2004, Voyager 1, still diligently sending back data, registered “termination shock”—the slowing of solar winds. The following year, scientists concluded that it had entered the heliosheath—a turbulent area where weak solar winds from the Sun meet with interstellar space.
Thirty-three years after its launch, in 2011, scientists decided to test Voyager 1’s maneuverability. After a successful test roll, the craft was oriented so as to better measure solar winds (or the lack thereof). On August 25, 2012, Voyager 1 entered interstellar space, placing it outside of our star system (indeed, any star system)—the first manmade object to do so. In 300 years, it will enter the Oort Cloud. Its sensor equipment will not begin shutting down until 2020, and until the final instrument goes dark (as late as 2030), it will still be registering and returning data on life in the interstellar medium.
10. Voyager 2
Voyager 2 is the identical twin of Voyager 1, and actually launched into space three weeks earlier. (Due to differing trajectories, Voyager 1 would eventually pass Voyager 2 in traveling outward from the Sun.) The probes had similar missions to study the outer planets, though unlike Voyager 1, this probe also visited Neptune and Uranus—the only such probe to ever study those planetary systems. In a way, Voyager 2 is the Captain Cook of space, having discovered 11 of Uranus’s moons. The probe examined Uranus’s axial tilt and magnetosphere, as well as its unusual rings. Later, when it reached Neptune, it discovered the planet’s “Great Dark Spot,” and closely studied Triton, one of Neptune’s moons. In the next few years, it will reach interstellar space. It continues to transmit back to Earth discoveries, data, and observations.
11. Kepler
When Kepler launched in 2009, the plan was for it to spend three years studying space for other Earth-like exoplanets in “Goldilocks Zones”: places not too hot, not too cold—hospitable, in other words, to life. (Considering the state of this planet, it’s probably a good idea to have a few backups.) So far, the program has identified 3800 exoplanets and verified 960 of them as Earth-like. According to Space.com, “mission scientists expect more than 90 percent of the mission's candidate planets will turn out to be the real deal.” Kepler even found what astronomers have called a “second Earth.” NASA’s Exoplanet Archive hosts a comprehensive list of the planets identified by Kepler.
After completing its primary mission, two of Kepler’s reaction wheels (necessary for precise orientation) failed, resulting in the need for a new assignment. In 2014, the mission was rechristened K2, and now, in addition to searching out planets, also observes star clusters and supernovae. To compensate for the malfunctioning wheels, K2 positions itself so as to use the sun’s rays to balance it out. In other words, it tilts to a certain angle, and uses the protons bashing into it for balance. (Space.com compares this to balancing a pencil on your finger.) The mission, which even before the malfunction was slated to end in 2012, is funded and expected to remain in operation at least through 2016.
12. STEREO
NASA
One of the problems with being stuck on this slimy mudhole is that scientists can only see what physics allows them to see. Historically, the only side of the Sun we can watch is the side facing the Earth, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Enjoy whatever angle of the Solar System is visible through your telescope, because that’s all you’re going to get for a while—and forget about looking back at Earth.
The Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) intends to change that. Launched in 2006, STEREO is comprised of two nearly identical satellites, one of which is ahead of Earth’s orbit, while the other is behind. The result is the first stereoscopic imagery of the Sun. This is enormously beneficial when tracking solar storms—scientists now have three-dimensional views of ongoing events without being confined to Earth-based vantage points. Likewise, scientists can now see what’s happening on the far side of the Sun without relying on inference and extrapolation. That’s total solar visibility, available to them anytime in 3-D. The STEREO observatories also provide previously impossible viewing angles of the Solar System—they can even look back at Earth. The locations of the two observatories can be tracked at any time at NASA’s Stereo Science Center website. The orbits of the STEREO satellites will keep them away from Earth until 2023.
13. Mars Orbiter Mission
In 2013, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched the Mars Orbiter Mission (or MOM) and became the fourth space agency to reach the Red Planet. In many ways, the mission is a shakedown and demonstration of everything the Indian Space Research Organization has achieved to date, and one of their goals is to test everything from deep space communication to contingency systems. So far, the mission has been an astonishing success, and a low-cost one at that. At $73 million, MOM is the least expensive Mars mission ever mounted. All of this is thrilling news for anyone who cares about space travel. Science and exploration are cumulative—the more people and probes we have up there, the more we’ll learn and the sooner we’ll see humans leaving footprints in the soil of other worlds. NASA and ISRO have since established a joint working group, and are planning future collaborative missions. MOM is expected to remain in orbit until at least March 2015.
14. Venus Express
NASA
The European Space Agency launched Venus Express in 2005 to study—you guessed it—Earth. Well, partially. The probe arrived at Venus in 2006, at which point it entered orbit and began a 500-day study of Venus’s clouds, air, surface—everything, basically. When those 500 days ran out, it began a second mission. And a third. And a fourth. So far, Venus Express has discovered recent volcanic activity; an upper atmospheric layer that’s surprisingly cold for a planet otherwise described as a “red hot furnace”; and ozone activity similar to that of Earth, which helps us understand both planets' atmospheres with greater clarity, and gives us new insight into how climate change works.
Venus Express also had a secondary mission: to study Earth. From Venus’s point of view, Earth is practically a pixel, which is exactly what exoplanets across the galaxy look like from Earth. From the vantage point of Venus, scientists have been studying Earth and trying to figure out if our planet is inhabited. If they can “discover” life on Earth, there’s a much better chance they can use the same techniques to discover life on other planets.
As of today, Venus Express is pretty much out of fuel and awaiting an orbital decay. But because nobody is sure of the exact moment the fuel will run out and the probe will cease to exist, scientists continue collecting data and making plans for future observation and analysis.
15. International Comet Explorer
The International Comet Explorer (ICE) launched in 1978 and looks like every space probe ever drawn in science fiction pulps from the 1950s. Originally called the International Sun/Earth Explorer 3, it was directed to use an array of sensors to study the Earth’s magnetosphere and investigate cosmic rays. Like so many spacecraft, once it achieved its objective, its life was extended and its mission was changed. In 1982, the probe was renamed the International Comet Explorer and directed into a heliocentric orbit. There it was directed to rendezvous with Giacobini-Zinner, a comet first discovered in 1900. In 1985, it crossed into the comet’s tail, gathering data and sending it home for analysis. The following year, it flew through the tail of Comet Halley.
In 1991, ICE was back in its quiet heliocentric orbit and returned to duty studying cosmic rays. By 1997, though 12 of its 13 instruments were still working, the probe was of little use to NASA, who donated it to the Smithsonian Museum. (Yes, the probe was still in space at the time. I’m sure everyone at NASA got a good laugh about that one.)
It took a long time, but the orbits of ICE and Earth finally intersected in 2014. That’s when NASA discovered a problem. We could still understand the signals that ICE was sending Earth, but because of radical changes in technology, we had no way of sending information back to ICE. (This is pretty much the exact plot of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.) As the Goddard Space Center explained, “The transmitters of the Deep Space Network, the hardware to send signals out to the fleet of NASA spacecraft in deep space, no longer includes the equipment needed to talk to ISEE-3. These old-fashioned transmitters were removed in 1999. Could new transmitters be built? Yes, but it would be at a price no one is willing to spend. And we need to use the DSN because no other network of antennas in the US has the sensitivity to detect and transmit signals to the spacecraft at such a distance.”
That, it would seem, was that. (Why can we still talk to Voyager 1, which was launched in 1977, but not ICE, which launched two years later? Because NASA never stopped talking to Voyager.) Interestingly, ICE was never even supposed to resume contact with NASA. When the space agency ended ICE’s mission years earlier, it meant to switch the probe off. It didn’t, thus the 2014 dilemma. And while this wasn’t exactly an Apollo 13-level crisis, it did present an interesting problem.
Enter a group of space enthusiasts and engineers. They decided to make a go of it, and crowd-funded an effort to make contact with the abandoned probe. They engineered a relatively inexpensive radio with open source software, and hooked it up to a satellite dish at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. They picked up the probe’s carrier signal, which was a good sign. They then sent telemetry data to the probe. They got no response. After a dramatic pause, however, the probe responded to the request. The team rebooted the probe, and as it continued on its journey, it again began sending reams of scientific data back to Earth. And best of all, the data can be accessed by anyone at "A Spacecraft for All."
In September, the probe’s orbit again took it beyond the reach of Earth communications. If the probe remains in a steady orbit, we will resume contact in 17 years.
Author’s Note: Special thanks to Emily Lakdawalla and the Planetary Society for much-needed guidance and advice on this article.Capital FM Radio Host Simon Hirst Comes Out As Transgender
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Yesterday was National Coming Out Day, and one of the best stories I’ve seen come out of the event is that of Yorkshire Capital FM Radio host Simon Hirst coming out as transgender, revealing that she will be called Stephanie going forward.
Stephanie previously hosted a breakfast show on Capital FM Yorkshire, ‘Hirsty’s Daily Dose’, but left the station in June.
During an interview with Radio 5 Live she revealed, ‘There were many times on the air in recent years where I nearly said that I’m transgender. I knew from around the same time that I wanted to be on the radio that something wasn’t right. I didn’t feel complete, I didn’t feel like it locked. I felt like a square peg in a round hole but I didn’t know why and I couldn’t work it out.
‘I’m not going to flounce around in a flowery dress all day. I’m just me, I’m just a human being, I still love people, I still care for people the same way – nothing changes. And for anyone who is going through this or thinking of going through this we don’t change, we don’t change. Yes, the exterior changes but we’re still the same people. ‘My name was Simon Neil Hirst and I still want to keep my initials because it’s important to me. Some people in my position want to eradicate their past and forget about it. But I’m very proud of my past and I’m not going to erase that or try to get rid of it. I can’t and I don’t want to, it’s who I am. ‘I can get up and I can be myself and for me that encapsulates everything. I don’t have to hide anymore, I don’t have to hide anymore. I am a woman and that’s it.’
I personally want to congratulate Stephanie for having the bravery for coming out and embracing who she really is, especially in such a public way. I wish her all the best going forward in her transition and hope that she loves finally getting to be the person she has always needed to be.
You can listen to the full iterview On BBC
Amy.
www.twtiiter.com/Amazing_Amy_W
www.transgirlwriter.blogspot.co.uk
Amy Walker Amy is a journalist and editor contributing the websites Planet Transgender, Gay News Network, The Bottle Episode, The Retro Box and Claire Channel. Amy is also a published comic book writer and letterer. In addition to her writing Amy has also worked with the Centre For Hate Crime Studies in Leicester and has worked in the capacity of an advisor to the United Nations Entity For Gender Equality and The Empowerment of Women.
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Facebook CommentsReddit Interim CEO Ellen Pao apologized Monday for a “long history of mistakes,” in an apparent response to the hundreds of thousands of the site’s users who have called for her to step down over management decisions.
“We screwed up,” Pao conceded in an announcement posted on Reddit. “We haven’t communicated well, and we have surprised moderators and the community with big changes... The mods and the community have lost trust in me and in us, the administrators of reddit.”
Pao came under fire over the weekend when Reddit moderators — who are community volunteers, not company employees — began protesting the unexpected dismissal of Reddit’s director of talent, Victoria Taylor. Moderators said they had relied heavily on Taylor to host mega-popular Ask Me Anythings (AMAs), in which users can pose questions to influential or interesting people. Users and moderators speculate Taylor’s dismissal was related to a chaotic AMA she hosted with Rev. Jesse Jackson, though Reddit has denied the claim. (Reddit has not given a reason for Taylor’s dismissal.)
Outraged users also flocked to a Change.org petition demanding Pao’s resignation as CEO, which as of Monday afternoon had over 180,000 signatures. The petition, which was posted weeks before Taylor’s dismissal, accuses Pao of censorship and driving the website’s traffic into the ground. It also references Pao’s unsuccessful, high-profile gender discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, which denied Pao’s allegations and claimed Pao is “a manipulative individual who will sue her way to the top.”
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In her apology, Pao outlined “three concrete steps” for Reddit’s future: to improve and build new web tools that complement moderators’ work, to improve administrative communication with moderators, and to allow moderators to default to the old version of search.
“I mean it when I say we screwed up, and we want to have a meaningful ongoing discussion,” Pao wrote. “I and the team are committed to talking more often with the community, starting now.”
Pao, formerly a junior partner at high-profile venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, joined Reddit in 2013. She became interim CEO late last year.
Contact us at editors@time.com.Whitehall was left combing its season ticket loan records this weekend as another set of top secret papers did the rounds of the 5.45pm from Waterloo.
Just days after a Cabinet Office worker left a stack of top secret anti-terrorist papers – including an analysis of Al Qaeda - on a train to Surrey, it emerged that a second set of papers detailing Treasury Dept efforts to fight financial fraud had gone walkies on another train around the same time.
As well as detailing weaknesses in how the HMRC’s computer systems can counter fraud, the papers covered government efforts to counter terrorist financing and money-laundering, and ways in which the finance system can be manipulated to finance Iran’s development of weapons of mass destruction.
Apparently the papers were left on a Surrey-bound train last Wednesday, the same day that the Cabinet Office papers were mislaid on another Surrey-bound train. The Cabinet Office papers were immediately passed on to the BBC which handed them back to the government – albeit on camera. The finance papers found their way to the Independent on Sunday, but not apparently until Sunday.
The question of what happened to them in the meantime will cause someone in Whitehall absolute nightmares. Still, if nothing else, the fact that they were passed on by an Independent on Sunday reader will dramatically narrow the hunt for the picker-upper.
The Surrey-bound civil servants’ apparent carelessness with top secret papers is just the latest in a tide of government data breaches. If civil servants aren’t losing CDs with the details of every family in the UK, they’re leaving laptops chock full of details of servicemen in the pub.
Out of their brains on the 5.15
Whitehall has already launched an investigation into the loss of the Al Qaeda documents, and the civil servant responsible has been suspended.
Home secretary Jacqui Smith has been summoned by MPs to explain how the gaffes might affect the fight against terrorism. Her department didn’t actually lose any of last week’s papers. In fact, Smith is unlikely to ever leave secret papers on a train, given that she rarely walks the streets of London, never mind takes public transport.
According to The Times, a Treasury spokesman said of the latest gaffe, “We are extremely concerned about what has happened and will be taking steps to ensure it doesn’t happen in the future.”
Sadly, with this government’s record the surest way of clamping down on civil servants leaving important documents on trains is to let the operating companies jack up train fares so that even Whitehall fat cats have to get on their bikes. ®This American couple decided to introduce their new adopted baby son to the family in quite an unconventional way.
Courtney Solstad from McKinney, Texas, wrote on Facebook that the family of five welcomed little Nathan into their family last week through adoption.
They left him under the Christmas tree, after telling their children that they had been out to get them a present.
Mrs. Solstad said that their three girls had been excited at the prospect of adopting a baby, and that one of their daughters had even written it down as a Christmas wish.
“Chloe’s Christmas wish came true,” she wrote.
The parents filmed their children's reactions as they were surprised by the new addition to the family.
“The girls knew nothing about Nathan until this,” she wrote. “We met them at the door and told them that we had been out Christmas shopping and got them a gift to share… and it was under the tree.”
One of the daughters started crying with happiness.
Photo: YouTube
They all jumped around and screamed with excitement about the new baby boy.
The video soon spread through Facebook, with many commenters wishing the family a happy holiday with their new addition.
The mother wrote that welcoming Nathan into the family was “one of the most magical experiences in our lives.”
“We prayed big things and God answered in big ways,” she wrote. “Our little guy is so incredibly perfect.”Five Arab schools in East Jerusalem have decided to switch from the Palestinian to the Israeli curriculum, enraging both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
Jerusalem’s city council said the schools had made the switch so that their students could study for the Israeli bagrut (matriculation exam) alongside the tawjihi (the Palestinian matriculation exam).
Samir Jibril, head of education in Jerusalem at the Palestinian Ministry of Endowments, which funds a number of schools in Arab East Jerusalem, called on parents to be “vigilant” following the decision of five primary schools to introduce the Israeli curriculum into their classrooms. And some Palestinian teachers were said to have expressed concern over the use of biblical names in maps of Israel, history chapters about the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, and references to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in the Israeli textbooks.
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According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, some 28 percent of Israel’s students are educated in the Arab, Bedouin and Druze public school systems, and use textbooks published by Israel’s Education Ministry in Arabic. In East Jerusalem, however, the situation is different. Up until 1967, schools in the West Bank and East Jerusalem used the Jordanian school curriculum. Israel’s best efforts to impose its own curriculum after it captured the territories in the Six-Day War failed due to widespread objection from parents, who began sending their children to private schools.
Following the Oslo peace accords in 1993, all official schools in East Jerusalem (with the exception of one) switched to the Palestinian Authority curriculum, according to a 2010 Knesset report.
An unnamed education official told Palestinian news agency Ma’an on Wednesday that Israeli authorities had offered to increase the annual funding of schools willing to introduce the Israeli curriculum by NIS 2,000 ($550) per student. “This move is dangerous and harms the identity of Jerusalem residents, removing them from their reality in order to better control them,” Jibril told Ma’an.
But a spokesperson for Jerusalem’s municipality denied in a written response to The Times of Israel that any financial incentives were offered to schools in order to switch to the Israeli curriculum.
“A decision was made to allow schools to introduce the Israeli bagrut (matriculation exam) alongside the tawjihi (the Palestinian matriculation exam). Four new schools have already begun preparing students for the bagrut,” the municipality said. It said that the sum of NIS 2,000 mentioned in the Ma’an report was part of a special budget to encourage excellence in study, which applies only to the Israeli curriculum.
The Palestinian Authority was not the only entity troubled by the educational change of heart in East Jerusalem. On Thursday, Hamas issued a statement condemning the use of “the Zionist enemy’s curriculum” in the upcoming school year.
“We consider this a dangerous act serving the agenda of the occupation in blurring Arab and Islamic identity, eliminating and distorting historic, religious, and geographic facts. The new Palestinian generation will be bound to the Zionist ideas and consciousness,” read the Hamas statement.
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip but is not part of the Palestinian Authority rule in the West Bank, called on the schools in question to reconsider their decision, and on “those interested in the educational process in Palestine” to pressure and boycott the schools until they do so.Swift Do Something Useful with Zip, Map, and Reduce
Keith Elliott Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 29, 2016
Today’s article is the zip, map, and reduce functions in Swift. Let’s walkthrough a typical problem that you might come across in your coding endeavors.
Problem Statement
You work on a school grading app that allows teachers to monitor their students’ progress. You have information on each student in a class along with their grades for assignments and tests. All of this information is stored and can be retrieved in JSON, which means you can ultimately have structured arrays and dictionaries of data.
So far so good. However, your boss wants changes. She has asked you to give teachers more ways to analyze their students’ performance. While this work could be done on the server, she wants to see the functionality done in the client app to minimize network traffic along with a few other reasons for which she didn’t elaborate.
Disclaimer — this is a contrived example and we are going to simplify some of the assumptions to make the problem work with the lessons on zip, map, and reduce.
Let’s look at how we could begin to solve some of these challenges with zip, map, and reduce functions.
Zip
The zip method allows you to work with arrays, sets, dictionaries (or any type that conforms to the SequenceType protocol) to build a SequenceType from two underlying ones. Let’s break that down a bit.
A SequenceType is a protocol that allows a type to use a for…in loop. The built-in collection types are examples of SequenceType. Stepping one level down, the SequenceType protocol defines an associated type named Generator (as a GeneratorType) that is used to provide the iteration capability to get the next Element in the sequence. Putting all of this together, the zip method will create a sequence of pairs where the ith pair is composed of the index values at each of the underlying sequences. Let’s bring it home with an example.
Let’s say you have two arrays that you want to associate with each other. For example, you have an array of student names, and an array of grades that match those students index for index. How could I create a list with the student and grade combined at each index? You guessed it, we could use the zip method to combine them. See the code below.
Zip method — Combining two arrays into one array of tuples
Map
Each SequenceType has a map method that will iterate over its sequence and call a passed in transform function on each item — collecting and returning the results as a new array. Using the map function, you can convert an array of one type into an array of a different type. See the map method signature that follows:
func map<T>(@noescape _ transform: (Self.Generator.Element)->T) -> [T]
Constraints
Self : _CollectionWrapperType, Self.Index == Self.Base.Index
Extending our example from earlier, we can further format the result of our zip method output to include a letter grade and to convert the results to dictionaries that could be accessed via their keys.
Map method — Transforming an array of Tuples to an array of Dictionaries
Reduce
The reduce method returns a single result by repeatedly calling each item in the sequence and passing a combine function to accumulate values.
func reduce<T>(_ initial: T, @noescape combine combine: (T, Self.Generator.Element) ->T) -> T
The reduce method is extremely handy when you need to boil a collection of data points into a single value. As an example, it would be interesting to know how many A’s were awarded to our students. See below for an example.
Reduce method — Return the number of “A” grades
In the code above, we used the reduce method to start with an initial value of zero, and add 1 to our running total each time we find an “A” letter grade.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, you can see how the zip, map, and reduce methods could be helpful in practice. Each of these methods has roots in functional programming and should lead to you writing cleaner code that is easier to understand and has few lines of code.
On a lighter note, I also wrote an article on why creating native apps is probably the best way to go in most of your mobile development endeavors. Please read that one and weigh in the discussion!
If you find this post helpful, please recommend it for others to read. You can visit me at www.gittielabs.com and subscribe to my RSS feed so that you won’t miss a post. I’m also putting together a video course to teach Swift development and could use your input on topics you feel would be helpful. Thanks for reading!available in small & large
>>> Updates since launch...
1- In addition to the clear anodize, I will be offering 3 other anodized colors... color poll in process... see the project updates.
2- For the small magnet version, I will be offering the original adhesive back and also a non-adhesive rubber back that will allow it to be'magnetically attached' to appropriate metal surfaces... see more details in project updates.
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Hello! I'm Brian and I'm a design engineer. I enjoy running Kickstarter projects... having successfully fulfilled 6 to date.
Using Kickstarter, I've been working on building the Strong Like Bull Magnet brand and product line.
On my bottleLoft project, I had several backers inquire about using bottleLoft in other ways... under cabinets, on wall, doors, lockers, etc.
(mythbuster... magnets do not harm flash memory)
So, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to make my version of a singular peel and stick magnet for a variety of uses.
Simply peel and stick to add a handy magnet wherever you might need one.
The adhesive is semi-permanent... meaning it will stay stuck where you want it, but can be removed with a little work. A plastic scraper working from the side will dislodge the adhesive.
I'll have extra adhesive discs available as on my website if you need it later on.
Sizes
SLB stick magnets are available in 2 sizes... small and large. They are both plenty strong to hold everyday items... such as keys, pens, and small metal parts. The large definitely has more magnetic 'grab'... and more adhesive area for use to hold larger items such as hand tools.
For those DIYers out there.... sure you can just buy a magnet and add some double sided adhesive. But here's how I'm making Stick Magnets and why...
Start with a high strength neodymium magnet and add a steel backing to direct and increase the hold strength on the front surface
CNC machine an aluminum cover.... keeping a thin area over the magnet to protect the magnet face from repeated 'attraction impacts' of the various metal objects
Stamp the aluminum part with the SLB logo... because it's cool (at least I think so!)
Anodize the disc.... this operation creates a 'hardened' outer surface coating to keep it free from scratches
Insert the magnet assembly into the aluminum cover and finish it off by applying a disc of 2-sided 3M Very High Bond (VHB) adhesive. The added aluminum housing also provides more surface area for the adhesive.
strong like ;)
Rewards
As far as colors go, I'm starting with clear anodized aluminum. If funding goes extremely well, that will provide enough part count to give the ability to add on extra anodize colors.
Kickstarter Help
While I've done several Kickstarter projects, I don't Kickstart everything I do. Initially, I thought I would just add stick magnets to the Strong Like Bull line-up (SLBmagnets.com) by starting with a few manually machined parts to see what the interest would be. But, I decided to Kickstart it in an attempt to get enough volume to help fund the purchase of an impact press machine. The stamp press would provide a more consistent stamp impression... I typically have a good amount of variation with this stamping by hand with a hammer. Plus, it gets pretty tiring with a hammer;)
impact press
Experience
time for lucky project 7!
Thanks!
I always give regular project updates... some people like a few, some people like a lot, so it's hard to please everyone. For this project, I'll do a weekly Kickstarter update.... and I've started the Spoke Design Blog and plan to provide ~daily content of all sorts including commentary on the Stick Magnets project.
NOTE: Magnets are not toys and are not meant for small children.
More Thanks!
Thanks for the following sites for their support! Click to check out the articles!On Thursday we will be at a ‘hands-on’ |
of any criminal offense other than possession of cannabis nor did they witness them committing any other criminal offense," prosecutors said.
Nevertheless, Tankson and his partner started to frisk the pair.
Relatives said Robertson panicked, pulled away from the officer and took off running, heading southeast on Canal Street when the shooting occurred. Tankson reportedly drew his department-issued Glock.40-caliber handgun, dropped to one knee and fired a single shot at Robertson, who by then was about 75 to 100 feet away, authorities said.
The shot dropped Robertson in the middle of the street, where he lay motionless, they said.
At least six people witnessed the incident, none of whom saw Robertson "gesture or turn" toward the officers as he fled, according to authorities.
Union supports officer
The union that represents the train agency's roughly 500 officers said that it is "standing in full support" of Tankson, who has been with the force for nearly two years.
"While we are confident that any judge or jury will find that Officer Tankson acted within the law and out of fear for his life, we disagree with the State's Attorney's decision to charge against Officer Tankson before a complete and through investigation was conducted," the Amtrak Police Fraternal Order of Police said in a statement.
A union spokeswoman said that Tankson was cooperating with the investigation. A message for comment wasn't immediately returned on Friday afternoon by Tankson's attorney, William Fahy, who has represented several police officers.
Tankson was hired in September 2015, having previously worked for Amtrak as a train conductor. He has been assigned to Chicago, a major hub, his entire career.
Among his responsibilities as a patrol officer were to assist "passengers with their concerns and counter-terrorism," union president David Pearlson said Friday. He said Tankson has earned high marks from his supervisors.
Pearlson said that all of the agency's officers have undergone use-of-force training in the past four months.
He declined to comment on the incident, citing the ongoing investigation.
Libor Jany • 612-673-4064AutoGuide.com
Rumors have been swirling about BMW working on a proper M2, and now our spy photographers have spotted the German brand testing the new small sports car.
The camouflaged wider fenders on this test car are the first tip that this is something more than the M235i, which is currently the sportiest version of the 2 Series you can buy. There are also blue brake calipers, cross drilled rotors and performance wheels which tip off this car’s true nature.
Under the hood, a straight six-cylinder engine is expected with between 365 and 375 hp. The new M2 will probably launch as a 2016 model year car, sporting a more aggressive front fascia than the one seen in these photos. Out back, a quad exhaust setup is another likely feature.
GALLERY: 2016 BMW M2 Spy Photos
Discuss this story at our BMW 2-Series ForumSanders Statement on Republican Budget Proposal
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement Friday in response to Senate Republicans' proposed fiscal 2018 budget resolution:
"After failing to throw 32 million Americans off health insurance, the Republicans are continuing their attack against the working families of our country with one of the most destructive budgets in modern American history. This budget is the Robin Hood principle in reverse. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, the Republican budget takes from the middle class and those in need, and gives huge tax breaks to the wealthiest people in this country. While this budget would cut Medicare by at least $450 billion, it would give billionaires, including the Trump family, huge tax breaks. Further, it would increase the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next decade.
"As the ranking member of the Budget Committee, I will do everything I can to oppose the absurd set of priorities in this budget. At a time when the middle class is shrinking and over 40 million Americans are living in poverty, we need a budget that reflects the needs of the working families of our country, not just the wealthy, the powerful and large campaign contributors.
"This Republican budget was written for the billionaire class, for Wall Street, for corporate CEOs and for the Koch brothers. It is the exact opposite of what America stands for and must be soundly defeated."Barack Obama begins his first official visit to Israel on Wednesday amid growing warnings among some of its leading supporters in the US that the president needs to act more forcefully to save Israel from itself.
The White House has played down expectations that Obama will put any real effort into pressing Israel toward the creation of a Palestinian state after he was burned by an attempt early in his first term to pressure the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, into halting Israeli settlement construction in the occupied territories.
But there is increasing concern among some of Israel's backers in the US that without White House intervention the much promised two-state solution is doomed – and that will endanger Israel.
Among those sounding the warning is the US secretary of state, John Kerry, who said earlier this year that "the possibility of a two-state solution could shut on everybody and that would be disastrous, in my judgment".
The inclusion of hardline pro-settler ministers in Netanyahu's new government, who are expected to press for the continued expansion of Israel's colonies in the West Bank, has heightened concerns in Washington that physical realities on the ground are making the prospect of a negotiated agreement ever more difficult.
Others have pointed up a recent Hebrew University demographic study, which showed that Jews are now in a minority in the territory covered by Israel, Gaza and the West Bank – suggesting that Israel's democratic and Jewish character are threatened by its reluctance to give up territory to an independent Palestine.
That led David Aaron Miller – a negotiator in efforts by the Clinton administration to broker an Israeli-Palestinian agreement and an adviser on Middle East policy to six US secretaries of state – to advise Obama to "take a quick tour around Israel's demographic neighbourhood" in order to understand the issue that might be most persuasive in pressuring Israeli leaders to take negotiations with the Palestinians seriously.
"Demographic trends mean that Israel can't have it all. It can't be a Jewish state, a democratic state, and a state in control of its whole historical land. It can only have two of its objectives at a time," he wrote in Foreign Policy.
"The demographic imperative probably appeals to Obama, a rational thinker who understands the importance of acting in the present to avoid future catastrophes. He has at least once referred to the demographic realities in his speeches on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the president also knows from his own political choices that getting politicians to take risks now to prevent disasters and gain rewards later isn't so easy."
It is a warning echoed earlier this month by S Daniel Abraham, a US billionaire, confidante of American and Israeli leaders, and founder of the Center for Middle East Peace in Washington, who chided the president for not using his visit to press Israel's leaders to confront the looming "tipping point".
"Obama should realize that Israel's continued presence in the West Bank is an existential threat to its continuity as a democratic, Jewish state — and time is not on Israel's side," he wrote in the Atlantic.
"Right now – not in five or 10 years, but right now – only 50% of the people living in the Jewish state and in the areas under its control are Jews. The dreaded tipping point – which advocates of the two-solution have been warning about for years – has finally arrived."
That is a warning reinforced by an Oscar-nominated documentary, The Gatekeepers – in which former heads of the Israel's internal security organisation, the Shin Bet, warn that the occupation is endangering Israel – which has shaken up the assumptions among some in the Jewish community and among Israel's other supporters in the US.
Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel and now vice-president of the Brookings Institution, said it is clear there is a growing sense of alarm among some policymakers in the US. But he said it may be misplaced.
"My sense is that this is the view of Secretary Kerry – that there's an urgency to try to not just resume negotiations but to resolve at least some of the critical issues in the conflict because the two-state solution is in danger of cardiac arrest. I think there is an urgency, but I don't actually think that if the window closes it can't be prised open again," he said.
"The simple reason for that is there is no alternative to the two-state solution – except no solution. And no solution for the time being may suit both sides… in preference to the kind of compromises and the hard decisions that have to be made in order to achieve a solution. We are fond of saying, and our leaders are fond of saying, the status quo is not sustainable. But if you go out there on both sides, especially compared to what is going on around them – in Syria to the north and Egypt to the south – the status quo, it's OK."
Indyk said there will not be movement until leaders on both sides are prepared to make hard decisions, and that Obama is probably unwilling to force that after his "searing experience" of dealing with Netanyahu over the Jewish settlements four years ago.
"I think that there is something achievable, and I actually think it's very important. And that is that President Obama has the opportunity to reintroduce himself to the Israeli public. The first time he introduced himself to them was in Cairo, wherein he gave his speech in June 2009, which was, of course, addressed to the Arab world and not to Israel … And (Israelis) got the impression that he wants to distance the United States from Israel in order to curry favour with the Arab world," he said.
"It is hard to imagine that the president himself is going to do much more than make this visit. There are greener pastures that beckon him in Asia, and you can see, from a variety of other actions that he's taken or hasn't taken in the Middle East, that he would rather turn away from this region. John Kerry has exactly the opposite instinct. He wants to engage in the Middle East and, in particular, he wants to take on the Israeli-Palestinian challenge, and it's a high priority for him."
There have also been calls from inside Israel for Obama to take a strong position with Netanyahu. Alon Liel, a former director general of the foreign ministry in Jerusalem and a former Israeli ambassador to South Africa, said last week that Israel's rule over the occupied territory amounts to an "apartheid state" – a once taboo comparison that is increasingly heard in the US.
He called on Obama to remain at home if he does not plan to warn Israelis about the dangers of the looming "apartheid cliff".
"If you, President Obama, intend to come here for a courtesy visit, don't come. We don't need you here for a courtesy visit," Liel told a conference in Jerusalem.
"You cannot come to an area that exhibits signs of apartheid and ignore them. That would simply be an unethical visit. You yourself know full well that Israel is standing at the apartheid cliff. If you don't deal with this topic during your visit, the responsibility will at the end of the process also lie with you."
• This article was amended on 20 March to correct an error, introduced in the editing process, that referred to a Hebrew University demographic study and read: "Jews are now in a minority in the occupied territories". The corrected sentence reads: "Jews are now in a minority in the territory covered by Israel, Gaza and the West Bank".Support for Fine Gael has recovered, according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll, which also shows a significant rise in satisfaction with Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Government.
Sinn Féin has also gained support since the last poll in December, despite the controversy over sex abuse cases in the republican movement.
Independents and smaller parties are still attracting a high level of support, although this has slipped since the last poll, while support for Fianna Fáil has also fallen back.
When people were asked who they would vote for if an election were held tomorrow, party support – when undecideds are excluded – compared with the last Irish Times poll in December was: Fine Gael, 24 per cent (up five points); Labour, 7 per cent (up one point); Fianna Fáil, 17 per cent (down four points); Sinn Féin, 24 per cent (up two points); and Independents/Others, 28 per cent (down four points).
The survey was undertaken on Monday and Tuesday among a representative sample of 1,200 voters aged 18 and over, in face-to-face interviews at 100 sampling points in all constituencies. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.8 per cent.
Core vote
The core vote for the parties – before undecideds are excluded – compared with the last poll was: Fine Gael, 18 per cent (up three points); Labour, 5 per cent (no change); Fianna Fáil, 13 per cent (down three points); Sinn Féin, 18 per cent (up one point); Independents/Others, 22 per cent (down three); and undecided voters, 24 per cent (up two).
The jump of five points for Fine Gael will come as a relief to the party, which sank to a 12-year low in the last poll after the succession of controversies that dogged the Coalition throughout 2014. Fine Gael has also regained its position as the leading party in Dublin, with 25 per cent of the vote.
The recovery in the party’s support is reflected in a nine-point rise in the satisfaction rating for Mr Kenny and an eight-point increase in the Government’s satisfaction rating.
The news for Labour is less dramatic, with a one-point increase in support - but party leader Joan Burton has seen a six-point rise in her rating and she is the most popular party leader.
Sinn Féin support has increased by two points since the last poll in spite of the continuing controversies surrounding sexual abuse in the republican movement.
Paudie McGahon
Among Sinn Féin supporters, 11 per cent said they were more likely to support the party, 74 per cent said it made no difference and 11 per cent said they were less likely.
However, Sinn Féin support in Dublin has slipped since the last poll, while it has improved its position in Connacht-Ulster.
Satisfaction with party leader Gerry Adams remained unchanged at 26 per cent.
Bad news
The poll contains bad news for Fianna Fáil, with the party dropping four points since December with a marginal decline in support for party leader Micheál Martin.
The party remains weak in the capital and is not much stronger in the rest of Leinster.
Support for Independents and smaller parties has dropped by four points since the last poll, but it is still a substantial 28 per cent.
When that figure is broken down, 21 per cent say they will vote Independent, 3 per cent will vote for the Green Party and 4 per cent for other smaller parties or groups.
In Dublin, the figure for Independents/Others rises to a massive 35 per cent, with strong support in all social categories.ZTE impressed a lot of people, including me, with its Axon and Axon Pro flagships in 2015. Accessible, stand-out designs met high quality build materials, great performance, a focus on audio quality, and impressive cameras. They even ran what amounted to an approximation of stock Android. The Chinese company's follow-up takes a number of cues from its predecessors, while improving several aspects of the hardware to better compete with 2016 rivals like the OnePlus 3.
The bottom line The ZTE Axon 7 is an impressive blend of high-end hardware and mostly unblemished Android 6.0.1-based software that skimps on little to get to its $399 price point. The Good Excellent build quality and unique design
Competitive price
Extremely compact for a 5.5-inch phone
Fantastic daylight camera The Bad Software gimmicks distract from the experience
Camera struggles in poor light
Some translation issues
6GB version limited to Chinese market 5.97 in 151.6 mm 2.9 in 73.7 mm 0.31 in 7.9 mm Display: 5.5-inch Quad HD AMOLED Display 2560x1440 resolution (538ppi)
Camera: 20MP, ƒ/1.8 lens, OIS, 8MP front camera, ƒ/2.2 lens, OIS
Battery: 3250 mAh capacity Quick Charge 3.0
Chips: Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor Quad-core 2.2GHz 4GB RAM 64GB internal storage microSD slot with adoptable storage
About this review I (Daniel Bader) am reviewing the Axon 7 after spending a week with it in Toronto, on the Bell network, and in New York, on T-Mobile. During that time, the phone ran Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with build A2017UV1.0.0B18, security patch May 1, 2016. No updates were issued during my testing period.
ZTE Axon 7 Hardware I am truly impressed by the Axon 7. As someone who prefers smaller phones, its compact body, which happens to accommodate an excellent 5.5-inch QHD AMOLED display, is one of its signature features. How ZTE managed that is by reducing the size of the bezels above and below the display, and by minimizing the area filled by the capacitive buttons. Like many recent Android phones, the navigation buttons are capacitive, but these touch targets are very, very small. And while their functions can be reversed in software — either dot can be assigned either "back" or "recents" — they are not backlit, which can make it very difficult to locate the right area in a darkened room. Come on, ZTE, you're better than this. More: ZTE Axon 7 specs Using the phone reminded me how accustomed I have become to using, say, the Galaxy S7's physical home button to orient my thumb, and how that isn't possible on something like the Axon 7. Unlike the OnePlus 3, there is no option to enable on-screen buttons, and the Axon 7 saves vital front-of-phone real estate by placing the fingerprint sensor on the phone's back, under the 20 megapixel rear camera sensor.
While I received the gold version of the phone, both colors — Ion Gold and Quartz Gray — are made from unibody aluminum that curves around the shallow sides. Though it impresses no more than the OnePlus 3 did for its price, it's clear that the investment ZTE has made in its manufacturing, and the collaboration with BMW's Designworks team, has paid off.
Around back, the 20MP rear camera sits at the top of a symmetrical strip of hardware, flanked by a fingerprint sensor below and a flash in the middle. That fingerprint sensor is no better than many of its competitors, but having transitioned from a number of devices with front-facing varieties, I still find myself preferring it on the back while the phone is in a pocket, but getting frustrated when it is sitting on a desk. It's clear that the investment ZTE has made in its manufacturing, and the collaboration with BMW's Designworks team, has paid off. Thankfully, the Axon 7's 3250 mAh battery is good enough to hold up for a decent day's usage. While the phone doesn't support wireless charging due to its metal back, it supports Quick Charge 3.0, and gains about 50% in 30 minutes — a number that we already take for granted, but is still astonishing. Moreover, the Axon 7, at 7.9mm thin, has larger battery than most phones in its class, and certainly better uptime than many devices we've recently reviewed. While we typically shy away from performing synthetic battery benchmarks, I'll say this: after using the Axon 7 for two weeks as my primary device, I only once had to charge it for a few minutes midday, largely from an abundance of caution. Every other day it just lasted from the time I woke up until I went to bed. And I get up early and go to bed late.
Finally, there's the audio side of things. Few phones have great speakers, and even less have ample hardware to push high-resistance headphones. The Axon 7 has both. The legacy of what the company calls Hi-Fi audio began with the original Axon, which saw, in addition to a dedicated Digital-to-Analog converter (DAC) a secondary audio codec used to enhance audio recording, particularly with video. While the average person isn't going to notice a big difference in headphone output quality between the Axon 7 and, say, a Galaxy S7 or iPhone 6s, ZTE has included some very high-quality components from AKM, a company that sells its audio conversion equipment primarily to very manufacturers of very expensive audiophile equipment.
Few phones have great speakers, and even less have ample hardware to push high-resistance headphones. The Axon 7 has both. Aspects of the phone's sound, from a very low signal-to-noise ratio to extremely accurate (for a phone) audio input when recording video, will likely go unappreciated by the vast majority of users — but to those who care, this phone is a dream. What will be noticed immediately is the robust sound from the dual front-facing speakers, which are powered by a comparatively massive amplifier. Remember HTC BoomSound? Think of this as ZTE BoomierSound.
ZTE Axon 7 Software ZTE's software, while still mired by translation issues that will hopefully be cleaned up in a future build, is impressively restrained for a Chinese manufacturer. Even the stock launcher — humorously called Stock Android — is free of that type of affect that Americans have widely rejected from companies like Xiaomi and Huawei. But there are remnants of a more playful and experimental side within the settings, such as the ability to unlock the phone with your voice. That's right, ZTE is all-in on voice actions, allowing you to launch apps and even unlock the phone with a voice command. The problem isn't the ideas, though, but the implementation: like so many proprietary voice-based services, the feature rarely works, and when it does you have to enunciate the words with the precision of a radio announcer. After several attempts at getting the feature to work, I turned it off and promptly forgot about it.
Then there's a feature called Mi-Pop, which surfaces a set of virtual navigation keys in the vein of a chat head — by default, it's a back button, but holding down on it reveals a full set of back, home, and multitasking options that attempt to ameliorate the fact that the physical home buttons are static. I'm sure over the years you've seen iPhone users resorting to the on-screen home button accessed through the iOS accessibility menu, and this is similar, though slightly more full-featured. After a few moments of opaqueness, the Mi-Pop overlay turns translucent, waiting for yet another input. The fact that Mi-Pop replaces the basic option of adding on-screen navigation buttons irks me to no end. Here's the thing: I understand that ZTE is trying something new (well, a new take on something old), but the fact that Mi-Pop replaces the basic option of adding on-screen navigation buttons irks me to no end. Especially since, strangely, the model we handled in our preview did have on-screen buttons. I'm not asking ZTE to confirm to the industry, but if you're going to throw the kitchen sink at a problem, at least make sure the plumbing is installed correctly. As a feature, Mi-Pop is buggy and poorly animated, and requires a secondary swipe to open the menu that reveals the remaining Home and Recents menu buttons. Like so many of the Axon 7's "value-added" features, Mi-Pop is a good idea implemented poorly.
The good news is that neither voice unlock nor Mi-Pop nor Dolby Atmos — a nicely branded but terrible equalizer app that comes bundled with the phone — are necessary to enjoy the close-to-stock software experience. ZTE didn't mess with the Settings nor the notification shade, and aside from a few quirks with the lock screen, there is little to complain about. The phone runs like a dream — with a Snapdragon 820 and 4GB of RAM one would hope so — and because it is so compact I found myself using it with one hand with no major problems. That is, only after I inserted the ultra-slippery metal body into the clear TPU case that comes in the box. ZTE did see fit to include some useful gestures with the Axon 7. A three-finger pinch quickly takes a screenshot, while a strong shake of the phone while idling on the lock screen activates the flashlight.
DeviantArt junkies (or fans of moody wallpapers in general) will also appreciate the on-by-default cycling of lock screen backgrounds whenever the phone is turned on. Most of the photos are over-the-top HDR depictions of popular tourist locations such as the Eiffel Tower or Arizona's Coyote Buttes rock formation, but I began to look forward to seeing what was going to appear next on the occasional time I didn't use the fingerprint sensor to skip the lock screen altogether. The phone runs like a dream and because it is so compact I found myself using it with one hand with no major problems. The Axon 7, despite having no carrier bloatware to speak of, does come with a couple of non-essential apps that purport to offer value, but really don't. The most egregious is ZTE Rewards, which asks you to download a number of apps from Perk, a loyalty company that offers free stuff in exchange for a bunch of personal information. More useful is WeShare, an app that allows you to transfer contacts, texts, photos and other phone-specific content from one phone to another.
ZTE Axon Cameras Eschewing its predecessor's second sensor used for depth augmentation, the Axon 7 comes with a bevy of camera features all its own. The 20MP Samsung ISOCELL sensor is comparable in quality to what you'd find on any mainstream flagship device today. The sensor measures 1/2.6-inch and sports pixels of 1.12-microns in diameter, similar to that of the LG G5. The f/1.8 lens appears to be sharp in the middle with a hint of distortion at the corners while allowing for impressive and true depth of field. In practice, the Axon 7 is capable of some magnificent photos. The daylight photos appear color-true and free of significant noise, through chromatic aberrations are common in scenes with high-contrast subjects transposed on a bright sky. The lens is able to focus nearly as close to a subject as the Galaxy S7, our macro leader, and one of the best-performing phone cameras on the market.
As with all phones, the less light available to the sensor, the more grainy and less impressive the photo. That is especially true here, even with optical image stabilization playing an important role in keeping the shutter open as long as possible without introducing motion blur. The problem is the size of the pixels; most phones are moving towards sensors with fewer but larger pixels. The Axon 7 bucks that trend by focusing on resolution and detail. As a result, low-light photos — even those taken with ample indoor light — emerge yellow and splotchy, with a lack of fine detail. It's also worth noting that the sensor is actually 16:9 by default, a blunder Samsung corrected this year with the Galaxy S7.
The 8MP front-facing camera is good, and features plenty of ways to turn one's skin "beautiful," which by phone maker standards means soft and artificial. Still, despite a few-second delay in opening the app the camera app itself is nicely designed, with an auto mode that is easy to use and a manual mode that features all the granular settings a photographer like me would care about. And because the Snapdragon 820 is so much faster than the Axon's Snapdragon 801, 4K video capture is smooth at 30 fps and lacks the judder we've come to expect from unsteady hand movement. It's no Galaxy S7, but it's close.
Unfortunately, ZTE decided to crib from the wrong company inside its camera app; not only did it blatantly steal the iPhone's live filters, but it also coopted Apple's Live Photos feature down to the name. Activating LIVE Photo (sic) captures a short 1080p video clip stored in.mp4 format that can be played alongside the static photo, but, like Apple's own faltering format it (though fun) answers a question that nobody asked.
Odds and ends This phone is interesting for a number of reasons, least of which is the fact that it supports a combination of two SIM cards, or a single SIM and a microSD card. I used the phone on a recent trip to New York and back home to Toronto, placing a T-Mobile SIM card in the secondary slot. While the phone is able to field incoming calls and texts from either number, a single data connection must be specified (for obvious reasons), and the handoff is seamless between the two. Having no use for a dual-SIM phone in Canada, my first experience taking advantage of one was largely positive. Some of the user experience (UX) around setting up the individual SIM cards could be improved, but those are minor criticisms.
The Axon 7 is one of the best phone surprises I've had so far in 2016.
The Axon 7 also sports a USB Type-C port, which is becoming increasingly common among Android phones in 2016. And while the company ships a Quick Charge 3.0 charger and Type-C cable in the box, it generously provides a micro-USB adapter for those who want to keep using those older, far more ubiquitous cables. It's one of many nice touches in a box that includes a very decent pair of headphones and the aforementioned clear TPU case.
Another nice addition is the Passport 2.0 protection plan, which is included alongside every Axon 7 purchased directly from the company in the U.S.. Because the phone is unlocked and carrier-free, it does not include any bloatware — a bonus on top of a two-year warranty, easy warranty exchanges, low-cost repairs and more. It's great that ZTE is maintaining this program, but it's only available to buyers in the U.S., and it only honors hardware; there is no equivalent promise on the software side. And that is something to be concerned about. ZTE has an awful reputation for keeping its phones updated. Indeed, the Axon and Axon Pro, while eventually receiving an update to Android 6.0 earlier this year, have each received only one update, and are still on the May 1, 2016 security patch (which, ironically, is the same as the Axon 7).First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992 and then the Senate in 2006, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown may be the most progressive senator representing a purple state in America. In a Thursday interview, he spoke with Salon about Republican debt ceiling brinkmanship, his efforts to push the president, and the lessons of his electoral success.
You got reelected repeatedly in a battleground state, while championing collective bargaining rights and running as an unabashed progressive. Does it bother you that more of your colleagues don’t take that approach? What do you think they should learn from your example?
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It doesn’t particularly bother me. I mean it’s not really my place to be bothered by how my colleagues run their campaigns.
I think, though, that I’ve tried to show a path: In a state like Ohio, which is obviously a state that probably is slightly Republican, you can run as a progressive -- if you talk to people, and you talk about everything from access to college, to manufacturing, to trade deals, to healthcare and giving people opportunity.
So I mean, nothing new there, but I think that I can serve as an example that way. But people are going to do it the way they do it each place. But you can run as a progressive and win. I mean, there’s no question about that – if you’re authentic about it, and I think that’s the most important component of that.
There’s a wide spectrum of postures and positions in the Democratic Party. In your time in Congress, has progressives’ leverage within the party been getting stronger or weaker?
I think probably it’s getting stronger. I mean, you look at what happened with Larry Summers. I think the president is paying increasing attention to what people are saying on trade agreements, on banking regulation, on healthcare. So I’m generally pretty optimistic.
I also know, though, that we made big gains in this country in 2009 and 2010. And each time there’s been sort of a burst of progressive energy in this country, whether it was during Wilson, or during Roosevelt’s first four years, or during the three years in the '60s, or Obama’s two years, this burst of progressive energy benefits the country for decades.
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I mean, look at what we got out of Roosevelt’s time still for this country: from collective bargaining, to Social Security, to labor law, and much else. Or in the ‘60s with civil rights and Medicare and Medicaid and higher ed and all that. You know, we sometimes have to play defense to preserve the gains we’ve made.
And I think that’s the role of progressives here: to make sure that our party understands that these were some of the greatest things that the government’s ever done, in partnership with the trade union movement, in partnership with the environmental movement, in partnership with small business.
You literally wrote the book on "Myths of Free Trade." Has President Obama disappointed you in how he’s handled trade deals?
A bit. He’s been better than his predecessors at enforcing trade rules. Not good enough. We’ve got to do better at this. I’m hopeful.
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I met yesterday with [US Trade Representative Michael Froman] about what I think [is] the new trade that works for our country. Clearly, trade policy’s not worked for us as a nation. It’s meant profits for companies that outsource, but it’s not worked for communities, for jobs, for manufacturing, for local small manufacturing especially. And so the answer of the elite in Washington is “let’s do more trade deals, let's do more of it,” when it’s not working. And I think Froman understands that. I think the president understands it. It doesn’t mean they’re as aggressive and forward-looking as I would like to be, but we’re always making that battle.
You’ve voted against or raised objections to what you’ve called “imprudent regulation.” In 2011, one Ohio group accused you of “putting the interests of manufacturing ahead of the Clean Air Act.” What’s your response to such criticism?
I have generally and will always fight for clean air and safe drinking water laws. I think there’s a balance with the whole issue of outsourcing and the environment. I understand that if you enter into a compact with a country, China manufactures something, sends it to the U.S., it doesn’t include the environmental cost -- the cost of making the product in a cleaner way. We can’t compete with that, and that’s bad for the environment. So I will always say if they’re going to come into our market, they’ve got to live up to the same rules we do. I don’t want to weaken our rules, I want to strengthen theirs.
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And you know, some haven’t seen it that way. I think they’re wrong. I think that’s the best answer on climate change and the best answer for manufacturing.
How are you selling the Affordable Care Act in Ohio? What could the president do to sell it better?
This doesn’t always work with people, but I think you go back 48 years, when Medicare was signed into law, and it had the same kind of opposition. It was the John Birch Society, now it’s the Tea Party. Same sort of thing. Insurance companies, doctors, didn’t like it. But in five years, people knew that it really worked for the country. And I think that we will get through this.
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We’ve never had such an active opposition to a new law that I can think of. Maybe in the South with civil rights, but with something like this, we’ve never seen this kind of concerted opposition to try to make it fail. But I do think it’s analogous to Medicare: There was a lot of opposition, and then people were satisfied pretty quickly. I think we’ll look back in five or 10 years and say, what was the big deal? This is working.
The other thing I think we need to talk about more is what’s already accomplished. And things like preexisting condition [protections] that the Republicans want to take away. They don’t really have anything other than to say, “Well, we like those.” Well, are you for the law or not? And I don’t think we’ve engaged enough.
I also think that it’s a full-time job for a number of Republicans to just do everything they can to vilify and emasculate this healthcare act.
On several issues you’ve taken on – Social Security cuts, trade deals, federal contractors’ labor standards – there’s a gap between you and the president. Why do you think he’s touted chained CPI, continued the trade approach he has, and chosen not to implement higher-road contracting?
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I don’t know. I don’t have an opinion on why he’s not done things I want him to do. I mean he’s elected, he ran on a platform, he was elected on that platform. It’s his call.
It’s his call who he appoints to the Fed, it’s his call what he enforces, what he does on the environment, what he does on labor standards, what he does on trade. I’m generally happy with the direction of most of that. I will always encourage him to do more.
So more trade enforcement, better trade deals, better labor laws, higher minimum wage, don’t make Social Security about cutting the cost of living index when it should go the other way in terms of a better reflection of what seniors spend. Those are important. But it’s up to me to build public opinion, and get the president there.
The coming fights over the debt ceiling and the budget – what do you expect to happen? Are you concerned we’ll end up with deeper cuts?
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I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m just concerned what happens to this country when these people do what’s never been done before in the name of their political agenda, put such risk on the American public.
I just find it curious too that for three years, in ‘09, ‘10 and ’11, I hear Republicans all of the time saying that the Democrats are creating so much uncertainty in the |
Vega Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune BYU fans get amped in the fourth quarter after a reception by Brigham Young Cougars wide re Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune BYU and Utah fans react during the third quarter as Utah faces BYU in the Royal Purple Las Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah fans cheer in the fourth quarter as Utah faces BYU in the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl,Musk also announced that the Model S line will be getting an automatic steering mode, which he calls "autopilot," in three to four months.
The Model S lineup currently offers traveling ranges between 208 and 270 miles, based on the EPA's mileage standard. Tesla has also updated its original Roadster with a huge range bump thanks to some new hardware, and it also unveiled a "Torque Sleep" mode that made dual-motor Model S cars more efficient. The electric car company has also aggressively rolled out its Supercharger stations across the US, Europe, and China. Musk says it plans to cover all of North America and Europe with charging stations by the end of the year, as well as most populous areas in China (don't bet on seeing anything in the Gobi desert).464 of 572 Sponsor Message Sponsor Message
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All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.I am planning on making a series of images depicting scenes from a regular match of DotA 2. Then, I hope to bundle them all up and submit them to the "Workshop" as a loading screen pack.
I dove right into this one, and the lack of planning really came around to bite me in the rear. I really need to study faces, specifically of a woman. Drow Ranger drove me insane at one point, the angle, the features and the odd lighting proved to be a challange.
Let me know what you think about it! I am not fully satisfied with it, particularly with Drow.
DotA2 belongs to Valve, but the art belongs to me. Feel free to download and use the image as you please. However; If you wish to upload it anywhere else, I ask you to do so with the condition of providing a link back here, which includes my image used as a video thumbnail.Disclaimer: The below review is my opinion, which I will try to provide as many examples for and as much evidence as possible to support. Readers can learn more about how I intend to conduct my reviews, my methodology, etc – here. More information on review badges here.
This review’s roll was #138 (currently VPN.cc)
Written Jun 13, 2016
I’m going to stop counting these at this point as we seem to be well into the series of reviews! Let’s get to it!
Signing up for the service: The VPN.cc website was pretty straightforward and sign up was pretty easy. I had the option to choose between 1, 3, 6, and 12 months of service (pretty normal), from which I picked 1. Sign up required an email address, which is the most I’d personally feel comfortable providing from a privacy standpoint (however, as you’ll see in their terms, they potentially have plans for much much more).
Configuring the service: The downloads section of the website had the official clients for Windows, Mac, and uncommonly, a dedicated client for Linux. I still prefer a manual configuration, but to my disappointment, there were no.ovpn files to download. I reached out to support, which I’ll outline in more detail below (It didn’t go well).
Speed & Stability tests: I was not able to get a response from support regarding manual config files, therefore no connection could be made and no speed tests could be performed.
Getting support: As the downloads page of the website didn’t have any.ovpn files, I was left to contact support in the hopes that they could send me a zip containing what I needed to get started. I created a ticket using the site’s “already a customer” web form and logged in. I was still required, however, to provide a name, email address. I got an automated response quickly with a ticket number and receipt confirmation. After approx 3 days of waiting (what I consider to be a reasonable amount of time to get at least a ” sorry we’re slow, but we’re working on it,” response, I had not received any response whatsoever (other than the initial “we received your support request” email).
Getting a refund: After around 3 days of waiting for support (I consider this to be a reasonable amount of time for at least something to be sent back), I submitted a refund request. After another full day of waiting, I still hadn’t even heard back on the initial support request. Had this been a close review, I might have waited another day to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I feel it’s pretty clear what I’m dealing with here unfortunately.
Concerns in Terms & Conditions / Privacy Policy:
These terms and conditions might just rival some of the worst I’ve seen. Can we not cover all our bases in a page or two? Must we endure an unending saga of what is and isn’t the responsibility of the service?
“The Provider will optionally provide the Customer with a client software to easily establish VPN connections.”
This is a little strange, and I could possibly be reading too much into this, but my concern lies with the combination of this line existing, and nothing being written about providing the customer with manual configuration files or alternative methods to connect.
“With Registration for the Service, the Customer is obligated to provide some or all of the following personal data completely and correctly: surname, first name, address and telephone number, valid e-mail address and payment information according to the selected payment method…”
I always find it odd when a company has this in its terms, but doesn’t require it during registration. It’s like they want to squat on the rights to collect your personal information in case they ever decide they need it. Regardless, the fact that this is included in their terms tells me they aren’t serious about privacy.
“The Customer shall be obligated to provide evidence of suitable power of attorney.”
Seriously? Ludicrous.
“For the security of the Customer and the Provider, the Provider shall save the IP address of the Internet access at the time of Registration.”
I’m afraid this is relatively common, if not by the VPN service, by the payment vendor. Choosing to do it from the VPN company side again tells me they aren’t serious about your privacy.
“Prior to conclusion of the contract, the Customer must define with the Provider, the type of account he wishes to use. Desktop Accounts work for desktop devices (PCs, Notebooks, Netbooks) AND mobile devices like Smartphones or Tablets. Mobile accounts only work for mobile devices such as Smartphones and Tables. However, they can be upgraded to a desktop account at any time (incurring an upgrade fee). Downgrading a desktop account to a mobile account is not possible.”
These “tiers” of service didn’t appear when signing up for service. I don’t know if that was the case at some point, but it’s a silly policy and even more silly if they discontinued it and left it in their terms.
“If the Customer should only choose to use a test period with his Registration, the contractual term will begin at the start of the test period.”
As far as I can tell, a test period isn’t even a standard option.
“For all changes to personal data used for the Registration or payment details, the Customer is obligated to either amend his profile in the customer section of the Website or notify the Provider of the changes using the support form or by e-mail.”
Privacy violation, it really shouldn’t be any of their business.
“We collect information from you when you register on our site, place an order or subscribe to our newsletter. When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your: name, e-mail address, mailing address, phone number, credit card information or bank account information.”
Huge privacy violation. Avoid this nonsense.
“You may, however, visit our site anonymously.”
Gee, thanks.
“After a transaction, your private information (credit cards, social security numbers, financials, etc.) will be kept on file for more than 60 days in order to process further payments.”
Another red flag – “More than 60 days”… so… forever?
Final thoughts: Signing up for service was painless, but getting the manual config files was not possible given the complete and utter lack of support I received. As mentioned, getting a refund was not as quick as I’d hoped – waiting another full day and getting no response other than the automated reply with a support ticket number. They might as well have told me to get lost in that email. Even though it wouldn’t help, at least they’d be direct about their attitude towards their customers.
FROM THE VPN COMPARISON CHART CATEGORY VPN SERVICE VPN.cc JURISDICTION Based In (Country) Malta Fourteen Eyes? No Freedom Status Free LOGGING Logs Traffic Logs DNS Requests Logs Timestamps Logs Bandwidth Logs IP Address ACTIVISM Anonymous Payment Method Email Accepts Bitcoin No PGP Key Available No Warrant Canary No Meets PrivacyTools IO Criteria No LEAK PROTECTION 1st Party DNS Servers No IPv6 Supported / Blocked No Kill Switch No PROTOCOLS Offers PPTP Yes Offers OpenVPN Yes OBFUSCATION Supports Multihop Supports TCP Port 443 Supports Obfsproxy Supports SOCKS Supports SSL Tunnel Supports SSH Tunnel Other Proprietary Protocols PORT BLOCKING Auth SMTP P2P SECURITY Weakest Data Encryption Strongest Data Encryption Weakest Handshake Encryption Strongest Handshake Encryption AVAILABILITY # of Connections 2 # of Countries 59 # of Servers 903 WEBSITE # of Persistent Cookies 0 # of External Trackers 0 # of Proprietary APIs 11 Server SSL Rating B SSL Cert issued to No SSL Cert PRICING $ / Month (Annual Pricing) $6.99 $ / Connection / Month $3.50 Free Trial No Refund Period (Days) 14 ETHICS Contradictory Logging Policies Falsely Claims 100% Effective Incentivizes Social Media Spam POLICIES Forbids Spam Requires Ethical Copy Requires Full Disclosure AFFILIATES Practice Ethical Copy Give Full Disclosure
If you like the project and find my work useful, please consider donating – your generous contributions help pay for the hosting, tools, and time I need to do my research and keep the data fresh.The 20th century was the progressive century, marked by the rise of war and socialism as entrenched features of American life. But perhaps the most lasting effects will be felt in the entitlement mindset woven into the American psyche, via decades of successful incrementalism.
Social Security and Medicare in particular represent brilliant political achievements for American progressives. Both programs created a vast middle-class constituency, both programs are now thoroughly embraced by progressivism's nominal opponents (conservatives), and both programs have become sacrosanct "rights" in the eyes of the public.
For example, here is Mr. Obama speaking to an AARP audience in 2012:
I want to emphasize, Medicare and Social Security are not handouts. You’ve paid into these programs your whole lives. You’ve earned them.
And (now) House Speaker Paul Ryan during a radio appearance with Laura Ingraham in early 2013:
“No one is suggesting that what we call our earned entitlements — entitlements you pay for, like payroll taxes for Medicare and Social Security — are putting you in a 'taker' category,” said Ryan. “No one would suggest that whatsoever.”
Of course "Greatest Generation" Americans, born around the Depression years, routinely collected or collect far more in benefits than they paid in taxes. Even Baby Boomers retiring by 2010 are likely to receive one-third more in benefits payments than they paid in taxes. So for these retirees, at least, Mr. Obama's words — "you paid for it" — ring hollow. Those tax dollars are long gone: whether they were allocated to the supposed Social Security trust fund or just poured into general revenues is irrelevant. It's quite a stretch to argue that fedgov is justified in robbing younger workers today to pay entitlements for older retirees who were robbed in the past. If a thief no longer holds one's stolen property, what precisely is the legal theory that permits him to make you whole by finding a new victim while you ask no questions?
That said, even ardent libertarians like Dr. Walter Block make the case for accepting government entitlement payments. And as he makes clear, not accepting such payments will result in the money reverting to the Treasury, where it surely will be used for illibertarian purposes.
We've heard very little from any presidential candidate (save apparently Ben Carson) about the coming actuarial disaster underlying the Social Security and Medicare programs. Both systems are broke, and collectively are more than $30 trillion in the red. In fact, Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff — hardly an antigovernment libertarian — calculates the shortfall between future federal tax revenue and future federal entitlement obligations as more than $200 trillion. The sheer demographics of smaller families, an aging population, and longer life expectancy combine to create a very unpleasant reality: where more than 40 employed workers once supported every Social Security recipient, fewer than 3 do today. And retirees reaching age 65 today often look forward to 20 or more years of benefits.
The real story, though, is not about the numbers. It's about progressive incrementalism, and how the Left grindingly turns outrageous ideas into commonplace reality. If there's one strategic lesson libertarians can learn from entitlements, it's that incrementalism is a one-way street. Just ask the mealy-mouthed Mr. Ryan.The message is clear: The people of Candler Park, Little Five Points, Poncey-Highland, Inman Park, and all points nearby don’t want some humdrum bridge ferrying them over car-clogged Moreland Avenue.
They want a statement.
The idea for Freedom Bridge Atlanta — a means for pedestrians, bicyclists, and other non-drivers to safety travel to and from Freedom Park over Moreland — isn’t new, but it started gaining traction two years ago.
Then, in October 2015, more than 100 community members attended a charrette planning session, applying stickers like votes to pictures of concepts they liked most and least.
Now, that input has inspired a rendering for a contemporary-style bridge that leaders say the people want.
More than 80 percent agreed a pedestrian bridge is needed. Here’s one sample comment from a survey participant:
“We have a great chance to make a landmark/signature statement that can be an icon for our neighborhoods and a structure for regional, national, and possibly international recognition. Let’s do it!”
The approval ratings make sense. According to one highly scientific study from 2015, a vast majority of Atlantans believe the bridge is needed.
The design is hardly set in stone — it’s basically a guidepost — but it displays features people have said they want. A tipster sent over images today.
Here’s a before-after look at what potentially could be:
At last check, the movers and shakers behind the project — including Ken Edelstein, a longtime Creative Loafing editor and current president of the Candler Park Neighborhood Association, Ryan Gravel, the Beltline visionary, and Don Bender, a developer credited with helping revitalize Little Five Points — were stressing that this nascent idea would try to avoid taking funding from other deserving projects.
No updates on a timeline or funding were provided.The Republican bill “gives the protections that the president and FCC say they want, and does it in a legally sustainable way,” according to Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), the chairman of the House telecom subcommittee. POLITICO Pro GOP makes U-turn on net neutrality
Republicans in Congress are doing a 180 on net neutrality as the Federal Communications Commission prepares to issue new rules within weeks.
For years, GOP lawmakers have adamantly opposed any rules requiring Internet service providers to treat all Web traffic equally, calling them unnecessary and an example of Washington overreach.
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But now that the FCC is moving toward issuing a tough net neutrality order that would subject broadband to utility-style regulation — an approach endorsed by President Barack Obama — top Republicans in both chambers are making plans to legislate their own rules to ensure the agency doesn’t go too far.
“Times have changed,” Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), the chairman of the House telecom subcommittee, said when asked about the evolving GOP position on net neutrality. “The administration has latched onto this [utility-style regulation], and the FCC’s independence is nominal at best.”
According to Walden, the Republican bill — which “is ready” and will be released in the coming days — “gives the protections that the president and FCC say they want, and does it in a legally sustainable way.”
Walden and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) announced late Wednesday that they plan to hold double-header hearings on net neutrality next week, and Thune laid out set of principles that will guide them as they craft the legislation.
The language Republicans are using to talk about their proposed bill illustrates just how far the GOP has come on the issue. The principles embrace and even bolster ideas that were once controversial in Republican circles, like banning “paid prioritization,” the practice of charging content companies for an online fast lane.
Thune’s principles also include bans on blocking or throttling Web traffic and extending net neutrality protections to wireless networks, an idea put forward by Obama and congressional Democrats.
At the same time, the GOP measure would tie the FCC’s hands, prohibiting it from reclassifying broadband as a utility under Title II of the Communications Act, or using other sections of the law to create new rules.
Still, the fact that Republicans are even talking about legislating net neutrality marks a stark departure from their past position.
When a federal appeals court last year threw out the FCC’s previous attempt at net neutrality rules, Walden and House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) called the court decision “a victory for jobs and innovation … by keeping the government’s hands off the Internet” and preventing the government “from playing the role of traffic cop.”
Even those furthest to the right on net neutrality appear to be open to working on legislation. In an interview last week, Thune said all his committee members are ready to work on a measure. “Obviously, not everybody is in lock step, and we haven’t shown a bill yet, but in terms of general principles, I think everybody is pretty much in the same place,” he said.
Thune’s committee includes Sen. Ted Cruz, who in November called net neutrality “Obamacare for the Internet.” Now, Cruz “looks forward to having a vigorous discussion on how we can best ensure the Internet remains a forum for freedom and innovation” as the FCC eyes stricter regulations, according to a Cruz spokesman.
Clearly, a lot has changed in the Internet policy debate in the past year, shifting the political calculus.
For months, the FCC was inundated with millions of comments asking for stronger net neutrality rules, and Obama electrified the debate in November, calling on the agency to reclassify broadband as a utility — the strongest regulatory approach.
While Hill Republicans now have the votes in both chambers to pass a resolution of disapproval or a bill to strip the FCC’s power, an anti-net neutrality measure would almost certainly face a veto threat from the president.
Public interest groups say Republicans are responding to the building pressure.
“Millions of people and businesses have stood up and once again made clear that they want to keep the same rights they’ve always had,” said Matt Wood, policy director of Free Press. “Self-identified conservatives, just like everyone else, overwhelmingly support keeping the rules that have kept the Internet open.”
Still, it’s unclear whether the lawmakers are putting forward “a legitimate effort to at long last listen to their constituents, or just a cynical cable-backed ploy to stall the FCC,” Wood said.
But Walden insists the two parties aren’t that far apart.
“The whole world is being turned on its head right now, and yet we all share what appear to be common principles and goals,” Walden said, adding that net neutrality needn’t be a partisan issue. “I’m not looking at this as whether Republicans win or Democrats lose. It’s what’s best for [broadband] investment.”
This article tagged under: Net Neutrality
Technology
RepublicansWestminster Bridge tonight (Picture: Reuters)
Women formed a human chain along Westminster Bridge tonight to remember the victims of the attack on March 22.
Four people were killed when Khalid Masood drove a rented SUV along the pavement, mowing down pedestrians and leaving three with fatal injuries. He then crashed into railings outside the Houses of Parliament, left the vehicle and stabbed PC Keith Palmer to death as he stood on guard.
Police rake in £1,700,000 after selling seized items on eBay
Four days after the attack shook London, women from different backgrounds came together in solidarity to condemn the horrific crime and show unity in the face of terror.
Many of those present were Muslim, wearing blue as a symbol of hope and peace.
Ayesha Malik, a 34-year-old mother-of-two from Surrey, said: ‘As a visible Muslim I think it was important to show solidarity with the principles that we all hold dear, the principles of plurality, diversity and so on.’
Women link hands on Westminster bridge (Picture: PA)
They formed a human chain (Picture: Getty)
Some women attended with their daughters (Picture: PA)
They wore blue as a symbol of hope (Picture: Getty)
Sarah Waseem, 57, from Surrey, said: ‘When an attack happens in London, it is an attack on me.
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‘It is an attack on all of us. Islam totally condemns violence of any sort. This is abhorrent to us.’
Fariha Khan, 40, a GP from Surbiton, said: ‘The feeling of what happened here on Wednesday was really strong.
‘We thought of the ordinary people who were here and were mown down, standing here like this, it was very overwhelming.’
People from a range of backgrounds joined the event, organised by Women’s March On London.
Ahmadiyya Muslims said they wanted to add to the condemnation of the violent attack and stand defiant in the face of terrorism.
Londoner Mary Bennett said she was present to make a ‘small gesture’.
The retired healthcare worker said: ‘I am here to show that in a quiet way we continue to go where we like and do what we like in London.
‘This is my city. It’s a very small gesture but life is made up of small gestures.’Barack Obama's campaign is reminding voters today that John McCain, during the heady days of the "Republican Revolution," once declared that he favored abolishing the Department of Education.
"I would certainly favor doing away with the Department of Energy and I think that given the origins of the Department of Education," the Senator said on CNN's Late Edition in December 1994. "I would favor doing away with it as well."
Linking McCain to "ideologues," Obama declared in his speech Tuesday, "you certainly don't reform our education system by calling to close the Department of Education. That would just make it harder for us to give out financial aid, harder for us to keep track of how our schools are doing, and lead to widening inequality in who gets a college degree."
Republican officials and McCain staffers, meanwhile, are in full-out counter-attack mode, criticizing Obama for his education policies and claiming that the Senator is misrepresenting McCain's proposals on the matter.
"Senator Barack Obama's new campaign attack ad on education," wrote spokesman Tucker Bounds this morning, "claims that John McCain's economic plan will divert money from public education without any factual citation or basis." The campaign provided a list of resolutions increasing funding for federal education efforts that McCain supported.
But Bounds' statement made no mention of McCain's previous support for doing away with the Department of Education. Neither did two counter-attack emails blasted out by the Republican National Committee.
The matter clearly complicates McCain's criticism of Obama's plan and raises questions as to what, exactly, the Republican nominee's education policy would be if he ascends to the White House. Bounds, in his statement, said that "nothing that John McCain has proposed would reduce funding for public schools." But McCain also has not been the steadfast champion of funding No Child Left Behind, as his campaign purports.As Senate Republicans added blocking aid to small business to their record-setting obstructionism, Democrats this week failed to secure the needed votes for reform of the filibuster rule. But largely overlooked in the debate over the filibuster is the Republicans' unprecedented obstructionism when it comes to the confirmation of President Obama's judicial nominees. As it turns out, while the GOP in the 111th Congress has turned to the filibuster at more than double the previous Democratic rates, Barack Obama's nominees to the federal bench are half as likely to be confirmed.
That's the jaw-dropping conclusion of a recent study by the study by the Center for American Progress. Thanks to the Republicans' historic use of Filibusters, anonymous holds, and other obstructionist tactics, President Obama's confirmation rate is "falling off a cliff." The CAP assessment of data from the Congressional Research Service, the Justice Department and the Senate Judiciary Committee found that:
Such tactics are completely unprecedented, and so are their results. Fewer than 43 percent of President Obama's judicial nominees have so far been confirmed, while past presidents have enjoyed confirmation rates as high as 93 percent. And President Obama's nominees have been confirmed at a much slower rate than those of his predecessor--nearly 87 percent of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees were confirmed.
To be sure, the Republicans' successful rearguard action is helping to preserve conservative dominance of the federal judiciary. But with its sluggish pace of nominations, the Obama administration isn't helping itself.
Last November Charlie Savage of the New York Times warned that the "opportunities to reshape judiciary are slipping away." And Republican obstructionism was only part of the story:
By this point in 2001, the Senate had confirmed five of Mr. Bush's appellate judges -- although one was a Clinton pick whom Mr. Bush had renominated -- and 13 of his district judges. By contrast, Mr. Obama has received Senate approval of just two appellate and four district judges...
Mr. Bush, who made it an early goal to push conservatives into the judicial pipeline and left a strong stamp on the courts, had already nominated 28 appellate and 36 district candidates at a comparable point in his tenure. By contrast, Mr. Obama has offered 12 nominations to appeals courts and 14 to district courts.
In March, the Los Angeles Times reported that the same dynamic of a distracted Obama White House and scorched-earth Republican opposition was continuing to leave vacancies across the federal courts:
During President Obama's first year, judicial nominations trickled out of the White House at a far slower pace than in President George W. Bush's first year. Bush announced 11 nominees for federal appeals courts in the fourth month of his tenure. Obama didn't nominate his 11th appeals court judge until November, his 10th month in office...
Key slots stand without nominees, including two on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the body that reviews decisions by federal agencies and a court that is considered second in importance only to the Supreme Court. Federal judicial vacancies nationwide have mushroomed to well over 100, with two dozen more expected before the end of the year. To date, the Obama administration has nominees for just 52 of those slots, and only 17 have been confirmed.
In President Obama's defense, the administration has been stretched thin, grappling with the Bush recession, health care reform and two wars. But the window of opportunity to undo the dramatic rightward swing of the Third Branch is closing fast. As for Republicans, in 2007 then Mississippi Senator Trent Lott explained how the GOP would approach judicial nominations - and virtually anything else Democrats would want to do:
"The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail. So far it's working for us."
For more background, data, and charts, see "For GOP and Media, Obstructionism is the New Normal", "GOP Wins Gold Medal for Obstructionism", and "Bipartisanship's Willing Executioners."
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives.)FRESH show-cause notices have been issued to 34 past and present Essendon players.
Included with the notices are individually tailored summaries of evidence, alleging use of banned peptide Thymosin beta-4.
Each document runs approximately 350 pages, ASADA saying it's distributed 12,000 pages of evidence in total.
It is the first time players involved in the club's controversial 2012 supplements regime have been provided with detailed evidence.
"By providing the detailed ‘show-cause’ notices, it is ASADA’s intention to offer players every opportunity to respond to the allegations against them," ASADA said in a statement.
"Players have ten days from receipt of the notices to lodge a submission for consideration by the independent Anti-Doping Rule Violation Panel (ADRVP).
"It is ASADA’s expectation that the ADRVP will convene to consider each of the 34 matters in early November.
"Due to the complexity and volume of material this process may take longer than normal for appropriate deliberation."
The players now have 10 days to respond, but could waive that right by not responding, and ask for the matter to be heard directly by the AFL's anti-doping Tribunal.
"The players’ legal team will review the material in the coming days and discuss the contents with players, to determine what response, if any, they will provide in respect to these amended show cause notices," AFL Players Association chief executive Paul Marsh said.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The al-Nusra Front has gained considerable strength during the three-year long civil war in Syria.
There have been fierce clashes in eastern Lebanon between Sunni militants and Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah.
The Sunni militants are believed to be from al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, the al-Nusra Front.
Hezbollah officials have said at least two of its fighters, and at least 16 Nusra fighters, were killed.
The clashes erupted after gunmen attacked Hezbollah bases over a wide area from south of the town of Baalbek, north to near the border town of Arsal.
Lebanon's official National News Agency also reported the clashes, saying they began after an attack launched by gunmen from Asaal al-Ward in Syria's Qalamoun province.
Hezbollah's al-Manar television reported late on Sunday that the group had pushed the insurgents back over the border and the clashes had ended.
Lebanon's border with Syria is porous and largely unpatrolled.
Hezbollah maintains several military posts along inaccessible parts of the border but rarely gives details on clashes with other fighters.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Lebanese Hezbollah members have fought and died alongside government troops in Syria.
Image copyright EPA Image caption The al-Nusra Front captured a number of Lebanese troops in the same area, two months ago.
The clashes come two months after al-Nusra and IS militants attacked Lebanese security forces in the border town of Arsal, capturing several personnel as hostages. They have since executed at least three of them.
Hezbollah fighters have previously fought alongside government troops in Syria, against rebels supported by many Syrian Sunnis.
The conflict in Syria has exacerbated existing tensions in Lebanon, and made Hezbollah and areas which support it targets for Sunni militant bomb attacks.The harvesting of over 100,000 iPad 3G owners' e-mail addresses was not a hack or a classic data breach, but a brute-force attack of a minor feature AT&T offered to Apple customers, experts said Wednesday.
According to New York-based Praetorian Security Group, which obtained a copy of the PHP script used to scrape e-mail addresses from AT&T's servers, the attack succeeded because the mobile carrier used poorly designed software.
A nine-person hacking group known as Goatse Security claimed responsibility for the script, which amassed 114,000 e-mail addresses.
"There's no hack, no infiltration, and no breach, just a really poorly-designed Web application that returns e-mail address when ICC-ID is passed to it," Praetorian said in a late Wednesday entry on its security blog.
An ICC-ID (Integrated Circuit Card Identifier) is the unique number assigned to each SIM card. A mobile device's SIM stores information that identifies the specific wireless customer to his or her carrier. The iPad 3G contains a SIM card.
AT&T confirmed the nature of the attack to technology blog Gizmodo. Gawker, Gizmodo's parent Web site, first reported the e-mail harvesting Wednesday.
The script Praetorian made public was a "brute-force attack," according to AT&T's chief security officer Ed Amoroso, who spoke with Gizmodo.
When iPad 3G owners sign up for wireless data service with AT&T, the carrier detects the SIM's 19-digit ICC-ID -- essentially a serial number -- then asks for a contact e-mail address. AT&T uses the e-mail address to populate one of two log-in fields in the iPad's settings screen so that the user has to enter only a password to check his or her account status.
That same e-mail address was what the script harvested. E-mail addresses apparently belonging to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and top executives at Dow Jones, The New York Times Co. and Time Warner were among those collected.
AT&T turned off access to the feature Tuesday and apologized to customers in a statement it issued Wednesday. It also said that only e-mail addresses linked to each ICC-ID, not financial information or other personal data, was snatched from its servers.
AT&T did not respond to a request for further comment late Wednesday.
The disclosure of iPad owners' e-mail addresses was the second embarrassing story linked to Apple published by Gawker Media since April.
Two months ago, Gizmodo published photographs and an analysis of an iPhone prototype that it had bought from a California man who found it in a bar. Gizmodo was later denied a press pass to Apple CEO Steve Jobs' keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference, where he introduced the already familiar-looking iPhone 4 on June 7.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com.You've had quite the year: collaborating with Guy J, releasing on Bedrock and a new EP on its way. Tell me how you came together with Guy J and what it was like to work with him.
It’s actually been not only Guy J, but the whole crew. I met Guy J through Sahar Z and Guy Mantzur, who were good friends of mine. I was making a lot of tracks with Guy Mantzur, six or seven years ago. I met Guy J very organically when he played in Israel. We had good chemistry, kept in touch and then he launched Lost & Found so I sent him some music and ended up releasing my first EP there, ‘Secret Shining’ in 2015. Last year, when I was working on my album, I spoke with Guy J about making a mini-LP. Guy J releases something called the ‘Lost & Found Edition’ once or twice a year: five tracks, a mini-LP. We spoke about making something like this, but after I finished the second track called ‘Authentica’, I really felt like I wanted to make a full album. It felt like the right moment. The track felt like the start to an album.
Then, I spoke with Guy and we decided to make one track together for the album. It turned out so great.
What's coming up for you next?
I have an EP on Vivrant, Jeremy Olander’s imprint, that’ll be out at the end of June. Two tracks. I’m really excited about it.
My last tour was in the US for the first time, in New York, LA and SF. Then I played in Europe and Tel Aviv, the next will be the Americas, from North to South. I’ll start in Philadelphia with Guy J, then play in Playa Del Carmen, then Toronto for a huge Lost & Found party. It'll be first time in Toronto, with all the crew! From there, I head to Argentina, whcih is always incredible for us.
Tell me about the mix you made for us.
I usually choose three or four tracks that I want to put into a mix specifically, then I find other tracks to complete the picture. For now, I put one of the tracks from my next EP in it. Some upcoming Lost & Found releases, one from Eli Nissan. The other stuff is music I really like, but it’ll be different from a live show. You should enjoy listening to this in the car, in your headphones, at home… that’s my goal.Hey everyone! First of all, everyone at Sekai Project would just like to apologize for the lack of answers pertaining to our plans for releasing Grisaia on the PSVita. I will try share some of the difficulties surrounding this development as well as the progress that’s been made.
I am Audi, and I’ve known many of the crew at Sekai Project dating back nearly 10 years now. I have worked in the games industry since the mid 2000’s, which has spanned companies in Europe, Japan and the US. I was also one of the closest friends of VN music legend Umemoto Ryu, and had the honor of spending time with him shortly before his passing. During GDC of this year, I discussed the various upcoming projects as well as the issues Sekai faced with getting proper contact with Sony in order to get their titles onto Sony’s services. It just so happened that my previous job had me doing this sorts of work in Europe, and as such I offered to help speed up this process.
Over the last few months, I |
ABAreceptors is unclear. Although GABAreceptors were proposed to have a role in depression and antidepressant action >20 years ago [], progress has been hampered by the lack of appropriate tools. Furthermore, data are largely controversial, with rival hypotheses suggesting that both positive and negative modulation of this receptor might be a useful antidepressant therapy []. More recently, there has been more emphasis on antagonism of GABAreceptors as a potential therapeutic strategy for depression []. In support of this, we recently demonstrated that GABAsubunit knockout mice display antidepressant-like activity in the forced swim test (FST) model of antidepressant action ( Table 1 ) []. These effects are recapitulated in pharmacological studies of the GABAreceptor antagonist CGP56433A in the mouse FST []. Supporting the use of GABAreceptor antagonists as antidepressants, Nakagawa and colleagues [] demonstrated that baclofen attenuates the decrease in immobility caused by antidepressants in the traditional FST. These effects were caused by a sedative effect of baclofen because the drug has no effect on immobility behaviour at the doses tested. Furthermore, in the learned helplessness model, another animal model of antidepressant action, chronic treatment with the GABAreceptor antagonist CGP36742 has an antidepressant-like response [] but baclofen increases susceptibility to helplessness and attenuates the effects of antidepressants []. Of note, GABAreceptor antagonists (including CGP56433A) increase the concentration of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus and cortex [], which might contribute to their antidepressant-like effects [].
B receptor antagonists, it has been demonstrated recently that GABA B antagonists CGP56433A and CGP55845A selectively increase swimming time in a modified rat FST model of depression [ 62 Slattery D.A.
et al. GABA B receptor antagonist-mediated antidepressant-like effects are serotonin dependent. 63 Cryan J.F.
et al. Assessing antidepressant activity in rodents: recent developments and future needs. B receptors and 5-HT-mediated neurotransmission. Recently, it has been demonstrated that >95% of 5-HT-immunoreactive cell bodies in the raphé complex are also positive for GABA B receptors [ 64 Serrats J.
et al. GABAB receptor mRNA in the raphe nuclei: co-expression with serotonin transporter and glutamic acid decarboxylase. B receptors and 5-HT receptors are coupled to the same K+ channel (GirK) in 5-HT-containing neurons [ 65 Innis R.B.
et al. Evidence for G protein mediation of serotonin- and GABAB-induced hyperpolarization of rat dorsal raphe neurons. B receptors [ 66 Abellan M.T.
et al. Dual control of dorsal raphe serotonergic neurons by GABA(B) receptors. Electrophysiological and microdialysis studies. B -receptor-induced effects (including electrophysiological and signalling responses) have been demonstrated in the DRN of mice lacking the 5-HT transporter that is the molecular substrate for SSRI antidepressants [ 67 Mannoury la Cour C.
et al. GABA(B) receptors in 5-HT transporter- and 5-HT1A receptor-knock-out mice: further evidence of a transduction pathway shared with 5-HT1A receptors. 1A autoreceptors, which indicates that the altered GABA B -receptor-mediated effects in the 5-HT transporter knockout animals are independent of downregulation of 5-HT 1A autoreceptors [ 67 Mannoury la Cour C.
et al. GABA(B) receptors in 5-HT transporter- and 5-HT1A receptor-knock-out mice: further evidence of a transduction pathway shared with 5-HT1A receptors. B receptor systems at the level of the DRN and shed more light on the antidepressant-like behavioural effects of GABA B receptor antagonists. In further support of antidepressant potential for GABAreceptor antagonists, it has been demonstrated recently that GABAantagonists CGP56433A and CGP55845A selectively increase swimming time in a modified rat FST model of depression []. Qualitatively, this pattern of behaviour is similar to that following administration of SSRIs and 5-HT receptor agonists []. Interestingly, depleting 5-HT concentrations in the brain blocks the antidepressant-like effects of CGP56433A, which demonstrates that this neurotransmitter is essential for the antidepressant response. Several studies provide evidence of an interaction between GABAreceptors and 5-HT-mediated neurotransmission. Recently, it has been demonstrated that >95% of 5-HT-immunoreactive cell bodies in the raphé complex are also positive for GABAreceptors []. Furthermore, GABAreceptors and 5-HT receptors are coupled to the same Kchannel (GirK) in 5-HT-containing neurons []. It is also noteworthy that GABA released from dorsal raphé interneurons and afferents from the amygdala, periaqueductal grey and habenula inhibits the firing of 5-HT-containing cells in the dorsal raphé nucleus (DRN), whereas injecting GABA directly into the DRN decreases the firing of 5-HT-containing cells by >50%. Inhibition of 5-HT firing is controlled by GABAreceptors []. Furthermore, blunted GABA-receptor-induced effects (including electrophysiological and signalling responses) have been demonstrated in the DRN of mice lacking the 5-HT transporter that is the molecular substrate for SSRI antidepressants []. However, responses are normal in animals that lack 5-HTautoreceptors, which indicates that the altered GABA-receptor-mediated effects in the 5-HT transporter knockout animals are independent of downregulation of 5-HTautoreceptors []. Further studies are required to elucidate the exact molecular interactions between the 5-HT and GABAreceptor systems at the level of the DRN and shed more light on the antidepressant-like behavioural effects of GABAreceptor antagonists.The Doctor Who episode “The Space Museum ” explores a temporal paradox of the sort that the show up until this point has largely sidestepped, but which has characterized the post-hiatus series. The Doctor and his companions arrive in a space museum, in which they find themselves and the TARDIS on display. The Doctor realizes that they are getting a glimpse of the future, and must work to prevent it from happening.
A key question, of course, is why they can rewrite the future, when it surely must be the past from the standpoint of later people.
Perhaps one could come up with a view that rendered this less puzzling – perhaps it is the attempt to change one’s own past, including the history that predates one’s birth, that is problematic, since then you risk changing things that contribute to your own existence and experience, creating the potential for a paradox. But as long as something is the future to you, then there is no risk of paradox, even though for a time traveler from the future, the situation might be different.
Or perhaps these paradoxes are simply reasons to think that time travel is not in fact possible.
The second, third and fourth episodes of the story reminded me of a time in my teens when I tried to live out the belief that God had a plan for everything. I found myself paralyzed when I wondered whether it was important that I take this street or that one on my ride to school. What if I was supposed to bump into someone? But wouldn’t God foreordain that whatever I choose be what he wills?
In these segments, the characters who have caught a glimpse of the future, and now are seeking to avoid it becoming reality, face similar dilemmas. They know what they hope to avoid, but will it be accomplished by pressing on or staying put? Whether one believes that one is part of a foreordained plan, or trying to avoid one possible outcome, the attempt to choose to participate in or avoid a certain destiny creates puzzles.
One of the most interesting aspects for both fans and detractors of the recent series is that this story from the very first Doctor is a story about the possibility of seeing the future and then acting in such a way as to change it. While I’ve had a conversation once with a fan of the classic series who objected to the temporal paradoxes that have become a common feature in recent episodes, “The Space Museum” shows that this is not at all something new.It was announced last week that Disney Infinity was cancelled with Disney getting out of console gaming entirely. This was huge news to the community and many questions were raised about what was going to happen next. We’ve put together a quick recap of most of the questions we’ve seen over and over into this hand Disney Infinity Cancellation FAQ.
Have a question we didn’t answer in the list below? Leave a comment and we will add it!
1. When will Disney Infinity end?
Disney Infinity was officially cancelled last week on the 10th of May. All production at Avalanche Studios was immediately halted and nothing new will be released after June of 2016.
2. What characters are going to come out before it ends?
Only five more characters are due to be released for Disney Infinity. In May three figures will be released for the Alice Through The Looking Glass film: Alice, Time & Mad Hatter. In June two figures and a playset will be released for the Finding Dory film: Dory & Nemo.
3. Will I be able to play the game after its cancelled?
Yes! The game will still function like it always had in terms of Playset Gameplay. You will still be able to play through all the Playsets and play in the Toy Box and Toy Box Expansion games!
4. Will the servers stay up?
While there hasn’t been any official word, the servers are likely to stay up for the time being. The servers used to host Disney Infinity online play may be shared with other Disney online experiences. Some calls to Disney Interactive’s support have reassured fans that there are no immediate plans to shut down the servers. Plan on them going down officially at the end of the year.
You will be able to patch or download content / updates for the game for years to come as that info isn’t hosted on Disney’s servers.
5. What will happen when the servers go down?
Two major things will happen when the servers go down. First, all online gameplay will be suspended and you will not be able to share toy boxes, download new toy boxes, play in Flynn’s Arcade or in Toy Box Expansion games with friends.
Secondly, Toy Box building will be dramatically affected by the removal of the Text Editor tool. When ever you add text into a toy box it is checked against a clean speak server tool to remove and prevent profanity from being used. When the servers go down, this function will be removed and it will be impossible for you to add text.
6. How did this happen?
There are a lot of things that attributed to the downfall of Disney Infinity and you can read about them in our post Disney Infinity Cancelled – What Went Wrong. Many of the issues seemed to stem back to the management of inventory and investment vs. a lack of fan base or creative content.
7. Can we save Disney Infinity?
Probably not. But you can make the team behind Disney Infinity know how much they meant to you by signing an online petition to try and save the game. You can find that petition here. Reach out to the Disney Interactive team to express your love for Disney Infinity.
Disney Interactive
1200 Grand Central Ave.
Glendale, CA 91201
Another thing you can do is to directly reach out to Bob Iger, CEO of Disney and let him know how disappointed you are in the cancellation.
Robert A. Iger
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
The Walt Disney Company
500 S.Buena Vista St. MC 1062
Burbank, California 91521-1062
Remember to keep your correspondence to him polite.
8. Will My Figures Be Worth More Now?
Probably not. This was a game that’s part of the downfall involved an over saturation of figures. There are perhaps a few figures that might be worth more in the future but for the most part your collection won’t be a gold mine worth sitting on.
9. Should I Sell My Collection Of Figures Now?
Do you still enjoy playing the game? Do you usually sell off your other games when you are done playing them? Ultimately this is a personal decision, we will be keeping our full set of figures for years to come. Still lots of fun to have with these.
10. Will Another Company Buy Disney Infinity and Make More Figures / Playsets?
Probably not. What you will see now though is the licensing of new and old Disney / Star Wars / Marvel properties to companies for movie time in games.
This might open the door for other Toys To Life games to license in the characters, but only time will tell.
11. Will Toy Box TV and Toy Box Challenges keep going?
No. Everything involved with the development and promotion of the game will be over after the Finding Dory Playset.
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Check Out The Best Disney Infinity Deals This Week! Click Here!We all know that Prop 19 was huge not only for the state of California, but for citizens throughout the rest of the country. Prop 19 got so much attention these past couple of months that the international attention rose as well.
Latin America has been extensively in the front of the international attention. Mexican President Calderon and Colombian President Santos criticized Prop 19, pointing to it as evidence to inconsistency in US drug policy. Is that because they make black market deals with the marijuana? Is it because they don’t want to do anything about the Mexican Cartels pushing the marijuana. However, Prop 19 did get both presidents of the Latin world’s attention. They both called for more open debate about the legalization and other alternatives to current drug policy. Legalization is an alternative to current drug problems and prohibition in the United States.
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said, “How great it would be for California to set this example. May God let it pass. The other U.S. states will have to follow step.” And this is coming from a former president of the Mexico. If he thinks that would have happened there was no reason to shoot the ballot down. Everyone knows that marijuana is harmless and that we need to stop making criminals out of ordinary citizens.
This is a hot issue with baby boomers, but young people have voiced their opinion and this is something they are not only passionate about, but something they care about. It is a constant increasing situation that matters to them.
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Tags: california, international, Marijuana, prop 19What if you could ask Sarah Palin only one question?
Yes, we know Sarah Palin doesn't like to answer questions. She avoided interviews when she ran for Vice President of the United States. She even refused to answer a question in the Vice Presidential debate -- for which answering questions was the very point. She continues to avoid interviews, except in the most protected, user-friendly venues. Those of the "If you could be any tree, what kind would it be?" variety.
In fairness, I appreciate her attitude. If I knew as little as Sarah Palin and was on the world stage, I wouldn't want to be questioned either.
No hyperbole here. Keep in mind that to Ms. Palin, "What newspapers do you read?" was not only never answered, but later referred to by her as "Gotcha Journalism."
In fairness, given her avoidance of all serious questioning, pretty much anything that Sarah Palin can't answer is considered "Gotcha Journalism."
It still would be nice to know what newspapers Ms. Palin does read, since she never got around to replying, other than, "Everything." (Admittedly, that's a hefty reading list.) But that's not the question I'd like her to answer. After all, someone who yowls about Death Panels clearly doesn't rely on much of anything to inform her.
No, if a person could ask Sarah Palin only one question, what I'd like to hear the former half-term governor finally answer -- seriously -- is:
"What do you actually know about foreign affairs?"
It's important to remember that to this day, the only comment we still have from her on the subject is: "They're our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska." Sorry, that really doesn't cut it. No, really.
Considering that Sarah Palin is relentlessly pawning herself as Informed, a Leader, an Expert - who wants to be president -- it's critical to know what that expertise is.
So, "What do you actually know about foreign affairs?"
In the two years since telling us that she and all Alaskans can see Russia, there is nothing to suggest she has made the slightest effort to learn anything more. Her only travel outside the U.S. has been to give a speech in Hong Kong, and that was to mostly American businessman. She hasn't met any foreign leaders. For all we know, she hasn't even met any foreign tourists. So, as far as it appears, Sarah Palin is still clueless when it comes to knowing pretty much anything about the world outside.
But still, Sarah Palin yammers on, continuing her snake oil tour, giving her opinions on matters she knows zero about.
"What do you actually know about foreign affairs?
This all came up yet again because last week, Sarah Palin commented on a statement that the President of the United States made about world power, and she showed -- yet again -- why being clueless is also dangerous.
"I don't understand a world view," she scolded, "where we have to question whether we like it or not that America is powerful."
The only thing that makes sense in her admonition are the words, "I don't understand a world view."
You see, what President Barack Obama had said was something far more thoughtful about understanding America. "It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts -- because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them. And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure."
What the president understands is that the word "we" doesn't mean "me," as it seemingly does to Sarah Palin. It's all of us, that whole pesky "We, the People..." thing. What the president understands further it that as the world's superpower, our actions cost American lives. And cost money so gargantuan that it impacts the American way of life. In Iraq and Afghanistan alone, 5,400 American have been killed; 37,000 wounded. Almost $984 billion spent.
And some Americans -- both liberal and conservative -- don't like that. But as the president stated, like it or not, because we are the world's dominant power, we -- all of us -- get dragged into almost every conflict, anywhere.
That's why if we can reduce losing American lives and spending money, it is better.
Unfortunately for Sarah Palin, when you don't know anything about the world, when you have no experience in foreign affairs, when you make no effort to learn, when all you do is flit around as a demagogue -- what results is that empty words pour out and prove, yet again, your painful hollowness. And all that can come of that are thoughtless actions which get American mired down in disaster after crushing disaster, when instead we should strive to keep them from occurring in the first place.
For eight years, we just saw what happens when a president is intellectually lazy. We saw a budget surplus of $300 billion go to a deficit of $482 billion. We saw an unprovoked war started based on a lie. We saw our nation attacked, 3,000 killed, because a briefing memo was ignored. We saw a city wiped off the map by a hurricane.
And yet for all this, Sarah Palin's intellectual curiosity makes George Bush look like a Rhodes Scholar.
And still, she yammers on.
And still the question remains for Sarah Palin -Tulsa, OK – Having spent time in prison for sex crimes against children, Johnnie Joe Hobbs had no desire to revisit the Gray Bar Hotel. As a matter of fact, when the convicted sex offender discovered his parole was about to be revoked, he got a little hot under the collar. Tulsa County sheriff’s deputies paid a visit to Johnnie Joe Thursday afternoon to serve three protective orders – tagging along were officers from the state parole board who were there to haul Johnnie Joe back to the slammer on a parole violation. Officers spotted him sitting in a cargo van parked in his cluttered yard – as they approached the vehicle, Johnnie Joe slammed the door, doused the inside of the van with gasoline and lit it up.
“There are a lot of people that will do a lot of things to keep from going back to jail,” Capt. John Bowman said. “To use a flammable liquid to ignite where they are, I have not seen that before.” And see it, they did. There were concerns that Johnnie Joe may have been armed and because of the danger imposed on rescue workers, the fire department didn’t immediately extinguish the blaze. After about 30 minutes, the fire was put out and authorities entered the van to discover Johnnie Joe’s flambéed body in the cab. No weapons were found.
Johnnie Joe Hobbs, 47, is no more. According to the DOC website, Johnnie Joe was convicted for lewd molestation of a child, showing obscene material to a child, and lewd or indecent proposals to a child. Self-immolation – get’s ’em every time.
Source
Related articles by ZemantaMicrosoft CEO Satya Nadella. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith Gartner has published research that shows which companies provide the online services used by multi-billion-dollar companies.
The report, titled "Microsoft Dominates Clould Email in Large Public Companies," looks at how Office 365, the cloud services component, compares to Google's Apps for Work. Garnter looked at over 5,000 companies in total.
According to the research, Microsoft is the winner when it comes to really big business. The top category — a company with over 100,000 employees or revenues of over $10 billion (£7 billion) — sees Microsoft with an 85% share.
The second top category — a company with over 5,000 employees or revenues between $1 billion (£650 million) and $9 billion (£6.3 billion) — has Microsoft with an 80% share.
Google's popularity grew as the companies became smaller, but Microsoft was the clear winner with companies that bought tens of thousands of subscriptions to software services.
Here are the charts (via CMSWire):
Share of online software services in companies, ranked by number of employees.
Microsoft has the biggest share of online cloud services among businesses with over 100,000 employees. Gartner
Share of online software services in companies, ranked by revenue.Agenda
July 26, 2017
NOTICE OF COMMITTEE HEARING CONTINUATION
The Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing entitled: “Oversight of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Attempts to Influence U.S. Elections: Lessons Learned from Current and Prior Administrations” will continue tomorrow, July 27, 2017 at 9:00 a.m. in Room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building.
By order of the Chairman.
July 25, 2017
NOTICE OF COMMITTEE HEARING
LOCATION CHANGE
The Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing entitled: “Oversight of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Attempts to Influence U.S. Elections: Lessons Learned from Current and Prior Administrations” on Wednesday, July 26 at 10:00 a.m., will now be held in Room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building.
By order of the Chairman.
July 19, 2017
RESCHEDULED NOTICE OF COMMITTEE HEARING
The Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing now entitled: “Oversight of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Attempts to Influence U.S. Elections: Lessons Learned from Current and Prior Administrations" originally scheduled for Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building will now be held on Wednesday, July 26, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
By order of the Chairman.
July 18, 2017
NOTICE OF COMMITTEE HEARING POSTPONEMENT
The Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing entitled: “Oversight of the Justice Department’s (Non) Enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act: Lessons from the Obama Administration and Current Compliance Practices" scheduled for Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building has been postponed subject to the call of the chair.
By order of the Chairman.As part of our coverage of the NDP leadership race, we’ll be running interviews with the contenders. First up, Nathan Cullen. We chatted last week.
Q. So I wanted to start with something you said after the debate on Sunday. You made some comment about “doubling down” on your joint nomination proposal … What did you mean by that?
A. Especially early on in this race, there were a number of New Democrats that said, ‘Boy, I like you a lot, but this joint nomination thing is hard for me to get around, you know, I might be interested, but it’s just hard to comprehend.’ Can you nuance it, essentially. Can you soften it? And so over Christmas, we had a couple days and I thought about it. And I can’t. I believe in the policy, I think it’s a good one, it’s certainly worth consideration. And, increasingly, those same folks that expressed hesitation are saying, ‘You know what, the more bad things Harper does, the more it confirms the need to put everything on the table.’ So this is one of those things on the table. So I’m noticing a shift just within the body politic and I also don’t want to be a weathervane politician, trying to bend and guess where the voters are going to be and guess what the people want to hear.
Q. Do you find the support amongst New Democrats is increasing for it? Following you on Twitter I get the sense that it’s a lot of people saying they’re registering for the party for the first time to support you.
A. A good campaign would do both, right? … That’s probably the interesting thing about our campaign: there’s no big institutional group behind it. There’s not a big union sign up behind me or any large natural political group driving people to our campaign. It’s people coming to our campaign. Those people that are getting engaged are at a much more serious and profound level than people who just become instant members for the sake of it. We’re finding it’s also within those conversations that are traditionally New Democrat on the web that people are very much softening their stance. The same commentators that two months ago said this was a line in the sand or it’s not an option are now saying, ‘Well, it at least should be considered, I still don’t love it, but it should be considered.’ And that’s the progression of new thinking. I didn’t expect that I would come out with this policy and everybody would fall over themselves and say, ‘We were wrong all these years, Cullen’s right and we need to make this change today.’ I don’t know about you, but most people, when they’re asked to consider something different take a little bit of time with it. So the length of the race has actually really aided us in our ability to communicate the policy clearly and also give people time to think about what it is that I’m actually proposing.
Q. To take one criticism, Brian Topp says, “if we had made arrangements like this in the last election, based on the results from the one before it, we would never have had that result in the province of Quebec.” How do you respond to that?
A. I didn’t make the proposal before. The proposal is now. And I don’t look backwards to try to figure out what to do next. I look forward. And a majority Stephen Harper government and all of the nasty things he’s proposing for this country, have given people a certain clarity of action. Brian knows better. He’s smarter than that. Trying to apply new proposals in hindsight doesn’t make any sense because the proposal’s for now and for the future. That has come up and when I tell people, ‘Yeah and I didn’t propose it then, I wouldn’t have proposed it then, I propose it now,’ people say, ‘oh, okay.’
Q. I guess his larger point would possibly be that you may cutting off victories that you just wouldn’t expect to have.
A. Yeah, but at the foundation of this idea, the decision is being made by the people who understand best where those possibilities exist. It’s not some little group of backroom guys in Ottawa deciding the map, deciding who gets to run and who doesn’t, it goes right out to the membership. And I think that’s actually causing some people consternation. I’m talking about shifting power away from the centre, away from the leader’s office, away from the party brass and out to the membership. And I’ve also talked about distributing the resources of the leader’s office—it’s way too concentrated right now in official Ottawa. And our membership are hungry to have more resources out in the field. I think it’s something the Conservatives actually did well. They tended to decentralize their workers and their support. I don’t think we’re going to win the next election within that square mile of Parliament. It’s going to be out in the places that do the voting.
Q. Did you know when you proposed this that this would become the signature issue for you? That this would dominate your campaign?
A. No. It’s a means to an end. I’m not married to the details. I believe in the policy, I believe in the approach, but it’s the end that I care about. It’s all those issues that I’ve worked on for years that matter most to me. I didn’t get into the race for this proposal, but it’s obviously provocative. It’s been interesting to engage. And it also opens up completely new doors. As you scan through social media, you’re seeing them. Someone asked us, ‘Do you have a team of social media people who are peppering all the sites?’ We are not that kind of campaign. We don’t have those sort of resources. This has to be natural.
Q. Do you think you can win this race though with that idea?
A. Yeah. Not that it’s a requirement, but for my kind of leadership and the proposals that I would want to put to this party, I need a mandate that says this organization, this community, is open to new ideas. And not just saying new politics, but they actually are. People need to know what kind of leader they are going to get. And I will challenge our own thinking, I will challenge the thinking of the government. So if people aren’t open to new ideas then they shouldn’t vote for me. If people want to stay in a 1972 New Democrat, then they should vote for somebody else because that’s not who I am. I’m not of that generation of progressive people. I’m not of that generation of New Democrats. I believe that there are a few sacred things, but you keep that list very short. Because the more that list grows to include everything, the harder it is for you to get elected and actually make any of the change that you want to make. I was with the Toronto Star ed board yesterday and they asked me, ‘Are you pro-business?’ And it’s like, well, I’m a former businessman, yeah, I’m pro business. And it’s interesting that they even had to ask the question. Because they’re viewing the New Democrats circa 1970 and I’m not one of them. I’m looking forward.
Q. How big of a spectre in this race is Stephen Harper? It seems to me that one of the primary questions is ‘Can we see this person standing toe-to-toe with Harper?’
A. That’s a natural question, of course, because that’s what’s going to happen—you’re going to go against this particular person. I’m a bit cautious of it. I think consuming ourselves with Stephen Harper definitely consumes us in the negative, because we’re talking about all of the bad things happening. And it also makes it about him and I want to make it about us. We have had this great breakthrough, we are celebrating what our last leader did for us and we are thinking about the future. That should be inherently about us and not them. But it’s in this context where a lot of bad stuff’s going on. So it’s hard for someone like me, when I’m looking at the Enbridge pipeline, it’s hard for me to not to invoke what’s happening in my riding and to the people that I care about when talking about leadership. And it will be a part of my leadership, that you just don’t get to do this to Canadians. So that happens. But I think there is a note of caution, that if all it feels like is a complete focus on him and a fixation on him, then we miss more of the opportunities to talk about us.
Q. What do you make of Brian Topp’s tax proposals?
A. It’s got too much of a hint of silver bullet to it. If you do this, then you get to pay for all those social programs. We’ll release our tax plan in a couple weeks, but we’ve decided to also talk about, very much, the need to have wealth generated so you can have a vibrant economy. That’s what ultimately pays for it. Do we need a more fair tax system? Sure. Mitt Romney, according to the Post, would pay less taxes here than he does in the States. You look at that and you go, ‘Okay, there’s something wrong.’ Where billionaires in the U.S. have a tougher time of it than billionaires in Canada. But let’s not have an eat the rich approach to politics in the 21st century. You’ve got to be able to talk with credibility about how it is that you grow a vibrant and sustainable economy.
Q. Do you see other major differences, policy wise, between you and some of the other candidates?
A. I’m the only one that seems to be talking about energy right now, which I think is the absolute elephant in the room for the Canadian and global economy … You know what I’m waiting for from the other candidates is the path to victory. I don’t need to know riding-by-riding, but I need to have that sense that, ‘Okay, this is where we are and this is how we get those seats.’ Some candidates are talking about winning every seat in Quebec and it’s like, ‘Well guys, that’s not a strategy.’ It’s never been done, that would be quite an unusual thing … so let’s talk about where it is that we go from A to B. I want to know that. I want to know that as a New Democrat. I want to know that as a contestant in the race. I’ve talked about one. It’s had some controversy, but it’s also possible. It’s very possible.
Q. One of the things you’ve said is talking about being the practical candidate. Aside from the joint nomination idea, are there three things that epitomize that to you?
A. A lot of this has got to be record … how I’ve been in Parliament. I feel good about my ability to work with others and get something done. I mean, I was on the phone with two Conservative ministers yesterday, talking about Burns Lake, talking about how we’re going to get some help in there and some support … I’ve been really good at pulling money into my riding. I’ve been able to ensure that a place that’s been hard hit economically has been able to be one of the most successful places in the country for receiving help from government. So that’s important to me. Getting more votes than anybody ever has in Skeena means that I’m not just drawing from a New Democratic pool, I have a pretty broad appeal. There’s certain projects that I’m really proud of that we pulled off. I don’t come at things with such deep ideology as to not be able to listen to people.
Q. What the NDP has done over the last seven years, in terms of working with other parties, in terms of broadening its message out, do you want to be an extension of that?
A. It’s why I joined. When I saw this party nominate and elect Jack and he talked about proposal, not just opposing, when he talked about pragmatism, all of those things spoke to me. It spoke to me of change. And not just winning debating contests and being the so-called conscious of Parliament. This is a short life we have and you want to make sure that everyday you’re spending it getting something good done. And that only happens if you’re extremely focused. Especially in politics, where you can get wrapped up in all sorts of minutiae of debates.Breaking news. (Photo: USA TODAY)
BANGKOK - Thai media are reporting that two small bombs have exploded in the popular seaside resort town of Hua Hin, leaving at least one person dead and 20 others injured.
Reports late Thursday night on the web sites of the Thai Rath newspaper and other media said the bombs were hidden in planters on a busy street with open-front bars. The victims include Thais and foreign tourists, whose nationalities were not immediately known, according to the reports.
The reported fatality was a female street food vendor.
It was not clear who was behind the attack, but the timing suggested it might be an effort to embarrass the military government that took power two years ago.
Hua Hin is about 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Bangkok.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2bklNR4A vigilante campaign in North Carolina has successfully purged thousands of minority voters from the rolls. Photo by JOSHUA LOTT/AFP/Getty Images
In North Carolina, any person can revoke any other person’s voting rights without their knowledge. The process is simple: Someone sends a letter to thousands of people at once based on the address listed on their voter registration. He then gathers all mail returned as undeliverable, and sends another letter to those addresses, informing them that they are being removed from the voter rolls. If the voter does not appear at a county board of elections or return a notarized form, her voting rights are nullified. How easy is that?
Recently, Republicans in North Carolina have used this method to purge thousands of voters, most of them black Democrats, from the rolls. The NAACP has sued, alleging a violation of the National Voter Registration Act, whose procedural safeguards limit |
: If a joint needs to be re-lit at all, or a bowl needs more than a couple of seconds from a lighter.
Strange taste or smell
Headaches, painful coughing, burning throat, or a n e xtremely lethargic feeling are physical signs.
Any visible sparks or loud audible crackling (should not be confused with the natural sound of burning plant matter).
Medical marijuana patients aren't doing back alley deals, so they should be provided with proper and safe meds. However, medical marijuana is far from having any type of universal safety regulations being put in place, so the burden of keeping patients safe is on themselves.
Let's take a look at some examples of the different types of ash :
Black Ash
As stated abov e, black ash is a one of the signs of imp ro per flushing, so the testing had to go on...for science. Here is a photo of a joint of the same meds :
There are white/gray parts in the ash, but the dark black patches are not a go od thing. You want to have minimal amounts of those. The biggest s ign was that th e joint in the photos went out within a minute, and this was after being smoked relatively quickly.
If the photos merely look normal, then it may be time to explore other collective s.
White/Gray Ash
The ash should resemble cig ar et t e ash as much as possible. I know that is a horrible comparison to use, but it is the truth. Cigarettes, as harmful and de adly as they are, still nee d to pass a set of standards to be sold to people. Medical Marijuana does N OT, aside from voluntary testing, which a vast m ajo rity of the time does not inclu de pesticide residue or latent nutrient testing.
This year marks the 17th year for medical mar ijuana in CA, so it's about time to hold collectives to a much higher set of standa rds. Im properly or poor fly flushed are, sadly, the norm these days. Connoisseur quality isn't just about getting a better high, or better smelling and tasting meds. It's about better quality medicine that is also safer. Seeing patients flock to sub par quality collective s is like watching peop le pick fast food over steak. The saddest part is that the "steak" is, often times, the same price as the "fast food" in this situation.
Stop eating fast food...get some steak.
EDIT: Please keep in mind that all of the a bove listed sign s should be kept in mind. Ash color is only ONE sign, but is the easiest to portray in photographs.
Labels: THOUGHTSThe Syrian Government’s use of sarin gas this week in rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun, whether ordered by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or not, has created an inflection point in American foreign and security policy. President Trump condemned the sarin attack, indicating it changed his view of Assad – then took decisive action Thursday evening, launching an estimated 60 cruise missiles at the Al-Sharyat airbase in the Homs area, with early reports of Syrian aircraft damaged.
This swift kinetic response was important on many levels. It tells Assad the game is up on sarin. It tells North Korea to stand by, as they may be next. It tells Russia, China and American detractors that Obama is really gone, the days of non-engagement by America over, and days of proportionate kinetic response are back. America will not sit silent.
As a former Assistant Secretary of State and Naval Intelligence Officer, the difficulty balancing kinetic response and forward-leaning diplomacy is hard, situationally dependent and fraught with potential error. President Trump struck the perfect balance. He made clear his revulsion at Syrian use of sarin, set global expectations for a diplomatic shift and kinetic response, delivered the promised retaliation, and remains fully engaged.
This is not an incidental win, this is critical. Credible deterrence of sarin worldwide depended on a swift, meaningful American response, particularly in view of past disappointments. Use of sarin by Assad, the lethal nerve agent invented by Nazi Germany in 1939, represented a diplomatic game-changer.
Trump saw this immediately. Nerve agents were banned after World War I, based on their horrific effects. Pictures displayed at the United Nations this week, including children dying of sarin, confirmed the horror.
President Trump did not hesitate, which by itself sends a startling message to the world. Don’t call his bluff – it is not a bluff. Here was a new “shot heard round the world” -- or rather 60 of them. A United Nations condemnation is due, with a unified call on Russia to renounce continued support for Assad.
That said, American strikes on the offending Syrian airbase were obviously well-planned and proportionate. They show how easily the US can, if it wants, evade Russian and Syrian air defenses, penetrating Syrian airspace at will, no handwringing. Russia will also not forget that.
All this has the flavor of Reagan’s strike on Libya in 1986, and Israel’s on the Iraqi nuclear plant in 1981. Reagan’s 1986 Libya strike, Operation El Dorado Canyon, was in direct retaliation for Libya’s 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing. He wasted no time, set Muammar Qaddafi back. Not surprisingly Qaddafi began immediate internal reforms, his “revolution within the revolution.” Reagan changed that game. Similarly, the 1981 strike on Iraq, Operation Opera, was intended to have material effect – and did.
So, what next? Continued and constructive engagement. The first priority is to end any future use of sarin. While this strike may do it, it may not. Prepare for another. If another is needed, it should hit Syria’s command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I).
Alternatively, the next kinetic strike could hit the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate or National Security Bureau, both formerly involved in chemical attacks. Former Syrian General Adnan Sillou has been quoted saying that “just two people have the power to order a chemical weapons attack aside from Assad …,” heads of these two bureaus. Another option is to hit one or both with a robust, retaliatory cyber-attack. This is the stuff of credible deterrence.
Diplomatically, the kinetic response, new American resolve, and universal international condemnation of Assad should be leveraged to dissuade Russia from continued support for the Syrian leader. This should be top priority for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when he visits Moscow next month. Now, he has capital to work with.
President Trump appears to be reasserting American moral leadership, as President Reagan once did. This event boldly called him out, and we should all be glad it did. He apparently heard the call, did not hesitate, did not over or under calibrate, and did not tweet.
What he did is what Reagan would have done. He called it straight, relied on his top diplomat and top military leader to help him set global expectations, and delivered a heart punch. Message sent. Let us hope the message was heard at the other end of the line. We will soon see in Moscow.
Hats off to U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Secretary Rex Tillerson, and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis too – for being prepared. As diplomacy takes over, America should give Russia every reason to join a broad international coalition accelerating Assad’s departure. Sarin is impermissible, full stop. That makes Assad impermissible.
The only thing left is a strong, Reagan-like – or perhaps Jacksonian – speech from the Oval Office explaining that the civilized world will not tolerate sarin, and – on this 100th anniversary of America’s entry into World War I – we will never again allow that kind of horror.
America is once again a moral leader, and we should invite the world once again to join us. For most, that should not be a hard call.It's happening all over again. The ritual that abortion providers go through when they learn that one of their own has been slain or terrorized by the anti abortion hate mongers. You're in your garden, or cleaning your garage, and you get a call from someone who is online. Then the phone calls begin...the disbelief, sobbing, remembering a very wonderful man. And eventually the anger. Although we are in shock, we are not surprised. Dr. Tiller has been targeted before and has spent most of his time defending himself against anti's at the clinic and in the Kansas government with several criminal complaints. In March he was acquitted of 16 counts of "failing to get a second opinion."
And many providers have noticed an increase in harassment outside clinics. So much so that providers have started Enough! Basta! Stop Bullying at Women's Clinics with a page on Facebook under that name. The group has raised about $2000 to put videos of harassment on the internet so that the public can understand the context of hate outside clinics. There is more information at the ACN website as well as a place to donate. To get directly to the FAcebook Cause page click here
If you are as saddened or as outraged as I am right now, make a donation, no matter how small, and share your feelings with your friends, co workers, and favorite blogs.The edge of the solar system is tied up with a ribbon, astronomers have discovered. The first global map of the solar system reveals that its edge is nothing like what had been predicted. Neutral atoms, which are the only way to image the fringes of the solar system, are densely packed into a narrow ribbon rather than evenly distributed.
“Our maps show structure and energy spectra that are completely different from what any model has predicted,” says study co-author Herbert Funsten of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer satellite, or IBEX, discovered the narrow ribbon, which completes nearly a full circle across the sky. The density of neutral atoms in the band is two to three times that in adjacent regions.
These and related findings, reported in six papers posted online Oct. 15 in Science, will not only send theorists back to the drawing board, researchers say, but may ultimately provide new insight on the interaction between the heliosphere — the vast bubble in which the solar system resides — and surrounding space.
The bubble is inflated by solar wind, the high-speed stream of charged particles blowing out from the sun to the solar system’s very edge. For 48 years, researchers have assumed that the solar wind sculpted the structure at the heliosphere’s boundary with interstellar space, says Tom Krimigis of Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. But the newly found ribbon’s orientation suggests that the galaxy’s magnetic field, just outside the heliosphere, seems to be the chief organizer of structure in this region, says theorist Nathan Schwadron of Boston University, a lead author of one of the studies.
It’s not known whether the ribbon lasts for just a few years or is a permanent feature.
Equally puzzling are observations of the same boundary region with an instrument on the Cassini spacecraft, which recorded the density of atoms at higher energies, above 6,000 electron volts. From its vantage point at Saturn, Cassini sees a belt rather than a ribbonlike structure, a team led by Krimigis also reports in Science. The belt is substantially broader than the ribbon seen by IBEX but is in the same general area.
The heliosphere shields the solar system from 90 percent of energetic cosmic rays — high-speed charged particles that would otherwise bombard the planets and harm life. Understanding more about the heliosphere and its ability to filter out galactic cosmic rays could be critical for assessing the safety of human space travel, Schwadron notes. The new findings may also help predict how the heliosphere varies in shape and size as it moves through the galaxy and encounters regions of space having different densities and magnetic field strengths.
The ribbon found by IBEX, recorded at energies between 200 and 6,000 electron volts, is brightest at about 1,000 electron volts and lies between about 100 and 125 astronomical units from the sun, notes David McComas of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. One astronomical unit is the distance between the Earth and the sun. The atoms recorded by IBEX, which orbits Earth, took a year or two, depending on their energies, to reach the craft from the outer edge of the heliosphere.
The IBEX ribbon runs perpendicular to the direction of the galaxy’s magnetic field at the interstellar boundary, an indication that the field has a much stronger than expected influence on the sun’s environs, report Schwadron and his colleagues. One possibility is that pressure from this external magnetic field has forced particles just inside the heliosphere to bunch together into a ribbon.
“First and foremost, this is a big surprise because we thought we know a lot about this region, the edge of the heliosphere,” McComas says. The Voyager 1 craft in 2004 (Science News: 1/3/04, p. 7) and the Voyager 2 craft in 2007 (Science News: 8/2/08, p. 7) journeyed to opposite sides of this fringe region of the solar system and crossed the termination shock — where the solar wind encounters a shock that precedes the influx of particles drifting into the solar system from interstellar space. Both craft recorded the density of particles and the strength of the magnetic fields.
Both Voyager 1 and 2 missed seeing the newly found ribbon because it spans a region between their flight paths, says McComas. No existing model can explain the ribbon, he adds, which was found independently by two instruments on IBEX.
Researchers had assumed that the pressure from the solar wind would compress in the heliosphere in the direction that the solar system was moving through space and create a cometlike tail in the opposite direction, notes Krimigis. “Now we know that’s wrong,” he says.
IBEX has also generated the first maps of neutral hydrogen and oxygen atoms entering the solar system from interstellar space. Previous observations had traced only incoming helium atoms. The sensitivity of the IBEX instruments allowed researchers to record the relatively small number of oxygen atoms that travel from beyond the termination shock, about 16 billion kilometers from Earth, to the spacecraft, notes study co-author Stephen Fuselier of the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, California.
Hydrogen atoms are more abundant than either helium or oxygen but their low mass means they are easily swept aside by the high-speed solar wind and can’t readily be detected. The sun’s unusually low activity during the current minimum in the solar cycle allowed more of the hydrogen atoms from the outer heliosphere to travel unimpeded to the inner solar system, enabling IBEX to record those atoms, Fuselier says.
*Images: 1) NASA. 2) Southwest Research Institute.
*
See Also:New poll data from NBC/WSJ shows that Hillary Clinton's lead over Donald Trump in a two-way race significantly shrank after the second presidential debate on Sunday.
This post has been updated. Please see updates at the end of the post.
A new NBC/WSJ poll shows that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton lost significant ground in post-debate surveys of likely voters. According to the survey data collected by NBC/WSJ on October 10, the only post-debate day for which data are available, Clinton’s lead in two-way race is only two percentage points. In a four-way race, the post-debate data shows a Clinton lead of five percentage points.
The October 10 survey data can be ascertained by comparing the NBC/WSJ poll data from the pre-debate surveys on October 8 and 9 to the aggregated poll results from surveys conducted on October 8, 9, and 10.
According to the poll, Hillary Clinton received 52 percent of the two-way vote in the October 8-9 likely voter survey, compared to Trump’s 38 percent. In the October 8-10 two-way survey, Clinton received 50 percent to Trump’s 40 percent among likely voters. Since we have data from the first two days (October 8-9), and the full three days (Oct. 8-10), we can ascertain the survey data from just October 10, which is the only post-debate day in the poll. Here’s the quick math on that.
We know we have three days of data. We also have data on the average of the first two days. Using simple arithmetic, we can get the Clinton number for the third day, which we’ll call x: (52% + 52% + x) / 3 = 50%. By solving for x, we get a third-day support number for Clinton of 46 percent. We’ll do the same for Trump’s numbers: (38% + 38% + y) / 3 = 40%. Solving for y gives us 44% for Trump. Therefore, the only truly post-debate data in the NBC/WSJ “post-debate” poll actually shows a 2-point two-way race between Clinton (46%) and Trump (44%).
To figure out the four-way numbers, we’ll do the exact same math. The October 8-9 poll shows Clinton with 46 percent support compared to Trump’s 35 percent in a four-way race. The October 8-10 poll shows Clinton with 46 percent support compared to 37 percent for Trump. To determine Clinton’s polling numbers on just October 10, the equation is: (46% + 46% + x) / 3 = 46%. In this case, her support on October 10 was unchanged at 46 percent. To determine Trump’s October 10 support, the equation is: (35% + 35% + y) / 3 = 37%. Based on the polling data from NBC/WSJ, Trump’s support after the debate increased to 41 percent. As a result, the only post-debate data in the NBC/WSJ survey shows Clinton with a 5-point lead in a four-way race, 46 percent to 41 percent for Trump.
Unfortunately, the headline on NBC’s news article trumpeting the new poll numbers — “Post-Debate Poll Shows Clinton Holding 9-Point Lead Over Trump” — radically mischaracterizes the results of its own poll. The post-debate poll data showed nothing of the sort. In fact, the post-debate data actually show Hillary Clinton with a mere 5-point lead in the four-way race and a 2-point lead in the two-way race. The inclusion of data from two pre-debate days is required to show a 9-point Clinton lead in the four-way race.
It is unclear why NBC not only buried the lede about its own post-debate polling showing a tight race, but why it felt compelled to mischaracterize its own mixed poll, which combined pre- and post-debate survey data, as a purely post-debate poll. The only post-debate data in the survey shows a close race and a dwindling Clinton lead. Whether that dynamic will continue is obviously yet to be seen.
The third and final presidential debate of the 2016 election season will be held on October 19 in Las Vegas.
UPDATE: A reader points out the breakdown of interviews per day which slightly impacts the arithmetic detailed above. The poll states that 500 registered voter interviews were conducted October 8-9 and 400 were conducted after the debate on October 10. For the two-way numbers, the Hillary math would then look like this: (250/900 * 52%) + (250/900 * 52%) + (400/900 * x) = 50%. Using that math, Clinton would be at 47.5 percent in the October 10 post-debate survey. For Trump, the two-way math would be: (250/900 * 38%) + (250/900 * 38%) + (400/900 * y) = 40%. That would put Trump at 42.5 percent following the debate. Those results show Clinton’s pre-debate lead of 14 percentage points shrinking to just 5 percentage points following the debate.
For the four-way numbers, the Clinton math would be: (250/900 * 46%) + (250/900 * 46%) + (400/900 * 46) = 46%. That would put Clinton’s post-debate level of support at 46%. For Trump, the equation would be: (250/900 * 35%) + (250/900 * 35%) + (400/900 * y) = 37%. That would put Trump’s support at 39.5 percent post-debate, giving Clinton a 6.5-point lead following the debate, compared to an 11-point lead before the debate.Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
HP/Twitter screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET
When I think of HP, I think of a once famous name that's waiting for its Matthew McConaughey image rebirth.
Oh, that's a lie. I barely think of HP at all, save when my printer runs out of ink. Again.
Perhaps, then, the company aspires to a little extra saliency in order to recapture minds. That might have been the motivation for a Twitter post on Friday, in which HP took one look at Lenovo's security problems and decided to tweet a scoff.
Should you have been temporarily incarcerated for smiling at a police officer over the last 24 hours, you may not know that Lenovo admitted to inserting adware into its laptops, leaving the owners denuded of protection from spammers.
HP took one look at this difficult situation and didn't think: "There but for the grace of a tipsy evening of decision-making go we."
Instead, it posted this message to Twitter: "The only thing you should have to think of when someone says Superfish." This was accompanied by an image of a piece of sushi.
Clearly, salmon at HP thought this funny. Very funny, even.
The tweet even linked to an HP blog post, where the company explained: "HP, like virtually every other major manufacturer on [sic] consumer laptops, does preinstall software to enhance customer experience, but there is a key difference between most preinstalled software and Superfish. Superfish exposes customers to security vulnerabilities, is not easily removable, and hides its code from everyday users."
Perhaps HP believes that its security systems are insuperable. Yet if there's one thing that seems to unite almost every gadget that people use on a daily basis, it's that none of them is entirely (or even at all) secure.
Whether it's Samsung's Smart TVs listening into your sofa talk (and the recordings allegedly not being so encrypted) or famous actors having their private iPhone photos exposed for all to see, none of us can have complete confidence that what we type or search isn't being monitored by someone out there.
So any brand can chuckle and claim to own a blissfully safe environment.
Suddenly, though, where once it came over facetious with fish, its own face might be covered with egg.A bakery that has served up sweet treats in Bixby Knolls for nearly 70 years may be forced to shut down — and there’s not much the owner can do about it.
That’s because the business, Alsace Lorraine Fine Pastries, is tangled up in a dispute between the city and its landlord, Khien Chi Ngo, over a past decision to rent the space next door to a medical marijuana dispensary, even though Long Beach had banned such businesses in 2012.
Between March 2012 and August 2014 the city issued 424 citations against Ngo, tickets that today total nearly $1.2 million with penalties and interest, according to city documents. During that time, Long Beach also revoked his commercial business license, which meant he wasn’t allowed to lease any of his properties at 4332-4336 Atlantic Avenue.
But he continued renting the spaces out, and in 2014, sold the bakery business to new owners who say they were unaware of the existing conflict.
The bakery was first opened in 1947 by a German immigrant and his wife and some of the original recipes that have been passed down through the years are still used today.
Representing the bakery is attorney Arthur Travieso of Rallo Law Firm, who says Alsace Lorraine has been unable to get a business license from the city for about two years now, although it does hold a valid health permit.
And on Tuesday the City Council is expected to issue a final denial of a business license to the owner, a decision that cannot be appealed again.
Travieso said he and his client believe the city is being impractical.
“If you make it impossible for Ngo to rent to a legitimate business, you’re putting that person in a place where the only business they will rent to are ones that will be far less likeable to the general public,” he said.
But Deputy City Attorney Monica Kilaita said the city cannot allow the property owner to lease the business without a commercial business license, which will not be reinstated until the liens are settled. She said they have received no “substantial” offer from Ngo to settle the financial dispute.
That could be, in part, because Ngo is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the city over its medical marijuana ban, which he argues was unconstitutional. That issue is currently playing out in the state court of appeals, City Attorney Charles Parkin said.
Blair Cohn, executive director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association, said he arranged a conversation between the city and property owner about a year ago after Ngo came to him with concerns about the situation.
But, he said, Ngo wasn’t willing to pay anything to the city so things remained unchanged.
In what Cohnn called a “year of fruition” for Bixby Knolls, an area that has seen a number of new businesses open up, including restaurants, breweries and retail markets, he said the ongoing conflict has been a “black eye” for the blossoming corridor.
Ngo did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Still, Travieso is hopeful the city may reconsider its fines against Ngo now that medical marijuana businesses are allowed in the city. Residents voted on Nov. 8 to repeal the ban rooted at the center of the years-long dispute.
“It’s ironic because this whole thing is tangentially connected to this larger controversy in Long Beach about marijuana … but if the attitudes are changing then why is there this vestigial resistance to my client’s ability to run a bakery?” Travieso said. “It would be a refreshing change of pace to see a city be practical.”
City Prosecutor Doug Haubert said in light of the new laws, his office may consider reevaluating marijuana-related lawsuits on a case-by-case basis.
“In some instances, a dismissal of the case might be appropriate, but in other instances, just because the law changed doesn’t mean that someone shouldn’t have consequences because they violated the law when the conduct was illegal,” he said.
The council meets Tuesday at 5 p.m., at 333 W. Ocean Blvd.Watch the Insanity of American School Drop-Off
This video nicely encapsulates how ridiculous American school transportation has become in the era of parental chauffeurs.
It shows an experiment by the North Carolina Department of Transportation to keep school drop-off at Unionville Elementary School — located in a sprawling, semi-rural area outside Charlotte — from backing up onto the road that runs by it:
The experimental technique consists of the double lane of cars snaking through the parking lot. That was not enough, however, to keep traffic from spilling over. You can see the queue reach the roadway just before 7 a.m. and spill over onto the highway soon after. Also notice the five or so employees (or volunteers) helping get kids safely from the car door to the school entrance. That whole process takes almost an hour.
David Bruce, who posted the video, says the NCDOT pilot was not deemed successful enough to continue permanently.
According to Bruce, Unionville does have school buses, but many parents think they come too early, so they drop their children off on their way to work. The school draws from a radius of about 15 miles, so not all kids could walk or bike even if it were safe to do so.
From the looks of it, no kids can walk or bike to Unionville Elementary school. Better planning can help avoid this kind of situation in many cases. Schools trying to avoid transportation headaches can site the school in a relatively walkable area, near more homes. Sidewalks and bike lanes, of course, also help.Getty Images
The signals about Saints tight end Jimmy Graham’s status for Sunday have been mixed.
We reported on Tuesday that Graham was expected to be in the New Orleans lineup despite an ankle injury, but Wednesday’s practice came and went without Graham getting on the field. That obviously nudged the needle toward the negative on Graham’s chances of playing against the Buccaneers.
The needle moved in the other direction on Thursday. Graham was on the practice field in a limited fashion, raising hope that the Saints will have him available as they try to keep climbing out of the 0-4 hole they dug for themselves. Larry Holder of the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that interim coach Aaron Kromer said Graham does not need to practice fully in order to play in this week’s game, which should mean we go down to the last minute when it comes to Graham’s status.
Kromer also said that the decision about whether linebacker Jonathan Vilma will go down to the wire. That particular wire is a bit earlier in Vilma’s case as the Saints would need to put him on the active roster on Saturday afternoon in order for him to play on Sunday.Bob McKenzie TSN Hockey Insider Follow|Archive
Pittsburgh Penguin owners Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux have hired Morgan Stanley to explore the possibility of selling some or all of the NHL franchise.
It doesn't mean Burkle and Lemieux are necessarily getting out but they are looking at various options. It's believed Lemieux, perhaps more than Burkle, may have an interest in getting his equity share out of the franchise.
The team released a statement on Wednesday evening to discuss the process.
"We conduct periodic reviews of our business and, because we have received several inquiries about the franchise in recent years, we decided to engage Morgan Stanley for their insight and counsel," Lemieux and Burkle said in a joint statement. "After buying the team out of bankruptcy, ensuring its long-term future in Pittsburgh and creating a strong foundation for continued success, we believe it is time to explore our options."
Even if Lemieux and/or Burkle decide to sell, they have some interest in retaining some involvement or connection with the team.
"Our goal all along was to solidify the franchise both on and off the ice," Lemieux said. "Our star players are signed to long-term contracts, they've got a deep and passionate base to support them, and I believe the Penguins are well-positioned for the future. Regardless of what happens, I plan on staying involved with the team in some capacity, and Ron and I plan to retain an ownership stake."
Morgan Stanley is the same company that facilitated the sale of the Buffalo Sabres to Terry Pegula.Walking Dead Actress Laurie Holden Proves She’s Just As Bad-Ass In Real Life As She Helps Catch Sex Traffickers In Columbia!
This is absolutely in-friggin-credible.
Laurie Holden, most famous for her portrayal of Andrea on The Walking Dead, has proven that not only did she play a badass zombie killer, but she’s apparently a badass in real life!
The actress worked alongside an organization known as Operation Underground Railroad that targets sex traffickers on a mission in Colombia where she helped them rescue 55 underage sex workers.
[ Related: 5 Things You Missed From The Walking Dead Premiere! ]
Oh, and the entire thing was caught on camera for Nightline!
The sting itself proved to be complicated because in Colombia money must be exchanged before legal action can be taken against sex traffickers, so the organization set up a fake bachelor party where the payment would take place.
So, what was Laurie’s part in all of this?
While the arrest happens, the actress and a bunch of social workers move in to comfort the girls while an arrest is happening.
Heartbreakingly enough, the girls only seem concerned about one thing…
Whether they’ll be paid for their services or not.
The entire video is absolutely heartbreaking to watch and you can clearly see the toll it takes on Laurie.
However, the work that she and Operation Underground Railroad are doing is, clearly, incredibly important.
Keep on being a baddass both onscreen and off, gurl!
You can watch the whole crazy ordeal for yourself (below)!!!Sen. Jim DeMint said Thursday he’ll resign from the Senate to go run the Heritage Foundation, the powerhouse conservative think tank that dominates Republican policy circles.
“It’s been an honor to serve the people of South Carolina in United States Senate for the past eight years, but now it’s time for me to pass the torch to someone else and take on a new role in the fight for America’s future,” Mr. DeMint said in a statement announcing the news.
He will step down from the Senate in January and will take over for Heritage President Edwin J. Feulner in April.
Mr. DeMint, a tea party favorite who became a major electoral force in the 2010 elections, helping promote tea party candidates in primaries against establishment GOP favorites, said he’s ready to shift to the policy arena.
He said he never intended for the Senate to be a career for him. He previously served six years in the House and won election to the Senate in 2004 and re-election in 2010.
His seat is safe for Republicans, with the GOP firmly in control of South Carolina’s political landscape and Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, able to pick his immediate successor.
Mr. Feulner, who co-founded the Heritage Foundation in the 1970s and has been its president since 1977, said Mr. DeMint is the right man to succeed him.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.President Trump presented ambitious and strong promises and platforms during his campaign to "make America great again," ranging from building a border wall to seeking to prosecute former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
But since then, he's made some startling shifts as he approaches the end of his first 100 days in office, disappointing some supporters, while leaving others unfazed. A whopping 96 percent of Mr. Trump's voters said they would vote for him again, according to a recent ABC/Washington Post poll. Here are the positions and promises on which Mr. Trump has done an about-face.
1. Export-Import Bank
President Donald Trump railed against the Export-Import Bank -- the export credit agency wholly owned by the federal government -- which supports exporters by helping foreign entities with loans so that they can purchase American-made products. During his campaign, he called it "feather bedding for politicians and others."
But, earlier this month, he said he had changed his mind and now believes the system is good, produces jobs and pays for itself.
"Instinctively, you would say, 'Isn't that a ridiculous thing,'" Trump told The Wall Street Journal. "But actually, it's a very good thing. And it actually makes money, it could make a lot of money."
2. Staying out of the Middle East
Throughout his campaign, Mr. Trump emphasized avoiding conflicts in the Middle East and focusing on domestic issues, trumpeting an "America first" policy stance.
But by April, that stance apparently shifted, with Mr. Trump authorizing a strike on a Syrian airbase in response to a deadly chemical weapons attack, and allowing the U.S. military to drop the "mother of all bombs" on a network of ISIS tunnels in Afghanistan.
3. Striking Syria without congressional approval
In 2013, before entering the 2016 presidential race, Mr. Trump decried the possibility that former President Barack Obama would use military force in Syria without congressional authorization.
What will we get for bombing Syria besides more debt and a possible long term conflict? Obama needs Congressional approval. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2013
A few weeks back, Mr. Trump authorized an air strike on the Syrian airbase where he said the chemical weapon attack originated. He indicated that watching the deaths of children shifted his perspective.
4. Treating NATO as "obsolete"
During his 2016 presidential bid, Mr. Trump called NATO "obsolete."
But earlier this month, he praised the organization and said he believes the U.S. can accomplish much through its partnership.
"I said it was obsolete; it's no longer obsolete," the president said.
Later, in an interview with the Associated Press, the president admitted he didn't know much about NATO when he called NATO "obsolete," and said he knows much more now.
5. Border wall
During his campaign, Mr. Trump insisted Mexico would pay for a wall bordering it and the U.S. to keep out immigrants here illegally.
But in recent weeks, the president has pushed Congress to pay for the wall with American tax dollars.
6. Hillary Clinton
During his campaign against former Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump strongly attacked her credibility and trustworthiness, saying in October 2016 that if he won, he would instruct his attorney general to "get a special prosecutor to look into your situation" involving the private email server.
But immediately after the election, he reversed course on prosecuting Clinton, saying, "I don't want to hurt the Clintons, I really don't.... It's just not something that I feel very strongly about."
7. Golfing
During his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump decried then-President Barack Obama's time on the golf course, saying he wouldn't have time for such leisurely activities in office.
"I'm going to be working for you, I'm not going to have time to go play golf," he said at a Virginia rally last year.
But Mr. Trump has golfed more than any recent president in his first 100 days — 19 days. Obama, by contrast, didn't golf a single day in his first 100 days on the job.
8. Labeling China a currency manipulator
Mr. Trump promised to label China a currency manipulator on day one of his presidency, going as far to say China was "ripping us off" as a nation in May 2016.
Not only did he fail to do that on his first day in office, but the president did a complete 180-degree turn on the issue earlier this month, saying he would no longer label the People's Republic of China as such.
"They're not currency manipulators," Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, adding that he thinks the American dollar is too strong.
President Trump's policy shifts
9. Janet Yellen and interest rates
During his campaign, Mr. Trump called Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen a very "political" person, claiming she was keeping interest rates low to help former President Barack Obama. From his remarks, she didn't appear to have a good shot at staying in |
tests and has signed up to increasingly tough United Nations sanctions.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China would lodge a diplomatic protest with North Korea at its embassy in Beijing for conducting the test.
Beijing has also repeatedly expressed anger since the United States and South Korea decided in July to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system in the South to counter missile and nuclear threats from North Korea.
China says this is a threat to its own security and will do nothing to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table on its nuclear program.
China's official Xinhua news agency, in a commentary after North Korea confirmed the test, said it was shocking and unwise and would only "add oil to the flames".
But it added that nobody benefited from chaos or war in Korea and all parties in the international community should exercise restraint and avoid doing anything that is "mutually irritating".
"Not long along, South Korea ignored the strong opposition of neighboring countries and decided to deploy the THAAD system, which is diametrically opposed to efforts to maintain peace and stability on the peninsula, has seriously damaged regional strategic balance and caused a rise in tensions on the peninsula."
Previous recent comments from China following North Korean missile tests, including one on Monday when China was hosting the G20 summit, have pointedly not mentioned North Korea by name.
One senior Beijing-based Western official, who has worked in Pyongyang, said China had little influence and no control over North Korea, despite the popular perception in Washington.
"The North Koreans don't like the Chinese and certainly don't listen to them," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
It's also a misunderstanding to think that the North's youthful leader Kim Jong Un is unhinged, he added.
"The North Korean leadership knows exactly what they are doing and how far they can push things. They know it would be the end of their country if they really provoked a war as the Americans would just flatten them."
ADVANCE WARNING
Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership, said he was fairly confident that North Korea would have given Russia and China advance warning of the test.
Choe Son Hui, North Korea's negotiator for the stalled talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program, visited Beijing this week, while Yun Tong Hyon, the vice chief of the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces, led a North Korean military delegation to Moscow this week.
"Both would have direct knowledge about a forthcoming test and would be tasked to pass along a heavily implicit message," said Madden.
Hua, the Chinese spokeswoman, said she had no information to provide on whether Beijing received advance warning.
She would also not be drawn on whether China would support further sanctions, saying only that it has fulfilled previous U.N. resolutions and would continue to take a responsible and constructive attitude toward talks at the Security Council.
Another Beijing-based diplomatic source said the level of Beijing's anger with South Korea could be seen with what he termed as the unusually strong public comments about THAAD by President Xi Jinping when he met South Korea's president this week on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
"Mishandling the issue is not conducive to strategic stability in the region and could intensify disputes," Xi was quoted by China's Foreign Ministry as saying.
The diplomatic source said it was not expected that China would publicize such comments. "China blames South Korea and the United States just as much as it does North Korea for the current state of tensions," the source said.
To be sure, there is little public sympathy in China for Kim, who is derisively referred to on Chinese social media as "Fatty Kim the Third" after his father and grandfather.This article is about the festival observed on the traditional Chinese calendar. For the first day of the year observed on other lunar or lunisolar calendars, see Lunar New Year
Chinese New Year[a] (or generally referred to as Lunar New Year globally) is the Chinese festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional Chinese calendar. The festival is usually referred to as the Spring Festival in mainland China,[b] and is one of several Lunar New Years in Asia. Observances traditionally take place from the evening preceding the first day of the year to the Lantern Festival, held on the 15th day of the year. The first day of Chinese New Year begins on the new moon that appears between 21 January and 20 February.[2] In 2019, the first day of the Chinese New Year was on Tuesday, 5 February, initiating the Year of the Pig.
Chinese New Year is a major holiday in Greater China and has strongly influenced lunar new year celebrations of China's neighbouring cultures, including the Korean New Year (seol), the Tết of Vietnam, and the Losar of Tibet.[3] It is also celebrated worldwide in regions and countries with significant Overseas Chinese populations, including Singapore,[4] Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar,[5] Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines,[6] and Mauritius,[7] as well as many in North America and Europe.[8][9][10]
Chinese New Year is associated with several myths and customs. The festival was traditionally a time to honour deities as well as ancestors.[11] Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the New Year vary widely,[12] and the evening preceding Chinese New Year's Day is frequently regarded as an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner. It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly clean their house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for incoming good luck. Another custom is the decoration of windows and doors with red paper-cuts and couplets. Popular themes among these paper-cuts and couplets include that of good fortune or happiness, wealth, and longevity. Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes. For the northern regions of China, dumplings are featured prominently in meals celebrating the festival.
Offerings to the gods.
History [ edit ]
Chinese New Year in Singapore Chinatown.
Chinese New Year eve in Meizhou on 8 February 2005.
Chinese New Year in Kobe, Japan
[13] In Interactive chart of the dates of Chinese New Year from 1912 to 2101.In the SVG graphic, hover over or click a year on the left to highlight an almost-repeating block of 19 years starting with that year.
The lunisolar Chinese calendar determines the date of Lunar New Year. The calendar is also used in countries that have been influenced by, or have relations with, China – such as Korea, Japan and Vietnam, though occasionally the date celebrated may differ by one day or even one moon cycle due to using a meridian based on a different capital city in a different time zone or different placements of intercalary months.[14]
Chinese calendar defines the lunar month with winter solstice as the 11th month, which means that Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice (rarely the third if an intercalary month intervenes).[15] In more than 96% of the years, the Chinese New Year's Day is the closest new moon to lichun (Chinese: 立春; "start of spring") on 4 or 5 February, and the first new moon after Dahan (Chinese: 大寒; "major cold"). In the Gregorian calendar, the Lunar New Year begins at the new moon that falls between 21 January and 20 February.[13][verification needed]
The Gregorian Calendar dates for Chinese New Year from 1912 to 2101 are below, along with the year's presiding animal zodiac and its Stem-branch. The traditional Chinese calendar follows a Metonic cycle, a system used by the modern Jewish Calendar, and returns to the same date in Gregorian calendar roughly. The names of the Earthly Branches have no English counterparts and are not the Chinese translations of the animals. Alongside the 12-year cycle of the animal zodiac there is a 10-year cycle of heavenly stems. Each of the ten heavenly stems is associated with one of the five elements of Chinese astrology, namely: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. The elements are rotated every two years while a yin and yang association alternates every year. The elements are thus distinguished: Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire, etc. These produce a combined cycle that repeats every 60 years. For example, the year of the Yang Fire Rat occurred in 1936 and in 1996, 60 years apart.
Many people inaccurately calculate their Chinese birth-year by converting it from their Gregorian birth-year. As the Chinese New Year starts in late January to mid-February, the previous Chinese year dates through 1 January until that day in the new Gregorian year, remaining unchanged from the previous Gregorian year. For example, the 1989 year of the Snake began on 6 February 1989. The year 1989 is generally aligned with the year of the Snake. However, the 1988 year of the Dragon officially ended on 5 February 1989. This means that anyone born from 1 January to 5 February 1989 was actually born in the year of the Dragon rather than the year of the Snake. Many online Chinese Sign calculators do not account for the non-alignment of the two calendars, using Gregorian-calendar years rather than official Chinese New Year dates.[16]
One scheme of continuously numbered Chinese-calendar years assigns 4709 to the year beginning, 2011, but this is not universally accepted; the calendar is traditionally cyclical, not continuously numbered.
Although the Chinese calendar traditionally does not use continuously numbered years, outside China its years are sometimes numbered from the purported reign of the mythical Yellow Emperor in the 3rd millennium BCE. But at least three different years numbered 1 are now used by various scholars, making the year beginning CE 2015 the "Chinese year" 4712, 4713, or 4652.[17]
Gregorian Date Animal Day of the week Gregorian Date Animal Day of the week 2001 24 Jan Snake Wednesday 2026 17 Feb Horse Tuesday 2002 12 Feb Horse Tuesday 2027 6 Feb Goat Saturday 2003 1 Feb Goat Saturday 2028 26 Jan Monkey Wednesday 2004 22 Jan Monkey Thursday 2029 13 Feb Rooster Tuesday 2005 9 Feb Rooster Wednesday 2030 3 Feb Dog Sunday 2006 29 Jan Dog Sunday 2031 23 Jan Pig Thursday 2007 18 Feb Pig Sunday 2032 11 Feb Rat Wednesday 2008 7 Feb Rat/Mouse Thursday 2033 31 Jan Ox Monday 2009 26 Jan Ox Monday 2034 19 Feb Tiger Sunday 2010 14 Feb Tiger Sunday 2035 8 Feb Rabbit Thursday 2011 3 Feb Rabbit Thursday 2036 28 Jan Dragon Monday 2012 23 Jan Dragon Monday 2037 15 Feb Snake Sunday 2013 10 Feb Snake Sunday 2038 4 Feb Horse Thursday 2014 31 Jan Horse Friday 2039 24 Jan Goat Monday 2015 19 Feb Goat Thursday 2040 12 Feb Monkey Sunday 2016 8 Feb Monkey Monday 2041 1 Feb Rooster Friday 2017 28 Jan Rooster Saturday 2042 22 Jan Dog Wednesday 2018 16 Feb Dog Friday 2043 10 Feb Pig Tuesday 2019 5 Feb Pig Tuesday 2044 30 Jan Rat Saturday 2020 25 Jan Rat Saturday 2045 17 Feb Ox Friday 2021 12 Feb Ox Friday 2046 6 Feb Tiger Tuesday 2022 1 Feb Tiger Tuesday 2047 26 Jan Rabbit Saturday 2023 22 Jan Rabbit Sunday 2048 14 Feb Dragon Friday 2024 10 Feb Dragon Saturday 2049 2 Feb Snake Tuesday 2025 29 Jan Snake Wednesday 2050 23 Jan Horse Sunday
Gregorian Date Animal Day of the week Gregorian Date Animal Day of the week 2051 11 Feb Goat Saturday 2076 5 Feb Monkey Wednesday 2052 1 Feb Monkey Thursday 2077 24 Jan Rooster Sunday 2053 19 Feb Rooster Wednesday 2078 12 Feb Dog Saturday 2054 8 Feb Dog Sunday 2079 2 Feb Pig Thursday 2055 28 Jan Pig Thursday 2080 22 Jan Rat Monday 2056 15 Feb Rat Tuesday 2081 9 Feb Ox Sunday 2057 4 Feb Ox Sunday 2082 29 Jan Tiger Thursday 2058 24 Jan Tiger Thursday 2083 17 Feb Rabbit Wednesday 2059 12 Feb Rabbit Wednesday 2084 6 Feb Dragon Sunday 2060 2 Feb Dragon Monday 2085 26 Jan Snake Friday 2061 21 Jan Snake Friday 2086 14 Feb Horse Thursday 2062 9 Feb Horse Thursday 2087 3 Feb Goat Monday 2063 29 Jan Goat Monday 2088 24 Jan Monkey Saturday 2064 17 Feb Monkey Sunday 2089 10 Feb Rooster Thursday 2065 5 Feb Rooster Thursday 2090 30 Jan Dog Monday 2066 26 Jan Dog Tuesday 2091 18 Feb Pig Sunday 2067 14 Feb Pig Monday 2092 7 Feb Rat Thursday 2068 3 Feb Rat Friday 2093 27 Jan Ox Tuesday 2069 23 Jan Ox Wednesday 2094 15 Feb Tiger Monday 2070 11 Feb Tiger Tuesday 2095 5 Feb Rabbit Saturday 2071 31 Jan Rabbit Saturday 2096 25 Jan Dragon Wednesday 2072 19 Feb Dragon Friday 2097 12 Feb Snake Tuesday 2073 7 Feb Snake Tuesday 2098 1 Feb Horse Saturday 2074 27 Jan Horse Saturday 2099 21 Jan Goat Wednesday 2075 15 Feb Goat Friday 2100 9 Feb Monkey Tuesday
The date of Chinese New Year's Day (1912–2101) Year Date 1-19AM# 20-38AM 39-57AM 58-76AM 77-95AM 96-114AM 115-133AM 134-152AM 153-171AM 172-190AM 1912–1930 1931–1949 1950–1968 1969–1987 1988–2006 2007–2025 2026–2044 2045–2063 2064–2082 2083–2101 17 Feb Rat
Rénzǐ Goat
Xīnwèi Tiger
Gēngyín Rooster
Jǐyǒu Dragon
Wùchén Pig
Dīnghaì + Horse
Bǐngwǔ Ox
Yǐchǒu Monkey
Jiǎshēn Rabbit
Guǐmǎo 6 Feb Ox
Guǐchǒu Monkey
Rénshēn Rabbit
Xīnmǎo Dog
Gēngxū Snake
Jǐsì Rat
Wùzǐ + Goat
Dīngwèi Tiger
Bǐngyín Rooster
Yǐyǒu − Dragon
Jiǎchén 26 Jan Tiger
Jiǎyín Rooster
Guǐyǒu Dragon
Rénchén + Pig
Xīnhaì + Horse
Gēngwǔ + Ox
Jǐchǒu Monkey
Wùshēn Rabbit
Dīngmǎo Dog
Bǐngxū Snake
Yǐsì 14 Feb Rabbit
Yǐmǎo Dog
Jiǎxū Snake
Guǐsì Rat
Rénzǐ + Goat
Xīnwèi + Tiger
Gēngyín Rooster
Jǐyǒu − Dragon
'Wùchén Pig
Dīnghaì Horse
Bǐngwǔ 3 Feb Dragon
Bǐngchén Pig
Yǐhaì + Horse
Jiǎwǔ Ox
Guǐchǒu Monkey
Rénshēn + Rabbit
Xīnmǎo Dog
Gēngxū Snake
Jǐsì − Rat
Wùzǐ Goat
Dīngwèi 23 Jan Snake
Dīngsì Rat
Bǐngzǐ + Goat
Yǐwèi + Tiger
Jiǎyín Rooster
Guǐyǒu Dragon
Rénchén Pig
Xīnhaì Horse
Gēngwǔ Ox
Jǐchǒu Monkey
Wùshēn + 11 Feb Horse
Wùwǔ Ox
Dīngchǒu Monkey
Bǐngshēn + Rabbit
Yǐmǎo Dog
Jiǎxū − Snake
Guǐsì − Rat
Rénzǐ Goat
Xīnwèi Tiger
Gēngyín Rooster
Jǐyǒu − 31 Jan Goat
Jǐwèi + Tiger
Wùyín Rooster
Dīngyǒu Dragon
Bǐngchén Pig
Yǐhaì Horse
Jiǎwǔ Ox
Guǐchǒu Monkey
Rénshēn + Rabbit
Xīnmǎo Dog
Gēngxū − 19 Feb Monkey
Gēngshēn + Rabbit
Jǐmǎo Dog
Wùxū − Snake
Dīngsì − Rat
Bǐngzǐ Goat
Yǐwèi Tiger
Jiǎyín Rooster
Guǐyǒu Dragon
Rénchén Pig
Xīnhaì − 8 Feb Rooster
Xīnyǒu Dragon
Gēngchén Pig
Jǐhaì Horse
Wùwǔ − Ox
Dīngchǒu − Monkey
Bǐngshēn Rabbit
Yǐmǎo Dog
Jiǎxū Snake
Guǐsì − Rat
Rénzǐ − 28 Jan Dog
Rénxū Snake
Xīnsì − Rat
Gēngzǐ Goat
Jǐwèi Tiger
Wùyín Rooster
Dīngyǒu Dragon
Bǐngchén Pig
Yǐhaì Horse
Jiǎwǔ − Ox
Guǐchǒu − 15 Feb Pig
Guǐhaì + Horse
Rénwǔ Ox
Xīnchǒu Monkey
Gēngshēn + Rabbit
Jǐmǎo + Dog
Wùxū + Snake
Dīngsì Rat
'Bǐngzǐ Goat
Yǐwèi Tiger
Jiǎyín 5 Feb Rat
Jiǎzǐ Goat
Guǐwèi Tiger
Rényín Rooster
Xīnyǒu Dragon
Gēngchén Pig
Jǐhaì Horse
Wùwǔ − Ox
Dīngchǒu − Monkey
Bǐngshēn Rabbit
Yǐmǎo 24 Jan Ox
Yǐchǒu Monkey
Jiǎshēn + Rabbit
Guǐmǎo + Dog
Rénxū + Snake
Xīnsì Rat
Gēngzǐ + Goat
Jǐwèi Tiger
Wùyín Rooster
Dīngyǒu Dragon
Bǐngchén + 12 Feb Tiger
Bǐngyín + Rooster
Yǐyǒu + Dragon
Jiǎchén + Pig
Guǐhaì + Horse
Rénwǔ Ox
Xīnchǒu Monkey
Gēngshēn Rabbit
Jǐmǎo Dog
Wùxū Snake
Dīngsì 2 Feb Rabbit
Dīngmǎo Dog
Bǐngxū Snake
Yǐsì Rat
Jiǎzǐ Goat
Guǐwèi − Tiger
Rényín − Rooster
Xīnyǒu − Dragon
Gēngchén Pig
Jǐhaì Horse
Wùwǔ − 22 Jan Dragon
Wùchén + Pig
Dīnghaì Horse
Bǐngwǔ − Ox
Yǐchǒu 1 Monkey
Jiǎshēn Rabbit
Guǐmǎo Dog
Rénxū Snake
Xīnsì − Rat
Gēngzǐ Goat
Jǐwèi − 9 Feb Snake
Jǐsì + Rat
Wùzǐ + Goat
Dīngwèi Tiger
Bǐngyín Rooster
Yǐyǒu Dragon
Jiǎchén + Pig
Guǐhaì + Horse
Rénwǔ Ox
Xīnchǒu Monkey
Gēngshēn 29 Jan Horse
Gēngwǔ + Ox
Jǐchǒu Monkey
Wùshēn + Rabbit
Dīngmǎo Dog
Bǐngxū Snake
Yǐsì Rat
Jiǎzǐ + Goat
Guǐwèi Tiger
Rényín Rooster
Xīnyǒu − Note+: a day later ; Note−: a day earlier. Note1: The New Year's Day of 1985 is 20 Feb, a month later. Note#: AM=anno Mínguó
Mythology [ edit ]
Hand-written Chinese New Year's poetry pasted on the sides of doors leading to people's homes, Lijiang, Yunnan
According to tales and legends, the beginning of the Chinese New Year started with a mythical beast called the Nian. Nian would eat villagers, especially children. One year, all the villagers decided to go hide from the beast. An old man appeared before the villagers went into hiding and said that he's going to stay the night, and decided to get revenge on the Nian. All the villagers thought he was insane. The old man put red papers up and set off firecrackers. The day after, the villagers came back to their town to see that nothing was destroyed. They assumed that the old man was a deity who came to save them. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red and loud noises. When the New Year was about to come, the villagers would wear red clothes, hang red lanterns, and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again. The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk. After that, Nian retreated to a nearby mountain. The name of the mountain has long been lost over the years.[18]
Public holiday [ edit ]
Chinese New Year is observed as a public holiday in some countries and territories where there is a sizable Chinese and Korean population. Since Chinese New Year falls on different dates on the Gregorian calendar every year on different days of the week, some of these governments opt to shift working days in order to accommodate a longer public holiday. In some countries, a statutory holiday is added on the following work day when the New Year falls on a weekend, as in the case of 2013, where the New Year's Eve (9 February) falls on Saturday and the New Year's Day (10 February) on Sunday. Depending on the country, the holiday may be termed differently; common names are "Chinese New Year", "Lunar New Year", "New Year Festival", and "Spring Festival".
For New Year celebrations that are lunar but are outside of China and Chinese diaspora (such as Korea's Seollal and Vietnam's Tết), see the article on Lunar New Year.
For other countries where Chinese New Year is celebrated but not an official holiday, see the table below.
Country and region Official name Description Number of days Brunei Tahun Baru Cina New Year's Eve (half-day) and New Year's Day.[19] 1 Hong Kong Lunar New Year The first three days.[20] 3 Indonesia Tahun Baru Imlek (Sin Cia) New Year's Day.[21][22] 1 Macau Lunar New Year The first three days.[23] 3 Mainland China Spring Festival (Chūn Jié) The first 3 days. Usually, the Saturday before and the Sunday after Chinese New Year are declared working days, and the 2 additionally gained holidays are added to the official 3 days of holiday, so that people have 7 consecutive days, including weekends.[ citation needed ] 7 (de facto) [24]
3 (de jure) [25] Malaysia Tahun Baru Cina The first 2 days and a half-day on New Year's Eve.[ citation needed ] 2[26][27] Philippines Bagong Taon ng mga Tsino/Intsik (Tagalog) / Año Nuevo de Chino (Spanish) New Year's Eve (half-day) and New Year's Day.[28] 1 Taiwan Spring Festival New Year's Eve and the first 3 working days.[29][30] 4[31] Thailand Wan Trut Chin (Chinese New Year's Day) Divided into 3 days, the first day is the Wan chai (Thai: วันจ่าย ; pay day), meaning the day that people go out to shop for offerings, second day is the Wan wai (วันไหว้; worship day), is a day of worshiping the gods and ancestral spirits, which is divided into three periods: dawn, late morning and afternoon, the third day is a Wan tieow (วันเที่ยว; holiday), is a holiday that everyone will leave the house to travel or to bless relatives or respectable people. And often wear red clothes because it is believed to bring auspiciousness to life.[32] 3[32] Singapore Chinese New Year The first 2 days and a half-day on New Year's Eve.[ citation needed ] 2[33][34] Vietnam Tết Nguyên Đán The first 3 days. 3 Suriname Lunar New Year New Year's Day. 1
Festivities [ edit ]
“ Red couplets and red lanterns are displayed on the door frames and light up the atmosphere. The air is filled with strong Chinese emotions. In stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, and other cities, products of traditional Chinese style have started to lead fashion trend[s]. Buy yourself a Chinese-style coat, get your kids tiger-head hats and shoes, and decorate your home with some beautiful red Chinese knots, then you will have an authentic Chinese-style Spring Festival. ” — Xinwen Lianbo, January 2001, quoted by Li Ren, Imagining China in the Era of Global Consumerism and Local Consciousness[35]
During the festival, people around China will prepare different gourmet for families and guests. Influenced by the flourished cultures, foods from different places look and taste totally different. Among them, the most well-known ones are dumplings from northern China and Tangyuan from southern China.
Preceding days [ edit ]
On the eighth day of the lunar month prior to Chinese New Year, the Laba holiday (simplified Chinese: 腊八; traditional Chinese: 臘八; pinyin: làbā), a traditional porridge, Laba porridge (simplified Chinese: 腊八粥; traditional Chinese: 臘八粥; pinyin: làbā zhōu), is served in remembrance of an ancient festival, called La, that occurred shortly after the winter solstice.[36] Pickles such as Laba garlic, which turns green from vinegar, are also made on this day. For those that practice Buddhism, the Laba holiday is also considered Bodhi Day. Layue (simplified Chinese: 腊月; traditional Chinese: 臘月; pinyin: Làyuè) is a term often associated with Chinese New Year as it refers to the sacrifices held in honor of the gods in the twelfth lunar month, hence the cured meats of Chinese New Year are known as larou (simplified Chinese: 腊肉; traditional Chinese: 臘肉; pinyin: làròu). The porridge was prepared by the women of the household at first light, with the first bowl offered to the family's ancestors and the household deities. Every member of the family was then served a bowl, with leftovers distributed to relatives and friends.[37] It's still served as a special breakfast on this day in some Chinese homes. The concept of the "La month" is similar to Advent in Christianity. Many families eat vegetarian on Chinese New Year eve, the garlic and preserved meat are eaten on Chinese New Year day.
Receive the Gods in Chinese New Year, (1900s)
On the days immediately before the New Year celebration, Chinese families give their homes a thorough cleaning. There is a Cantonese saying "Wash away the dirt on nin ya baat" (Chinese: 年廿八，洗邋遢; pinyin: nián niàn bā, xǐ lātà; Jyutping: nin4 jaa6 baat3, sai2 laap6 taap3 (laat6 taat3)), but the practice is not restricted to nin ya baat (the 28th day of month 12). It is believed the cleaning sweeps away the bad luck of the preceding year and makes their homes ready for good luck. Brooms and dust pans are put away on the first day so that the newly arrived good luck cannot be swept away. Some people give their homes, doors and window-frames a new coat of red paint; decorators and paper-hangers do a year-end rush of business prior to Chinese New Year.[38] Homes are often decorated with paper cutouts of Chinese auspicious phrases and couplets. Purchasing new clothing and shoes also symbolize a new start. Any hair cuts need to be completed before the New Year, as cutting hair on New Year is considered bad luck due to the homonymic nature of the word "hair" (fa) and the word for "prosperity". Businesses are expected to pay off all the debts outstanding for the year before the new year eve, extending to debts of gratitude. Thus it is a common practice to send gifts and rice to close business associates, and extended family members.
In many households where Buddhism or Taoism is prevalent, home altars and statues are cleaned thoroughly, and decorations used to adorn altars over the past year are taken down and burned a week before the new year starts, to be replaced with new decorations. Taoists (and Buddhists to a lesser extent) will also "send gods back to heaven" (Chinese: 送神; pinyin: sòngshén), an example would be burning a paper effigy of Zao Jun the Kitchen God, the recorder of family functions. This is done so that the Kitchen God can report to the Jade Emperor of the family household's transgressions and good deeds. Families often offer sweet foods (such as candy) in order to "bribe" the deities into reporting good things about the family.
Prior to the Reunion Dinner, a prayer of thanksgiving is held to mark the safe passage of the previous year. Confucianists take the opportunity to remember their ancestors, and those who had lived before them are revered. Some people do not give a Buddhist prayer due to the influence of Christianity, with a Christian prayer offered instead.
New Year's Eve [ edit ]
The biggest event of any Chinese New Year's Eve is the annual reunion dinner. Dishes consisting of special meats are served at the tables, as a main course for the dinner and offering for the New Year. This meal is comparable to Thanksgiving dinner in the U.S. and remotely similar to Christmas dinner in other countries with a high percentage of Christians.
In northern China, it is customary to make dumplings (jiaozi) after dinner to eat around midnight. Dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape resembles a Chinese sycee. In contrast, in the South, it is customary to make a glutinous new year cake (niangao) and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives and friends in the coming days. Niángāo [Pinyin] literally means "new year cake" with a homophonous meaning of "increasingly prosperous year in year out".[39]
After dinner, some families go to local temples hours before the new year begins to pray for a prosperous new year by lighting the first incense of the year; however in modern practice, many households hold parties and even hold a countdown to the new year. Traditionally, firecrackers were lit to scare away evil spirits with the household doors sealed, not to be reopened until the new morning in a ritual called "opening the door of fortune" (simplified Chinese: 开财门; traditional Chinese: 開財門; pinyin: kāicáimén).[40]
Beginning in 1982, the CCTV New Year's Gala is broadcast in China four hours before the start of the New Year and lasts until the succeeding early morning. Watching it has gradually become a tradition in northern China. A tradition of going to bed late on New Year's Eve, or even keeping awake the whole night and morning, known as shousui (守岁), is still practised as it is thought to add on to one's parents' longevity.
First day [ edit ]
The first day is for the welcoming of the deities of the heavens and earth, officially beginning at midnight. It is a traditional practice to light fireworks, burn bamboo sticks and firecrackers and to make as much of a din as possible to chase off the evil spirits as encapsulated by nian of which the term Guo Nian was derived. Many Buddhists abstain from meat consumption on the first day because it is believed to ensure longevity for them. Some consider lighting fires and using knives to be bad luck on New Year's Day, so all food to be consumed is cooked the days before. On this day, it is considered bad luck to use the broom, as good fortune is not to be "swept away" symbolically.
Most importantly, the first day of Chinese New Year is a time to honor one's elders and families visit the oldest and most senior members of their extended families, usually their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.
For Buddhists, the first day is also the birthday of Maitreya Bodhisattva (better known as the more familiar Budai Luohan), the Buddha-to-be. People also abstain from killing animals.
Some families may invite a lion dance troupe as a symbolic ritual to usher in the Chinese New Year as well as to evict bad spirits from the premises. Members of the family who are married also give red envelopes containing cash known as lai see (Cantonese dialect) or angpow (Hokkien dialect/Fujian), or hongbao (Mandarin), a form of blessings and to suppress the aging and challenges associated with the coming year, to junior members of the family, mostly children and teenagers. Business managers also give bonuses through red packets to employees for good luck, smooth-sailing, good health and wealth.
While fireworks and firecrackers are traditionally very popular, some regions have banned them due to concerns over fire hazards. For this reason, various city governments (e.g., Kowloon, Beijing, Shanghai for a number of years) issued bans over fireworks and firecrackers in certain precincts of the city. As a substitute, large-scale fireworks display have been launched by governments in such city-states as Hong Kong and Singapore. However, it is a tradition that the indigenous peoples of the walled villages of New Territories, Hong Kong are permitted to light firecrackers and launch fireworks in a limited scale.
Second day [ edit ]
Incense is burned at the graves of ancestors as part of the offering and prayer rituals.
The second day of the Chinese New Year, known as "beginning of the year" (simplified Chinese: 开年; traditional Chinese: 開年; pinyin: kāinián),[41] was when married daughters visited their birth parents, relatives and close friends. (Traditionally, married daughters didn't have the opportunity to visit their birth families frequently.)
During the days of imperial China, "beggars and other unemployed people circulate[d] from family to family, carrying a picture [of the God of Wealth] shouting, "Cai Shen dao!" [The God of Wealth has come!]."[42] Householders would respond with "lucky money" to reward the messengers. Business people of the Cantonese dialect group will hold a 'Hoi Nin' prayer to start their business on the 2nd day of Chinese New Year so they will be blessed with good luck and prosperity in their business for the year.
As this day is believed to be The Birthday of Che Kung, a deity worshipped in Hong Kong, worshippers go to Che Kung Temples to pray for his blessing. A representative from the government asks Che Kung about the city's fortune through kau cim.
Third day [ edit ]
The third day is known as "red mouth" (Chinese: 赤口; pinyin: Chìkǒu). Chikou is also called "Chigou's Day" (Chinese: 赤狗日; pinyin: Chìgǒurì). Chigou, literally "red dog", is an epithet of "the God of Blazing Wrath" (Chinese: 熛怒之神; pinyin: Biāo nù zhī shén). Rural villagers continue the tradition of burning paper offerings over trash fires. It is considered an unlucky day to have guests or go visiting.[43] Hakka villagers in rural Hong Kong in the 1960s called it the Day of the Poor Devil and believed everyone should stay at home.[44] This is also considered a propitious day to visit the temple of the God of Wealth and have one's future told.
Fourth day [ edit ]
In those communities that celebrate Chinese New Year for 15 days, the fourth day is when corporate "spring dinners" kick off and business returns to normal. Other areas that have a longer Chinese New Year holiday will celebrate and welcome the gods that were previously sent on this day.
Fifth day [ edit ]
This day is the god of Wealth's birthday. In northern China, people eat jiaozi, or dumplings, on the morning of powu (Chinese: 破五; pinyin: pòwǔ). In Taiwan, businesses traditionally re-open on the next day (the sixth day), accompanied by firecrackers.
It is also common in China that on the 5th day people will shoot off firecrackers to get Guan Yu's attention, thus ensuring his favor and good fortune for the new year.[45]
Sixth day [ edit ]
The |
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Throw Distance Calculator for Standard Projectors","showVideoCaption":true,"isAdaCompliant":true,"supportsHttps":true,"closedCaptionsList":[{"src":{"src":"/_cp/products/1435082173952/tab-d1d135f8-2776-4505-947d-681d7f1e2f4b/resource-f437465e-eca6-4cd0-94ac-32e961f044a6.vtt"},"runtimeSrc":{"src":"/_cp/products/1435082173952/tab-d1d135f8-2776-4505-947d-681d7f1e2f4b/resource-ebf764c5-5214-4dd6-9f91-95144e30ddfb.vtt"},"type":"captions"}]}]} Product Features The Home Theater Projector for Full HD 1080p and High Contrast
One measurement of brightness is not enough — look for both high color brightness and high white brightness. The Home Cinema 2040 has: Color Brightness: 2200 lumens 2 White Brightness: 2200 lumens 2 Full HD 1080p, widescreen, 3D performance — for movies, games and more, up to 300" on virtually any wall or screen Dynamic contrast ratio — up to 35,000:1 for rich detail in dark scenes Stream HD videos — supports MHL-enabled devices 3, including Chromecast, Roku Streaming Stick 4 and more Innovative 3LCD technology — amazing action scenes with no rainbow effect Smooth, crisp images — with Image Enhancement and Frame Interpolation Built-in speaker and easy setup — for HD entertainment right out of the box Versatile connectivity — features two HDMI ports, so you can connect your cable/satellite box, Blu-ray Disc player, gaming console or streaming device
What the Press is Saying:
"The Epson Home Cinema 2040 3D 1080p 3LCD Projector delivers high-quality 2D and 3D, a short lag time for gaming, and a bright enough image to stand up to ambient light in a family room" - PCMag.com, (January 9, 2017)
“…the 2040 is an excellent choice, with its combination of low price, portability, sound system, and near-excellent image quality, and it's our Editors' Choice for moderately-priced home-theater projectors.” - PCMag.com, (December 8, 2015)
"It is uniquely outstanding in 3D, easily outperforming the competition. Its image with 2D content is bright and sharp with excellent color, clarity, and a natural film-like quality." - Projector Central, (November 12, 2015) Horizontal Image Correction with Easy-Slide Control Technology Project a rectangular image from almost any angle. Vertical image correction is automatic and horizontal correction is a snap with the easy-slide control bar. With Epson’s keystone correction, the projector can sit almost anywhere and your image is always front and center.
Built-In Color Modes Choose from one of four special color modes optimized for different content and settings. Whether playing videogames in the man cave or watching TV programs in a well-lit room, you’ll get the best possible quality and color.
Intuitive Home Screen Get up and running in a snap with an intuitive, user-friendly home screen. Select the content source (two HDMI ports, USB, etc.) and easily access frequently-used functions such as keystone correction, volume control, Split Screen 5 and more.
Your New Home Entertainment Hub Easily display content from all of your media devices. The projector supports HDMI, plus MHL, the latest in digital connectivity, for seamless compatibility with cable/satellite boxes, Blu-ray Disc/DVD players and gaming consoles. It even connects to smartphones, tablets, and streaming devices such as Chromecast, Roku and Apple TV. You can also connect your computer, GoPro and more.
Advanced Image Processing Epson’s advanced image processing technology allows users to enjoy a clearer, sharper image. The projector’s Image Enhancement function enables digital noise reduction and MPEG noise reduction, as well as Detail Enhancement, which refines surface detail for true-to-life images that pop off the screen. 3 Includes one Mobile High-definition Link (MHL) HDMI port.
4 Roku Streaming Stick allows you to watch content from popular Internet streaming services. Roku's Streaming Stick only available in the U.S.
5 Consult your user manual for input combinations.
6 Data source: ProjectorCentral.com, Feb. 2015. Average of 1420 shipping models for which the manufacturers provided lumens and total power data, all resolutions and brightness levels. Energy efficiency was measured as wattage per lumen. It was measured for both 3LCD and 1-chip projectors in each of six brightness segments. 3LCD projectors averaged less required electricity per lumen in each of the six segments.
7 For convenient and reasonable recycling options, visit www.epson.com/recycle
8 SmartWay is an innovative partnership of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that reduces greenhouse gases and other air pollutants and improves fuel efficiency. Epson Home Cinema 2040 Customer Reviews: REVIEW SNAPSHOT® by PowerReviews Epson 4.5 (based on 13 reviews) Ratings Distribution 5 Stars (9)
4 Stars (3)
3 Stars (0)
2 Stars (0)
1 Stars (1) 92% of respondents would recommend this to a friend. Reviewed by 13 customers Sort by Newest Oldest Highest rating Lowest rating Most helpful Least helpful Clear all filters Displaying reviews 1-10 Back to top Previous | Next » 5.0 Awsome product By philQC from QC, Canada 5.0 Fantastic picture quality on color and black and white By Dick in TN from East Tennessee 5.0 Very good home projector By jimsama from Keller, Texsas 4.0 Epson 2040 By William from Qc, Canada 4.0 Good Buy By SAP from Pickering, ON 5.0 Awesome!!! Excellent Home Projector!!! By Svadeep from Mississauga, Canada 5.0 Great Projector for the value By Anonymous from Carmel, IN 5.0 Got just recived today... By hemi from ohio 4.0 Excellent projector on budget, but some caveats By Sami from Ontario 5.0 Glad we bought it! By JTDinWV from West Virginia Displaying reviews 1-10 Back to top Previous | Next » Add a Projector Accessory Package and Save! - Select your screen: Fixed Frame Packages
w/92" screen $153 w/100" screen $234 w/106" screen $234 w/110" screen Sold Out! w/120" screen $288 w/135" screen $333 Accessory Package Contents: VApex Screen - Select Size
HDMI-30FTv2.0 - 30ft High Speed HDMI Cable w/ Ethernet (v2.0)
DUST_COVER - Dust Cover
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Hassle Free 30 Day Epson Home Theater Projector Return Policy Home Theater Projectors can be returned within 30 days of invoice for a refund.
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This is probably how Darnell Dockett felt the moment he realized his tweets to Miss Alabama Katherine Webb weren't direct messages as he intended. (Photo: Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports)
When it comes to drooling over Katherine Webb, Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron's model girlfriend, we didn't think it could get any creepier than Brent Musburger's awkward on-air moment during Monday night's BCS Championship game.
But then the Arizona Cardinals' Darnell Dockett stepped in.
Here's what he tweeted Webb during the game:
-- @_KatherineWebb aye u going to king of diamonds Monday after game?
-- Aye @_KatherineWebb hit me (240) 464-xxxx when game over, lets go to wing stop then King of diamond,
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Dockett publicly hit on Miss Alabama by asking if she'd be willing to join him for some wings and a good time at a gentlemen's club. Not to mention, he also shared his phone number with the world (we removed the last four digits, and by the time we called, it went straight to a full voicemail box).
Making this entire situation worse (read: even more hilarious), Dockett deleted those tweets after realizing he had made a mistake.
"Sh*t that was suppose to be DM!", he tweeted.
The ultimate Homer Simpson "d'oh!" moment, if ever there was one.
PHOTOS: BCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/UxcnyxIt amazes me how we tend to look at certain things in such a way that we forget that underneath its surface lies a human being with a family and feelings and everything…
Take professional wrestlers, for example…
Tan, flashy, and swollen from the persistent abuse of animal hormones, it is not hard to confuse the athletes working in sports entertainment with their larger than life ring personas.
From the insanity of their gig to the recklessness of their lifestyle (including the long bouts of time on the road, the hard drinking, constant drugging [both prescribed and self-medicating], and just hard living that comes from the carnie lifestyle), these modern day gladiators more often than not find themselves as the butt of the joke (typically for meting an early end as a direct result of the afore mentioned abuses and lifestyle choices).
But we forget that under the glitz and schadenfreude, there is a real man with real pain…
Scott Hall is such a man.
Once a talent known for stiff ring work and a solid presence on the stick, Scott Hall had the wrestling world in the palm of his tooth pick flicking hands.
But, like some sort of creepy wrestling themed afterschool special come to life, Hall unraveled before our eyes.
Anyone watching WCW during those sad final days before Vince bought out the company and combined the two brands remembers how it ended for Hall on television…
How Hall would walk out to the ring (many time in with Shawn “X-Pac” Waltman in tow), drunk off his ass. His voice- graveled from drug and drink- slurring out a pill induced “Heeeeey Yo…”, beginning what would no doubt be a fifteen minutes glimpse into the frying mind of a drugged out madman…
How his matches were slow and plodding…
How Hall would miss spots, fall out of the ring, injure himself and/or others…
It should come as no surprise to us that instead of seeing the light, cleaning up his act, and maybe making a nice living running the independent scenes, since then Hall has found himself in and out of various booze and pill bottles while scraping by a living taking sloppy bumps from jobbers working the Armory circuit.
But before you go trying to take Hall in the Opie & Anthony Dead Wrestler every 100 days Challenge, let the pained words of Hall’s good friend (and legend in pro wrestling himself) Kevin Nash try to soften your unfeeling heart.
Speaking on The Law internet show (it can be heard at TheFightNetwork.com) Nash had this to say about his friend and his heart breaking condition.
"These people will say things like 'you need |
’s own autism. To the contrary, based upon all the evidence that I have reviewed, I find that it is extremely unlikely that Jordan’s autism was in any way causally connected to his thimerosal-containing vaccines. In short, this is a case in which the evidence is so one-sided that any nuances in the interpretation of the causation case law would make no difference to the outcome of the case.
The filmmakers, although they mention that the Kings lost their case, downplay just how badly they lost and portray their defeat as part of the “conspiracy” to cover up vaccine injuries. This is true even though the Special Master pointed out:
I have kept all of these points in mind in deciding this case. I have not required a level of proof greater than “more probable than not,” which has also been described as “50 percent plus a feather.” I understand fully that petitioners are not claiming that Jordan’s thimerosal-containing vaccines were the sole cause of his autism, but are alleging only that such vaccines contributed to the causation of his autism, allegedly in concert with an underlying genetic vulnerability. I have looked beyond the epidemiologic evidence to determine whether the overall evidence — i.e., medical opinion, circumstantial evidence, and other evidence considered as a whole — tips the balance even slightly in favor of a causation showing as to Jordan’s autism.
Worse, in the documentary itself, the Kings describe how they took Jordan to a DAN! doctor, who did provoked urine heavy metal testing and claimed to find that Jordan’s mercury levels were very high. This doctor then told them that he was “mercury toxic” due to vaccines, an account that can also be found in the judgment.
The truth is that the Special Master went out of his way to be sympathetic to the Kings in his ruling, and it’s hard not to be sympathetic to them. They clearly love Jordan and have done the best they can to raise him, even with his autism and medical problems. In the documentary, they openly worry about what will become of Jordan after they die. Who will take care of him? What parent of a child with developmental disorders doesn’t wonder that? As loving and struggling as they are, though, the Kings are mistaken. They might believe that vaccines caused Jordan’s autism, but there is simply no evidence to support such a view.
Finally, the most difficult of all is the case of Dr. Stephanie Christner and her daughter Victoria Grace Boyd Christner, who died at five months of age. Again, it’s a horrible, horrible thing to lose a baby like this, one of the most horrible things in the world. However, as much as we might feel saddened by the story and sorry for the Christners, we have to stay as objective as possible when it comes to their claim of what killed their baby; i.e., vaccines. To put it simply, there just isn’t any evidence that vaccines led to the death of their child. Dr. Christner blames the death of her baby on a “slow reaction over time” to vaccines causing “chronic inflammation.” Christner tells a story of her child being vaccinated with “all the usual vaccines” at the age of two months and then “never being the same after that” within a week. Apparently, Victoria started to become more withdrawn, stop eating regularly, and ultimately had a seizure on December 15, 2008. From the obituary we can make some inferences. Victoria was born on August 22, 2008, meaning that her two month shots would have been administered in late October. So the seizure occurred nearly two months after vaccination. On December 23, Victoria received her next round of vaccinations, and then the movie jumps forward nearly two more months to the weekend of Valentine’s day, which is when Victoria, for unclear reasons, suddenly stopped breathing and died in what sounds rather like SIDS, although not enough information to know is presented.
This happened more than a month and a half after her last round of vaccines.
The scenes in which the Christners describe the death of their daughter are the most harrowing in the film. I almost cried while watching them describe the death of their daughter. However, that emotional reaction did not keep me from noticing that their story was also not particularly convincing even for a correlation between vaccination and the death of their baby, much less convincing for causation. We’re left with the Christners lamenting how they had “followed the rules” and ended up with a dead baby, interspersed with photos and home videos of a cherubic, happy baby, followed by Dr. Bob Sears claiming that a lot of doctors try to convince their patients that vaccines are 100% safe.
Truly, the cynicism of the filmmakers (and Dr. Sears) is beyond belief.
The “Experts” vs. the Experts
Interspersed between the vignettes from the families, we find the classic battle of “experts” versus experts; i.e., pseudoexperts versus real experts. On the real expert side, we have people like Dr. Paul Offit, who is, as I like to say, known among anti-vaccine activists as the Dark Lord of Vaccination; Dr. Melinda Wharton of the CDC, and others who valiantly try to promote the science-based view of vaccines. They are, unfortunately, overwhelmed by anti-vaccine propaganda. In fact, the film is a classic case of a “manufactroversy,” which is a favorite denialist technique to give the impression that there is a legitimate scientific controversy when in fact there is none. The questions about whether vaccines are safe and effective, whether vaccines cause autism, whether they cause all the neurological and developmental disorders attributed to them, and whether they cause asthma and other diseases related to the immune system are not controversial in science. They don’t. However, by pairing anti-vaccine doctors and one anti-vaccine scientist with scientists who support current science, the filmmakers, quite intentionally I believe, give the viewer the impression that there is a real scientific controversy over these issues, as much as Dr. Offit, Dr. Wharton, and others labor to try to explain that there is not. Add to that the nakedly emotionally manipulative use of Gabi Swank, Jordan King, and the Christners mourning their dead baby, and it is very clear what the filmmakers’ message is. It’s not a message based on good science, particularly given how often hoary old straw men are trotted out to be knocked down, strawmen like the complaint that “vaccines can’t be questioned,” which is utter nonsense that is easily debunked simply by pointing to the conflicting scientific literature on the efficacy flu vaccines in the elderly.
Indeed, the movie is could easily be described as an anti-vaccine talking points greatest hits. At various points in the movie, “experts” call for a “vaxed versus unvaxed” study, even a randomized study of vaccinated children versus those receiving placebos. I kid you not. No less a luminary than Dr. Sears himself called for this in the movie, but he was not alone. Many, but by no means all, of these anti-vaccine talking points come from a “holistic” pediatrician named Dr. Lawrence B. Palesky, whose website touts his “holistic advantage” and describes Dr. Palevsky thusly:
In using his “whole child” wellness philosophy, Dr. Palevsky recommends and incorporates the teachings and therapies of nutritional science, acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, chiropractic, osteopathy, cranial-sacral therapy, environmental medicine, homeopathy, and essential oils, along with natural healing modalities such as aromatherapy, yoga, Reiki, meditation, reflexology, and mindfulness.
Is it any surprise that Dr. Palevsky comes across in the movie very much as being “anti-vaccine”? Of course not. He even writes articles for the NVIC. It’s also no surprise that Dr. Palevsky spends much of his time on The Greater Good promoting a litany of anti-vaccine pseudoscience, including the “toxins” gambit, conspiracy mongering about pharmaceutical companies, and claims that vaccines aren’t adequately tested. Late in the movie, he’s even shown speaking to the American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM) and using the most brain dead of anti-vaccine gambits, namely claiming that because mortality from various infectious diseases was falling before vaccines for those diseases were introduced it must mean that vaccines are useless. It’s the very same intellectually dishonest gambit that Raymond Obomsawin made himself famous for. Elsewhere in the film, Dr. Palevsky is shown speaking to a bunch of parents talking about how amazed he was to discover that there was mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde, antibiotics, and preservatives in vaccines, all gambits that we’ve discussed many, many times on this blog.
In fact, if there are any remaining doubts that Dr. Sears has finally allied himself with the anti-vaccine camp (we gave him the benefit of the doubt when Dr. Snyder deconstructed his Vaccine Book a while back), this documentary should put them to rest, because right after the scene with Dr. Palevsky promoting the “toxin” gambit to parents we’re treated to Dr. Bob saying:
You would think that the FDA would take each of those ingredients and then study them in human infants to make sure that each of those ingredients is safe. Well, they haven’t done that. They’ve never taken vaccine quantities of each of those ingredients and done the safety testing to confirm that each one of those ingredients is safe.
Given that vaccines as a whole are extensively studied in infants and that we have longstanding historical evidence of vaccine safety, this “toxins” gambit is nothing more than a ploy that (1) appeals to the fear of chemicals with complicated, nasty-sounding names; (2) plays on the scientific ignorance of the American public, many of whom don’t understand the concept of dose-response and think that it’s possible to eliminate nasty chemicals completely; and (3) produces an intentionally impractical regulatory hurdle that vaccines must overcome, as each and every component, seemingly, must be studied individually in individual clinical trials, regardless of existing evidence. One wonders if Sears realizes the implication of his argument. Would we have to test the buffer solution that is used for safety, even though it’s usually something like phosphate-buffered normal saline? Or what about formaldehyde, which is a normal byproduct of metabolism and is present in vaccines at levels far below what is already in the infant’s body to begin with? Sears, whether he realizes it or not, is parroting a common anti-vaccine talking point that screams “vaccines contain ingredients known to cause cancer and death.”
Another doctor trotted out in this documentary as an “expert” is Dr. John Green III, who is described as having been “been in medical practice for 36 years with a background in emergency, family practice, environmental and holistic medicine and allergies.” He embarrasses himself by whining about how producers from FRONTLINE didn’t use any of the footage of his interview for The Vaccine War. In this, he sounds very much like Dr. Jay Gordon. In fact, one wonders why Dr. Jay didn’t show up as one of the anti-vaccine “experts” used by the filmmakers. Later, a neuroscientist named Christopher Shaw, who is apparently revered in anti-vaccine circles for doing experiments in mice that suggest that aluminum is toxic, is shown saying that we’re all living in a “toxic” soup and that vaccines are part of that soup, all overlaid with a cartoon, a couple of images from which I’ve captured as screen shots:
Other “experts” fall more into a gray area. For example, Diane Harper is well known in anti-vaccine circles. An investigator in the original clinical trials for Gardasil, she has apparently turned against the Gardasil vaccine. Although she was apparently misquoted in the past, as reported by Ben Goldacre, in this movie, the mask appears to drop, with Harper castigating Merck and speaking at the NVIC conference in 2009, telling the audience she will “show you the science.” Particularly annoying is how she is represented as the “lead researcher” for the Gardasil trials when in fact she was simply an investigator at one of the sites at which the original trials of Gardasil were conducted. There is a huge difference. Dr. Harper has also stated unequivocally in the past that “I fully support the HPV vaccines. I believe that in general they are safe in most women.” One can’t help but wonder whether she’s now changed her mind. At least, I wonder based on the segments of her interview that made the final cut, whether she still believes this, as her statements in the movie appear to go far beyond her previous mostly reasonable complaints that the vaccine has been “over-marketed” by Merck.
Finally, there’s Barbara Loe Fisher, the grande dame of anti-vaccinationism herself, who probably gets more screen time than just about anyone else. She tries to portray herself as being “moderate,” and I suppose that, compared to the more radical anti-vaccine zealots, she might be described that way, but that’s not saying much. As I’ve documented before, her website and her vaccine conferences are cesspools of anti-vaccine pseudoscience, and so is the vast majority of what she says in this documentary. Basically, she repeats the same anti-vaccine nonsense that she’s been repeating for nearly 30 years, all while laboring mightily to try to present herself as a “moderate” who is “attacked by both sides” and complaining that “advocates like myself” are “demonized.”
There might have been a time back in the 1980s when Barbara Loe Fisher was not truly anti-vaccine and really was a “vaccine safety advocate.” That day is long past. All it takes is a look at her website to demonstrate that. In fact, I’d love to ask Fisher personally what specific vaccines she recommends. If she were truly a “vaccine safety advocate,” she’d have ideas of which vaccines are safe and which ones aren’t. Never is heard from her, anymore anyway, anything other than attacks on each and every vaccine. None of them, apparently, are “safe enough” to earn the NVIC seal of approval and all of them, to the NVIC, cause horrific complications. Perhaps that’s why ambulance-chasing “vaccine injury” attorneys like Kevin Conway and Clifford Shoemaker are featured, the latter of whom is known for raking in money hand over fist from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and threatening bloggers who point out that he makes tons of money from the VICP.
Speaking of trial lawyers, they are also prominently featured in this movie. In fact, another particularly revealing scene takes place near the one hour mark in the movie. In this scene, several of the lawyers featured in the documentary are filmed in a restaurant discussing the VICP. The scene is preceded by complaints from various principals about how the VICP protects vaccine manufacturers from legal liability by forcing litigants to go through the Vaccine Court first, including a scene in which Fisher laments how vaccine manufacturers have “no accountability.” Then we see Kevin Conway holding court with his fellow trial lawyers, saying:
It just amazes me what the government does to protect the integrity of vaccines. It can be anything but the vaccine. They feel as though their job is to keep immunization rates up, and if you legitimize vaccine claims, then you’re saying, yeah, there are vaccine injuries, and they can never say that.
Of course, the very existence of the VICP is an admission that there are sometimes vaccine injuries, as is the existence of so-called “table injuries,” which, if a child demonstrates one of these conditions in close temporal association with vaccination, result in automatic compensation. To the lawyers, the problem is not that the government doesn’t concede that there are vaccine injuries. If that were the case, then the VICP wouldn’t exist and no one would ever receive compensation. The problem is that the government insists that complainants use a special court in which lawyers can’t go for huge contingency payoffs and, even worse to the lawyers, that there be some science behind claims of vaccine injury. These lawyers are in my opinion notorious for relying on bad science and pseudoscience to try to win their claims. None of this prevents Conway from stating baldly that he believes that it’s all a “conspiracy,” although he concedes that “it’s a conspiracy to do good” by keeping vaccination rates up.
Finally, if you want to see additional “experts,” the ones who apparently were responsible for the medical and scientific content of the film, all you have to do is to wait until the very end of the closing credits, where it is stated that “this film was vetted by Dr. Lawrence D. Rosen, MD, FAAP and Dr. Yehuda Shoenfeld, MD, FRCP for scientific and medical accuracy.”
This explains a lot.
Who is Dr. Rosen? He’s an “integrative” pediatrician who is chair-elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Complementary and Integrative Medicine, Clinical Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at UMDNJ/New Jersey Medical School (ack, my old stomping grounds!), and Chief of Pediatric Integrative Medicine at the Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital at Hackensack University Medical Center, as well as medical advisor to the Deirdre Imus Environmental Center. He also writes The Whole Child blog. All one has to do is to search his blog, and one will find that Dr. Rosen opposes vaccine mandates, in particular mandates for the flu vaccine and Gardasil and appears to believe that thimerosal causes autism (although he is very careful to be vague on this issue). Worse, he was a featured speaker at a notorious anti-vaccine conference in Jamaica in January, sharing the bill with the likes of fellow “experts” Barbara Loe Fisher, Dr. Palevsky, Dr. Russell Blaylock (who is an all purpose medical crank and, like many all purpose medical cranks, anti-vaccine), Dr. Shiv Chopra (who is anti-vaccine to the core), Dr. Richard Deth (who was an expert witness for the plaintiffs at the Autism Omnibus proceeding), Raymond Obamsawin (mentioned above), and, yes, Andrew Wakefield himself. It turns out that Dr. Yehuda Schoenfeld spoke at the very same conference with Dr. Rosen and has himself been involved in dubious vaccine-autism science, in particular involving Mark and David Geier in his journal.
It all makes sense now why this movie is so bad.
Whither autism?
For all its anti-vaccine talking points, The Greater Good does bring up an issue that I find rather curious and, quite frankly, amusing, and this issue comes from Barbara Loe Fisher herself. This most revealing statement from her comes twice, first early in the movie and then late in the movie, when she repeats it. Basically, Fisher argues that vaccine injury is “not just about autism” and late in the movie even goes so far as to say:
In the last decade, the conversation has shifted from one looking at the broad issues concerned with vaccine safety and vaccine policies to focusing on autism. And I believe it was an error that’s had serious consequences. The truth is, it’s become very easy to dismiss the entire vaccine safety issue by focusing on autism and vaccines.
While she says this, an image of Jenny McCarthy on Larry King Live! is briefly flashed on the screen coincident with the phrase “serious consequences.” Besides wondering if Barbara Loe Fisher is exhibiting a bit of envy over how McCarthy and Generation Rescue have grabbed the spotlight, I also wonder if Fisher realizes that she is implicitly admitting that vaccines do not cause autism. After all, if there were strong scientific, clinical, and epidemiological evidence in existence that vaccines do cause autism, then I fail to see how focusing on autism would make it “very easy” to dismiss the entire vaccine safety issue. In fact, if I were anti-vaccine and such evidence existed, I’d trumpet it to high heaven as my strongest argument that vaccines were harmful. Yet, here we have Fisher bemoaning how the vaccine/autism connection has taken over and made it easy to dismiss her and her fellow anti-vaccine activists as cranks. The amusing thing (to me, at least) is that Fisher apparently doesn’t recognize that her argument implicitly admits that the evidence that vaccines, or components of vaccines, cause autism is nonexistent or at best incredibly weak and that there is lots of evidence that they do not.
The Filmmaker
Finally, it’s interesting to take a look at the filmmaker, namely producer Leslie Manookian Bradshaw, who appears to have dropped the “Bradshaw” of late. It turns out that Bradshaw appears to be a homeopath, as I discovered when I first heard of this movie several months ago. At least, that’s what she lists her occupation as in her political campaign contributions. Interestingly, I distinctly remember that she used to have her training in homeopathy listed in her filmmaker bio page several months ago, but it’s not there anymore. Unfortunately, I didn’t save it. Whether she is a homeopath or not (it would be very coincidental if there were another Leslie Bradshaw in Ketchum, ID who just so happens to list her profession as a “self-employed homeopath, but you never know), Manookian has been known to show up at other blogs to post anti-vaccine views, as she did here and here. Perhaps SBM will be fortunate enough for her to do the same here. Interestingly, now that the movie is out, Manookian appears to be trying to hide her previous activity. Gone are any references to homeopathy on her website. Gone in particular is the “take action” page, which is now no longer publicly accessible, but used to contain content like:
Take Action/Goals of the Film: Open the hearts and minds of individuals to the reality that vaccine injuries occur. Encourage parents to talk with doctors about vaccine safety before making informed decisions. Demand independent vaccine safety research before approval and licensure by the FDA. Hold pharmaceutical companies accountable when vaccines cause harm. Petition for philosophical exemptions from mandatory vaccinations in all 50 states. End the FDA’s fast-tracking of childhood vaccinations. VACCINE INFORMATION SOURCES: Mercola.com
Mothering.com
NVIC – National Vaccine Information Center
Pathways to Family Wellness
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
TheVaccineBook.com by Dr. Bob Sears
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES:
ACIP – Advisory Committee On Immunization Practices- Creates the CDC’s recommended vaccine schedule and promotes the increased use of vaccines.
CDC – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention- Protects the public health, promotes vaccines and monitors safety of vaccines.
FDA – Food and Drug Administration- Regulates all pharmaceutical products including vaccines to protect public health.
NVICP – National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program- Compensates those injured or killed by a vaccines.
VAERS – Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System National vaccine safety surveillance program.
Yes, Manookian used to list Mercola.com as the very first source for vaccine information, along with Mothering.com. Now, its resource page lists the American Academy of Pediatrics first, but still lists Mercola.com, Mothering.com, and the NVIC website.
Unfortunately, The Greater Good, which could have been a provocative debate about current vaccine policy based on asking which vaccines are necessary and why, in the end opts to be nothing more than pure anti-vaccine propaganda of the lowest and most vile sort. It give the pretense of “balance” by including prominent pro-vaccine scientists, but in the end it is very clear where the message of the movie lies, particularly given the three main families profiled in the film. Worse, from correspondence with a couple of the pro-vaccine doctors interviewed in the movie, to me it appears that the resemblance between this movie and Expelled! is more than just its denialist tendencies in that the filmmakers apparently were less than straightforward with scientists about their viewpoint when interviewing them. All of this leads me to conclude that The Greater Good is to vaccines what Expelled! was to evolution: Science denialist propaganda of the most blatant sort.Education reporter Lindsay Wagner was kicked out of a North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE) annual meeting today, a press event listed on McCrory’s public schedule that was sent out to media outlets, including N.C. Policy Watch.
When pressed for an explanation, a representative who appears to be from NCBCE — which operates under the Office of the Governor — explicitly said that no one from N.C. Policy Watch was “invited” to this press event.
Just kicked out of a public event by @PatMcCroryNC & escorted by security because no one from @NCPolicyWatch was "invited." #ncga #ncpol — Lindsay Wagner (@LindsayWagnerNC) June 25, 2015
Wagner was at the PNC Arena to cover the governor’s comments to NCBCE during this event.
Wagner had already sat down when a representative approached her with questions about her “credentials.” After hushed discussions among NCBCE representatives, Wagner was escorted out by PNC security with no clarification on the credential issue and was denied a request to speak with someone from the governor’s office.
Listen here for Wagner’s exchange with PNC security and an NCBCE representative.
NCPW reporter @LindsayWagnerNC escorted out a McCrory event by security. Is she some sort of threat??? — Sharon McCloskey (@sharonmccloskey) June 25, 2015
Disappointed that @PatMcCroryNC's staff wouldn't even face me to say NCPW blacklisted from his events. Sent PNC security instead. #ncga — Lindsay Wagner (@LindsayWagnerNC) June 25, 2015
This move by the governor’s office left some scratching their heads.
That's wrong. @PatMcCroryNC should not prevent press from covering events. https://t.co/EcR8yu0IsA — Rick Henderson (@deregulator) June 25, 2015
Bad move, gov. RT @lindsaywagnernc: Today's @PatMcCroryNC event this reporter was kicked out of? @NCBCE's annual meeting at PNC arena #ncpol — Barry Smith (@Barry_Smith) June 25, 2015
But it wasn’t the first time an N.C. Policy Watch reporter was denied access to a McCrory presser.
2nd time an @NCPolicyWatch reporter has been kicked out of press event by @PatMcCroryNC's office.Colleague @LindsayWagnerNC escorted out — Sarah Ovaska-Few (@SarahOvaska) June 25, 2015
Courts and law reporter Sharon McCloskey was barred from entering a press conference McCrory held pardoning Leon Brown and Henry McCollum just two weeks ago.
At gov's office for press Conf but they won't let me in pic.twitter.com/aPVRTJoCJK — Sharon McCloskey (@sharonmccloskey) June 4, 2015
After showing her N.C. Policy Watch staff press credential, McCloskey was told by a communications representative from the Office of the Governor Greg Steele that only Capitol Press Corps members were allowed access. Shortly afterwards, a reporter from the Wall Street Journal, not a member of the Capitol Press Corps, was let in.
From @sharonmccloskey: WSJ reporter here. Doesn't have credentials thru capital press corps. Just let her in- @NCPolicyWatch blocked #ncpol — Sarah Ovaska-Few (@SarahOvaska) June 4, 2015
Despite numerous attempts seeking clarification of what “credential” is necessary for the media to cover a press event on McCrory’s public schedule, N.C. Policy Watch has yet to hear back from the governor’s office.
Note: @NCPolicyWatch contacted guv's office earlier this week to inquire about last time prevented from covering event, call not returned. — Sarah Ovaska-Few (@SarahOvaska) June 25, 2015
Terry Stoops, K12 education researcher for the John Locke Foundation, sums it up quite succinctly.
This has to stop. https://t.co/I34TBqCGpq — Terry Stoops (@TerryStoops) June 25, 2015
# # #
UPDATE 6/26/2015
N.C. Policy Watch reporter Lindsay Wagner has since received an email response from Communications Director Josh Ellis from the Office of the Governor. This is the first time N.C. Policy Watch has heard from the McCrory administration on the matter. The text of the email response is below.
Lindsay, I wanted to follow up on your email to Eric about the NCBCE event. The public schedule clearly lists this event as open to credentialed press. The North Carolina Association of Broadcasters, North Carolina Press Association, Capitol Press Corps or members of a widely-recognized media cooperative such as the Associated Press make the decisions about who should or should not receive credentials. Simply put, we let the press determine who should be identified as credentialed press. For more information about obtaining those credentials, you can contact the organizations listed above or visit: http://www.ncpress.com/nc-capitol-press-corp. Thanks
JoshJames Bond's Top 10 Closest Shaves
Summary Following his creation in 1953, James Bond featured in twelve very successful Ian Fleming novels prior to the release of Dr. No, the first motion picture in the Bond film franchise in 1962. So, while skilful production and casting have contributed enormously to the global success of the Bond movies, the ultimate appeal of 007 lies firmly in the edge-of-your-seat story lines. In pitting his wits against megalomaniacs across every continent, Bond has on many occasions been close to a sticky end. Here we list our top ten memorable close shaves where our hero, but for some quick thinking and even quicker reflexes, could have been pushing up the daisies.
#10 Something Under the Sheets (Dr. No, 1962)
You don't need to be arachnophobic to break out in a cold sweat for this scene but it does help! Lying comfortably asleep in his bed during the early hours, crickets gently chirp in the still acacia trees outside. Bond stirs, slowly raising his head from the pillow to look over his shoulder. Under the bed sheet something moves tentatively up his arm. Bond remains motionless. A cold sweat covers his face. Whatever it is, it shouldn't be there.
Then, with a sudden glance from the corner of his eye he spots the meaty black tarantula as it reveals itself from beneath the cover. Tapping its hairy forelegs on his upper arm, the poisonous arachnid feels its way ominously over Bond's shoulder. Starting over his chest it changes direction until it slowly crawls onto the pillow next to his head. Within a second Bond throws off the sheet and is out of bed grabbing his shoe before hammering the life out of the would-be killer.
#9 A Bite for Lunch (Live and Let Die, 1973)
Having been driven to a remote illicit drugs factory in the Louisiana outback, Bond is shown the crocodile enclosure. Feeding time will be the "highlight of the tour". Bond watches suspiciously as Tee Hee, the bad guy with a mechanical arm, feeds meat to the reptiles. His captors then leave him defenceless on a ten-foot by ten-foot island in the middle of a crocodile-infested lake. Bond scans the area for an escape route as one by one the crocodiles surface above the muddy water and begin to close in.
A small boat nestles in the nearby reeds. Using the super-magnet built into his wristwatch, Bond tries to draw the boat closer, only to find it tied too securely. The situation appears hopeless as four hungry crocodiles slowly climb onto the tiny island while others surround it on all sides. Everyone knows Bond has nowhere to go. But in a flash, he hops with one foot from the island onto the back of a snapping crocodile, then another, then another until finally he lands safety on solid ground.
#8 Under a Steel Jaw (The Spy Who Loved Me, 1977)
Bond has had many encounters with the villain with a steely bite. His closest shave with Jaws comes on a train where his companion is the serene Anya Amasova. They occupy annexed cabins when Bond hears a muffled scream. He rushes to investigate and finds Jaws stooping over an unconscious Ms. Bach, just about to bite into her neck. Taking a magnum of Champagne Bond smashes it over Jaws' head.
This is merely a tickle for the big guy. He turns, punches a hole in the door, grabs Bond by the throat, and hurls him across the room. After biting a chunk out of a tabletop, Jaws lifts Bond off the floor with one hand. Pinning him against the wall, he goes in for the big bite. Reaching down for the bedside lamp Bond smashes the bulb to expose the electric filament and forces the live wire on to Jaws' metal mandible. With the sound of a dentist's drill and a flash of neon light, Jaws recoils in agony. Then, with a two-footed jump, Bond kicks the giant assassin through the train window.
#7 Ashes to Ashes (Diamonds Are Forever, 1971)
Knocked unconscious outside a mafia-run funeral parlour in L.A--by two murderous assassins going by the names of Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint--Bond is laid to rest peacefully, yet still alive, inside a coffin prepared for cremation. The lid of the coffin slams shut with a heavy thud before being locked by the bespectacled, creepy Mr. Kidd. Proceeding to the control panel at the head of the coffin, Mr. Kidd cues the music as a solemn Mr. Wint watches.
The doors and curtains open and the coffin rolls slowly inside the oven. A "glowing tribute" says Mr. Wint. The flames wrap around the coffin while Bond slowly regains consciousness. The heat and smoke begin to penetrate the coffin, but for all his efforts there is no way out and James Bond is about to be burned alive. Suddenly, the coffin is open and daylight streams in. His saviour, the figure holding open the lid, is an angry Shady Tree, the mob comedian Bond has just duped with fake diamonds.
#6 Trapped in a Tiger (Goldeneye, 1995)
Rendered unconscious by a tranquilliser dart, Bond finds himself, along with blast survivor Natalya Siminova, strapped inside a Eurocopter Tiger. He rouses to the harrowing screams of his co-captive with less than thirty seconds before the helicopter is to self-destruct. The bleep of the countdown continues as the two struggle with their straps. As the timer reaches zero, Bond watches helplessly as two Mistral infrared homing missiles are launched from the helicopter into the sky above. Bond looks down at the dashboard. Time To Target, eleven seconds.
The missiles turn back on themselves, aiming straight at the helicopter from where they were launched. Franticly, Bond looks about the cockpit for options and notices the emergency Eject button flashing to the left. Arching his neck, he strikes the button powerfully with his forehead. Nothing. He strikes it again. Nothing. He has time for one final attempt. He musters up all his strength and strikes the button with his head for the third time. The rotor blades disengage and Bond and Siminova are ejected high into the air just as the helicopter explodes beneath them.Regular expressions can be used to search and match different complex parts of text. But is there something we can do to improve the technology that's been around from the 1950's?
This is the backstory of a small weekend project that grew into multiple thousand star trending repository.
Regular expressions are hard
The language used to express the part of a text can get pretty hard to read pretty fast, obfuscating the bigger view of what a person might have wanted to accomplish.
Consider this, rather simple, regular expression:
So what does it do? When we have a look with a magnificent tool called Regexper, we can begin to make some sense about it:
rdf:rdf<cc:license rdf:about="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"><cc:permits rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/ns#Reproduction"></cc:permits><cc:permits rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/ns#Distribution"></cc:permits><cc:requires rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/ns#Notice"></cc:requires><cc:requires rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/ns#Attribution"></cc:requires><cc:permits rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/ns#DerivativeWorks"></cc:permits></cc:license></rdf:rdf> Created with Snap Start of line End of line non-white space “ @ ” non-white space “. ” non-white space
Ok, this looks a bit more readable. You might even start to tell that the expression has something to do with emails.
But you might want to be able to make the regular expressions readable without needing to copy-paste them to a website. VerbalExpressions to the rescue!
How to use VerbalExpressions?
Thinking that there should be an easier and more expressive way to write regular expressions, I spent originally few hours making the JavaScript implementation of VerbalExpressions.
VerbalExpressions is a small library that you can include to your project so you can use more expressive language. For example the previous line could be expressed like this:
VerEx ().startOfLine ().somethingBut ('' ).then ( '@' ).somethingBut ('' ).then ( '.' ).somethingBut ('' ).endOfLine ();
This helps you to understand what is going on, because the script chains up the regular expression nicely as you read it line by line.
Converting to RegExp
Using VerbalExpressions can help if you're trying to learn to use the "real" regular expressions, because the VerEx object is just an extension of the underlying RegExp object (in JavaScript).
You can do everything with the VerEx object you'd do with a regular RegExp object; you can find, test, replace etc.
You can even convert the VerEx object to a regular RegExp object by calling the toRegExp() method:
var fooFinder = VerEx().find( 'foo' ).toRegExp(); console.log(fooFinder);
So you can just start coding and see how the underlying regular expression grows.
The rest is history
After publishing the initial version of VerbalExpressions, I posted it to a couple of places in hope that it'd get some interest from developers struggling with learning regular expressions.
Fortunately things worked out much better. With the help of a fellow developer, we got a big publicity after the Smashing magazine tweeted about the library:
Interesting: VerbalExpressions is a JS librarty that helps to construct hard regular expressions: https://t.co/hb55xgJAxp (via @luotojesse) — Smashing Magazine (@smashingmag |
of Ermon Lane and Travis Rudolph as freshmen, it'll be interesting to see what happens with Isaiah Jones, who is academically ineligible for 2014 but will have three years of eligibility remaining. However, that's more of a question for the 2016 class.
I don't believe FSU will have room for slot receiver, Ryan Davis, and I mention him only because folks keep asking about him. I am not high on Davis and would save the scholarship for 2016 if given the choice. FSU continues to be in contact with Davis, however, in case a spot opens up.
12/11: Florida continues to pursue Auden Tate, and can likely offer more playing time than the Seminoles can.
TE: Florida State loses Nick O'Leary and Kevin Haplea, but returns three other scholarship tight ends. FSU would like to carry five on scholarship, if possible. The Noles have a commitment from Jalen Wilkerson (Coffee County, Georgia). Wilkerson is athletic, but is unlikely to be an instant-impact player. Tight end is a tough position to learn as a freshman, due to blocking and route running requirements. I don't think FSU is in on any other big tight ends at the moment, but I wouldn't rule out the staff moving on a tight end who emerges as a senior.
Of course, there's also the consideration of keeping the tight end depth chart attractive for 2016, as FSU is in great position for Isaac Nauta, who is moving to Florida and will be attending the IMG Academy in Bradenton. Nauta is currently the best tight end prospect in his class.
12/11: Nauta is committing Monday, and Florida State sources expect him to be a Seminole.
OL
Florida State cleaned up along the offensive line on National Signing Day, bringing in seven fantastic offensive linemen. They'll return 10 offensive linemen in 2015, along with attrition of one or none. Teams typically want to carry 15-18 offensive linemen, but FSU may want to space it out a bit between years, so four to six seems about right.
FSU has three commits listed right now: Abdul Bello (Montverde Academy), Cole Minshew (Georgia Coffee County), and David Robbins (Glenelg, MD). Bello is extremely athletic but raw; Minshew is an absolute steal that Georgia has to be kicking itself for not offering earlier; and Robbins is a promising prospect at center or guard.
A source also told me over the summer that FSU still planned to stick with Ethan Frith, who delayed his enrollment to have shoulder surgery so that he wouldn't lose a year of eligibility due to injury. Frith told me he still plans to be at FSU and his surgery went well.
FSU is still pursuing Jalen Merrick, of New Smyrna Beach. Merrick projects as a guard, although he could play right tackle. FSU is battling Florida, LSU, Miami and Arkansas for his services, and he may visit Alabama. Any way you slice it, FSU's two-year haul on the offensive line is great. Merrick was over the moon during his last visit, and he returned for the Florida game.
DL
FSU signed a monster class of defensive linemen, seven in all on National Signing Day 2014. Florida State will return 16 defensive linemen in 2015. Assuming attrition of four, it needs to bring in at least four in the 2015 class.
Florida State has two commitments on the defensive line: JUCO D.J. Jones, and Darvin Taylor (Virginia). Taylor is very solid, but FSU will have to fight any number of SEC schools to keep Jones' commitment. He is far from a lock.
Another defensive tackle, like Neville Gallimore, of Ontario (CN), would be nice, but don't expect FSU to grab a random body. Gallimore has visited FSU, and the Seminoles are battling Oklahoma, Auburn and Ohio State. The DT crop in the state this year is terrible.
Defensive end is where the focus is right now.
Florida State has now landed Josh Sweat, who if he returns from a major knee injury, projects as the best pass rusher in the class. It still needs one more player at the position (maybe two, depending on how other things shake out).
FSU is still whale hunting with five-star ends: Terry Beckner, CeCe Jefferson and Byron Cowart.
Cowart told Josh Newberg of Noles247 ($) that FSU is his new leader. He followed that up by saying the same to Derek Tyson of ESPN. I believe he said that to Newberg, and he may like Florida State, but Cowart goes to Armwood High School, and Armwood players simply have not signed with Florida State. If the Gators retain defensive line coach Brad Lawing, you have to like UF's chances, but FSU has put up a great fight. Alabama is also still in the mix for Cowart. Missouri and Ohio State are the competition for Beckner, who has the ability to play inside or out, like Mario Edwards, Jr.
FSU is also interested in Shelton Johnson, a developmental pass rusher out of Delray Beach Atlantic. They seem to have a good shot at him, as well. Johnson visited with his mother recently, and I expect the Seminoles to land the long pass rusher if they want him.
One thing I do not expect is for FSU to take two non-elite defensive ends in addition to the stud they already have in Sweat. That's because 2016 defensive end recruiting is going extremely well with Janarius Robinson and Josh Brown already committed.
Here is a recent photo of FSU commit Janarius Robinson. Remember, he is a 2016 defensive end. He looks 30.
LB
FSU signed a great linebacker class on National Signing Day 2014 and will return eight linebackers in 2015. Assuming no attrition, it will need to bring in at least two linebackers, and it's done so in Brian Bell, of Valdosta (Ga.) and Sh'Mar Kilby-Lane, of Hallandale (Fla.). This is a solid pair of linebackers and given the lack of linebacker talent in the state, this is not the year to reach for an extra player. LSU is trying to flip SKL, however, so that is something to watch.
DB
FSU needs to hit a home run in the defensive backfield in this class.
Florida State signed a pair of talented defensive backs in 2014. FSU will return 12 defensive backs, but attrition of three should be expected, meaning FSU needs to take at least five in its 2015 class.
Right now, FSU has four committed: Derwin James (Haines City), Tarvarus McFadden (American Heritage), Calvin Brewton (Miami Central), and A.J. Westbrook (Daytona Mainland). James is far and away the best safety in the country, and McFadden is one of the top five cornerbacks in the country. Brewton and Westbrook are nice, versatile pieces as well.
Here are James' new highlights. It's easy to argue he is the best player in Florida.
As of now, everyone in the defensive back class seems solidly committed. James and Brewton are early enrollees, but the others may take some official visits.
FSU is still pursuing corners Minkah Fitzpatrick (Alabama commit), and Davante Davis of Miami Booker T. Washington, who is also being pursued by Florida, Miami, Georgia and others. Then there's the Texas trio of Kris Boyd, Kendall Sheffield, and Holton Hill. I think Boyd is the most likely of the trio. And it appears that FSU is not done courting Iman Marshall, of California. Here's 2016 FSU QB commit Malik Henry, of California, trying to get FSU fans to follow Marshall on twitter.
All my FLORIDA STATE FANS go show my dawg some love @iman_marshall8 the top CB gotta get him to join the family!! #NoleNation #nolefam — OVO_MALIK (@malik_henry16) December 11, 2014
I had somewhat written off Marshall, because he hadn't visited at all, and it's hard to pull a kid from California without at least a visit. But if he does go through with plans to take a visit in January, then FSU might have a shot.
Keeping McFadden in the fold and landing one of Fitzpatrick, Davis, Hill, Sheffield, Boyd or Marshall would be a home run for the Seminoles. Two more would be a grand slam of epic proportions.Kolkata: If you went down Vivekananda Road in the direction of Girish Park metro station, it’s a cool, pleasantly-shaded walk until the Ganesh Talkies crossing, where the heat of the Kolkata summer hits you like a slap through an ugly hole of sky. This is the spot where the 60th section of the Vivekananda flyover, then under construction, collapsed at 12:32 pm on March 31, 2016, crushing 26 people to death.
Many of them were hurrying to work at Burra Bazaar, said to be the largest commercial district in eastern India. Sanjay Mehrotra, 50, was walking to his family yarn store after a lunch that felt too full. A mother had set out to pick up her children from school, others were going to the bank, a couple were on the way to visit family in a nearby hospital. Some were at work: among the dead were rickshaw pullers, cab drivers, street vendors and men still unidentified in the police records. According to the police, 20 people were treated for injuries.
“It is like an act of god,” A.G.K. Murthy, the operations director of IVRCL, had said on the day of the accident. IVRCL is the company constructing the flyover. Sheela Peddinti, the company’s legal adviser, said two days later, “The glass was shattered. It could have been a blast.” But despite these statements, to this day, the company carries only a press release dated March 31, 2016, on its website “grieving” the incident. And although this document carries an email address, the company repeatedly ignored email and telephone requests for responses over the months of February and March 2017, as the one-year-anniversary of the accident drew near.
When contacted through their defence lawyer on two occasions, they refused each time.
Across the crossing, the rest of the flyover stands as before, snugly fitted into the balconies and parapets of houses before abruptly halting mid-road. This is how the damaged flyover has stood since the rescue operations to excavate people buried under the crush of steel and concrete ceased.
The case so far
One year and a few days after the accident, the criminal trial into the accident has not begun. Sixteen persons were arrested on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other related charges. All 16 are now out on bail.
Ten of those charged are management-level officials of IVRCL. Two are senior officials of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), the urban planning and development authority of the West Bengal government for the larger Kolkata area. In the legal agreement for this project, KMDA has been identified as the employer.
Additionally, two persons from Anindita Enterprises, one from Equtep Engineers and Associated Pvt. Ltd. and one from the Indian Registrar of Shipping (IRS) – all subcontracted by IVRCL – have been charged. Of them, Equtep had been tasked with designing the flyover and the IRS, with quality control. The charges are under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of Rs 50) and 34 (acts done by several persons for a common intention).
Oddly, the police have been tight-lipped as well. Although one of the investigating officers spoke at length with The Wire, he refused to go on the record. A short check revealed that every English newspaper in the city that had followed up on the accident quoted ‘sources’ or ‘officers’ in the police. This kind of secrecy seems unwarranted. An order passed by the chief information commissioner in November 2014 deems a chargesheet to be a “public document”. However, it also adds that there may be information within that needs to be kept confidential. “Thus, [a] chargesheet can neither be prevented en bloc for disclosure nor disclosed totally.”
After filing three Right to Information (RTI) appeals, I received permission to access the document. Interestingly, the Kolkata police rejected the RTI appeal filed to them. Although the RTI response did not mention partial access, I was handed only about 50 pages of the case files. The police say they have filed more than 3,500 pages in charges – and need to file some more. The trial can begin only when the entire chargesheet has been filed.
In any case, to file for documents before the Kolkata courts is to realise how little an RTI order counts for before the vast smirking army of court clerks. No explanation was given for the partial access. Reporting from a chargesheet should be a straightforward thing; it is the official record of investigation. In this case, with this kind of pressure-cooker secrecy, it felt odd, disquieting even.
Absentee Chinese partner
Still, even a limited view of the charges filed offers a picture of widespread reckless malpractices, from the beginning and right from the top. In December 2008, when tenders were invited for constructing the Vivekananda flyover under the Central government’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, IVRCL bid for the project jointly with a Chinese company named China Railway 18th Bureau Group Co. Ltd. (CR18G). IVRCL and CR18G collaboratively proposed to deliver the flyover at a cost of Rs 164.63 crore in 18 months, beating out three other shortlisted companies (Gammon India, Sirplex and Tantia Construction). In this project, the KMDA is again the employer, and CR18G-IVRCL the contractor.
According to documents found by the Kolkata police, CR18G was listed as the lead partner in the project, responsible for 70% of the costs, benefits and liabilities. IVRCL stood for the remaining 30%. To this end, CR18G was also tasked with providing “experienced personnel” for the project. But in reality, police say, the Chinese company was a “silent partner”. They wrote: “Representatives of CR18G have never visited the project site. IVRCL has failed to… substantiate the [reasons for the] absence of CR18G since inception of this project.”
The reason for the inclusion of the Chinese firm, a subsidiary of a Fortune 500 company, seems obvious – to bump up IVRCL’s chances of securing the bid.
‘Failed steel’ samples
The police have specifically identified that the accident was caused when two arms of the T-shaped pillar, identified in their record as Pier no. 40(C), buckled. Piers are vertical structural braces that hold up the elevated length of road in flyovers. The two arms of Pier 40(C) were found bent in the shape of an inverted ‘V’ – no wonder then that their collapse brought down a considerable section of the built-up structure.
The chargesheet is also particular, and doughty, about pointing fingers. For example, it says that the steel used to fabricate Pier 40(C) was well below the required strength.
Two plates of 36-mm steel and of a certain heat specification had been purchased from SAIL in August 2013 and sent to the Anindita Enterprises workshop in Dhulagarh. Anindita Enterprises had been hired for fabricating steel. The requisite ‘impact value’ – the energy expended to cause a particular amount of deformation – of the steel was fixed at 25 J. When the IRS, appointed in the project for quality checks, tested this steel, it was found to have an impact value of only 9.33 J.
IRS collected a second sample from the Dhulagarh workshop for testing in October 2013. This time, too, it failed: the impact value was found to be 12.66 J. After this, a third sample of the same heat specification was collected for testing – but from SAIL’s Dankuni yard. This third sample passed the impact value test. An IVRCL official then wrote to IRS to approve the steel sample.
The police have charged that the arms of Pier 40(C) were made by the “failed” steel sample materials in Anindita Enterprises’ Dhulagarh unit. In other words, rejected steel materials were knowingly used. The question then arises as to how many were in the know: officials of Anindita Enterprises alone or officials of the IVRCL, KMDA and IRS as well?
Unapproved drawings
If this wasn’t bad enough, the engineering drawing specifying the flyover’s design had not been vetted by the independent authority, Jadavpur University. This isn’t mentioned on the pages of the chargesheet (received through the RTI application). One afternoon, a lawyer connected with the case allowed me to pore over the documents for 15 minutes, and it was indeed listed in the case files. However, it isn’t clear if this detail has been included in the supplementary chargesheet.
The drawings and designs were courtesy Equtep. Protocol requires an independent expert – Jadavpur University, in this case – to vet the drawing. According to the police, a certain drawing had been sent to the university – let’s call it draft R0 – and it was approved. However, the flyover was not designed based on R0, but on a new draft called RI, and R1 hadn’t been cleared the university. In short, IVRCL worked on the basis of an unverified drawing.
This is a charge that is easier made than proved, said IVRCL’s lawyer Dibyaduti Sinha. “We have the drawing verified by Jadavpur. So we know protocol was followed and the independent expert was consulted. There are so many drawings made for a project like this, some of them may even be on file. How can you say that we were working on the basis of an unverified drawing?”
The other police findings this author saw listed were that the nuts and bolts used for temporary staging were of poor quality and that poorly-graded sand and coarse aggregates had been used for concreting.
However, a senior official at RITES, an engineering consultancy firm, said on condition of anonymity that the poor cement and sand quality are far less serious problems here. “When the design itself is faulty, these rank much further down the order,” he said. The government consults with RITES on transport, infrastructure and some associated technologies. RITES had been commissioned by the Kolkata police to conduct a probe into the accident. The official refused to discuss the contents of their report in detail except in the broadest of terms (because the case was sub judice): “Personally speaking, it’s best to raze the flyover. There is too little to salvage.” Another report into the accident has been prepared by IIT-Kharagpur; the institute’s director declined to discuss the report.
Immediately after the accident, the Kolkata media had suggested that the accident had been caused by corruption in the “syndicate” – the nexus between political parties and building-and-supplies contractors. Within two days, the ABP group zeroed in on Trinamool Congress MLA Smita Bakshi’s nephew Rajat Bakshi, whose company Sandhyamani Contractors provided labourers for the flyover. The police investigation has not charged him in the case so far, however. In July 2016 a relieved Bakshi told the Times of India about his not being charged. His aunt had also won her assembly seat, interestingly from the same constituency where the flyover had fallen.
More callousness
How does a construction company get away with the use of ‘failed’ steel, unapproved drawings and with the presence of a ‘ghost’ contractor? More than anything, what these charges suggest is a stunning failure in supervision – the responsibility for which lies entirely with the party identified as the employer: KMDA – and, by implication, the state government. (The flyover was commissioned in 2008-2009 when the government was headed by the CPI(M); the Trinamool Congress was voted in in 2011). Both governments share responsibility for what happened.
And then there was also the firm IRS, hired expressly for conducting quality checks. How did all these measures fail?
Well before the accident, a Times of India report had identified two serious problems thought to have crippled this project from the start. First: the continual delay in KMDA’s acquiring the requisite land. Second: the always-daunting challenge of erecting a flyover in a congested area like Burra Bazaar. As many residents had discovered to their shock, the structure of the flyover passes right through their verandahs or immediately under/above their parapets. Some residents went to court to protest this. All of this contributed to a delay of several years. The agreement with IVRCL and CR18G had been signed in February 2009 and the project was supposed to have been delivered in 18 months, i.e. by August 2010. When it collapsed on March 31, 2016, about 25% work remained to be completed.
A New-Delhi-based legal expert specialising in infrastructure issues told The Wire, “Such a delay by itself points to horrendous project management and very suspect oversight by the relevant government authority. The blame for that cannot fall anywhere other than with KMDA and by extension its controlling agency, the Government of West Bengal.” He added that it is difficult to comment on IVRCL’s liability without knowing what kind of agreement the company had signed with KMDA – for instance, a public-private partnership contract, a works contract or something else. Whatever the case, he said, “The delay itself … would eventually be sufficient, legally, to negate any liability on IVRCL.”
(Several emails to the relevant West Bengal government department requesting its views on the flyover collapse have gone unanswered – as have multiple phone calls and SMSes to the respective civil servants and their offices. Eventually, the chief secretary’s staff asked me to contact the urban development secretary. The story will be updated when an official response is available.)
Sohini Chattopadhyay is a freelance journalist.NRA Becomes Toxic
Add United Airlines to the list of companies that are severing partnerships with the NRA. Earlier Saturday morning Delta Airlines also cut ties to the gun group.
United is notifying the NRA that we will no longer offer a discounted rate to their annual meeting and we are asking that the NRA remove our information from their website. — United Airlines (@united) February 24, 2018
The NRA is facing a massive backlash unlike ever before, after 17 people were shot to death last week in a tragic high school massacre. Student survivors and activists and celebrities and many other Americans have been urging companies that partner with the NRA to stop their support of the gun lobby.
ThinkProgress has been one of the organizations leading the charge by identifying companies that have developed partnerships with the gun lobby. A story it published Tuesday has led to the now 18 companies, including United and Delta, who are finding the NRA is toxic.
RELATED: Delta Just Became the Latest Company to Join the Flight From Toxic NRA
Among them are these:
Alamo
Avis
Budget
Chubb
Delta
Enterprise
FNB Omaha
Hertz
LifeLock
MetLife
National
Norton
SimpliSafe
Teladoc
TrueCar
United
Image by InSapphoWeTrust via Flickr and a CC license
See a mistake? Email corrections to: [email protected]Rangers are pursuing a listing on ISDX market
Rangers have withdrawn the rights of four shareholders to vote, collect a dividend or trade their stake.
Formal requests for information about who ultimately owns the stakes in the company were sent to shareholders and four have so far not responded.
Until ownership information is provided, the shares held by the four companies are essentially worthless.
The four companies are Blue Pitch Holdings, Putney Holdings Limited, ATP Investments Limited and Norne Anstalt.
The shares held by the four groups represent 10.4% of the company.
Directors are trying to identify who owns the 4,000,000 shares held by Blue Pitch Holdings, the 700,000 held by Putney Holdings Ltd, the 2,600,000 held by ATP Investments Ltd and the 1,200,000 held by Norne Anstalt.
Fan groups have regularly sought more information about the owners of the Blue Pitch shares and those of Margarita Holdings, who were among the original shareholders when Charles Green's consortium bought the business and assets of Rangers Football Club plc as it entered liquidation.
Margarita Holdings are not listed in the company's shareholder register, but Blue Pitch and the other three groups failed to respond when the directors sent the request for ownership information under section 793 of the Companies Act 2006.
It is a criminal offence to provide false information under the terms of the Act.
The articles of association of Rangers International Football Club allow the directors, in the event of a default of section 793 notices, to withdraw voting rights, dividend payments and the ability to register share trades. All four shareholders have been informed for their default and the restrictions will remain in place until the necessary ownership information is provided.
The RIFC board are not currently planning any imminent shareholder votes but are pursuing a listing on the ISDX market, having been delisted from the Alternative Investment Market in April.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
The newly-installed president of the United Nations General Assembly, Ali Abdussalam Treki, has said that homosexuality is “not really acceptable”.
Treki, who is the Libyan secretary of African Union Affairs, opened the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly Friday with a press conference.
One question concerned the UN resolution which calls for the universal decriminalisation of homosexuality.
In reply, Treki said: “That matter is very sensitive, very touchy. As a Muslim, I am not in favour of it... it is not accepted by the majority of countries. My opinion is not in favour of this matter at all. I think it’s not really acceptable by our religion, our tradition.
“It is not acceptable in the majority of the world. And there are some countries that allow that, thinking it is a kind of democracy... I think it is not,” he added.
The ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs committee, Florida’s Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, told On Top Magazine: “The anti-gay bigotry spewed by this Qaddafi shill demonstrates once again that the UN has been hijacked by advocates of hate and intolerance.”In my previous post, which I'd highly recommend reading before diving into this one, I discussed the process of building my first bot using the Microsoft Bot Framework. The post covered getting everything set up, registered, and deploying the bot out into the wild.
This post will focus on several pieces of functionality that were added to the bot to make it what it is today, namely:
Determining whose turn it is to pick a restaurant.
Responding to queries about specific restaurants.
Talking with third-party APIs.
Configuring SMS/Text Support
Where were we?
If you last recall, we had just configured the bot to simply list out all of the available restaurants that had been visited, the dates that were visited, and who chose them via the show all command:
So let's extend this by determining whose turn it is to make the next selection. This is actually an extremely trivial operation, but it does add some useful functionality (as we often lose track of such things).
First, let's make a command to request this from the bot within the Post() method of the MessageController.cs file to accept a rough request about that type of question:
if Regex.IsMatch(message, "who's next|who is next|whose (pick|turn) is it", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)) { await ReplyWithNextMemberToChoose(activity, connector); }
So with that addition, the Post() method now looks as follows:
public async Task<HttpResponseMessage> Post([FromBody]Activity activity) { var connector = new ConnectorClient(new Uri(activity.ServiceUrl)); if (activity.Type == ActivityTypes.Message) { var message = activity.Text; if (Regex.IsMatch(message, "show|all|list all", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)) { await ReplyWithRestaurantListingAsync(activity, connector); } else if Regex.IsMatch(message, "who's next|who is next|whose (pick|turn) is it", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)) { await ReplyWithNextMemberToChoose(activity, connector); } else { await ReplyWithDefaultMessageAsync(activity, connector); } } return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK); }
Next, we will want to configure the basic logic to handle this, which just uses a bit of basic math (i.e. number of users modulo current user, etc.) :
private async Task<ResourceResponse> ReplyWithNextMemberToChoose(Activity activity, ConnectorClient connector) { try { var lastRestaurantVisited = await GetLastVisitedRestaurantAsync(); var members = await GetAllMembers(); var currentMember = Array.IndexOf(members, lastRestaurantVisited?.PickedBy?? ""); var nextMember = members[(currentMember + 1) % members.Length]; var nextMonth = lastRestaurantVisited?.Date.AddMonths(1)?? DateTime.Now.AddMonths(1); var replyMessage = string.Format(Constants.NextChooserFormattingMessage, nextMember, nextMonth.ToString("MMMM")); var reply = activity.CreateReply(replyMessage); return await connector.Conversations.ReplyToActivityAsync(reply); } catch { var reply = activity.CreateReply("I'm not sure who has the next pick. Try again later."); return await connector.Conversations.ReplyToActivityAsync(reply); } }
At that point, we can just ask the bot who has the next pick:
Since we already know who in the group is picking next, let's allow users to ask questions about where the group has previously dined, to ensure we don't repeat any earlier choices. We can do this by just adding another phrase to the bot in the form of "have we been to {restaurant}" within the PostMessage() method as seen below:
if (Regex.IsMatch(message, "(?<=have we been to )(?<restaurant>[^?]+)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)) { var restaurant = Regex.Match(message, @"(?<=have we been to )(?<restaurant>[^?]+)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)?.Groups["restaurant"]?.Value?? ""; if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(restaurant)) { var vistedRestaurants = await _service.GetAllVisitedRestaurantsAsync(); var visitedRestaurant = vistedRestaurants.FirstOrDefault(r => string.Equals(r.Location, restaurant, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)); if (visitedRestaurant!= null) { await ReplyWithVisitedRestaurantAsync(visitedRestaurant, activity, connector); } else { await ReplyWithUnchosenRestaurantAsync(restaurant, activity, connector); } } else { await ReplyWithUnrecognizableRestaurantAsync(activity, connector); } }
Pretty basic right? All this does is:
Checks if the restaurant requested has been previously visited.
If it has, indicate when it was visited and who chose it.
If it hasn't, let the user know that.
Otherwise, let the user know there was an issue recognizing the restaurant.
You can see this demonstrated below:
So now that we know who gets to pick the next restaurant, we need to help them make an informed decision on how to do this, and that's where some external APIs come in.
Yelp! I've fallen and I can't get up!
As an avid foodie and traveler, I use sites like Yelp all of the time, so it's no surprise here that we are going to take advantage of their API in order to get recommendations for where our group should go eat.
There are a few things that we will need in order to be able to call Yelp from our existing bot, which we will need to sign up through Yelp's Developer Program to access, namely:
A Client ID - used to uniquely identify our requests against the Yelp API and ensure that we aren't doing any funny business
- used to uniquely identify our requests against the Yelp API and ensure that we aren't doing any funny business A Client Secret - used to prove that we are who we say we are when making a request to Yelp
Both of these are pretty standard when working with most third-party APIs, so your mileage may vary if you are using something else.
So after creating your account on Yelp, you'll need to register an application, which is going to be your bot. This is a fairly straight-forward process and generally just requires filling out a few fields, and afterwards, you should see something like this within the portal:
This is mainly all that we are going to need on the Yelp end of things, but next we'll need to set-up our application so that we can actually use this information.
Storing Your Yelp Credentials
Normally, you could simply place your Yelp credentials within a simple configuration file and just read from it at run-time without any issues, and that's a perfectly valid solution in most use cases as seen in the previous post:
<appSettings> <add key="BotId" value="ThirdThursdayBot" /> <add key="MicrosoftAppId" value="foo" /> <add key="MicrosoftAppPassword" value="bar" /> <add key="YelpClientId" value="******************" /> <add key="YelpClientSecret" value="*************************" /> </appSettings>
However, since I'm going to be posting this on GitHub and I don't want to receive some really nasty e-mails from Yelp about the millions of requests that they are getting from me, we will go another route and take advantage of using environmental variables in Azure.
You can think of them just as you would when working with any other type of settings or configuration files, except, you can access them from the Azure portal and they are not actually stored within your code itself:
Now that we have these in place, let's build a service that we can actually use to go talk to Yelp.
Mapping Yelp Classes
After taking a look at the Yelp API, we will first need a few classes to bind our responses to that will make the code a bit easier to digest:
YelpBusiness - This represents a business within Yelp (as not everything is a restaurant)
- This represents a business within Yelp (as not everything is a restaurant) YelpLocation - This represents an address for a given business, which we will use to provide users with contact information (for making reservations, etc.)
- This represents an address for a given business, which we will use to provide users with contact information (for making reservations, etc.) YelpAuthenticationResponse - This is simply a token that we will need to store so that we don't have to authenticate each time we make a request to the Yelp API.
Each of these can be seen below and map directly to properties that we will be returned from the Yelp API based on their documentation:
public class YelpBusiness { [JsonProperty("rating")] public double Rating { get; set; } [JsonProperty("name")] public string Name { get; set; } [JsonProperty("image_url")] public string Image { get; set; } [JsonProperty("phone")] public string PhoneNumber { get; set; } [JsonProperty("location")] public YelpLocation Location { get; set; } } public class YelpLocation { [JsonProperty("city")] public string City { get; set; } [JsonProperty("address1")] public string Address { get; set; } [JsonProperty("state")] public string State { get; set; } [JsonProperty("zip_code")] public string ZipCode { get; set; } public string FullAddress => $"{Address}, {City}, {State} {ZipCode}"; } public class YelpAuthenticationResponse { [JsonProperty("access_token")] public string AccessToken { get; set; } }
At present, we really only need Yelp to do one thing: provide recommendations for where my friends and I should go eat. To do this we'll create a service that handles authenticating with Yelp and making the request that we need.
public class YelpService : IYelpService { private const string YelpSearchUrl = "https://api.yelp.com/v3/businesses/search?"; private readonly string _clientId; private readonly string _clientSecret; private readonly string _preferredLocation; private string _authToken; public YelpService(string clientId, string clientSecret, string preferredLocation = "Lake Charles") { _clientId = clientId; _clientSecret = clientSecret; _preferredLocation = preferredLocation; } /// <summary> /// Gets a random, unvisited Restauraunt from Yelp's API /// </summary> public async Task<YelpBusiness> GetRandomUnvisitedRestaurantAsync(Restaurant[] restaurantsToExclude) { try { using (var yelpClient = new HttpClient()) { await EnsureYelpAuthenticationAsync(yelpClient); if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(_authToken)) { // Yelp failed to authenticate properly, you should probably check the Client ID and Secret to ensure they are correct // or you could throw an exception and log it here (i.e. YelpAuthenticationException, etc.) return null; } var response = await GetYelpSearchQueryAsync(yelpClient); var recommendation = response.Restaurants.OrderBy(r => Guid.NewGuid()).First(r => restaurantsToExclude.All(v =>!v.Location.Contains(r.Name) &&!r.Name.Contains(v.Location))); return recommendation; } } catch { // Something else bad happened when communicating with Yelp; If you like logging, you should probably do that here return null; } } /// <summary> /// Ensures that the Yelp API has been authenticated for the current request /// </summary> private async Task EnsureYelpAuthenticationAsync(HttpClient yelpClient) { if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(_authToken)) { var authenticationResponse = await yelpClient.PostAsync($"https://api.yelp.com/oauth2/token?client_id={_clientId}&client_secret={_clientSecret}&grant_type=client_credentials", null); if (authenticationResponse.IsSuccessStatusCode) { var authResponse = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<YelpAuthenticationResponse>(await authenticationResponse.Content.ReadAsStringAsync()); _authToken = authResponse.AccessToken; } } } /// <summary> /// Sets the headers and search terms for the Yelp search query /// </summary> private async Task<YelpSearchResponse> GetYelpSearchQueryAsync(HttpClient yelpClient) { yelpClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.TryAddWithoutValidation("Authorization", $"Bearer {_authToken}"); var searchTerms = new[] { $"term=food", $"location={_preferredLocation}", $"limit=50" }; var searchRequest = await yelpClient.GetStringAsync($"{YelpSearchUrl}{string.Join("&", searchTerms)}"); return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<YelpSearchResponse>(searchRequest |
organisation, showed its “chutzpah”.
A lawyer for Trump Jr told the Atlantic: “We can say with confidence that we have no concerns about these documents and any questions raised about them have been easily answered in the appropriate forum.”
On Monday evening, Trump Jr tweeted what he said were copies of the “entire chain of messages with @wikileaks”.
The first contact from WikiLeaks was made on 20 September 2016, the magazine reports. In it the open information website informed Trump Jr that a new political action committee called “putintrump” was about to launch.
Trump Jr replied the following morning: “Off the record I don’t know who that is, but I’ll ask around.”
According to leaked information obtained by the Atlantic, Trump Jr shared the news that WikiLeaks had been in touch with him with several members of the inner campaign team. Among those he allegedly told were Steve Bannon, then chief executive of the Trump presidential campaign, as well as the candidate’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
On 3 October there was a further exchange through Twitter in which WikiLeaks encouraged the Trump team to publicise a comment by Clinton about wanting to “just drone” the head of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange.
“Already did that earlier today,” Trump Jr replied, according to the Atlantic.
Trump Jr says he was open to intel on Clinton's 'fitness' at Russia meeting Read more
Soon after, the businessman sent a second DM to WikiLeaks asking to know more about an upcoming leak from WikiLeaks that had been teased by Roger Stone, the Trump-supporting political agitator.
According to the Atlantic the information flow continued until as late as July this year, although after 12 October 2016 it was entirely in one direction – after that date the younger Trump did not respond to any approaches. Beyond that point, the leak becomes more revealing about WikiLeaks and its maverick founder Assange, holed up in the Ecuardorian embassy in London, where he has lived since 2012, than about the circle of the US president.
The most revelatory detail in that regard dates back to 21 October 2016 when the WikiLeaks account – presumably controlled by Assange himself, though the identity of the correspondent is unknown – contacted Trump Jr urging him to allow WikiLeaks to publish his father’s tax returns. WikiLeaks suggested the move would be positive as it would undermine suggestions that the organisation was in the pocket of the Kremlin.
“If we publish [the tax returns] it will dramatically improve the perception of our impartiality,” WikiLeaks says. “That means the vast amount of stuff that we are publishing on Clinton will have much higher impact, because it won’t be perceived as coming from a ‘pro-Trump’ ‘pro-Russia’ source.”
On election day itself, 8 November, WikiLeaks contacted Trump Jr to make the extraordinary suggestion that should his father lose the contest, as was then widely expected, he should refuse to concede the race and instead turn the spotlight on the media for “rigging” the result.
Profile Donald Trump Jr Show Hide Born 31 December 1977 in Manhattan 31 December 1977 in Manhattan Career After brief stint bartending in Aspen, he moved back to New York to join the Trump Organization, supervising Trump Park Avenue and other projects. He took an interest in other family enterprises in later years, appearing as a guest adviser on his father’s reality television show The Apprentice and as a judge of various Miss USA pageants. After brief stint bartending in Aspen, he moved back to New York to join the Trump Organization, supervising Trump Park Avenue and other projects. He took an interest in other family enterprises in later years, appearing as a guest adviser on his father’s reality television show The Apprentice and as a judge of various Miss USA pageants. High point Just before the news of his meeting with the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, he was riding high as executive director of The Trump Organization and one of the president’s closest confidants. Just before the news of his meeting with the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, he was riding high as executive director of The Trump Organization and one of the president’s closest confidants. Low point On Tuesday 11 July 2017, he produced the most damning evidence yet in the FBI’s investigation of Russian meddling in the US election, catapulting himself on to the international stage with emails showing he knowingly met with a Russian lawyer claiming to have “dirt” on his father’s rival. On Tuesday 11 July 2017, he produced the most damning evidence yet in the FBI’s investigation of Russian meddling in the US election, catapulting himself on to the international stage with emails showing he knowingly met with a Russian lawyer claiming to have “dirt” on his father’s rival. He says “I think I probably got a lot of my father’s natural security, or ego, or whatever … I can be my own person and not have to live under his shadow. I definitely look up to him in many ways – I’d like to be more like him when it comes to business – but I think I’m such a different person, it’s hard to even compare us. His work persona is kind of what he is. I have a work face, and then there’s my private life,” – Trump Jr to New York magazine, 2004. “I think I probably got a lot of my father’s natural security, or ego, or whatever … I can be my own person and not have to live under his shadow. I definitely look up to him in many ways – I’d like to be more like him when it comes to business – but I think I’m such a different person, it’s hard to even compare us. His work persona is kind of what he is. I have a work face, and then there’s my private life,” – Trump Jr to New York magazine, 2004. They say “It’s a do-anything-you-can-to-win world that he’s part of, and his eagerness to meet with this lawyer, who was very explicitly described as having information that came from Russian government sources – there’s no mystery there. There’s no veil. There’s not even one veil. Her name wasn’t mentioned but everything else was very explicit and he leaps at it. That’s all part of this all-that-matters-is-winning, there’s winning and there’s losing, that’s it. That’s the value system and in that way, he very much echoes his father.” – Gwenda Blair, Trump biographer, to the Guardian, 12 July 2017. “It’s a do-anything-you-can-to-win world that he’s part of, and his eagerness to meet with this lawyer, who was very explicitly described as having information that came from Russian government sources – there’s no mystery there. There’s no veil. There’s not even one veil. Her name wasn’t mentioned but everything else was very explicit and he leaps at it. That’s all part of this all-that-matters-is-winning, there’s winning and there’s losing, that’s it. That’s the value system and in that way, he very much echoes his father.” – Gwenda Blair, Trump biographer, to the Guardian, 12 July 2017.
Even more bizarrely, WikiLeaks wrote again in December, by which time Donald Trump Sr was the president-in-waiting, to ask for support in Assange’s legal battles against the governments of Sweden, the UK and Australia. “It would be real easy and helpful for your dad to suggest that Australia appoint Assange ambassador to DC.”
The Twitter message added: “They won’t do it but it will send the right signals to Australia, UK + Sweden to start following the law and stop bending it to ingratiate themselves with the Clintons.”
The younger Donald Trump did not reply.
This is not the first controversy involving Trump Jr and links to Russia. In June 2016 he met a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, in what was presented to him as part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s campaign by providing information that could be used against Hillary Clinton.Dick Bennett can't bring himself to watch Virginia play.
It's too unsettling, too antagonizing for the 70-year-old former coach who lives every possession as if he were his son, Tony, coaching on the sidelines.
He has no problem going to see his daughter, Kathi, coach Northern Illinois' women's basketball team. He'll sit down and watch his grandsons play in Green Bay. But watching Tony Bennett's Virginia games? He just can't do it.
Not even after his wife records the games for him to review.
Tony Bennett (left) took over for his father Dick (right) as Washington State's coach in 2006. AP Photo/Christopher Onstott
"When it comes to Tony's games, I've had too many wounds from my 40 years in the business," said Bennett, who coached at Wisconsin from 1995-2001 and took the Badgers to the 2000 Final Four.
Just imagine what Dick Bennett would be like if his son's Cavaliers were in last place.
Good thing for him, UVa is currently in first place in the ACC and riding an 11-game winning streak into Wednesday's game against Miami. That's just the appetizer. The Cavs will play host to Syracuse on Saturday in the most anticipated home game in more than a decade. Dick Bennett won't be watching.
He's been to one game this season in person and that's because the Cavs played close to his home at Green Bay. Virginia lost the game 75-72.
Despite having more ways to see a game -- via phone, tablet, desktop computer, satellite television -- than at any time in his life, Bennett would rather get old-school updates.
"I wait for Tony to call and I say, 'Tell me about the game,' and he does," Bennett said. "And so the temptation to make suggestions is no longer there because I haven't really seen the game."
Earlier in the season, Tony Bennett's conversations with his dad about basketball were more or less him venting about all the things that were wrong.
The Cavs, ranked No. 24 in the preseason, lost high-profile home games against VCU and Wisconsin. They also lost their only two non-conference road games: At Green Bay was first, followed by an embarrassing 87-52 loss at Tennessee.
Tony Bennett said all of those losses were important to the development of his team.
"We realized we weren't quite clicking, we were doing some good things, but not enough," Tony Bennett said. "When we went to Tennessee, it really showed us we've got to take another step, a big step, in the right way and refocus."
Refocusing really just meant re-tooling the offense. Virginia's defense, which takes from his father's "pack-line" philosophy of pressuring the ball and giving help, has consistently been one of the nation's best all season.
UVa leads the nation in scoring defense allowing just 55.3 points per game. No ACC opponent has reached 70 on the Cavs. Duke, which handed them their only league loss, got the closest when Rasheed Sulaimon's game-winning 3-pointer got a soft bounce and rolled in the net for a 69-65 win.
Now in his fifth season as Virginia's coach, Tony Bennett has compiled a record of 99-58. Grant Halverson/Getty Images
"The way they're playing defense right now, they are very stingy with everything," said Miami coach Jim Larranaga. "They make it very, very hard on you on the perimeter, they put a lot of pressure on the man with the ball."
The defense has always been there, but it's the offense that has turned Virginia into the ACC's front-runner. Senior Joe Harris, who led the team with 16.3 points per game last season en route to being named all-ACC first team, no longer has to carry the team with his scoring. He's not even the leading scorer anymore.
That title belongs to Malcolm Brogdon, who is scoring 12.3 points per game. Harris is second, averaging 11.5 points per game. Justin Anderson, Anthony Gill and Akil Mitchell all hover around eight points per game and can break out on any given night.
The Cavs' balance has made it a lot harder for opponents to defend them. But Tony Bennett said it all started with Harris willingly sacrificing his individual numbers for the team. Last season, Harris took nearly 12 shots per game. This season, he's down to 8.6 shots per game.
"That's sometimes the loudest or biggest influence for your team," Tony Bennett said. "When it's actually happening with [Harris], that's why I think it's been different guys on different nights. The shots have been distributed equally."
After those early losses, Tony Bennett simplified things offensively and reiterated the need to get the ball inside. What he also hoped for, but did not depend on, was the maturation of freshman point guard London Perrantes.
In conference play, Perrantes ranks sixth in the league with 4.1 assists per game. He also ranks first in league play in assist-to-turnover ratio.
The conversations between father and son nowadays have less to do with lamenting Virginia's troubles. They're more about closing out the season strong. The Cavs have a chance to win their first ACC title since sharing it in 2007 with North Carolina.
"It comes down to your quality," Tony Bennett said. "I'm not as worried about results, but what it looks like."
Dick Bennett will finally get a chance to see what it looks like firsthand. He said he plans on attending the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, N.C. But until then, he's content to not watch the hottest team in the league.
"I'm thrilled for them, I truly am," Dick Bennett said. "But it's not over.... I just prefer to stay out of the picture and let him tell me about it."President-elect Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE late Saturday said he will reveal new information in the next few days about alleged Russian hacking during the U.S. presidential election, saying he knows “things that other people don’t know.”
During brief remarks to reporters during a New Year’s Eve celebration at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., Trump repeated his skepticism of U.S. intelligence agencies’ assertions that Russia was behind the hacking.
“I just want them to be sure because it’s a pretty serious charge,” Trump said. “If you look at the weapons of mass destruction, that was a disaster, and they were wrong.”
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“So I want them to be sure,” he added. “I think it’s unfair if they don’t know.”
Trump also said he knows “a lot” about hacking, saying it is a “very hard thing to prove.”
“So it could be somebody else. And I also know things that other people don’t know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation.”
Trump did not offer details when pressed about what he knows, saying only that, “You’ll find out on Tuesday or Wednesday.”
Read more from The Hill:
Trump's solution to cyberattacks: Send info via courierThe wife of Michael Schumacher believes the former Formula One champion is getting better after emerging from his coma and being moved to a Swiss hospital last month, she told a German magazine.
In her first public comments since Michael Schumacher's horrific ski accident on December 29, 2013, Corinna Schumacher told Neue Post that the improvement in the health of her famous husband was encouraging.
"It's getting better, slowly certainly, but in any case it's improving," she told the women's weekly while she was watching a horse-riding tournament.
Michael Schumacher, 45, spent 170 days in hospital in the French city of Grenoble after cracking his skull on a rock while skiing in an Alpine resort. Almost all of that time he was in a coma, and lost a lot of weight.
After finally being coaxed back to consciousness, the seven-time world champion was on June 16 flown to a hospital in the Swiss city of Lausanne that specialises in care for brain injuries.PHOENIX — Ever since they drafted him in 2009, the Rockies have felt that left-hander Rex Brothers had the stuff to be a closer. He isn’t pitching in the ninth inning yet, but he’s as close as you can get without being there.
As in one inning away.
Rockies manager Jim Tracy was careful not to overwhelm Brothers with responsibility after his arrival from Triple-A Colorado Springs. But seven weeks into his career, Brothers has earned enough trust from Tracy to work his way into the mix in the eighth-inning setup role.
“I’ve gained much more confidence in him,” Tracy said. “At some point in time, you remove the reins, take them to the trough and see if they’re going to drink the water.”
Brothers hasn’t gone thirsty lately. He has worked 12 2/3 innings in his last 15 appearances, allowing one run, eight hits and striking out 20. He has been very good vs. lefties (8-for-30,.267), but even better against right-handers (7-for-36,.194).
The last six of those appearances have come in the eighth inning, and it’s not going to stop. Brothers will set up Huston Street along with Matt Lindstrom and Rafael Betancourt, who is back in the equation with six straight scoreless innings, during which he struck out 10 hitters in 5 1/3 innings.
“It’s confidence and a comfort level,” Brothers said. “It’s a different ballgame up here and I feel like I’m getting settled in. That’s the reason things are going the way they are. They’re not always going to be this way, but I’m just going to keep it on an even keel, keep digging.
“I’ve been getting ahead of hitters and that’s what this game is all about. This is probably the best I’ve felt since I’ve been here, no doubt about that.”
Brothers was a sandwich pick, the 34th overall, in 2009 and has been on a fast track to the majors ever since. He throws 95 and 96 mph with a heavy slider that’s been nearly unhittable in recent weeks.
“The fastball command has been lights out,” Tracy said. “The slider is what it is — really, really hard to hit, whether you’re standing on the right or left side of the plate. There’s no question he can be very, very special.”
Footnotes.
Brothers began July with a 3.86 ERA but has whittled it down to 2.55.... The Rockies’ eight runs Friday night matched the total for their four-game series in Atlanta before the all-star break.... Ty Wigginton’s two-run, fourth-inning single gave him six RBIs in July in 55 at-bats. He went into Saturday’s game hitting.208-0-4 in July after.262-8-18 in June.... The Rockies played their 100th game of the season Friday. How inconsistent have they been? Here’s their record in 25-game segments: 17-8, 7-18, 14-11 and 10-15.What Is Economic Nationalism?
Everyone’s talking about economic nationalism, but no one seems to know what it is.
This article clears that up. I’ll tell you what economic nationalism is, give you some historical examples of economic nationalism in action, and let you know its potential impact on America.
And of course, I’ll answer the burning question: does economic nationalism work? (spoiler: yes).
But first, let’s answer the hot political question of the day: is Donald Trump an economic nationalist? How about Steve Bannon?
Donald Trump Is An Economic Nationalist—Steve Bannon Too
Donald Trump’s been called a protectionist, an economic nationalist, even a mercantilist by establishment republicans and libertarians—as has his chief strategist, Steve Bannon.
Are they?
Yes. Donald Trump is an economic nationalist—this is actually one of the few issues that he hasn’t flip-flopped on over the past decades.
As far back as 1988 (appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Show), Trump was criticizing the rarefied notion of international free trade and economic globalism as a driver of economic growth. Basically, he thought it didn’t work—particularly in cases where the trade relationship was asymmetrical (eg. between China and the US).
His opinions have changed little in the intervening decades, as you can see here in his 2016 speech where Donald Trump comments on America’s asymmetrical trade with China:
If there are lingering doubts regarding Trump’s opinions on economic nationalism, there are none for Steve Bannon, the former editor of Breitbart, and Trump’s policy adviser.
Steve Bannon told the Hollywood Reporter point blank that he’s an economic nationalist in their exclusive interview:
I’m a nationalist. I’m an economic nationalist…the globalists gutted the American working class and created a middle class in Asia. The issue now is about Americans looking to not get fucked over…
What does that mean? For Bannon, it means re-balancing America’s trade deficit and investing in infrastructure, which is why he has been:
pushing a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan. With negative interest rates throughout the world, it’s the greatest opportunity to rebuild everything.
It’s clear that Donald Trump, and Steve Bannon are economic nationalists; but it’s less clear what that means.
What does economic nationalism mean?
What Is Economic Nationalism? A Definition.
So what is economic nationalism anyways?
Economic nationalism is best defined as an umbrella term for the variety of economic theories and policies that prioritize the economic interests of one nation, and its citizens, above those of another.
Examples of economic nationalism range from fairly mild protectionist regimes, such as Canada’s protection of its dairy industry, to the mercantile policies adopted by Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution.
Either way, the goal of an economic nationalist is to enrich and empower the nation to the maximum possible degree.
This is done by instituting policies, such as tariffs, development subsidies, or infrastructure investment programs, that are designed to create, attract, and retain as much economic activity as possible within the nation’s borders.
Basically, economic nationalists want to make the national economy as big as possible.
These policies are usually imposed on an ad hoc basis, according to the needs of the time—they vary from place to place and region to region, depending on the type of economy in question.
For example, a country with bad roads would get the most bang for its buck improving its roads, whereas a country with decent roads may benefit more from improving its airports—it entirely depends on the local context, there is no one size fits all solution.
In this way, economic nationalism is not so much a coherent economic model or theory, as it is as collection of policies that have been passed down over time—it evolved as a body of practical knowledge via historical accident, trial and error—as opposed to theories like global free trade, which is based on the work of David Ricardo, or communism, based on the writings of Karl Marx.
It is this adherence to pragmatism that separates economic nationalism from other economic “theories”.
So that’s what economic nationalism is generally, now let’s get into the nuance.
Economic Nationalism: Protectionism Or Mercantilism?
Many conflate economic nationalism and mercantilism, in an attempt to disparage the former by linking it with the latter—they routinely do it to Donald Trump, describing him as a mercantilist.
This works because mercantilism is old, and most people (including those flinging the mud) don’t know what it is—they think it’s about something silly like hoarding gold, or fighting wars over opium (see above picture). It’s not.
Mercantilism is just unadulterated economic nationalism.
Like I said, economic nationalism is a blanket term: all mercantilists are economic nationalists, but not all economic nationalists are mercantilists.
However, you can’t understand economic nationalism without understanding mercantilism, so that’s what we’ll focus on next—also check out the linked article for an in-depth discussion.
I’ll tell you exactly how protectionism is different from mercantilism, and then tell you what mercantilism is (just a heads up, everything you’ve heard about mercantilism is probably wrong).
Protectionism vs Mercantilism: What’s The Difference?
Basically, protectionism is passive, mercantilism is active.
What does that mean?
Economic protectionists seek to isolate their domestic markets from foreign competition, so that their local producers cannot be out-competed and replaced by imported products.
This is usually done by imposing high tariffs (taxes) on competing imports.
An example of a protectionist measure would be if Switzerland taxed foreign watches: this would make imported watches more expensive than Swiss watches (which aren’t taxed), and thereby make Swiss customers more likely to buy Swiss watches.
Importantly, economic protectionism focuses on protecting, or defending domestic markets: it does not necessarily seek to expand them. This is why protectionism is passive: it seems economic isolation.
Mercantilism takes this one step further: mercantilists are active, they seek to grow the domestic economy by actively investing in it, and by expanding international markets for their products—while still limiting foreign competition.
Basically, protectionists are happy with their economic pie, they just don’t want to share; mercantilists not only want their pie, but they want some of yours too. This is why mercantilism is active.
What Is The Economic Theory Of Mercantilism?
Since most people don’t have the foggiest idea what mercantilism is, I think it’s best to start my explanation by telling you what mercantilism is not.
Mercantilism is not about hoarding gold.
Mercantilism and gold are linked in the popular imagination because mercantile policies generate trade surpluses.
Historically, gold or silver was physically shipped from country to country to balance the books. For example, if England sold France 100 sheep, but bought only 50 sheep worth of stuff, France would have to pay for the other 50 sheep with gold.
You can imagine if this goes on for a decade then England will accumulate a “hoard” of gold—much like how China accumulated most of the world’s silver under the Canton System.
But England didn’t really care about the gold: they cared about growing their flocks of sheep, and employing more shepherds.
We know this not only because of history, but because mercantilists themselves told us. For example, Anoine de Montchrestien, the godfather of French mercantilism, wrote:
…it is not the abundance of gold and silver, the quantity of pearls and diamonds, which makes states opulent… it is the supply of things necessary for life and suitable for clothing…
Mercantilists didn’t really care about acquiring gold, and even if they did, it was of secondary importance—the point was to increase domestic industrial production and employment so as to enrich and empower the nation, not to sit on mountains of metal.
Mercantilism is not about colonialism.
Mercantilism is an economic policy that countries employed to benefit their own economies, nothing more.
To make this clear let us turn to history: the British and the Americans both employed mercantile policies during the 19th century, however only Britain acquired a global empire—the latter was fairly isolationist.
Therefore, mercantilism is not predicated upon colonialism, nor does it necessitate conquest—they are linked due to historical accident.
Mercantilism was not invented, it evolved.
There is no Adam Smith or David Ricardo we can point to and say: “he created it”.
Instead, mercantilism evolved through trial and error over hundreds of years. It is a collection of tricks-of-the-trade, of policies and practices that worked.
It was only during the Seventeenth Century that intellectuals began to distill the lessons of economic statecraft into a coherent set of principles, and only in the Nineteenth Century, when man’s arrogance clouded his mind to the wisdom of experience, that radical alternative systems, like free trade and communism, were born.
Mercantilism is not a zero-sum economic model.
It’s often (incorrectly) suggested by liberal economists that mercantilism is a zero-sum economic model, meaning that mercantilists believe that when one country gains economically, another loses—the economic pie is only so big.
They point out that when two countries freely trade, they both benefit: therefore mercantilism is wrong.
However, this is a straw man: they confuse mercantilism’s economic and political components—mercantilism deals with both money and power.
Economics may not be zero sum, but politics is. Simply put, the more powerful your rival is, the less powerful you are relative to them.
When dealing with power, when one country gains, another loses. Period. Power is zero sum.
Therefore, since mercantilism evolved in a period of endemic warfare, it made sense to conflate economic gain with political gain—the richer your rival became, the more powerful they became. So, if you wanted to limit their power, you needed to limit their economy.
Mercantilists aren’t necessarily opposed to asymmetrical trade relationships on economic grounds—they recognize that both partners may benefit. However, they would reject such a relationship, because it narrows the relative power differential between the two states.
For example, let’s say that America trades with China. America’s economy grows an extra 1% per year because of this trade, while China grows an extra 4% a year. Economically, both benefit—this makes liberal economists happy.
However, mercantile theory says this is a bad trade because China gains much more than America, and if it keeps up, China will eventually catch America—thus America is relatively weakened by China’s strength, which is bad for America in the long run.
Mercantilism is not against the free market.
There’s a difference between domestic markets and international markets, and mercantilists recognize this difference (whereas proponents of open markets don’t).
For example, during the Industrial Revolution, Great Britain had relatively free domestic markets (there were few regulations, people were free to travel throughout Britain), but they practiced heavily mercantilist trade policies internationally by imposing a 50% import tariff on manufactured goods, and making it a crime to export technology or machinery to rival nations.
In a counter-intuitive way, mercantile policies often protect domestic markets.
How? Just look at China and America as an example.
Right now, America imports Chinese stuff. This stuff is cheap—way cheaper than it should be.
This is because China practices predatory trading via currency manipulation, wage suppression, export subsidies etc. In the end, this cheap stuff out-competes American producers, who either have to offshore or close down.
I ask you: is America’s “free market” actually free?
No.
American companies do not compete with Chinese companies, they compete with China’s government, who crushes them with its monolithic fist. In today’s “free market” the government picks winners and losers, China’s government. Japan’s government. Even Canada’s government.
So that’s what mercantilism isn’t. But what is it?
How Does Mercantilism Work?
Let’s flesh out our definition of mercantilism.
Mercantilism has 2 goals:
Make the nation as rich as possible. Make the nation as powerful as possible.
The first goal is pretty simple: mercantilists want to make the economy as big and technologically advanced as they can. This is done by maximizing the amount, and efficiency of economic activity (particularly advanced industry) occurring within the nations borders.
Often this involves:
Imposing high taxes on value-added imports, while limiting them on raw materials or non-competing products (eg. tax imported laptops, not bananas).
Limiting taxes on value-added exports, and imposing high taxes on exported raw materials (eg. don’t tax exported automobiles, do tax wheat exports).
Seeking out new markets to export advanced products in exchange for raw materials (eg. sign trade deals to sell aircraft in exchange for uranium, not the other way around).
Investing in productivity-boosting infrastructure that will improve the economy’s overall efficiency (eg. build better roads, airports, internet infrastructure).
The second goal is where most misunderstandings arise.
Most economic theories only focus on absolute gains, ie. do both parties benefit? This is why liberal economic models (the Austrian School of economics) recommend highly asymmetrical, but mutually advantageous trades (eg. where China gains 10% while America gains 1%).
Mercantilism is different because it also focuses on relative gains/losses in relation to power.
This is why mercantilists (and other ardent economic nationalists) reject asymmetrical trade deals—they undermine the power of their nation by unduly benefiting the other (power is zero sum).
Some common tools mercantilists use to maintain power include:
Acquiring national monopolies in a specific resource (eg. OPEC benefits from manipulating oil prices higher than fair market rates).
Restricting the foreign ownership of domestic companies and resources.
Pursuing exclusive trade deals with new markets (you can trade with me, but not my rival).
Done right, a mercantile trade regime should result in the country exporting advanced products, and importing raw materials. This artificially expands the nation’s production, leading to full employment and a shortage of labor, which creates a powerful incentive to invest in better technology—it promotes long run economic growth.
It also ensures that trading partners remain relatively weak: industry is concentrated in the mercantile nation, whereas resource extraction is delegated to its trading partners. This creates a relationship of dependency and economic subservience, which relatively increases the power of the mercantile nation.
A good example is actually trade in colonial America—the colonies imported everything from tools to firearms from Britain, which left them relatively helpless at the beginning of the revolution (and Britain relatively strong). It was only because of help from Britain’s rivals that the colonists could raise a viable army.
Those are the goals, and some of the primary tools, of mercantilism. Now let’s look at how they work in context.
An Example Of Mercantile Economic Nationalism In Action
Let’s visualize this with an example.
Pretend there’s a country called Camelot. There’s nothing particularly special about it, but it does have a lot of sheep.
Right now, Camelot trades freely with the surrounding regions, particularly Avalon, to whom it trades wool in exchange for woolen cloth—it gets cold in Camelot, and they love Avalonian sweaters.
In this situation, a liberal economist would say that this trade setup is ideal, since both parties are trading freely, and both are benefiting.
But King Arthur of Camelot doesn’t care what economists has to say: he looks at Avalon with envy.
“Why should they have all the advanced textile mills, and live an urban lifestyle, while my people walk the hills guarding sheep?”
To fix this, Arthur raises a tax on exporting wool, and another on importing cloth. Not only does this make it lucrative to set up textile mills in Camelot, but Arthur also decides to reinvest these taxes in Camelot.
He invests in the mills, and builds some roads so they can get their textiles to market easier. Not only that, but he brings in some weavers from Avalon to teach the people of Camelot how to weave.
Pretty soon, Camelot has its own thriving weaving industry (and the urban, industrial population that comes with it), which benefits from relatively cheap wool. At the same time, Avalon’s weaving industry is dying out, since Camelot’s wool is too expensive due to the taxes.
Eventually, Camelot replaces Avalon as the weaving capital, exporting its cloth abroad—Camelot grows richer and more powerful relative to Avalon (which declines).
Seeing the success of the weaving industry, King Arthur decides to try similar tactics with other industries.
The end result is that Camelot imports only raw materials (or exotic stuff that it can’t get domestically), and exports only advanced, refined products (like cloth).
This does a few things:
It ensures that Camelot’s economy is diverse, since it no longer specializes in only exporting wool, but now refines and weaves the wool as well. Camelot’s economy is bigger than it would otherwise be, because it’s making stuff both for itself and for export. This ensures everyone has jobs, and that most of those jobs are in value-added industries (weaving is more lucrative than shepherding). Camelot no longer depends on Avalon for its sweaters, and can therefore act independently.
That’s how mercantilism operates.
This example may seem contrived, but it’s not. It’s actually exactly what England did to Flanders, beginning with the reign of King Edward III (r. 1327-1377) and continuing until the Tudors—England was Camelot, Flanders was Avalon.
Is Economic Nationalism Justified? Did It Work Historically?
That’s the big-ticket question: does economic nationalism work? This question is often linked to a second one: how did economic nationalism affect trade in the world historically?
First, yes. Economic nationalism is the tried and true historical method for getting rich—economic nationalism works.
Second, it concentrated power in mercantile nations, as opposed to free traders.
History gives us lots of great examples, from many different times and places. Chief among them being Venice, Great Britain, and China.
But given the contextual nature of history, my explanation of how they got rich wouldn’t make sense without first explaining their historical backgrounds (which is time-consuming, and beyond the scope of this article).
In the interests of brevity, I’ll just link you to articles I’ve written on the history of economic nationalism that you can browse at your leisure, or you can take me at my word.
1. Venice & the Advent of Mercantilism
Medieval Venice pioneered the mercantile system by aggressively pursuing national monopolies in the spice and pilgrim trade, and cultivating economic autarky (independence) via import bans—Venice imported only raw materials, it made everything it needed.
Because of these policies, Venice remained one of Europe’s richest cities for nearly 500 years (c. 1200-1700).
2. Great Britain & Economic Nationalism
Many economists wrongly claim that Britain was the home of free trade, and it was this economic freedom which spawned the Industrial Revolution—that couldn’t be further from the truth.
In reality, Britain was Europe’s most ardent mercantilist nation: it imposed 50% tariffs on manufactured imports from its rivals, banned foreign companies from operating in its empire, and made it a crime to export technology and machinery.
Early Victorian Britain was the apotheosis of economic nationalism—and it paid off big time. Britain became the richest nation the world had ever seen, ushered in the modern era, and conquered a quarter of the planet. It owed |
a garage or parking spot. Running electricity through a coil in the base plate creates a magnetic field, allowing current to be transferred to the plate in the car without any physical connection.
Read more: Next-generation Smart Fortwo Electric Drive on the way
The systems is fully automatic, Mercedes says. The driver checks whether the car is positioned correctly over the base plate using a display on the dashboard screen, and charging starts as soon as the car is in the right spot. The system charges at up to 3.6 kilowatts, and Mercedes claims an efficiency rate of almost 90 percent for the transfer of power from base plate to car.
In addition to wireless charging, Mercedes is doubling down on DC fast charging for cars with conventional plugs. DC fast charging stations can typically charge a car to 80 percent of capacity in around 30 minutes, but they’re also less common than the slower “Level 2” AC stations. Nonetheless, Mercedes says that by 2018 it will offer DC fast charging capability as standard equipment on all of its electric cars.
This is part of a larger push by Mercedes to electrify its entire lineup with a combination of hybrids (including a new 48-volt mild hybrid powertrain), plug-in hybrids, and battery-electric cars. Next year, Mercedes will also launch the GLC F-Cell, a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle with a supplementary lithium-ion battery pack.By Kyle Becker, Guest author
Report: Bill Clinton Wasn’t Only One to Go to ‘Sex Slave Island,’ Hillary Went with Him–‘Six Times’
The source for this claim is Erik Prince, the founder of the security firm Blackwater ( yes, that one.) In an exclusive interview at Breitbart News, Prince first states that the NYPD is “ready to make arrests in Weiner case.”Prince, who is a Trump supporter and major donor to pro-Trump Super PAC Make America Number 1, had plenty to say about the hot water that Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin may be in, according to his NYPD sources. “I believe – I know, and this is from a very well-placed source of mine at 1PP, One Police Plaza in New York – the NYPD wanted to do a press conference announcing the warrants and the additional arrests they were making in this investigation, and they’ve gotten huge pushback, to the point of coercion, from the Justice Department, with the Justice Department threatening to charge someone that had been unrelated in the accidental heart attack death of Eric Garner almost two years ago.“That’s the level of pushback the Obama Justice Department is doing against actually seeking justice in the email and other related criminal matters,” Prince claimed.Prince then went into the alleged lurid material he says is on Weiner’s laptop:“NYPD was the first one to look at that laptop,” Prince elaborated. Weiner and Huma Abedin, his wife – the closest adviser of Hillary Clinton for 20 years – have both flipped. They are cooperating with the government.They both have – they see potential jail time of many years for their crimes, for Huma Abedin sending and receiving and even storing hundreds of thousands of messages from the State Department server and from Hillary Clinton’s own homebrew server, which contained classified information.Weiner faces all kinds of exposure for the inappropriate sexting that was going on and for other information that they found.”“So NYPD first gets that computer. They see how disgusting it is. They keep a copy of everything, and they pass a copy on to the FBI, which finally pushes the FBI off their chairs, making Comey reopen that investigation, which was indicated in the letter last week.“The point being, NYPD has all the information, and they will pursue justice within their rights if the FBI doesn’t,” Prince contended.The Blackwater Founder then leveled the charge that there is evidence of criminal activity:“There is all kinds of criminal culpability through all the emails they’ve seen of that 650,000, including money laundering, underage sex, pay-for-play, and, of course, plenty of proof of inappropriate handling, sending/receiving of classified information, up to SAP level Special Access Programs,” he stated.“So the plot thickens. NYPD was pushing because, as an article quoted one of the chiefs – that’s the level just below commissioner – he said as a parent, as a father with daughters, he could not let that level of evil continue,” Prince said.Prince pivots from the Weiner laptop investigation to claiming that Hillary Clinton accompanied Bill Clinton and billionaire convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to “sex island” (aka “sex slave island”) As we hurry past the disturbing picture that paints, let’s go to the transcript:“Because of Weinergate and the sexting scandal, the NYPD started investigating it. Through a subpoena, through a warrant, they searched his laptop, and sure enough, found those 650,000 emails.“They found way more stuff than just more information pertaining to the inappropriate sexting the guy was doing,” Prince claimed.“They found State Department emails. They found a lot of other really damning criminal information, including money laundering, including the fact that Hillary went to this sex island with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.“Bill Clinton went there more than 20 times. Hillary Clinton went there at least six times.”In May, Fox News reported that Bill Clinton indeed frequented Sex Slave Island with Epstein several times:Clinton’s presence aboard Jeffrey Epstein’s Boeing 727 on 11 occasions has been reported, but flight logs show the number is more than double that, and trips between 2001 and 2003 included extended junkets around the world with Epstein and fellow passengers identified on manifests by their initials or first names, including “Tatiana.”The tricked-out jet earned its Nabakov-inspired nickname because it was reportedly outfitted with a bed where passengers had group sex with young girls… Official flight logs filed with the Federal Aviation Administration show Clinton traveled on some of the trips with as many as 10 U.S. Secret Service agents.However, on a five-leg Asia trip between May 22 and May 25, 2002, not a single Secret Service agent is listed.Not only has Bill Clinton been aboard the “Lolita Express” multiple times on the way to the secluded island, reportedly Donald Trump has “at least once,” according to sworn testimony reported by Vice News. Trump has called Epstein “a terrific guy” and “a lot of fun to be with.”Vice News claims that Trump’s one-time visit with Epstein has effectively taken the attack off the table for the campaign.Breitbart News argues that if there were actual evidence that Trump had visited the island, it would be all over the press.“But the fact is, you know that if the Left had emails pointing to Donald Trump visiting, multiple times, an island with underage sex slaves basically, emails, you know they’d be talking about it. They’d be shouting it from the rooftops.”“This kind of evil, this kind of true dirt on Hillary Clinton – look, you don’t have to make any judgments,“ he added. ”Just release the emails,” he urged. “Just dump them. Let them out there. Let people see the light of truth.”https://youtu.be/TazRvHeownQFIA STATEMENT - F1 COMMISSION CONFIRMS NEW BODYWORK REGULATIONS FOR MORE DYNAMIC FORMULA ONE CARS
Meetings of the F1 Strategy Group and the F1 Commission were held yesterday in Geneva, with a number of constructive proposals being agreed. Upon the recommendation of the Strategy Group, the F1 Commission passed a series of new measures designed to deliver a faster, more spectacular FIA Formula One World Championship.
Qualifying format
A new qualification format was unanimously accepted by the F1 Commission. The new system is being evaluated for introduction, potentially as soon as the beginning of the 2016 season.
The basis of the new elimination format is as follows:
- Q1
16 minutes
After 7 minutes, slowest driver eliminated
Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag
7 drivers eliminated, 15 progress to Q2
- Q2
15 minutes
After 6 minutes, slowest driver eliminated
Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag
7 drivers eliminated, 8 progress to Q3
- Q3
14 minutes
After 5 minutes, slowest driver eliminated
Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag
2 drivers left in final 1 minute 30 seconds
The final elimination in each session occurs at the chequered flag – not when time is up.
Driver of the Day
The F1 Commission agreed to the introduction of a Driver of the Day award, to be implemented by the Commercial Rights Holder in conjunction with Formula One broadcasters, with the intention of driving greater fan engagement.
Viewers will be encouraged to vote online for their “Driver of the Day” throughout a Grand Prix, with the winner to be announced as part of the race broadcast immediately following the conclusion of the race, when the driver will be presented with their prize.
2017 Sporting and Technical Regulations
Following the recommendation of the Strategy Group, the F1 Commission agreed to postpone the deadline for the finalisation of 2017 Sporting and Technical Regulations until 30 April, 2016 – to allow all stakeholders the best opportunity to complete all relevant work.
2017 bodywork
New bodywork regulations have been adopted to create more exciting cars, delivering additional downforce to increase speeds and lower lap times.
The FIA, teams and official tyre supplier will continue discussions on the best solution for testing of the new tyres required as part of the regulations.
* A summary of the proposed changes – which will be included in the final 2017 Technical Regulations to be approved by the World Motor Sport Council – is attached.
Power unit supply
Significant further progress was made on the four major topics regarding Power Unit supply:
- Supply cost
- Obligation to supply
- Performance convergence
- Further improvement of noise
A working group consisting representatives of the FIA, Commercial Rights Holder, Power Unit suppliers and customer teams will undertake further work with the aim of reaching agreement on a plan to meet the above requirements by 30 April, 2016.
Cockpit protection
The F1 Commission confirmed the intention of introducing some form of cockpit protection from the 2017 season. All stakeholders are working together to make this a reality, with the “Halo” concept currently the preferred option. Other options, such as transparent cockpit protection, will continue to be evaluated.
ANNONCE DE LA FIA – LA COMMISSION F1 CONFIRME LA NOUVELLE REGLEMENTATION RELATIVE A LA CARROSSERIE
POUR DES VOITURES DE FORMULE UN PLUS DYNAMIQUES
24 février 2016
Des réunions du F1 Strategy Group et de la Commission F1 se sont tenues ce jour à Genève, elles ont abouti à un consensus sur plusieurs propositions constructives.
Sur recommandation du Strategy Group, la Commission F1 a adopté une série de nouvelles mesures visant à garantir un Championnat du Monde de Formule Un de la FIA plus rapide et plus spectaculaire.
Format des qualifications
La Commission F1 a approuvé à l’unanimité un nouveau format pour les qualifications. Ce système est à l’étude en vue d’une introduction probablement au début de la saison 2016.
Le nouveau format d’élimination est le suivant :
- Q1
16 minutes
Au bout de 7 minutes, élimination du pilote le moins rapide
Elimination des pilotes les moins rapides toutes les 90 secondes jusqu’au drapeau à damier
7 pilotes éliminés, 15 passent en Q2
- Q2
15 minutes
Au bout de 6 minutes, élimination du pilote le moins rapide
Elimination des pilotes les moins rapides toutes les 90 secondes jusqu’au drapeau à damier
7 pilotes éliminés, 8 passent en Q3
- Q3
14 minutes
Au bout de 5 minutes, élimination du pilote le moins rapide
Elimination des pilotes les moins rapides toutes les 90 secondes jusqu’au drapeau à damier
2 pilotes en lice pour les 90 dernières secondes
Pour chaque séance, l’élimination finale a lieu au moment où le drapeau à damier est agité – non quand le temps est écoulé.
"Driver of the Day"
La Commission F1 a approuvé la création d’un prix "Driver of the Day", à l’initiative du détenteur des droits commerciaux en collaboration avec les diffuseurs de la F1, l’intention étant de renforcer l’intérêt des fans.
Les spectateurs seront invités à voter en ligne pour le "Driver of the Day" lors de chaque Grand Prix. Le gagnant sera annoncé durant la retransmission télévisée et recevra son prix immédiatement après l’arrivée de la course.
Règlements technique et sportif 2017
Suite à la recommandation du Strategy Group, la Commission F1 a décidé de reporter au 30 avril 2016 la date limite pour la finalisation des Règlements technique et sportif 2017 – afin de permettre à toutes les parties prenantes de mener à bien leurs travaux dans les meilleures conditions.
Carrosserie 2017
Une nouvelle réglementation a été adoptée en matière de carrosserie dans le but d’obtenir des monoplaces plus captivantes, dotées d’un meilleur appui aérodynamique pour augmenter les vitesses et réduire les temps au tour.
La FIA, les équipes et le fournisseur officiel de pneumatiques poursuivront leurs discussions en vue de trouver la meilleure solution pour tester les nouveaux pneumatiques requis au titre du règlement.
* Un résumé des amendements proposés - qui figureront dans le Règlement Technique final 2017 pour approbation par le Conseil Mondial du Sport Automobile - est joint en annexe.
Fourniture des unités de puissance
D’importants progrès ont été réalisés concernant les quatre points essentiels relatifs à la fourniture des unités de puissance :
- Coûts de fourniture
- Obligation de fourniture
- Convergence des performances
- Amélioration de la sonorité
Un groupe de travail composé de représentants de la FIA, du détenteur des droits commerciaux, des fournisseurs d’unités de puissance ainsi que des équipes clientes entreprendra des travaux supplémentaires dans le but de s’entendre sur un plan permettant de répondre aux exigences ci-dessus d’ici au 30 avril 2016.
Protection de l’habitacle
La Commission F1 a confirmé l’intention d’introduire un système de protection de l’habitacle à compter de la saison 2017. Toutes les parties prenantes travaillent ensemble à la réalisation de cet objectif, le concept "Halo" étant actuellement l’option privilégiée. D’autres options, telle qu’une protection transparente de l’habitacle, continueront d’être évaluées.Day Zero, the festival incepted 3 years ago to mark the end of the world, returns with an installment scheduled to take place this January, 2015.
On the cusp of entering its twelfth year since formation, Record Label Crosstown Rebels’ mind-expanding and alternative Day Zero festival returns for a third installment on 10th January 2015.
Taking place on a grand site set on three pyramids within the jungle wilderness near Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, the event gathers the cream of electronic music talent from around the globe to perform over twenty-four hours.
Check out this outstanding short documentary featuring exchanges with the likes of Damian Lazarus, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Ali Love & more :
Day Zero has become renowned for its elaborate ancient rituals and ceremonies from local Mayan communities, hundreds of performers, activities such as sunrise yoga, firewalking and stargazing with astronomers. Produced in collaboration with Secret Productions (famous for their work on the some of the UK’s best festivals such as Secret Garden Party, Wilderness and Lovebox), this special partnership gives a rich and insightful taste of this mystical wonderland.
Tickets for this gathering can be purchased HERE. Stay tuned to The Sherp for more.If the first trailer for Joseph Kosinski‘s Oblivion made Tom Cruise look like a human Wall-E, the second turns him into a more typical sci-fi action hero. Not that that’s a bad thing. The new video offers a better idea of just why Jack is so intrigued by the mysterious woman (Olga Kurylenko) in the spacecraft, and what’s at stake when he decides to go against orders. Hit the jump to watch.
MSN Movies got the new trailer.
Morgan Freeman sure knows how to make a dramatic entrance — and this in a movie where one of the other characters literally falls out of the sky.
Oblivion seems to follow a lot of the same beats we’ve seen in other sci-fi movies, but it’s got a strong cast and some fantastic visual effects going for it. Kosinski’s vision of a post-apocalyptic Earth is austere but beautiful, and if the sky station looks a little Apple Store-esque and the underworld a bit Matrix-y, at least it all looks striking.
Written by Kosinski, Karl Gajdusek, and Michael Arndt based on Kosinski and Arvid Nelson‘s comic book, Oblivion opens April 19. Andrea Riseborough, Melissa Leo, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau also star.John T. Greilick / AP Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley stands in Judge Cynthia Hathaway's courtroom at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit, Michigan on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 as the judge instructs jurors to continue to work toward a verdict after they sent her a note saying they are "stuck". The judge declared a mistrial Tuesday after jurors failed to reach a verdict in the trial.
The jury hearing the case of a Detroit police officer accused of involuntary manslaughter for the death of a 7-year-old girl failed to reach a verdict on Tuesday, prompting a judge to declare a mistrial.
The jury sent a note to Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway saying little progress had been made during the three days of deliberations over the fate of Officer Joseph Weekley, who faced charges of felony involuntary manslaughter and careless discharge of a firearm causing death.
Hathaway asked the 12 jurors if any of them thought there was a chance they could reach a verdict, and only one juror responded yes.
"One out of twelve probably won't be enough," she said before declaring a mistrial and setting a new pretrial hearing date of July 25, 2013.
Anonymous / AP Aiyana Stanley-Jones was shot in 2010 during a police raid.
Weekley had admitted to accidentally firing his gun during a raid on May 16, 2010, killing Aiyana Stanley-Jones.
He testified that Aiyana's grandmother, Mertilla Jones, hit his weapon, causing it to fire. Jones denied Weekley's claims.
Jones said outside the courthouse, "She's going to get justice because I believe in the next jury."
Throughout the case, advocates for Aiyana's family criticized the makeup of the jury, which consisted of 11 whites and only one African-American.
"From the start, the Justice for Aiyana Jones Committee (JAJC) had no confidence in this jury that had only one African-American juror from a county that is over 42 percent African-American," the JAJC said in a statement following the hung jury.Democrats in Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s home state want the Florida Democratic Rep. “to just go away.”
According to Politico, following a stream of political failures and controversies after a DNC email hack last year revealed embarrassing information regarding Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss, Wasserman Schultz is a now unwelcome among her colleagues.
Most recently, Wasserman Schultz refused to explain why she continued to employ an IT staffer who was under federal investigation, and who later tried fleeing to Pakistan after wiring himself $283,000.
(RELATED: Wasserman Schultz’s IT Aide Arrested At Airport After Wiring $300k To Pakistan From House Office)
Although the Florida Democrat finally fired the staffer, Imran Awan, it was only months after not cooperating with law enforcement, and one day after federal authorities arrested him, before he attempted to leave the country.
Additionally, a group of her fellow Democrats, who had also employed Awan as a shared IT staffer in the Capitol, dismissed him and his working family members last February when law enforcement began investigating the group for stealing equipment and breaching network security.
Wasserman Schultz blamed “right wing media” and anti-Muslim bigotry for questions regarding her further employment of Awan long after other Democrats cut him off, but other Democrats are not buying her explanation and wish to see her gone.
“We wish she would go away and stop being so public by doubling down on negative stories,” Nikki Barnes, a progressive Florida DNC member, told Politico. Barnes claims Wasserman Schultz left the national party “in shambles” while she was chairwoman, noting both the DNC server hack and 2016 presidential campaign loss for Democrats. Barnes responded to Schultz defense of Awan, saying that “none of this makes sense. It doesn’t sound like racial profiling … there must have been something for her.”
(RELATED: Wasserman Schultz Seemingly Planned To Pay Suspect Even While He Lived In Pakistan)
“This adds to Debbie being re-branded as the Democrats’ disastrous destruction,” Barnes said. “Those of us on the DNC know we have to rebrand ourselves and earn the people’s trust. And unfortunately Debbie’s name does not scream trust. It screams power. It screams limited access. It screams WikiLeaks now. DNC lawsuit. It screams a lot of negative things to the public. That’s not how we want to rebrand ourselves.”
WATCH:
Follow Kerry on TwitterAre you privileged based on that alone? Absolutely.
Consider it this way. All I know about you is you’re tall.
Do you have any advantages?
Yes.
Does that mean you don’t deserve the can of tuna on the higher shelf? No. Nobody is saying that. Eat away mighty giant.
Should you feel guilty about getting the tuna from the top shelf? No. Nobody is saying that. Lighten your soul’s burden and let it fly free in the clouds beneath your knees.
Does that mean short people can’t get the tuna? No.
Nobody is saying that. See how our little Nelwyn friend pushes forward in his quest.
Does that mean there aren’t disadvantages of being tall? No.
Nobody is saying that. You have our sympathy for your poor bruised knees.
What people are saying is:
Denying you are lucky is silly. Stop looking bewildered every time a short person can’t reach something. We’re sick of explaining this incredibly simple concept. We know there are things you do not have (i.e. even higher shelves). We know there may be other things preventing you reaching the high shelves. Maybe you have bad elbows or arthritis. Short people with arthritis are still below you. You are still lucky you are tall. It works out well for most people, for the grocery store to put most things on medium shelves. If you can help shorter people with things on higher shelves, do so. Why would you not do that? Short people can help you with stuff on lower shelves. We are annoyed that the people who run the grocery store put all the best stuff on the top shelves. There are a lot of people who are putting things on higher shelves because they hate short people. Don’t associate with those people. They want everything to be about this height:
Same with white. Advantages. It doesn’t mean you’re rich. It doesn’t mean you’re luckier than a lucky black guy. Nobody wants you to be crippled with guilt. Nobody has ever wanted that, or means those things.
It means you have an advantage, and all anyone is asking is that you *get* that. Once you get that, it’s pretty straightforward to all the further implications.Officers took a teen from north suburban Gurnee, Ill. for a psychological evaluation after finding him engaging in a Satanic ritual in a public park.
After having an argument with his mother, the 15-year-old left his house with a knife, telling her he was headed to the garage to cut up some veal for a "devil-worshipping ritual."
His mother tried to stop him, according to a TribLocal story: she grabbed his hoodie to try and restrain him, but he twisted her wrist and pulled away.
He then went to nearby Gowe Park, behind Warren Township High School. When police found him there, he was burning candles and had drawn a pentagram in the ground in charcoal, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
He told officers he was "trying to invoke the beast."Alex Brandon/Associated Press
Thousands of opponents of the Democrats’ health care legislation are gathered outside the Capitol, for a noon news conference and rally led by Representative Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota, and the chants are already under way, echoing across the Mall.
“Kill the bill!” they are shouting. “Kill the bill!”
A series of spot interviews suggests that the protesters have come to Washington from all across the country – Texas, Ohio, Oregon and the greater Washington area. It’s a generally older crowd, many in their 50s and 60s, predominantly, white, and many self-identified as Christians. They are fiercely conservative and deeply skeptical of the government, many of them adamantly opposed to abortion rights.
“The government couldn’t even get the shots out,” said Karen Ambrose of Sunbury, Ohio, ridiculing the government’s efforts to vaccinate people for the H1N1 flu as an example of what government-run health care would look like. “Let’s just get the government out of all this.”
The crowd is waving signs, some predictable, others inventive.
“No Socialistic Health Care.” “Sweeping Away Socialism One Democrat at a Time.” “Politicians Lie, Patients Die”
“You lie!”
“All lies”
Jerry Hershberger, a market representative for an automotive company from Flower Mound, Tex., said he flew up just to protest the health care bill. “A little expense now compared to a lot of expense later,” he said, explaining why the cost of the trip was worth it to him.
Kris Connor/Getty Images
Mr. Hershberger, like many of the demonstrators, repeated some of the most common conservative and Republican talking points heard repeatedly on Fox News. “It’s not bipartisan,” he said, standing outside the Capitol wearing a Texas Longhorns baseball cap. “They are doing it behind closed doors.” He added: “It’s going to drive us into a super-deficit.”
Mr. Hershberger, who has health insurance through his employer, said that he believed some changes were needed to the health care system, but that Democrats were going about the process all wrong. “Scrap all this, start from the beginning, bring in the conservatives, the Republicans and the Democrats and see what we need to do to care for the 12 to 14 million people who really need insurance.”
Asked what he thought about the three-month effort by Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, work with Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee to draft a bipartisan bill, Mr. Hershberger dismissed it, saying the resulting legislation proved the process had failed. “It doesn’t reflect what we want,” he said.
“Can you hear us now?” the crowd chanted behind him.
Mr. Hershberger said he was hoping to make a difference. “I literally got off my butt yesterday,” he said. “We might have an impact. A politician can’t be a politician if they get voted out of office.”
Many of the demonstrators, like Judith Garloch of Newark, Ohio, said they were opposed to an increasing government role in the health care. Many said they feared cuts to the Medicare program for Americans 65 and over. Many described themselves as conservative and opposed to higher taxes.
“We support our country and we’re patriots,” Ms. Garloch said. “And I don’t want my health care to be changed.”
Ms. Garloch, who has a combination of Medicare and private coverage, said insurance should be sold across state lines to increase competition.
But Ms. Garloch, like many in the crowd who while visibly angry. could not articulate the main problems in the health care system or how they should be solved.
Some of the same people warning of too much government spending also complained that Medicare does not provide sufficient coverage.
Ms. Garloch dismissed suggestions that some hospitals, like the Cleveland Clinic in her home state, had figured out ways to provide higher-quality medical outcomes at lower cost, indicating that there might be ways to cut costs without sacrificing patient care.
Her brother-in-law worked at the Cleveland Clinic for several years. “There’s a lot of bureaucracy there,” she said. “You don’t get everything you want.”
As for how to fix the health care system, she said “I think we need to fix what’s wrong now – I think we need to put a cap on the malpractice lawsuits. I just can’t see how adding more things, power to the government is going to help anything.”
Nearby, Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina, who recently said the Democrats’ health care legislation was more frightening to her than terrorists, worked the crowd, shaking hands and offering warm greetings. It is a clear fall day, with a crisp breeze.
Alan R. Davis, of Chillicothe, Ohio, said he had a professional background in health care finance, and was attending the protest because of his deep concerns about that nation’s staggering debt. “The country is going broke,” he said.
As for controlling medical costs, Mr. Davis did not have any ready solutions. He said that last December, his wife, Jennifer, had a heart transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. But he said he had no idea what it had cost. Her insurance coverage has an annual deductible of $4,000. After that, he said, everything was covered “100 percent.”
Mr. Davis said he did not trust Democrats’ assertions that the health care bill would be deficit neutral. “Whether it’s deficit neutral at this stage is someone’s guess, it’s an educated guess,” he said.
Mr. Davis said Americans needed to think more about the quality of life, rather than the length of life. He said that he and his wife had just such a discussion before she went forward with her heart transplant, at age 55.
Art Scevola, a financial consultant from Portland, Ore., said that he felt a mission to come to Washington. “It’s time to make a stand,” he said. “We want to see limited government, not more taxes put in our face. We don’t believe our health care system entirely broken. We need to slow down, stop and start over with this legislation.”
Mr. Scevola said that he had health insurance through his employer. “Kaiser Permanente,” he said proudly. “They are the best on the West Coast.”The DAO Proposal Black Hat
Alex Amsel Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 27, 2016
The DAO launches in around 24 hours so what should DTH’s look for in proposals? They need to do due diligence.
I’ve renamed myself sillytuna-black-hat on The DAO’s slack because I realised I’m spending my time critiquing proposals. I’m doing that because I’ve experienced all this before and was one of many who got burned, usually by ineptness and sometimes outright fraud. It was a great, if painful, learning experience. So I want to go through a few simple things to look out for.
The DAO is going to be asked to support start-ups and newish businesses. They are all likely to be unprofitable at this point and funded purely by angel funding or The DAO. This is important because they see The DAO as a source of income which they basically don’t have yet. The DAO is perhaps their first client.
The DAO, meanwhile, is either investing in start-ups for a return or commissioning businesses to do a task. What’s critical is for DTH’s to step outside of the crypto world and work like an angel investor in the first instance, or a business owner in the second.
Startups
Angel investors look for a number of things, including the team, the value proposition, the plan, and the financials. Importantly, ideas are cheap, it’s the execution that’s difficult.
DAO proposals should be treated like any other start-up. It’s time we stopped those in the crypto world getting off lightly. They should be doing a full, detailed pitch and providing proper financial information.
If they can’t do that, how are they supposed to run a business? I’ve spoken to endless people now who want to pitch to The DAO and they don’t know the first thing about business. These people see it as free money for their cool idea which they’d never get commissioned elsewhere.
Others are seeing it as an easy way to get a great deal of money from investors who aren’t savvy enough to see a bad deal.
Are the team even capable of doing it in their sector? What is their track record? If they are going up against Uber or car makers then they better bloody well have a good plan, including raising $100s of millions of VC funding.
There are numerous articles out there to advise both angels and start-ups so take the time to understand what you should be looking for.
Commissions
Where The DAO are asked to commission work on behalf of The DAO, ask yourself why is a company pitching this as something The DAO need?
How much should this cost to create?
What does the proposer get out of it and why are they pitching this?
What is their profit margin and contingency? If someone says it’s confidential then tell them to GTFO. The DAO can request this information just as any business can. Moreover, The DAO doesn’t have legal standing so it’s taking a great deal more risk.
There is no contract of work involved so The DAO must have higher standards than real businesses.
Where are the detailed accounts providing the cost breakdown and deliverables?
I’ve seen some proposals already which give The DAO a terrible deal and all the risk, while the proposer stands to gain financially and PR wise whilst not having aligned incentives. For example, if the DAO funded $5m for a project but the proposer’s income and business did depend on the result of that $5m, the incentives are not aligned. The proposer wins anyway and The DAO have no useful legal recourse. Even if the proposer did their job fine, their business doesn’t depend on the result. Yet if it was the proposer’s idea, their future should absolutely depend on the result, certainly if significant money is involved.
Almost All Startups Fail
90%+ of tech start-ups fail. The successes may not be profitable for many years. In the blockchain space, there’s barely any startups who aren’t running on investor money. It’s a long game with few quick or even medium term wins.
Startups should be pushed through multiple rounds, not given a big wedge of funding for their first proposal. Whilst The DAO can block funding at any milestone, the overall value should still reflect the stage and experience of the company. The proposer has to work for their money and not just expect it. I assure you, they’ll pay lip service to that and give all manner of reasons they need commitment from The DAO and it’s paid in milestones anyway but I’m telling you that it’s a sales job. I’d do the same thing, but on other side of the table you need to make a judgement call and not buy into the sales patter.
Advisors
Don’t let advisors, consultants or well known accountancy/law firms fool you. They are irrelevant to how the business runs and often are used to validate the business. Just ask Andreas, who was caught out like that with Neo & Bee.
You want to see suitable advisors and professional associations but as a norm, not as a bonus and definitely not as a validation of the business.
Money
This is your money.
If someone came to you and asked for $1.5m as the Slock security proposal did, you should expect a huge amount of detail and professional financials before handing it over. I’ve written enough about that proposal already but suffice to say it was misleading, including the justifications that came out in response to my post, as well as being a ludicrous amount of money.
Regardless, even if I agreed in principle and with the amount then a proposal for such a large amount of money should be providing the same information any investor or commissioner would expect. The fact that we’re in cryptoland doesn’t change business fundamentals. When work is commissioned, especially for larger amounts, there are lots of hoops to jump through and most of them are there for good reason.
Timing
I’m dubious of (larger) proposals pitched into The DAO contract at the same time as the full business proposal appears in public. I feel this puts undue pressure on The DAO, and doesn’t allow sufficient time for competition. Whilst there is a voting period, there should have been detailed discussion and refinement beforehand. The DAO does not benefit from being pushed into quick decisions, whether it votes Yes or No.
Moreover, larger amounts of funding need larger amounts of discussion. A few weeks just isn’t enough. More time is needed with the finished (give or take) proposal.
Exchange Rate
I’ve said this time and again but the business should not be taking exchange rate risk. I’m absolutely staunch in my view that businesses should charge in USD. An easy work around the lack of USD oracles right now is to allow contingency but only get paid the USD value at each milestone. Any funds remaining at project completion are returned to The DAO. If the exchange rate dropped beyond the contingency amount, they can always submit an emergency proposal. If the project is good then they’ll get the money. Proposals should be absolutely clear about this.
I’m tired of seeing The DAO being taken for a ride in that sense before it’s even started. I know exactly why this is happening — because we all know that if The DAO or Ethereum works then the value goes up and the business is quids in. So I’m going to less than politely ask business to stop being so fucking deceptive. It should only be The DAO taking the exchange rate risk, or The DAO should have that option.
Moreover, the business should be required to convert to fiat upon receipt and any form of exchange rate gambling should see the contract terminated.
Step Back and Smell the Coffee
I’m ending on this because it’s the most important recommendation I have.
You’re essentially investing in businesses and it’s important to look at them critically. You are not supporters of the projects being proposed, you are members of The DAO. You |
that their water was safe.
“Will it significantly impact your life? I don’t know,” Edwards told me. “But there’s nothing you can do.”
I’d taken the test on a lark — more as a way of having yet another now-common Flint experience than expecting any outcome worth writing about. Instead, more than two years after the city made the fateful switch to improperly treated water from the local river; ten months after this crisis exploded into the national consciousness; seven months after the governor held back tears as he took responsibility during his State of the State address; and two months after President Barack Obama gulped a glass of water on TV and inadvertently signaled that the worst of the crisis had passed, it appeared that I, too, had been poisoned by lead in Flint, Michigan.
The results provided little context other than a number and a scientific range. I did some Google searches, but otherwise I figured if there was any danger someone would probably be chasing me down. I was heading abroad on a different assignment and didn’t feel sick in anyway, so I didn’t even mention it to my family and quickly forgot all about it.
About a month later, during a phone call with Edwards, I mentioned my test in passing. He asked what my number was.
“Uh, 15, I think?”
“Holy shit,” he squealed into the phone. “Are you kidding me?”
“Yeah, I think so,” I told him. “Hang on. I’ll dig it up.”
“Fifteen is really bad,” he explained as I frantically hunted for the paper I’d printed out. “The level of concern for everyone is 5,” he said. “You’re three times the level of concern?”
“I found it,” I told him. “It’s 13.3.”
“Is that micrograms?” Edwards asked.
I read from the page: “U.I. — that’s micrograms?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Per deciliter? Per dl?”
“Per dl, yeah.”
Edwards gasped. “That’s not a good number.”
“What should I do? Should I be doing something?” I asked. “I’m a healthy 43-year-old. Does it matter?”
“Well, it certainly did not help you,” Edwards said. “Will it significantly impact your life? I don’t know. But there’s nothing you can do. There are people who will give you all kinds of chemicals to take, but the CDC doesn’t — health agencies don’t believe that helps.”
I took the news blankly, though my mind did drift to what other metals or microbes, besides the lead, might have sloughed through Flint’s pipes, passed through a tap, slipped through a spigot, or cascaded out of a shower head and, somehow, made it into my bloodstream. “OK, then,” I said.
“Yeah, I’m sorry, but the standard advice is that the harm, if any, is irreversible, and let’s make sure people do not get exposed,” Edwards offered. “Because once they do, we don’t know what to do about it.”
“It’s another thing,” he said, “that we just don’t know.”
Steve Friess is a former technology and politics senior writer for Politico whose freelance work appears regularly in Time, BuzzFeed News, New York Magazine, Al Jazeera America, and many more. He is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.Doctor Strange hit theaters and was tops at the box office over the weekend, and Yahoo Movies’ own Khail Anonymous sat down with the film’s director, Scott Derrickson, and talked about just how difficult it was to shoot that epic reverse fight scene.
“It was so difficult, I mean, it was a concept to start with,” Derrickson said. “You know I said I want this final battle scene to be one where you know characters are fighting forward in time but everything is un-destroying itself in reverse time.”
So, how did they manage to shoot the ‘unshootable’ reverse fight scene? “We figured it out. Every shot had to be shot four or five times, Derrickson said. “We had to use what’s called Motion Control, so it’s time-consuming. Specialty frame rates and then Reverse Its. Then layer it again and add layers of debris. It was so complicated.”
See how Doctor Strange did at the weekend box office:
Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Khail Anonymous, on Twitter.Posted 09 June 2016 - 06:05 AM
Ok, so im having my birthday this weekend & since it is the long weekend and I get to spoil myself for a good 4 days (inc the Bethesda E3 showcase @ the opera house!) I once again am struck with the giveaway bug!Starting from Saturday 12noon AEST (11th) and running until Monday midnight AEST (13th), group up with me in quick play for a chance to enter. If our team wins and you are in my group, you get a chance to win the pack. Simple as that.After a player is randomly selected on Wednesday 15th, the winner will get to pick a mech pack valued at $20 and off you go.Best of luckWBEdit: I will post up in the forum and on reddit/twitter when I am online so keep your eyes peeled. Happy for people to add me as a friend so they can group up, or find me in the LFG where you can accept my invite if I find you
Edited by White Bear 84, 09 June 2016 - 03:50 PM.LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Authorities said a former babysitter was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in state prison for assaulting a 4-month-old boy who later died.
Brittany Ann Ingrassi, 31, of Palmdale was found guilty of one count each of second-degree murder, assault on a child becoming comatose, child abuse and assault on a child causing death May 9.
Ingrassi was prosecuted by Deputy D.A.’s Keri Knittel and Catherine Mariano.
The victim, Aiden Lopez., under the care of Ingrassi on the morning of March 22, 2016, prosecutors said. When the victim’s mother returned that evening, the defendant met her outside and told her the baby was not breathing, according to court testimony.
At that point, the mother called 911 and the baby was taken to a hospital. Lopez had suffered skull fractures and a traumatic brain injury. The infant died at the hospital on March 26, 2016.
According to evidence presented at trial, Ingrassi was unhappy with her work as a babysitter and was under the influence of alcohol while watching Lopez.
The case was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.Artem Vaulin, the alleged owner of KickassTorrents, is wanted by the US Government. The Ukrainian is currently fighting an extradition request in Poland. But, according to paperwork submitted to an Illinois District Court this week, he's considering surrendering voluntarily under the right conditions.
Earlier this year a Polish court ruled that Artem Vaulin, the alleged owner of the defunct torrent site KickassTorrents, can be extradited to the United States.
The decision came as a disappointment to the defense team, which quickly announced an appeal.
Vaulin has since been released on bail and currently resides in a Warsaw apartment. His release has made it easier to communicate with his attorneys in the United States, who have started negotiations with the US Government.
While the extradition appeal is still ongoing, it now appears that under the right conditions Vaulin might consider traveling to the United States voluntarily, so he can “resolve” the pending charges.
This is what the defense team states in a motion for a status conference (pdf), which was submitted earlier this week.
“Mr. Vaulin and his counsel in the United States recently have engaged in discussions with the government to determine if the parties can resolve this matter, or at least certain significant issues,” Vaulin’s legal team writes.
This includes “…issues relating to the proper calculation of the sentencing guidelines and/or the possibility of an agreement for bond should Mr. Vaulin decide to voluntarily surrender to the United States authorities and appear before this Court to resolve the pending charges.”
While the alleged KickassTorrents operator would be open to a voluntary “surrender,” he probably wants several guarantees before that happens. TorrentFreak reached out to the defense team for more information, but they preferred not to comment on ongoing negotiations.
Previously, Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom made a similar offer in his criminal case, requesting living expenses and a fair trial. The US Government never took him up on this offer, it appears, as Dotcom still resides in New Zealand.
In Vaulin’s case, the defense previously submitted a motion to dismiss some or all of the charges in the indictment, and they hope a ruling on this will bring more clarity soon. With the requested status conference, both parties will at least be able to update the court on various procedural issuesSince the onset of conflict nearly two years ago, oil and gas exports from Yemen have been well below pre-conflict levels or suspended. The decline in these exports, which contributed 45 percent of total government revenues in 2014, and a reduction in foreign investments and donor-supported development projects, have driven a rapid decline in Yemen’s foreign reserves (MPIC, March 2016). While the official Yemeni rial to US dollar exchange rate has only depreciated 16 percent since the start of the conflict in March 2015, parallel exchange rates have depreciated much more substantially (42 percent according to MPIC, Nov 2016). Historically, the Central Bank of Yemen (CBY) has supported imports of fuel and food through lines of credit at the official exchange rate. However, this support was suspended for fuel in 2015 and for rice and sugar imports in early 2016. In December 2016, major wheat importers reported that they would no longer be able to continue wheat imports into the country, given financial challenges relating to both the CBY and the private banking sector. While WFP reports that imports to date have remained adequate to ensure local food availability, possibly due to an increase in overland, informal trade, a major reduction of food import levels, as indicated by wheat traders, would significantly and immediately impact food insecurity given that Yemen relies on imports to meet over 90 percent of its cereal supplies (FAOSTAT).
Though staple foods currently remain available on local markets, elevated food prices and reduced income from sources such as farming, fishing, government salaries, and the private service sector have significantly weakened the purchasing power of many households. While recent data on food security outcomes is limited, WFP’s mVAM data and various rapid assessments suggest severe levels of food insecurity, in line with Crisis (IPC Phase 3) or Emergency (IPC Phase 4), in western areas. Food security outcomes are likely most severe in Ta’izz, southern coastal areas of Al Hudaydah, and amongst IDP populations.
Levels of acute malnutrition also remain very concerning. The prevalence of acute malnutrition is persistently high (>15 percent GAM) in Yemen and recent SMART surveys do not indicate any major deterioration in the prevalence of global acute malnutrition (GAM) compared to pre-conflict levels (with the exception of lowland areas of Ta’izz). However, the coverage of these surveys has been limited and both admissions data from nutrition treatment programs and key informant reports indicate a sharp increase in the number of children identified as severely malnourished in some areas compared to pre-conflict levels. For example, the number of children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) admitted to treatment programs in Al Hudaydah has increased by roughly 40 percent compared to 2014 and 2015 levels. Similarly, WFP’s mVAM surveys suggest deteriorating food security outcomes in this governorate (Figure 1).
Based on an assessment of the limited available evidence, FEWS NET estimates that 5 to 8 million people face Crisis (IPC Phase 3) and at least two million people face Emergency (IPC Phase 4). Large-scale food assistance, including WFP’s assistance to an average of 3.5 million beneficiaries per month during the months of September and October 2016, is playing an important role in mitigating food insecurity in many areas. However, it is not sufficient to meet Yemen’s current needs. Should conflict, commercial import levels, and humanitarian and market access continue at current levels, the size and severity of the current emergency is expected to persist during 2017.
In a worst-case scenario, commercial traders will be unable to access the credit and hard currency required to maintain large-scale wheat imports. Food availability would therefore decline sharply and already poor food consumption and nutritional outcomes would deteriorate further. In this scenario, Famine (IPC Phase 5), and the associated levels of excess mortality, would be possible. Given that imports by humanitarian actors currently make up only 5 – 15 percent of total formal food imports into Yemen (Figure 2), it is very unlikely that the humanitarian community would have the capacity to fill the very large import gaps which would exist in this scenario. Given the severity of current food security outcomes, Famine (IPC Phase 5) could also occur if conflict cuts off populations from trade and humanitarian assistance for an extended period of time.
To mitigate severe, ongoing food insecurity and prevent Famine over the coming year, the international community and local actors must protect the ability of private traders to import staple food. In addition, more resources are needed to support the continuation and expansion of humanitarian response. Finally, continued access to conflict zones for traders and humanitarian actors is essential to ensure that food and assistance that reaches Yemen can move from points of entry to local communities.Browse like no one’s watching. The new Firefox Focus automatically blocks a wide range of online trackers — from the moment you launch it to the second you leave it. Easily erase your history, passwords and cookies, so you won’t get followed by things like unwanted ads.
“Private browsing” on most browsers isn’t comprehensive or easy to use. Focus is next-level privacy that’s free, always on and always on your side — because it’s backed by Mozilla, the non-profit that fights for your rights on the Web.
Mozilla today launched a new app called "Firefox Focus," which automatically blocks advertisements as well as online trackers. The company said that due to the new app's removal of heavy ads and tracking software by other companies, "web pages may require less data and load faster."The privacy-focused web browser also comes with an easily accessible "Erase" button at the top of the app, which users can tap and erase all browsing history, searches, cookies, and passwords instantly.Firefox Focus also offers extensive customizable browsing options, with the ability to disable a website's custom font, and users can choose to load a page in another browser -- Firefox or Safari -- if they're willing to leave the security of Firefox Focus.The app is otherwise simplified, with a single search bar greeting users when they open it, and only one tab available to view at a time. The settings of the app also include an additional layer of security to block other content trackers, but Mozilla warns that toggling it on "may break some videos and web pages." Firefox Focus is available to download from the App Store for free. [ Direct LinkFourth-ranked US wireless carrier T-Mobile has announced a new partnership with Apple, which should allow it to begin offering the iPhone on its network sometime next year.
The company dropped the bombshell in a notice to investors on Thursday, saying only, "T-Mobile USA has entered into an agreement with Apple to bring products to market together in 2013."
While that terse statement stopped short of mentioning the iPhone specifically, it seems unlikely that sales of iPads through carriers are strong enough for T-Mobile to sign a tablet-only deal.
Whether that means T-Mobile will offer the iPhone 5, earlier models such as the iPhone 4S, or an as-yet-unannounced model remains unknown.
Of the four leading US carriers, only T-Mobile does not currently sell Apple's überpopular smartphones. Apple launched the original iPhone as an AT&T exclusive in 2007, but in 2011 it broadened its market to include Sprint and Verizon.
Even some smaller players now carry iPhones, such as Cricket and C Spire Wireless, which puts T-Mobile at something of a disadvantage, given that US customers still plonk down for Apple smartphones more than any other brand.
Not that T-Mobile hasn't tried to cater to fanbois. In October, the carrier began stocking iPhone 5–compatible NanoSIM cards – despite the fact that none of the phones T-Mobile sells use them – in hopes that customers would find its new unlimited data plans attractive enough to bring their unlocked iPhones to its network.
The company has even gone as far as to display iPhones in its retail stores – not to sell, mind you, but merely to demonstrate how well T-Mobile's data service works with Apple phones purchased elsewhere.
T-Mobile hasn't released any figures to indicate how well these efforts have worked, but common sense suggests it's still more convenient for customers to buy an iPhone with a bundled service plan from AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon than to buy an unlocked version and activate it with T-Mobile.
That will change if T-Mobile begins offering iPhones next year, which could give a belated but much-needed boost to the carrier's subscriber base.
Although T-Mobile is considered one of the top US carriers, it has struggled to compete with market giants AT&T and Verizon. T-Mobile's recently announced merger with MetroPCS is expected to give it a total subscriber base of about 42 million customers, but each of the two leaders boasts more than twice that number.
Joining the iPhone party could go a long way toward helping T-Mobile narrow that gap. In AT&T's most recent financial results, it announced that it sold 6.1 million smartphones in the third quarter of 2012. Of those, 4.7 million – 77 per cent – were iPhones. ®LTE is an amazing technology—but spreading it across the world and letting smartphone owners use it to their hearts’ content will be a major challenge on both technical and political fronts, a wireless technology researcher said at Interop Las Vegas.
Peter Rysavy of Rysavy Research has been studying the industry since 1994, when the first IP-based wireless technology, cellular digital packet data, was being deployed. Highly available wireless data services took a lot longer to come to fruition than people hoped in the early '90s, Rysavy said, but today’s LTE networks are 1,000 times faster and 1,000 times less expensive per byte than that earlier technology.
LTE is “blindingly fast,” one big reason it’s soared past WiMAX as the "4G" technology of choice, Rysavy said Wednesday in an hour-long session covering LTE trends. But while cellular operators have settled on LTE as the primary technology to replace today’s 3G networks, the transition to LTE could be difficult for both network operators and consumers. Rysavy said that getting enough spectrum will be a hard, political process, and bandwidth congestion may drive service providers to implement data caps that make today’s data plans seem luxurious.
A looming spectrum shortage?
About 500 MHz of spectrum is available for US cellular providers today. The Federal Communications Commission said in 2010 that operators would need another 300 MHz within five years and another 500 MHz within 10 years, Rysavy said.
A skeptic might question whether a shortage is really a possibility with Verizon looking to sell spectrum. But Rysavy says the danger is real.
“Are we on track to deliver that spectrum? Not even close. Not even remotely close,” Rysavy said. “This is a very politicized process. Our biggest hope for new spectrum is to get more UHF channels from the broadcasting industry, which gave up a whole bunch of those in the 700 MHz spectrum band a number of years ago. And they are resisting, so the FCC has come up with what they’re calling incentive auctions. In incentive auctions, broadcasters will actually be compensated for giving away their spectrum. That looks to be like a ten-year process to get through all that. We in the industry are hopeful that it will but it’s going to be complex.”
Rysavy’s research is funded by the wireless industry, with a very long list of clients including network operators AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint; equipment vendors like Intel, Juniper, Nokia, and RIM; the US Department of Defense; software vendors including Microsoft, and many, many more.
But he was willing to criticize the industry for playing fast and loose with the definition of 4G cellular networks. Even today’s LTE doesn’t meet the original definition of 4G set out by the International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-Advanced) requirements, which states that 4G networks must operate in up to 40 MHz of spectrum and meet various spectral efficiency tests.
"Marketing types at some of the operators got carried away and started applying the 4G term to just enhanced 3G as well as LTE,” Rysavy said. “The IMT caved in, issued a press release and said, ‘That’s OK, you can call it 4G anyway.’”
LTE-Advanced isn’t as far along as LTE, but would meet the original 4G definition. It is also projected to hit 1 Gigabit per second download speeds, way faster than LTE. Rysavy said, somewhat jokingly, “It remains to be seen whether LTE-Advanced is going to be positioned as 5G. It might be.”
Bandwidth, not name games, is what matters
More important for users is what the services will actually offer. Today's LTE networks have peak network speeds of 70 megabits per second down and 35 up. But the actual bandwidth promised by carriers ranges from 6.5 to 26.3 megabits per second down and 6.0 to 13.0 up, according to data Rysavy showed.
Even those speeds may not be reached all the time. As fast as LTE is, Rysavy noted that it can still only carry a fraction of the data that old-school fiber cables can. Today’s cellular data caps can be 2GB or 3GB a month, while Comcast offers 250GB to home Internet users.
The discrepancy is not an accident—it’s dictated by the available capacity. While one wireline user might get 50 megabits per second, in a relatively busy cellular area you could have a few dozen people sharing 14 megabits per second of bandwidth, Rysavy said.
It gets much worse in stadiums, which are having to install their own distributed antenna systems so sports fans and concert-goers don’t enter a cellular black hole when they arrive for an event. If the faster speeds of LTE do, as some believe, encourage users to consume more data, it might be eaten up a lot more quickly as the proportion of cellular subscribers on LTE rises.
Data caps are just the beginning
That’s one reason the days of unlimited data plans are going by the wayside. Unfortunately, it may only get worse. Think about how consumption-based electricity pricing works, where how much you pay depends on whether you use it during or outside of peak hours—now imagine that model being applied to cellular data.
“I think what you’ll see is prioritized traffic,” Rysavy said. Verizon, he noted, is developing a “Turbo” button that would let consumers get a temporary bandwidth boost, for a fee.
An application can tell a user “if you click here your usage rate is going to go up. You’ll pay more but your traffic will have higher priority,” he noted. “Will people pay for that? It remains to be seen. I see it as Verizon sticking its toe into the QoS (quality of service) waters to see if its toe gets bitten off, or if something good comes out of it.”
Could there be benefits to consumers from an electricity-style model? Although it’s hard to imagine cellular providers giving consumers a big price break, it is possible. Just as electricity can cost different amounts at different times of day, so could data, Rysavy speculated. Maybe people downloading stuff at 3am will pay less, or perhaps cheap plans that don’t allow streaming video would be offered.
“Over time the pricing has to become more creative,” he said. “At some point people just have to pay for what they get.”
Although Rysavy spent most of his presentation discussing the limitations and challenges related to LTE, he’s a big believer in the technology. “It’s going to sound like I’m down on LTE. I’m actually very enthusiastic,” he said. In addition to providing fatter pipes for data to travel across, LTE will significantly reduce latency, both in the time required for data to make a round trip and the time required to start transmitting, he said.
LTE uses OFDMA technology (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access) to deal with challenges imposed by the speed of light, Rysavy said. To dig deeper into OFDMA and many other cellular technologies, you can read some of Rysavy’s freely available (and lengthy) reports.
LTE is faster, but 2G and 3G are not going away
The US is adopting LTE faster than most of the world, and is expected to have good coverage for most of the country by the end of 2013. That said, older cellular technologies are not going away anytime soon. You might get a new version of the iPad each year, but cellular network technologies evolve on decade-plus time frames.
The GSM 2G technology deployed in the early 1990s is only now hitting its peak adoption some 20 years later. Even at the end of this decade, the 3G HSPA will still be ten times as heavily adopted as LTE, he said. Today’s LTE phones fall back to 3G or 2G for voice calls, although operators are preparing voice over IP modes for LTE devices.
Unfortunately, LTE adopters who travel a lot may have difficulty getting on LTE networks everywhere they go. As of now, LTE phones from one US provider won’t work on another US provider’s network, and internationally “roaming is an issue because every country in the world is deploying on different bands,” he said. Long story short, you’ll be roaming on 3G for quite some time.
LTE users who suffer from awful battery life may welcome the fallback to 3G. Rysavy said he’s hopeful that battery life will be sorted out, although if LTE users do consume more data than the rest of the world, batteries will drain more quickly regardless.
Still, there should be ways to manage all this. Video streams can be sent to a smartphone at 200 kilobits per second, instead of a megabit per second—while the difference might be noticeable on a tablet, it likely won't be on a phone, Rysavy said. Separately, new WiFi technology promises to make connection to public hotspots seamless and password-less, potentially offloading a lot of traffic from congested cellular networks, as we've noted in previous coverage.
Network operators will have to find ways to let consumers do the stuff they want to do on phones if they want to keep customers. But ultimately, Rysavy does believe managing the demand for bandwidth will take cooperation from the users.
“It’s going to take a whole bunch of approaches at the same time that will require people to be more aware of how much data they’re consuming,” he said.Our Doors Are Open: Register Your Account Now
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(NOAA’s Arctic report is a stark expose of the state of the Arctic climate. What we view now is a system undergoing a rapid and dynamic transition from its previously stable state to something that is entirely new and alien to human civilization. Video source: NOAA.)
The 12 month period of October 2014 to September 2015 was the hottest one year time-frame since record keeping began for the Arctic back in 1900. As a result of these record warm temperatures, Arctic sea ice during the Winter hit its lowest maximum extent ever seen. Summer sea ice extent was likewise greatly reduced hitting its 4th lowest extent ever recorded. Old, thick sea ice which represented 20 percent of the ice pack in 1985, has precipitously declined to a mere 3 percent of the ice pack today. Snow cover also took a hit, declining to its second lowest extent on record during 2015 and striking a range of 50 percent below the typical average for the month.
Overall warming of the Arctic is at a much more rapid pace than the rest of the world. This accelerated pace of warming is due, in large part, to loss of snow and sea ice reflectivity during the Spring and Summer months. As a result, more heat is absorbed into dark land and ocean surfaces — a heat that is retained throughout the Arctic over longer and longer periods. And, though NOAA doesn’t report it in the above video, overall higher concentrations of greenhouse gasses like methane and CO2 in or near the Arctic region also contribute to a higher rate of warming (see NOAA’s ESRL figures). In a world that is now rapidly proceeding beyond the 400 ppm CO2 and 485 ppm CO2e threshold, this is exactly the kind of Northern Hemisphere polar amplification we would expect to see.
Warm Winds, Greenland Ice Sheet Melt, and Mass Migrations
NOAA notes a marked change in the distribution of life with mass migrations of all life forms well underway in and around the Arctic. Transitions and disruptions are most highly visible among marine mammals like walruses and polar bears — who are increasingly forced to live on land during the summer months. Meanwhile, an ever-broadening number of non-native fish are invading the Arctic from the south.
(South to north weather patterns, like the one featured above, have increasingly drawn warm winds up and over Alaska. An anomalous new weather feature that has merited comment in NOAA’s recent annual Arctic report card. Image from “Arctic Heatwave to Rip Polar Vortex in Half”.)
NOAA also links the warm wind invasion events reported on widely here to the second worst wildfire season ever to strike Alaska in 2015. A dipole feature that displays teleconnections between Arctic snow and ice loss, the hot blob of water in the Northeastern Pacific, and the persistent trough that prevailed over the US East Coast during the Winter of 2014-2015.
Finally, Greenland Ice Sheet surface melt hit a maximum coverage above 50 percent for the first time since the extreme melt that occurred in 2012. NOAA notes that the amount of ice delivered to the ocean by glaciers also increased across Greenland even as recent studies continued to find an increasing prevalence of glacial destabilization and acceleration among Greenland’s ocean-terminating glaciers.
NOAA concludes: “Taken together, 2015 shows a continuing set of major changes in the Arctic.”
Links:
NOAA’s Arctic Report Card
Major Arctic Wildfire Outbreak
NOAA ESRL
Arctic Heatwave to Rip Polar Vortex in Half
El Nino, Polar Amplification or Both?
Hat Tip to Alexandr
AdvertisementsBlack tea
Lapsang souchong (; Chinese: 正山小種; pinyin: zhèngshān xiǎozhǒng), sometimes referred to as smoked tea (熏茶),[1] is a black tea (Camellia sinensis) that is originally from the mountainous Wuyi region in the province of Fujian in China. It is distinct from other types of tea, as the leaves are traditionally smoke-dried over pinewood fires, imparting a distinctive flavor of smoky pine.
Xiǎozhǒng or Siu2 zung2 (小種) refers to the larger, coarser tea leaves that are found lower on the branch.[citation needed] Lapsang souchong is a member of the Bohea family of teas, but is not an Oolong tea, as most Bohea teas are. ("Bohea" is the pronunciation in Minnan dialect for Wuyi Mountains, which is the mountain area that produces a large family of tea in South-East China).[citation needed]
Lapsang souchong from the original source is increasingly expensive because of increasing demand for this variety of tea, as Wuyi is a small area.[citation needed]
History [ edit ]
The story goes that the tea was created during the Qing era when the passage of armies delayed the annual drying of the tea leaves in the Wuyi Mountain. Eager to satisfy demand, the tea producers sped up the process by drying the leaves over fires made from local pines.[citation needed]
According to some sources, Lapsang souchong is the first black tea in history, even earlier than Keemun tea. After the lapsang souchong tea was used for producing black tea called Min Hong (meaning "Black tea produced in Fujian"), people started to move the tea bush to different places, such as Keemun, India and Ceylon.[citation needed]
Processing [ edit ]
“Souchong” (小种) refers to the fourth and fifth leaves of the tea plant, further away from the more highly prized bud (pekoe) of the tea plant. These leaves are coarser than the leaves closer to the bud and have fewer aromatic compounds. Smoking provides a way to create a marketable product from these less desirable leaves.[2]
The leaves are roasted in a bamboo basket called a hōnglóng (烘笼), which is heated over burning firewood, which contributes to the dried longan aroma and smoky flavour.[3] Pinewood is used as the firewood for lapsang souchong and imparts the characteristic resiny aroma and taste.
Chemistry [ edit ]
The aroma of lapsang souchong is derived from a variety of chemical compounds. The two most abundant constituents of the aroma are longifolene and α-terpineol. Many of the compounds making up the aroma of lapsang souchong, including longifolene, originate only in the pine smoke and are not found in other kinds of tea.[4]
Flavour and aroma [ edit ]
Lapsang souchong is noted for its rich aromas and flavours which include pine resin, woodsmoke, smoked paprika, hints of dried longan,[5][6] and the evocation of peated whiskey.[7]
It is common for even rather strongly brewed Lapsang Souchong tea to lack the bitterness common with other tea varieties.
Reputation [ edit ]
Lapsang souchong has a high reputation outside China; it is viewed as "tea for Westerners" inside China[citation needed]. It was drunk by Winston Churchill[8] and Gary Snyder,[9] who referred to it in Mountains and Rivers Without End.
In popular culture [ edit ]
In the movie Phantom Thread, Daniel Day Lewis' character orders a pot of Lapsang souchong tea at a hotel restaurant.[11]
See also [ edit ]Originally Posted by Alec Turner (Source) Originally Posted by
Well I tried to go down to a couple of co-ordinates I had noted this morning (a large mountain on Njokujinun 1, and the site of the recent Paladin Consortium SRV Grand Prix on LFT 37 6A) and couldn't find either of them at the co-ordinates as previosuly transcribed. My bet would be that if you tried to land at any of the co-ordinates previously notes for Barnacle sites, etc that you would find anything there unless you reversed the co-ordinates. In other words, I'm pretty sure this has happened and needs to be reversed ASAP before things start to get REALLY confusing.
- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
I appreciate that but do you see the problem re: the thousands of co-ordinates that everyone already has noted down and the confusion going forward when spreadsheets start to contain a mixture of co-ordinates from pre and post 2.2?Great Characters: R2-D2 (“Star Wars”)
Scott Myers Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 3, 2011
Who doesn’t love R2-D2?
The plucky “astromech droid” has a significant role in each of the six Star Wars movies. Indeed it’s arguable the entire saga hinges on this one character. As Wikipedia notes about the first movie Star Wars, Episode IV — A New Hope:
Princess Leia slips R2-D2 a disc containing a distress message and the plans for the Death Star battle station and jettisons the droids in an escape pod that crashes on Tatooine.
Without R2-D2 crossing paths with Luke Skywalker, he doesn’t learn about Princess Leia. Doesn’t meet up with Obi-Wan Kenobi. Doesn’t leave Tatooine and become a Jedi warrior.
But the character’s charm extends well beyond narrative functions. Check out this background via Wikipedia:
Ewan McGregor, who portrayed Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequel trilogy, said in an interview, “As soon as R2-D2 comes on the set, everyone goes a bit silly.” He recalled how his then four-year-old daughter announced she was in love with R2-D2, and then confessed his own affections for the astromech: “…there is something about him that makes you feel great affection for him. I think it is a combination of his shape, his high-pitched voice. He’s just incredibly appealing. In fact, I believe he is George [Lucas]’s favorite actor.” Lucas confirms this in the audio commentary of the Episode III DVD. In this discussion on the audio commentary, George Lucas also notes that it is intentional that R2-D2 saves the day at least once in every |
was “dumping” exports unfairly in their markets, but rather “surrogate” prices reflecting what it should be charging without state subsidies.
That was written into its WTO membership agreement in a clause that would expire after 15 years, on Dec. 11, 2016.
If the United States, European Union, and other WTO members begin to take Chinese export prices at face value, it will be much harder for them to challenge China’s cheap exports.
U.S. trade diplomat Chris Wilson told the WTO meeting that the expiry of the clause did not require other WTO members to automatically grant China market economy status on Dec. 11.
Instead, China must establish under each WTO member country’s domestic law that it is a market economy, he said, according to an outline of his remarks seen by Reuters.
“Second, there is little doubt that China’s market reforms have fallen short of the expectations that were held by many members when China joined the WTO,” he said.
“This is particularly evident in the steel and aluminum industries where China’s pervasive interventions have led to a significant overcapacity of global supply that is threatening the viability of competitive firms in these industries around the world.”
China’s envoy at the WTO meeting said Beijing agreed that the expiry of the clause did not require automatic granting of market economy status, according to a WTO official who was present at the meeting.
However, the Chinese official said its expiration would eliminate the legal basis for countries to continue to use “discriminatory anti-dumping methodology” against China, the WTO official said.
The WTO official said it was believed to be the first time the United States had responded to China on the issue at the WTO. U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said last month that the stance on China’s market economy would be determined ultimately by the U.S. Commerce Department.
The European Union is also debating China’s market economy status. In a non-binding vote in May, the European Parliament overwhelmingly rejected the idea of loosening trade defences against China.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe’s most powerful leader, has said she favours, in principle, granting China market economy status.President Donald Trump threatened Sen. Rand Paul (R-K.Y.) on Twitter after he opposed the recent efforts to repeal Obamacare. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump singled out Sen. Rand Paul for opposing Republicans' latest efforts to repeal the health care law, warning that a vote against it would come with political consequences.
"Rand Paul, or whoever votes against Hcare Bill, will forever (future political campaigns) be known as 'the Republican who saved ObamaCare,'" Trump wrote on Twitter Friday.
The Kentucky Republican is so far the only GOP member of the Senate to come out firmly against the plan put forward by Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. Paul has called the bill "Obamacare Lite," complaining that it does not go far enough to remove the 2010 health care legislation.
"Make no mistake – Graham-Cassidy keeps Obamacare funding and regulations in place," Paul wrote in an op-ed for Fox News this week. "Oh, it rearranges the furniture a bit, changes some names, and otherwise masks what is really going on – a redistribution of Obamacare taxes and a new Republican entitlement program, funded nearly as extravagantly as Obamacare."
Paul was re-elected for his second term in 2016, and will not face voters again until 2022.
But several others have expressed serious reservations about the bill, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he plans to bring up for a vote next week.
Like Paul, Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were re-elected in 2016 and are therefore mostly immune to threats about their next campaigns. McCain's concerns have primarily been rooted in the rushed manner in which the bill has been pushed towards a vote. Murkowski has said she is considering the bill's impact on Alaska but has opposed previous repeal efforts because of proposed cuts to Medicaid funding that Graham-Cassidy also makes.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine also has said she has a number of concerns about the bill, and is up for re-election next year. But she is said to be considering a run for governor instead, when a willingness to cross party lines would be more likely seen as an asset in a state that regularly elects members of both parties as well as independents.
Republicans have until the end of September before the special budget reconciliation rules that allow them to pass health care legislation with just a simple majority expire. Their 52-seat majority means they can afford for Paul and one other Republican to vote against Graham-Cassidy and it would still pass, with the help of a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence.Let's face it, May is a super busy month here in New Orleans. With festivals taking up every weekend and NOWFE just coming to a close, it's likely a few new restaurants or bars sneaked by you this month. That's okay. Here are six hot, but quiet openings you may have missed in May.
1.) Marigny: The Franklin
Address: 2600 Dauphine Street
The Sitch: This chic new lounge/restaurant from former Lilette FOH guy Jason Baas features chef Jim Bremer in the kitchen and nightly specials that range from escargot eclairs to tuna crudo. Menu here. A fierce wine list and craft cocktails, seductive lighting, and late night eats make this an elegant addition to the Marigny. This spot is already big with industry folks, who've been keeping it on the hush-hush. (504) 267-0640
Hours: Mon-Tue: 6 to midnight. Closed Wednedays. Thurs-Sun: 6 p.m. to midnight.
[Photo: Brasted]
2.) French Quarter: Meauxbar
Address: 942 N. Rampart Street
The Sitch: Revamped and reopened just last week by the Ste. Marie team, Ian McNulty reports that chef Kristen Essig brings dishes "developed at Ste. Marie, like a crab and quinoa salad, with touchstones from the old Meauxbar, like escargot and pasta Bolognese. Just as important, said manager Natalie Secco, is forging the same kind of personal connections with regulars that distinguished the previous Meauxbar." Menu here. (504) 569-9979.
Hours: Mon-Thu: 5 to 11 p.m. Fri - Sat: 5 p.m. to midnight. Sun: 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 11 p.m.
[Photo: Brasted]
3.) CENTRAL CITY: Church Alley Coffee Shop
Address: 1618 O.C. Haley (inside The Zeitgeist)
The Sitch: Renee Blanchard brings her "intense attention to coffee," as Todd Price calls it, to a new location in the Zeitgeist. Blanchard re-opened earlier this month and it's possible the coffee including Portland's Tandem tastes even better than before. as she tells Price, "In the last place, it was hard to find good espresso in the morning, because the morning sun came in at just the right angle to heat up the beans in the hopper." (504) 638-0032.
Hours: Mon-Sat, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
[Photo: Facebook]
4.) GERT TOWN: Maple Street Patisserie et Bistro
Address: 8300 Earhart Street
The Sitch: The bistro, featuring chef Scott Maki in the kitchen, has been serving breakfast and lunch since early May, but just celebrated their grand opening yesterday. Todd Price on the food: "Everything at the Bistro, from the pastrami and potato chips to the mustard and ketchup, is made from scratch." Another new location Maple Street Patisserie et Deli is opening in the former Artz Bagelz on June 1, chef Rodney Rillieux doing breakfast sandwiches on bagels.
Hours: Mon-Sat 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
[Photo: Brasted]
5.) MARIGNY: Horn's
Address: 1940 Dauphine St
The Sitch: Slim Goodies owner Kappa Horn took over the former La Peniche spot and has opened Horn's, with breakfast, lunch, dinner and weekend brunch. They also have a full bar and their house drink is a Tequila Sunrise.
Hours: Thurs-Mon 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Closed Wed.
[Photo: Yelp]
6.) CBD: Marcello's Restaurant & Wine Bar
Address: 715 St. Charles Avenue
The Sitch: Lafayette-based Marcello's has opened their expansion in the former Le Chat Noir space, with chef Blake Kymen doing Italian fare plus some French fusion dishes too. Menus here. (504) 581-6333.
Hours: Mon-Sat, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closed Sundays.
[Photo: Yelp]
· When popular restaurants close, new opportunities quickly open [Advocate]
· For a new breed of New Orleans baristas, it's all about the beans [NOLA.com]
· Maple Street Patisserie makes a sudden leap from one location to three [NOLA.com]
· All Opening Reports [-ENOLA-]The US Air Force developed a top-secret plan to detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon as a display of military might at the height of the Cold War.
In an exclusive interview with The Observer, Dr Leonard Reiffel, 73, the physicist who fronted the project in the late Fifties at the US military-backed Armour Research Foundation, revealed America's extraordinary lunar plan.
'It was clear the main aim of the proposed detonation was a PR exercise and a show of one-upmanship. The Air Force wanted a mushroom cloud so large it would be visible on earth,' he said yesterday. 'The US was lagging behind in the space race.'
'The explosion would obviously be best on the dark side of the moon and the theory was that if the bomb exploded on the edge of the moon, the mushroom cloud would be illuminated by the sun.' The bomb would have been at least as large as the one used on Hiroshima at the end of World War II.
'I made it clear at the time there would be a huge cost to science of destroying a pristine lunar environment, but the US Air Force were mainly concerned about how the nuclear explosion would play on earth,' said Reiffel.
Although he believes the blast would have had little environmental impact on Earth, its crater may have ruined the face of the'man in the moon'.
Reiffel would not reveal how the explosion would have taken place. But he confirmed it was 'certainly technically feasible' and that at the time an intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile would have been capable of hitting a target on the moon with an accuracy of within two miles.
Reiffel was approached by senior US Air Force officers in 1958, who asked him to 'fast-track' a project to investigate the visibility and effects of a nuclear explosion on the moon. The top-secret Project A119, was entitled 'A Study of Lunar Research Flights'.
'Had the project been made public there would have been an outcry,' said Reiffel.
Many Cold War documents are still classified in the US, but details of Project A119 emerged after a biography of celebrated US scientist and astronomer Carl Sagan was published there last year.
Sagan, who died in 1996, was famous for popularising science in the US and pioneering the study of potential life on other planets. At the Armour Foundation in Chicago - now called the Illinois Institute of Technology Research - he was hired by Reiffel to undertake mathematical modelling on the expansion of an exploding dust cloud in the space around the moon. This was key to calculating the visibility of such a cloud from the Earth.
At the time scientists still believed there might be microbial life on the moon and Sagan had suggested a nuclear explosion might be used to detect organisms.
Despite the highly classified nature of the work, Sagan's biographer, Keay Davidson, discovered that he had disclosed details of it when he applied for the prestigious Miller Institute graduate fellowship to Berkeley.
Yet, until today, the full nature of Project A119 has never been revealed. Friends of Sagan believe he never would have wilfully revealed classified information, but Reiffel has come forward to put the 'historical record straight'.
Reiffel continued: 'It was well known that the existence of this project was top secret. Had Sagan wanted to make any disclosures to any party, as his boss at the time, I would have had to take forward any such request and Air Force permission would have been extremely unlikely in those very tense times.'
In a letter to the science magazine Nature, Reiffel said: 'Fortunately for the future of lunar science, a one or two horse race to detonate a nuclear explosion never occurred. But in my opinion Sagan breached security in March, 1959.'
Reiffel produced eight reports between May 1958 and January 1959 on the feasibility of the plan, all of which were destroyed in 1987 by the foundation. Reiffel would not discuss details of these reports, believing they were still classified, but it was clear the conclusion was that the explosion would have been visible from Earth
He does not know why the plans were scrapped, but said: 'Thankfully, the thinking changed. I am horrified that such a gesture to sway public opinion was ever considered.'
Dr David Lowry, a British nuclear historian, said: 'It is obscene. To think that the first contact human beings would have had with another world would have been to explode a nuclear bomb. Had they gone ahead, we would never have had the romantic image of Neil Armstrong taking "one giant step for mankind".'
Lowry believes Project A119 has relevance today with the US proposing a missile defence system in space. He said: 'The US has always wanted to militarise space and some of the fanciful ideas currently being put forward will seem as incredible as the idea of nuking the moon in the Fifties seems today.'
A Pentagon spokesman would not confirm or deny the plans.
antony.barnett@observer.co.ukAlmost every weekend, there’s a race going on in New York City, one you’ll probably never hear about. They take place in streets choked with traffic and honking cabs. These races require pit-stops at about a half dozen points before you reach the finish line. Speed and dexterity matter, but it helps to be a human GPS unit.
The races are sponsored by big companies like Puma, and Cinelli, the Italian bike manufacturer. But they’re not exactly legal.
“It's pretty under the radar. If you get caught breaking traffic laws, they might try to chase you. A lot of these guys know how to get out of that situation,” says Diego, who asked that I identify him by his first name. He works for Street Kings NYC, the bike messenger organizers behind this race, the La Marqueta Alleycat, which takes place in Harlem every year.
“We don't ask for permission. We try to ignore them. We hope they ignore us; we don't even want to be noticed,” Diego says.
The Tour de France this definitely isn't. I made the mistake of asking Diego why they don’t just ask the city to, you know, block off the streets for them.
“That's incredibly boring. We don't want to do that,” he says. “We want to be able to ride in the city streets as they are. The whole point is to be creative on your bike in terms of how you get to your checkpoints, weaving in and out of traffic. Without those obstacles it wouldn't be the kind of event that we enjoy.”
Add to those obstacles, the fact that a lot of these bikers are slaloming through traffic on fixed gear, brakeless bikes. But Alex Kalniv, a bike messenger veteran of these races, describes racing on a track bike as a more Zen experience.
“If you're on a bike with a free wheel, you feel like you're on the bike,” Kalniv says. “On a track bike, you feel like it's your extension, like you are the bike.”
Watch a Go-Pro video of the August Alleycat race in New York:
According to bike messenger lore, the first Alleycat was held in Toronto in the ’80s. The races quickly spread to New York and now it’s worldwide, according to Diego.
“A lot of these guys have traveled to Puerto Rico, Mexico, Australia, Japan. You can find creatures like this in any major city around the world.”
One of those creatures is Chelsea Matias, who recently returned from competing in Montreal.
“People [there] respect cyclists more than a car, so it’s a cyclist first, then a car.”
But it sounds like Montreal’s the friendly exception to the street-racing rule.
“In Puerto Rico, cars go way faster than here, and there's way too many interstate highways that are extremely, extremely dangerous. Even to ride on them, you feel like you're going to die,” Matias says.
But it’s that you’re-going-to-die feeling and the challenge of new terrain — not the $1,000 prize or the promise of a new bike frame — that motivates these racers.
“It's like, wow, I'm still alive, I'm still here, and I'm capable of doing so much more,” Matias says. “It keeps a person going. It pushes them further.”
Racers lining up for their list of checkpoints at the Alleycat in New York in August. Most of the racers now aren't bike messengers. Credit: Alina Simone
Matias began racing two years ago, but like almost all the other bikers here today, she’s not a messenger.
“Before you had to work — you had to be a messenger to do these races,” says Shardy, another veteran courier who now organizes races.
He says the race has changed a lot over the past few years.
“A lot more spandex,” he says, laughing. “A lot younger kids racing.”
Unlike the seasoned couriers, these kids reach for their phones as soon as they get their list of checkpoints and start speed-clicking through maps.
Without the Internet, the “kids” would be lost, and the races would probably still be just for messengers.
But while track racing may have gone mainstream, one thing hasn’t changed: whether you’re a messenger or not, the goal remains the same.
“I just want to ride my bike aggressively in every city I can before I die,” Matias says.As his case against the NoW continues, Coogan gives a candid view of the issues – and people – at the heart of the UK media
Coogan on …
The Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is worse than the redtops because it has this semblance of respectability. To me the Daily Mail is like a used car salesman in a cheap suit because it masquerades as having this respectability about it and yet it peddles the same kind of hate-mongering [as] the redtops.
Paul Dacre
I was very pleased that when I slagged off Paul Dacre on Newsnight he ran a story the next day about me and Hugh Grant, trying to dredge up all the old shit. I thought: oh good, I've annoyed him.
Paul Dacre can have my fucking hard drive off my computer. He won't find anything there other than very orthodox pornography that consenting couples used recreationally. He'll be familiar with the stuff.
David Cameron himself said this inquiry is going to look at the whole way … As far as I'm concerned that includes Paul Dacre. That's going to be under oath. That's a big deal. I'd like to see Paul Dacre say a few things under oath. That'd be fun.
The PCC
They singularly failed in the biggest test that has come their way. They've failed spectacularly.
Paul Dacre has very reluctantly said that he thinks the Press Complaints Commission probably needs reforming. That's his calculated response – "well, I can't say nothing, I've got to say something" – it's transparent. So he makes a little gesture. Yes, of course, it needs reforming. He would never have wanted that fucking reform five years ago.
Future regulation of the press
What you need is a totally independent body without people like Paul fucking Dacre on it. How these people are chosen is something to be discussed but, clearly, the devil is in the detail. There should be some lay people or a list of people, like jury service.
Andy Coulson
I think it's patronising to say, well, he's working class, so he couldn't afford to have ethics.
I dare say Andy Coulson's done some very nice things. I'm just not aware of them.
On the tabloid press
It does go beyond what happens to me. And I genuinely don't care if none of the tabloids write another word about me.
On politicians and the Murdoch press
This courting of newspaper proprietors: in a hundred years' time they'll look back at it like the rotten laws of the 19th century. They'll think, what were they thinking? How was that OK?
Cost of legal action, and original police inaction
I wasn't sure if I would find anything in [Glenn Mulcaire's] notebooks. I had to gamble. I had to spend 50,000 quid going through this process to get the information – which is now freely available – to drag it out of the police. [It was] a long, arduous process. And then I might have found there wasn't anything there.
On privacy
However rich or successful I am, I have fucking human rights. That's the first thing. I have certain rights and I need to be treated with respect. I don't deserve to be punished for being successful.
What's really great about this whole phone-hacking scandal is [what] it's thrown up – suddenly, it's OK to talk about it again. "What? You think the press are too excessive? Yeah we know that, they've been like that for 100 years. What's your problem? Get over it." Well, why can't we talk about it, and now we can talk.The Salford half-back Rangi Chase has made a career out of game-changing moments and he produced another here that could have huge ramifications on the Super 8s. When the die is cast on the inaugural Super 8s and the promotion spots are decided, Chase’s instinctive break and finish sealed what could be an enormous win for the Red Devils in this brand new mini-league.
It could have been so different, though; Wakefield were leading 26-22 and looking odds-on for a precious win in the game between the two Super League sides believed to be in the most danger of relegation this season before Bill Tupou failed to pass when it looked as if Wakefield had a certain try in waiting – and on the very next tackle, Chase was galloping up the other end to seal the win.
“Rangi cost us a couple of tries during the game but he provided a magic moment for that try which won it for us,” said the Salford acting head coach, Ian Watson. “It’s vital to get off with a win and these players have got a point to prove – we’re going out to win these middle eights.”
Wakefield were nothing short of disastrous in the opening 39 minutes after two tries from Josh Griffin and one from brother George put Salford 16-0 up. But when Jacob Miller crossed with seconds left before the break, it gave the Wildcats hope.
That hope turned into genuine belief soon after as two tries in the opening eight minutes of the second half – one from Miller again and another from Danny Washbrook courtesy of some great play from half-back Tim Smith – put them into the lead. That sparked a tit-for-tat half with both teams exchanging tries, and after Cory Paterson restored Salford’s advantage, Reece Lyne finished off a scintillating team move to hand the initiative back to Wakefield.
Lee Smith then added a penalty goal to extend the lead to four, before the game’s pivotal moment; Tupou failed to pass for a certain try and when Scott Moore hacked his kick straight to Junior Sa’u, he cleverly passed to Chase, who broke away with remarkable pace to turn the game on its head again. That implosion from Wakefield proved telling, as that try for once did not prompt another change in the lead but rubber-stamped Salford’s win.
Chase was again involved. His kick ricocheted into the path of his half-back partner, Michael Dobson, whose following kick was plucked from the air magnificently by Paterson to seal a result that could be enormous come the conclusion of the Super 8s.
Yet the Wakefield coach, Brian Smith, refused to place blame at Tupou’s – or any individual’s – door. “I think it’d be ridiculous to attribute the result to one play or one player,” he said.
“The end cost us but, there are things going on out there that are so far out of control it’s hard to play at all. But when we got going, they couldn’t deal with us – but we didn’t finish the job. It’s one that got away.”
Salford Jones-Bishop; J Griffin, Thornley, Sa’u, Johnson; Chase, Dobson; Taylor, Tomkins, G Griffin, Hansen, Maitua, Paterson.
Interchange Lee, Krasniqi, Evalds, Morley.
Tries J Griffin 2, G Griffin, Paterson 2, Chase. Goals J Griffin 4, Paterson.
Wakefield L Smith; Owen, Tupou, Arundel, Lyne; Miller, T Smith; Scruton, Moore, Anderson, Molloy, Ashurst, Simon.
Interchange Sio, Walker, Mullally, Washbrook.
Tries Miller 2, Washbrook, Lyne. Goals L Smith 5.
Referee J Child. Attendance 3,400.This is the third post in a series on my current pilgrimage to learn more about refugee resettlement in East Africa. You can read the previous posts here and here, or follow along on social media with #ShareTheJourney. In the next day or two, I’ll back up and write about Saturday’s visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial.
Today is Sunday, and so we naturally went to church. We decided to attend All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi. Though we arrived a bit late, we were warmly greeted. I’m told around 1,200 people were at the service we attended, with a Sunday average attendance of around 6,000 across all the services. Worship is offered in a variety of styles and languages. Our service was English-language morning prayer, with a mix of energetic contemporary music and a rousing dose of Victorian hymns fervently sung with accompaniment by a grand pipe organ.
The sermon was preached by a lay reader, a woman who preached with passion and clarity on Matthew 23:13-28. This passage never shows up in the Episcopal Church’s Sunday lectionary, because we tend to shy away from difficult or especially challenging passages. Go have a look at the passage, and you’ll see why we don’t read it. This is our loss, because the difficult passages of scripture are often the most fruitful ones for exploration and growth. But I have, as usual, digressed.
The theme of the day and of the sermon was spiritual warfare, especially focused on syncretism. This abstract theological term was made real for the congregation in a simple story.
A man was offered a job interview. As he left his house, a black cat crossed his path. The man went back home, and he missed his interview. His superstition about a black cat caused him to miss an opportunity. Do you understand? This man gave the power over his life to a cat, and not to God!
It’s a pretty good example of how we choose to put our faith in other things besides God. In Kenya the examples concerned fortune tellers, tarot cards, and folk religion. Perhaps in the US, we’d need to think of examples including horoscopes, other religions, or–more commonly–fatalism. “If it is meant to be, it will happen.” This is not a scriptural belief; we don’t get to take a pass this easily!
Our preacher also challenged us by asking a series of questions. “Is it good to be a positive thinker? Is it OK to want to be a good person? Is it good to try to be better today than I was yesterday?” Most of us answered “yes” to the questions. And then she zinged us. “And what do all these things have in common?” Sudden realization. “It’s all about us.” The preacher said that we need to turn our focus away from ourselves toward the Most High, Sovereign God. We should be working to glorify God, and not ourselves, in all we do. When we focus on ourselves alone, we cannot be focused on God.
Through practical examples and careful teaching, the preacher taught us all that we must focus on God alone in order for God to work through our lives. I didn’t notice the time, but I suspect the sermon was 30 minutes long. No one was bored, because we were hearing the Good News. I should be so blessed every Sunday.
I was also grateful for the confident theological proclamation used throughout the service. So often in the United States, we use the most bland speech possible for fear of offending anyone. This is, of course, ridiculous, because the Gospel itself is bracing for anyone who pays attention to it. In the service today, God was not the “Soothing spirit of warm huggy-ness” but rather “the Most High, Sovereign God.” The hymns were bold, using language that rightly suggests the struggle for God’s Kingdom is a real one, in which we must engage the struggle mightily. Life is not so comfortable for Kenyans, and their praise and prayers reflects a vigor that the complacency of America does not encourage. We Americans are poorer for our comforts.
During the notices, they reported the income from the previous week. It was a staggering sum. Clearly many Kenyans tithe. We Episcopalians have a good deal to learn about generosity. In fact, there is plenty we could learn from All Saints Cathedral. While we say “The Episcopal Church welcomes you,” I have rarely felt more welcome than I was this morning.
After the service, the Assistant Provist, the Rev’d Paul Korir, having realized ten visitors from the Episcopal Church were in his congregation, immediately invited us into his home, where his wife Selline prepared a delicious and gracious lunch. Before and after lunch, we were served tea — some of the best tea I’ve ever had. Perhaps it was the flavor, or perhaps it was the abundance of love with which it was served.
Pastor Korir spent most of the afternoon with us, listening to what our group has been learning about refugees and telling us something of his life as a priest in the Anglican Church of Kenya. Selline talked about her work promoting peace and reconciliation, for which she was won awards. The entire experience made me, once again, profoundly grateful for the bonds of affection we share in the Anglican Communion. Strangers are welcomed, and we can share our common ground as we learn about one another’s differences. The Anglican Communion is beautiful, indeed.
My hope is that the conversation today will lead to a new and sustained friendship across continents. Pastor Korir and I surely have sharp differences, but we have much more in common. One day, I hope I can return the gracious hospitality he offered our group.
The Gospel reading this morning included this challenge:
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.
So often we go through the motions of our faith, but we neglect the weightier matters. In the USA, most of us don’t even bother to tithe. Our faith is reduced to a habitual, feel-good Christianity. We neglect the weightier matters. We do not work for justice or mercy in a way that costs us much, most of the time. We do not share the Good News, and we do not proclaim the Kingdom. Today in Nairobi, I was given a bold reminder about how to welcome strangers, about how to share the Good News, and about how to seek transformation in all we do.
As our pilgrimage group continues to learn about refugee resettlement, surely justice, mercy, and faith will come front and center. There will be no solution without all three. As I write these words very late on a Sunday night, I am still processing how today’s experience of worship and hospitality — and the content of the sermon and our afternoon conversation — will shape my time here in Kenya and after. But I am confident I will remember this day for a long time.
The service we attended this morning was not a celebration of Holy Eucharist, but I am confident I can say for all of our group, we were filled with Holy Thanksgiving. I am also quite sure that the hospitality we received from Paul and Selline Korir was sacred. Thanks be to God for the Korir family, for All Saints Cathedral, for the Anglican Communion, for friendships, and, of course, for tea.
Like this: Like Loading...To celebrate the recent launch of the excellent Pokémon Black and White 2 on the Nintendo DS, we thought it would be entertaining to throw open the history books and take a look back at the shadowy past of this massively successful monster-catching series.
Like all elements of popular culture, Pokémon has been largely misunderstood by those not intimately familiar with it, leading to some downright hilarious accusations and scandals over the past decade or so.
Some people would have you believe that Pikachu and friends are solely responsible for all of the world's problems, but there have been some instances where the series has legitimately stepped on a few toes and inadvertently ruffled some feathers.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then let’s begin.
Satanism
One of the most amazing accusations that has been levelled at Pokémon is that it's the work of Beelzebub himself, and is a tool used by the devil to subvert and corrupt children. This is pretty much a stock response to any craze not fully understood by certain sectors of Western society, and has previously included everything from Elvis Presley to The Beatles and Walt Disney. Pokémon is clearly in good company.
To quote Pastor Brett Peterson:
Pokemon is not the enemy - it is Lucifer and all that exalts itself against Jesus Christ and the true path to enlightenment. Pokemon is a tool the enemy can use to build a false foundation and plant seeds of futility in my child - and this I will not allow, and I will, by the blood of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit come against all falsehood and doctrines of demons that try to indoctrinate my child with eastern mysticism and occultic practices.
You learn something new every day!
Greed
Quite an ironic one, this. When the Pokémon craze hit big, kids began trading cards with one another, just as their parents had done in earlier decades with items such as baseball trading cards or marbles. However, those same parents quickly stated that Pokémon was making their offspring greedy and competitive - two traits which many would argue are the bedrock of any capitalist money-focused society.
It’s quite insane just how seriously some people take this stance:
Church kids are being taught vices of greed, violence and rebellion...at the simplest level, Pokemon is about accumulation and acquiring power with the attributes of greed...It is common for children to have nightmares and wake up screaming in fear which may be caused by Pokemon paraphernalia in the bedroom.
Among the 151 species of Pokemon, 31 gain control by rage or fury, 21 gain control by slashing or stabbing, 12 are psychic and 65 use psychic energy to dominate others. Pokemon encourages children to defeat their opponents through deception, psychic energy and violence.
So Pokémon is making kids money-mad and aggressive? Sounds like it’s the perfect recruiting tool for future Wall Street traders, if you ask us.
Freemasonry
Bet you weren't expecting this one, right? Back in the ‘90s, a Saudi Arabian fatwa was issued against Pokémon because it possessed the minds of children, promoted Zionism and featured symbols related to Freemasonry.
Here’s a clipping from the period:
Saudi Arabia's highest religious authority has issued an edict banning Pokemon games and cards, saying they have "possessed the minds" of children, promote Zionism and involve gambling.
Saudi Arabia's Higher Committee for Scientific Research and Islamic Law issued the fatwa, or religious ruling, over the weekend. It said the video game and cards have symbols that include "the Star of David, which everyone knows is connected to international Zionism and is Israel's national emblem, as well as being the first symbol of the Freemason."
Human Trafficking
Just how far would a rabid Pokémon fan go to acquire that coveted card? Quite far, actually. Desperate to get the super-rare Holographic Vaporean card he'd always wanted, 8 year-old Harvey Flexman told listeners on a UK radio station that he was prepared to trade his baby sister Mollie in order to achieve his goal.
To be fair to the kid, he'd already offered his all of his toys, pocket money, Easter eggs and even his bed before finally deciding that his infant sibling would be the exchange to ultimately seal the deal.
Nazi Imagery
Many people seem to labour under the belief that the swastika is an icon created by Adolf Hitler for his German Nazi Party, but in fact it’s a symbol which can trace its history back to 10,000 BC. Pokémon blundered into this particular controversy back in 1999:
Eleven-year-old Stephen Langsam prefers Japanese-language Pokemon cards to the English version. But when he plunked down $6 for a pack last month, he was upset to find one that included what he thought was a swastika. The red mark alongside the Pokemon characters Golbat and Ditto was a "manji," a mirror image of the Nazi swastika. In Japan, where the symbol predates the Nazis by centuries, it means good fortune and can also represent a Buddhist temple. But to Stephen, his friend Marc Specht and their Jewish families, it was a Nazi swastika, the spidery symbol of hate and the Holocaust, and it didn't belong in a children's game.
"We thought there had to be something we could do because it can be terrible for children," said Marc's mother, Myla Specht.
Sadly, it’s not just Pokémon which has been impacted by the stigmatisation of this ancient icon. The swastika is rarely seen in the western media these days.
Racism |
performs with the material at full HD 1080p quality.
The clarity of audio and movie is really unmatchable. Let’s know more about Terrarium TV and ways to receive it on different apparatus.The current buzz is all that Kodi Add-ons aren’t functioning anymore. The majority of the favorite Kodi add-ons are closed down a couple of days back.Terrarium TV was among the greatest add-ons for Kodi to see absolutely free films and TV shows. It has left many consumers confused. Well, everybody is confronting this matter and this is due to the lawsuit about copyright infringements.
Adhering to the suit, many notable add-ons have supported out and have closed their Kodi stores. Terrarium TV is among these. So, what exactly do we do today? Well, thankfully, we’ve got different choices. You can use this program on these devices: If you aren’t certain how to start it, then this guide can help you. Continue reading if you want to learn the setup procedure. While it might appear a little difficult at first, you’ll find it easy in the future. Below are the steps to set up Terrarium TV program: Primarily, what you have to do is, obtain the Terrarium TV APK file on your own PC. It’s not necessary to look for the world wide web. It’s possible to find them. You can download terrarium tv for pc directly, you can read this guide on step by step installation process of terrarium tv for Windows 10 without Bluestacks App Player.
It is very important to Obtain Terrarium TV on this apparatus. By following the steps out of 1-8, you’ve cared for this very first portion of the setup.For the next component, we will need to get into the freeware named adbLink on our PC. It is possible to find the freeware in the links provided below.
As Soon as You own adbLink, here are some steps you Want to follow: Open adbLink in your own personal computer click on Newick a title or your own FireStick from the Description sectionInput the IP address of this Firestick or Fire Television you noticed previously in the AddressClick JoinThis may link the pc into the FireStick.
You Will Have the Ability to view FireStick from the Connected Devices record (be sure Your pc and Firestick are attached to the Identical Wi-Fi system)Click ‘Setup APK'
Navigate to the folder in which you stored the APK document you downloaded previously Click 'Yes’ when you Find the confirmation message asking, “Do you want to set up the APK” Wait for some time for the installation to complete. After it’s finished, you will realize the notification at the underside.That is it! You finally have Terrarium TV in your FireStick Television or Fire Television. Now, we’ll see the remainder of the setups.
You’re able to find the Terrarium TV newest variant in your own Android apparatus too. You guessed it right! Thus, what we shall do is get this throughout the side-loading procedure. Do not worry! You do not need to root your own Android apparatus. We have covered here also. Simply open THIS LINK in your own Android browser and then get the APK file.
Measure 2 – Unknown sources: Android averts the third party installments to maintain your device secure. Terrarium TV addon is completely secure and hence there’s not any need to stress. Open Settings and then visit Security. Here, it is possible to flip the Unknown Sources alternative ON.Now we’re ready to put in Terrarium TV 2017 on our mobile apparatus.
Navigate to the folder in your own Android where APK document is stored. It ought to be from the Downloads folder or most likely the APK folder. Run the file once you see it. Within a moment you’ll have Terrarium TV in your apparatus. Go right ahead and revel in the terrific content it provides for you.Terrarium TV is nonetheless not formally available on PC. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t like Terrarium TV online pc.
There’s a wonderful workaround that may make most Android programs work on your own PC. And, we’ve already seen that Terrarium TV can be found on Android. Thus, let us begin.Android Emulator: We will require a particular tool named Android Emulator to get the area of Android on the PC. When there are lots on the market, the newest entrant Nox Program Player continues to be our sexy favorite ever since its launching.
Not only can it be secure but also lightweight and simple to use. Download Nox out of http://noxandroidemulator.com (choose the version on your OS). Notice: whenever you’re using Nox for your very first time, then register in with your Google ID. It’s like having a brand new Android apparatusCurrently, Install the most recent edition of Terrarium Tv apk utilizing Nox app participant. Should you never downloaded the apk document, then you can get it in the above-mentioned tutorials.
The setup will be fast and simple. You may have Terrarium TV prepared to be used in your PC. To be able to utilize it, you’ll be asked to start Nox App Player first.In case you’ve got a Mac computer, then download the Nox Mac variant. Terrarium TV and also Chromecast apparatus don’t work right with one another. However, that is fine! We’ve got a workaround which can allow you to like the content out of Terrarium TV around Chromecast. Let us have a look there are a few requirements we have to be prepared with until we utilize Terrarium TV Chromecast.
Here’s the listing: Android Smartphone: We can install Terrarium TV Apk on an Android apparatus. We’ll use the apparatus to throw the Terrarium content on Chromecast. We’ve already covered the actions to install this program on Android. AllCast: AllCast is an Android program, which may throw the Android display onto different cast devices like Google Chromecast.
Download and set up Chromecast. Wi-Fi link: Yup, we want Wi-Fi. In addition, we will need to be certain the Android along with Chromecast are linked to the exact same wireless system. As soon as you’ve got everything prepared, you can start with this procedure. It’ll be all very easy: simply follow the following steps:Run Terrarium TV in your own Android apparatus perform the picture you would like to throw Chrome as you will understand the option 'Open with’ while enjoying the movie; select 'Open with you’ll be shown the choice to play the movie together; select 'AllCast’ in the listing currently AllCast will demonstrate the listing of the associated devices. All You Have to do is pick Chromecast from this listing that is it.
Terrarium has become attached to Chromecast and you’re able to watch your favorite articles in top quality for your TV.Should you would like to immediately play Terrarium TV to get Smart TV, rather than Chromecast, pick your TV in your AllCast connected device listing.Terrarium TV is nevertheless not formally available on the Roku apparatus.
However, that’s not stopped us from accessing your favorite programs on our favorite apparatus. That is exactly what the workarounds for and we’ve got a good one for you. We’ll learn how to mirror your own Android display so that it is possible to observe Terrarium TV on Roku.You may need Android 4.4.2 or even a more recent version. Proceed to Settings and then choose About to look at the firmware version.
What you want to make sure next is that both Roku in addition to your own Android apparatus are attached to the exact same wireless system.Go on and set up Terrarium program on Android after the measures we’ve provided previously. As Soon as You have this, this is exactly what you Have to Do to mirror the display: Visit Settings on your own AndroidSelect Screen choice from the lifting harness 'Cast Display 'Harness 'More Options’ within this section (that might vary across apparatus). What we will need to do is find the option 'Enable Wireless Screen’ and allow it or flip it ON.
You will currently have the ability to find the listing of those connected devices where you are able to throw your display. Select your own Roku in the listingNow, simply go right ahead and start Terrarium and begin playing with the film of your selection. That is it! At this point you have this amazing program streaming in your own Roku device.From the End Terrarium TV is just one of the greatest programs to watch films and TV shows of your selection in top quality. It’s a fairly sizable assortment of the articles from a number of elements of earth.Author: SKYMTL
Date: January 3, 2016
Share | The AMD Polaris GPU Architecture Preview
In the last quarter of 2015, AMD and their Radeon Technologies Group did something weve rarely seen in the secretive world of tech companies. They sat down members of the press, gave us an iron-clad NDA and started talking about their plans for the next year. While thats what typically happens behind closed doors, AMD added in a refreshingly new twist: we wouldnt have to wait until a products official launch to actually talk about what was being discussed. Instead, there were preset times throughout 2015 and 2016 were we could publish information well in advance and give our readers a glimpse at some exciting elements coming down the pipeline. One of the key take-aways from those meetings was details about AMDs upcoming GPU architecture, code named Polaris.
The Polaris architecture represents a huge step forward for AMD but it will also walk hand in hand with a number of other initiatives fronted by the Radeon Technologies Group. For example,
These elements and others should combine to lay a solid foundation and insure the stars align in preparation for the Polaris architecture. As you can imagine, there are some major investments tied up in Polaris success but the architecture itself requires a bit more explanation as well.
The Polaris architecture may represent a shining beacon for gamers looking for a flagship product from AMD which can essentially offer an alternative to NVIDIAs upcoming Pascal microarchitecture. However, at least initially, Polaris will be targeting volume rather than halo markets in an effort to compete in segments where the Radeon Technologies Group feels the largest inroads can be made. This means mid level desktops / all-in-ones, notebooks and even integration into upcoming consoles are all being focused upon over enthusiast-grade wares. Availability for those first Polaris cores is slated for mid 2016 while the more complicated designs meant for higher end GPUs will likely be rolled out in Q3 and Q4 of this year.
Theres a good reason for this staggered rollout: not only does it allow for a potentially quick Radeon resurgence within the key low power applications AMD has been historically weak in but theres also some good old fashioned production assurances involved here as well. With AMD utilizing a new 14nm FinFET manufacturing process (more on this later), they need to perfect the Polaris core design, optimize yields and start understanding the limitations of their new architecture without taking huge risks. A primary rollout with a smaller, more efficient and less specialized core allows them to do exactly that. It could also optimize the timeline for Polaris closer integration into upcoming APU designs.
At this time the amount of information about the Polaris architecture is relatively minimal but AMD is set to release additional talking points between now and its official launch in mid 2016. However, over the next few pages well go over what we can officially discuss about Polaris and what the 16nm manufacturing process means for its future. In the last quarter of 2015, AMD and their Radeon Technologies Group did something weve rarely seen in the secretive world of tech companies. They sat down members of the press, gave us an iron-clad NDA and started talking about their plans for the next year. While thats what typically happens behind closed doors, AMD added in a refreshingly new twist: we wouldnt have to wait until a products official launch to actually talk about what was being discussed. Instead, there were preset times throughout 2015 and 2016 were we could publish information well in advance and give our readers a glimpse at some exciting elements coming down the pipeline. One of the key take-aways from those meetings was details about AMDs upcoming GPU architecture, code named Polaris.The Polaris architecture represents a huge step forward for AMD but it will also walk hand in hand with a number of other initiatives fronted by the Radeon Technologies Group. For example, GPUOpen aims to put additional resources into the hands of developers which could allow for better optimization in PC games and enhanced visual effects across all platforms. Theres also a whole packet of upcoming display-driven technologies like HDR panels, FreeSync over HDMI and DisplayPort 1.3 that are coming down the pipeline. Finally, the RTG is hoping to offer a robust driver and software infrastructure through their (hopefully) regularly updated Radeon Software Suite These elements and others should combine to lay a solid foundation and insure the stars align in preparation for the Polaris architecture. As you can imagine, there are some major investments tied up in Polaris success but the architecture itself requires a bit more explanation as well.The Polaris architecture may represent a shining beacon for gamers looking for a flagship product from AMD which can essentially offer an alternative to NVIDIAs upcoming Pascal microarchitecture. However, at least initially, Polaris will be targeting volume rather than halo markets in an effort to compete in segments where the Radeon Technologies Group feels the largest inroads can be made. This means mid level desktops / all-in-ones, notebooks and even integration into upcoming consoles are all being focused upon over enthusiast-grade wares. Availability for those first Polaris cores is slated for mid 2016 while the more complicated designs meant for higher end GPUs will likely be rolled out in Q3 and Q4 of this year.Theres a good reason for this staggered rollout: not only does it allow for a potentially quick Radeon resurgence within the key low power applications AMD has been historically weak in but theres also some good old fashioned production assurances involved here as well. With AMD utilizing a new 14nm FinFET manufacturing process (more on this later), they need to perfect the Polaris core design, optimize yields and start understanding the limitations of their new architecture without taking huge risks. A primary rollout with a smaller, more efficient and less specialized core allows them to do exactly that. It could also optimize the timeline for Polaris closer integration into upcoming APU designs.At this time the amount of information about the Polaris architecture is relatively minimal but AMD is set to release additional talking points between now and its official launch in mid 2016. However, over the next few pages well go over what we can officially discuss about Polaris and what the 16nm manufacturing process means for its future. Next: Polaris; Achieved Through FinFETAdvertisement
Ever since OS X Yosemite came out, everyone has been looking to see if they can find all of the hidden features not so widely reported by Timmy up on his stage. So I decided to go a-hunting and see what I could find.
After much hunting, here are the that I personally found useful, in no particular order. I have highlighted the word “useful” because I have missed ones out that I think are not useful. Because “useful” is what we’re all about here at MakeUseOf.
Spotlight Replaces Alfred (Almost)
One of my favourite Mac apps is Alfred, and I didn’t hesitate in buying the power pack New Alfred Powerpack Update Includes External Trigger Workflows and Context Sensitive Hotkeys New Alfred Powerpack Update Includes External Trigger Workflows and Context Sensitive Hotkeys Alfred just released a significant update for its Powerpack features, including context sensitive workflow hotkeys, external triggering of workflows using AppleScript, and a workflow action for opening a static file with a specified application. Read More when it came out. But now it seems that poor old Alfred has just had the crap beaten out of him by Apple, because a lot of what Alfred offers can now be performed with Spotlight Two Free Alternatives To OS X Spotlight [Mac] Two Free Alternatives To OS X Spotlight [Mac] Read More (for free).
This really only applies if you only use Alfred for launching apps, looking up contacts, making web searches, and so forth. If you are an Alfred power user (using Workflows 9 Awesome Alfred Workflows I'm Loving [Mac OSX] 9 Awesome Alfred Workflows I'm Loving [Mac OSX] Alfred is a task launcher for Mac OSX - hit a shortcut, start typing the name of a file, folder, contact, application or search term, and bam - there it is. Since version 2, the... Read More ), then he isn’t out for the count yet..
But for many mundane task, Spotlight replaces Alfred entirely. For a start, currency conversions – which saves a visit to Google. You can use it as a calculator, or look up an address using Maps. It also searches the web, including showing relevant sections from Wikipedia (you can also specify whether you want your search to be done via the web or via Wikipedia). Search on Spotlight has been greatly improved because you can now look for movie information, search your Mac, as well as search for news, the App Store, and the iTunes Store.
It should also be pointed out that Bing has replaced Google as the search engine in Spotlight. Not much better in terms of privacy, but still a big change. The mighty Google has been unseated.
Remotely Close Any Safari Tabs On Your iOS Devices
I have lost count of the number of times I have accidentally left “questionable” tabs open on my iOS devices that I didn’t want my wife to see (gifts, of course). Thankfully she didn’t notice (or care), but I may want to get rid of those tabs in the future before she spots them.
No sweat. Just open a new tab in Safari, and any open tabs on your iOS devices will be there with a handy cross for you to click. Then watch those tabs disappear.
Put Your John Hancock on Documents Using Trackpad
Another interesting feature is being able to sign documents using your finger, Preview, and the Mac Trackpad. Prepare for some frustrating times ahead, for it took me close to 15 minutes to come up with this :
Trust me, this is more difficult than it looks. This is nowhere near the exquisite penmanship I perform when signing bank checks, and when I make bail. But it was the best I could come up with. My mother always wants me to explain what my job is. If she saw that screenshot, she would yank the trust fund for sure.
Share Screen in Messages
For those of you who do tech support, you can now easily share screens with someone, via Messages. The caveat though is that both sides have to have Messages installed, which is bad news for your Windows PC-using granny.
Just click on the “Details” link to the right of the chat box and there will be a logo there for sharing screens. Just click on that link thingie and prepare to share.
Oh and as you can see in the screenshot below, there is also a mute button for the first time in Messages which silences incoming notifications for that group or individual.
Accept iPhone Calls On Your Mac
A feature which I am really fond of using right now is answering my iPhone calls on my Mac. This is really useful because, for some strange inexplicable reason, my iPhone is always at the other end of the room when it rings. And me being Mr Lazy, I don’t want to get up for it. So if I am in front of my Mac at the time, I can just hit the “accept” button, and take the call there. The caller has no idea I am talking to my computer, the sound quality is excellent, and I get to stay on the nice warm sofa!
This feature is part of a wider set of features called Continuity, which attempts to make switching between iOS and OS X a seamless experience What Does Continuity Mean for Yosemite & iOS 8? What Does Continuity Mean for Yosemite & iOS 8? OS X 10.10, better know as Yosemite, is a major Mac update that offers numerous features never seen before in an operating system. One of the most important is Continuity. Read More.
Safari Gets Better
In addition to a slim new look, Safari has been given a few new features like the “Show All Tabs” feature. In the top right of a Safari tab, you’ll find two windows diagonally intersecting one another. Click that to see all your tabs and click on the one you want. If you don’t click on one, click the Show All Tabs button again to close it.
The ageing RSS has been given a boost in Safari now. When you click on an RSS link, Safari will show a pop-up box asking if you want to subscribe to the feed. If so, it will show up in the Shared Links tab.
But the best new feature is that OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 have added Duck Duck Go Get A Better Search Experience With Duck Duck Go Get A Better Search Experience With Duck Duck Go It seems that there are a couple of services and Linux distributions (such as Linux Mint) that are switching over to Duck Duck Go as their default search engine. So why the heck are they... Read More, as an option for searching in Safari. Just head into the preferences to make the switch.
Instant Hotspot for iPhone Users
You’ve been able to use your iPhone as a mobile hotspot for years, but Continuity makes it easier than ever with iOS 8 and Yosemite What Does Continuity Mean for Yosemite & iOS 8? What Does Continuity Mean for Yosemite & iOS 8? OS X 10.10, better know as Yosemite, is a major Mac update that offers numerous features never seen before in an operating system. One of the most important is Continuity. Read More. As long as you’re logged into the same iCloud account on your Mac and iPhone (and your carrier supports Personal Hotspot, also known as tethering) the iPhone will show up in your Wi-Fi network list.
You’ll need to make sure that Hotspot is enabled in your iPhone settings to use the Wi-Fi connection with your Mac.pe
Maps Gets A Bit Of Polish
Maps has been given a bit of spit and polish. Flyover has been introduced, but I don’t see any practical use for it – though two very useful features new for Maps are 3D Maps, and traffic.
When you have your map opened, and you are zooming down to street level, you can click a button in the bottom left, which gives you the option to have the 3D map. This simply revolves the map so you are looking almost level at landmarks (make sure the satellite version of the map is also enabled for best effect).
Why is this useful? Well, if you are using the map to find a place, being able to look at landmarks at a more straight level might help you to get your bearings.
Traffic is also very good. In the left hand corner menu again, choose “Show Traffic“. You will then see road numbers and red circles with a white line through it, which indicates a problem on that road. Just click on it to see what the issue is. Then you can rearrange your route accordingly.
Yosemite Gets Dark Mode
This is one for the Goth users. You can now turn OS X black, although a big setback is that some icons that live in the top-right corner won’t be seen as they are designed with a white background in mind.
This is an easy one to do. Just go to System Preferences and then General.
Underneath “Appearance” is “Use dark menu and Dock” – tick the box.
Replace Dashboard With Today Widgets
Dashboard is one of the most neglected areas of OS X, itself only receiving a lick of paint this time round as the run of web-based widgets comes to an end. The replacement? Notification Centre widgets on the Today screen!
These allow you to check the weather, track deliveries and even display the outcome of console commands. Justin managed to replace his entire Dashboard with widgets These Notification Centre Widgets Make Dashboard Irrelevant These Notification Centre Widgets Make Dashboard Irrelevant The Dashboard is dying. Most users ignore it, and not many developers are building things for it. Replace all of your Mac's Dashboard widgets using the new Today view in Yosemite. Read More, surely a direction Apple is bound to take itself at some point. Once you’re ready to say goodbye, head to System Preferences > Mission Control and turn Dashboard “Off”.
Your Favourites?
Another feature worth mentioning is the ability to record iPhone and iPad screens with a Mac, using a Lightning cable. I know I have missed out several more, so why don’t you start beating me up in the comments by telling me what I should have included?
What have you found most useful about Yosemite?I’ve been hitting my alma mater, Liberty University, quite a bit since Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. decided to betray everything that is the core mission of the college, in favor of endorsement of an unrepentant, lecherous, cheating con artist for the presidency.
I should say, more specifically, I enjoyed my classes. I enjoyed my professors. I enjoyed the other students, but now, I’m disgusted and regret my decision to trust my higher education needs to Liberty.
All my scorn, all my wrath, all my disgust is reserved for the Falwell family, with good cause.
Psalm 118:8 NLT – “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people.”
I’ll equally admit that I had no ill feelings towards the Falwells until Falwell Jr. endorsed Donald Trump over the Christians who were running for the GOP nomination. During the primaries, and in spite of Falwell Jr’s endorsement, the voting student body of Liberty went overwhelmingly in favor Senator Marco Rubio. Compare Rubio’s 44 percent of the student body vote to Trump’s 8 percent of the vote (or Ted Cruz’s 33 percent) and you get a fair picture of how Falwell’s actions are viewed by the school he presides over.
For whatever the intentions of Jerry Falwell Sr, he left control of his legacy in the hands of a vile man, and as more is uncovered, we can expect the Falwell name to become synonymous with hypocrisy.
Politico Magazine has featured a story in its Friday edition of some of the secretive dealings of Falwell Jr. and how he is attaching Liberty University’s reputation to some of the seediest, debauched behavior imaginable. In fact, his fondness for Trump is suddenly quite understandable.
Brandon Ambrosino, writing for Politico, weaves a tale of unbelievable debauchery and corruption, all courtesy of Jerry Falwell Jr. and his son, Jerry Falwell III (Trey).
At Liberty University, the Christian private school at which Falwell Jr. is the president and Trey is the vice president for university operations—and from which I graduated in 2011—all manner of vice is prohibited. Students, whether on campus or off, and whether school is in session or not—cannot consume alcohol or tobacco. Co-ed sleeping arrangements are verboten. And, in the words of “The Liberty Way,” the school’s student handbook, “homosexual conduct or the encouragement or advocacy of any form of sexual behavior that would undermine the Christian identity or faith mission of the University” are strictly prohibited. Any one of these transgressions could get you saddled with reprimands, financial repercussions, and even expulsion. And yet, here we were, in perhaps the gayest 6 square miles in the United States—South Beach, Miami—staying in Falwell’s gay-friendly flophouse with an on-site liquor store.
Yep. The Falwells own a hostel in South Beach. On the outside of the gate is a sign that says: NO Soliciting Fundraising Politics Salesmen Religion.
Not only do the Falwells own a hostel, with an on-site liquor store, gay-friendly, complete with a rundown bar, but ads for strip joints and prostitution litter the halls.
OH – and it could very well lead to considerable troubles with the IRS, too.
For the university’s students, staff and faculty, “The Liberty Way” is the law of the land—outlining in granular detail how they are expected to behave, act, speak and dress. (Faculty have their own handbook, but it says in boldface type that they are to conduct themselves in a manner “compatible with the Mission of the University and ‘The Liberty Way.’”) Its premise is that every person associated with the university “should avoid any activity, on or off campus, which would contradict the university’s mission or purpose, compromise the testimony or reputation of the university.” If caught in violation of the Liberty Way, you face dire consequences, including expulsion for students or termination for faculty and staff. Unless, it seems, your last name is Falwell. The Falwell-owned hostel encourages behavior that would get Liberty students expelled—the drinking, the smoking, the advertising for strip clubs, the free shuttles to local bars, the possibility of co-ed sleeping arrangements, and so on. And they certainly wouldn’t be allowed to buy anything from the adjoining liquor store on Falwell’s property—an amenity the hostel touts in the self-description it provides to travel sites like TripAdvisor: “There is a liquor store connected to the hostel with almost anything you need for partying!”
And inside the hostel?
The kitchen was also what you might call the business center: Two computers lined a wall, next to which stood a bookcase with a Bible hidden on the second-to-bottom shelf, buried amid the kind of fiction your fourth-grade teacher might read at the beach. Across from the books was a wall display of Minicards advertising local entertainment and other venues for tourists and offering coupons for their business. One of them caught my eye: a closeup of a redhead with entirely too much eyeshadow, sporting a wide choker around her neck. Tootsie’s Cabaret: 74,000 square feet of adult entertainment and FULL NUDITY.
Another thing that’s the “Liberty way,” apparently, is the lock that is put on speech by faculty. They’re prohibited from speaking to journalists about matters associated with the school, without first clearing it with Falwell’s office. They’re also listed as a non-profit, so they’re prohibited from endorsing or taking a political position, a rule Falwell Jr. seems able to skirt by claiming his endorsement is personal, not representative of Liberty.
I’ve actually spoken with a former faculty member, who was relieved of his duties after 11 years of service, with no explanation. In his personal time he blogged his support of Ted Cruz and his opposition to Trump.
Weird, right?
Falwell’s open support of Trump, while preventing faculty and staff from having their say makes it appear as if he’s speaking for all of them, but he’s not.
But back to the hostel:
The hostel is at 810 Alton Road in Miami Beach, on the same parcel of land housing Miami Beach Liquors and Macchialina, a better-than-average Italian restaurant. Documents with the Miami-Dade County Recorder show that on February 21, 2013, that parcel was purchased by Alton Hostel LLC for $4.65 million. At the time, the LLC—which had formed just two weeks earlier, on February 7, 2013—listed Trey Falwell, then 23, as the sole manager of the company. A high-ranking Liberty University source with extensive knowledge of the deal confirmed to POLITICO Magazine that Jerry Falwell gave his son money for the $4.65 million purchase. The same source maintains that the elder Falwell has no business dealings with the property—which may be true, but a May 21 Facebook post shows that Jerry Falwell and his wife, Becki, dined at Macchialina with Giancarlo Granda, Trey’s business partner in the hostel’s LLC. In its February 2013 articles of organization in Florida, Alton Hostel LLC listed 3200 Sunnymeade Road in Rustburg, Virginia, as its mailing address. According to records filed with the county of Campbell, Virginia, the Sunnymeade property, which is 21 acres in size and includes a three-bedroom house, is currently owned by Trey Falwell and his wife. But at the time of the LLC’s formation in 2013, the property was owned by Liberty University—Trey Falwell and his wife were renting the house from Liberty for $600 a month, according to a high-ranking source who works for the school. The university continued to own the property until it was sold to Trey Falwell in May 2015 for $225,000. Speaking on background, sources at Liberty University told POLITICO Magazine that this price was fair-market value, and was assessed as such by a neutral third party.
So the tax regulation that requires nonprofits to report sales of this manner was skirted. Liberty didn’t report the sale, so you have to wonder if that was just something that was overlooked, or did Falwell Jr. orchestrate it?
A senior official with the school is claiming disclosure was unnecessary, because the sale didn’t constitute an “excess benefit transaction.”
The IRS Form 990 instructions read that business transactions with “interested persons” that exceed $100,000 must be reported. As Liberty’s vice president of university operations and the son of the school’s president, you would think Trey Falwell counts as “interested,” wouldn’t you?
The legal counsel for the school are calling it a “personal transaction.”
The university says it followed protocol by having its board of trustees vote to approve the sale—a vote ahead of which Jerry Falwell excused himself from the room, university officials tell POLITICO Magazine. But a brief look into the board’s history suggests that the board, not unlike the faculty, serves largely at the whims of Jerry Falwell. For example, last year, Mark DeMoss, a Liberty alum, longtime board member and chair of its executive committee—a man whose dedication to Evangelical Christianity is beyond reproach, as evinced by his years of service to the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, whom he likened to a “second father” and for whom he served as chief of staff—was pushed off Liberty’s board after he voiced his disagreement with Falwell’s endorsement of Trump to the Washington Post. Trump, said DeMoss, does not represent the “Christ-like behavior that Liberty has spent 40 years promoting with its students.” Falwell quickly accused DeMoss—the son of the Liberty benefactor whose name graces DeMoss hall, the main building on campus—of being, in DeMoss’ words, the disloyal “political pawn of a rival campaign.” He was gone about a month later.
In other words, there was never any threat of the board voting against this sketchy deal. What Falwell wants – whether it’s to attach the reputation of the college to an immoral con artist, or to indulge in a bit of tax fraud and nepotism – Falwell will get.
“This scenario just feels wrong,” says Kimberly Reeve, an associate professor of business at King’s College and an expert in nonprofit management. She notes that Liberty is in a unique situation: It’s a huge nonprofit organization with significant real estate holdings. For Reeve, the primary question “should be whether or not the sale of this property was in the best interest of the university and helped it fulfill its mission. If questioned, the university should be able to indicate exactly how this sale did that.” Otherwise, such a land sale would suggest that the university was not acting primarily in its own best interests, but instead, acting to the benefit of other parties.
This thing goes on, and goes deep.
Falwell Jr. is paid $900,000 a year to absolutely decimate the stated mission of the college, both in his associations with the ungodly, and his hypocritical stronghold over students, faculty, and the board of trustees.
His belief is that he’s hooked his wagon to political power, and in Trump, he’s found a kindred spirit. That may all be completely so. For Falwell’s slavish devotion to all things Trump, no matter how anathema to the Christian faith, he’s been granted a spot on a task force to identify problems with the Department of Education. It’s a spot that puts him in a unique position of overseeing repeal of matters that could benefit Liberty, and ultimately, the Falwell bottom line.
2 Peter 2:19 AMP – “They promise them liberty, when they themselves are the slaves of depravity—for by whatever anyone is defeated and overcome, to that [person, thing, philosophy, or concept] he is continually enslaved.”I remember nearly falling out of my chair (or more accurately being thrown out of it) when I heard the title track to Bloodlust’s new album in early June. It was a virally infectious, bestially ferocious, volcanically hot blast of blackened thrash, with the kind of riffs that seemed written to become instant classics, and the kind of soloing that seemed capable of turning lead ingots into slag. “At the Devil’s Left Hand” was the name of that track, and of course the name of this new second album as well.
Well, now we have the chance to bring you another track from that album in advance of its release by Caverna Abismal on August 24, and this one is called “Freak of the Night“. I thought it would be a heavy lift for Bloodlust to top the title track, but I do believe they have.
This new song displays many of the same qualities as the blood-rushing “At the Devils’ Left Hand”, but if anything it’s an even more eye-popping showcase for the band’s wide-ranging abilities. On the one hand, the song is another furious, turbocharged gallop, capable of shooting high-voltage electricity directly into the listener’s brain stem and battering the head with hyperspeed drum and bass work, while getting your head (and your whole body) moving to the primal energies of glorious riffs and molten soloing — which again have the feel of classic metal.
But on the other hand, “Freak of the Night” includes other ingredients as well, amplifying the magnetic pull of this Australian band’s boisterous and blasphemous excoriations. At the outset of the song, Bloodlust combine tumbling drumwork, twisted arpeggios, and big grim chords to create a sense of looming horror (something they do again, using different techniques, later in the song). And in addition to the throat-ripping evil of the dominant snarls and shrieks, this song also includes craggy, gut-deep growls (no less evil, to be sure) — as well as a sinuous, seductive melody (involving very cool guitar-and-bass interplay), punchy start-stop rhythms, and even more eye-popping displays of technical prowess.
I forgot to mention one more thing that hasn’t changed in comparison to the title track: “Freak of the Night” is ridiculously catchy. You’ll see.
Check out our premiere below, along with the album’s previously released title track, and check these links for more info:
Pre-orders will be available here:
http://www.cavernaabismal.com
Bloodlust:
http://www.infernalbloodlust.com
https://www.facebook.com/bloodlust666/News broke yesterday that Lucas Browne failed his post-fight drug test after winning the WBA heavyweight title against Ruslan Ch |
probably a false alarm but it doesn't pay to take chances". Batgirl linked to the computer from the Batcave to find that all of Gotham's forces are converging on Arkham Asylum. The television screen would go blank. A guide would then open the secret bookcase revealing the Batcave entrance as you walk through the Batcave tunnel through to the grouping queues you may hear dripping water and murmurs of bats flying. As guests reach the end of the queue lines the guide announces "I now present to you the Gotham City security network". At this moment several doors would open to reveal the network. It included 14 minor video monitors and one huge projection screen in the middle as well as Batman's controls in front of the screen. There was an animatronic Batman who talks in the Batcave sitting at the desk with his back facing the audience. Guests were seated in the audience and witness a second pre-show video introducing the mission to retrieve the Whitney diamond, stolen earlier from the Gotham Museum of Art. This was stolen earlier by Catwoman and is used to power a freeze cannon operated by Mr. Freeze.[16][17][18]
Guests were then split up into groups of 20 and admitted into separate simulators where the ride would take place. Once the ride began, guests were taken on a chase through the streets of Gotham City in the pursuit of the Joker, Catwoman and Mr. Freeze.[19] As the ride featured sudden movements, it was not suitable for those who suffer from motion sickness. For this reason, Movie World operated the ride without the motion at least once a day.[5] When guests exited the ride they were greeted with the set of the tracking module crashing in to the Penguin's Arctic World Lair.
Ride system [ edit ]
The ride system used for Batman Adventure - The Ride was developed by California-based McFadden Systems, Inc. who specialised in motion platforms for military-style flight simulators.[8][20] Batman Adventure - The Ride was the company's first amusement ride.[20] Guests were admitted into one of six vehicles which each seat 20 riders.[22] Each of these vehicles were mounted on motion bases which allow six degrees of freedom.[22]
Reception [ edit ]
Following the opening of Batman Adventure – The Ride in Australia, Warner Bros. Movie World saw a record spike in attendance. Approximately 12,000 guests visited the park on 30 December 1992. This spike was attributed to the opening of the ride.[2] By 1998, an average of 10,500 tours were being run by Warner Bros. Movie World every year.[23] This number eventually peaked at 20,000 tours per year.[1]
In 2003, Warner Bros. Movie World in Australia saw a drop in park-wide attendance numbers. This was attributed to the SARS outbreak and the Iraq War. The reduced attendance saw Warner Bros. Movie World begin alternating ride operations with Batman Adventure – The Ride 2 operating from 10am until 11:15am, and from 3pm to 5pm.[24]
The popularity of the ride in Australia decreased in the late 2000s. Robert Niles of Theme Park Insider identified that the ride felt outdated and was in need of a major overhaul.[25] On 15 October 2011, Warner Bros. Movie World closed the ride permanately.[3]
See also [ edit ]September 19, 2011 1:43 pm ET — Jamison Foser
Despite constant claims from Republicans that businesses can't hire because excessive taxes and regulations leave them teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reports that companies are sitting on a ton of cash:
Corporations have a higher share of cash on their balance sheets than at any time in nearly half a century, as businesses build up buffers rather than invest in new plants or hiring. Nonfinancial companies held more than $2 trillion in cash and other liquid assets at the end of June, the Federal Reserve reported Friday, up more than $88 billion from the end of March. Cash accounted for 7.1% of all company assets, everything from buildings to bonds, the highest level since 1963.
So, the GOP's analysis of the unemployment problem is fundamentally wrong. Businesses have plenty of money to hire. Why aren't they? Oh, right: There isn't sufficient demand for goods and services:
The reduction of debt could place the economy onto firmer footing in the long run. In the short term, however, the effect of consumers paying off debts and companies hoarding cash is less spending, investing and hiring. Economists call this problem the "paradox of thrift," when individuals and businesses need to save more to prepare for a downturn, but everyone doing so at the same time makes a downturn more likely. "For one household or business to save money is a good thing," said Dana Saporta, an economist with Credit Suisse in New York. "For everyone to be doing this at the same time could serve to slow economic growth."
Republicans used to acknowledge the concept of demand, but now they prefer to use the worst jobs crisis in decades to push their unrelated ideological goals. And the government austerity they demand only makes things worse, as Saporta explained. Of course, Republicans then use the negative results of austerity to peddle more austerity and more unrelated ideological goals, so it all works out... for them. The rest of the country, from the unemployed to businesses that lack customers, isn't so lucky.
The Journal article does contain a hint of support for one Republican buzzword: "uncertainty":
Alan Miller,... chief financial officer of Frequency Electronics Inc., a maker of precision timing instruments for satellites and other applications, said he has been under pressure from investors to use some of the company's $22.7 million cash holdings to reinstate the dividend that was suspended during the 2008 crisis. So far, the company has resisted. "We felt that it was more important to retain the cash at this point in time with the continuing uncertainties in the marketplace," Mr. Miller said.
But note that Miller's concern is about uncertainty in the marketplace, not uncertainty about regulations. Yet again, the so-called "job creators" are clearly saying that the problem is people aren't buying enough of their products. But Republicans won't listen.Nokia Wants Another Run At Making Phones
Nokia looks to regain relevancy in the mobile device business in its post-Microsoft life.
5 Ways Microsoft Messed Up Mobile (Click image for larger view and slideshow.)
Nokia, once the European leader in the mobile phone industry, wants to return to making smartphones after selling its device manufacturing division to Microsoft last year.
Nokia has responded to rumors that it wants to get back to the mobile phone market, indicating that it could be possible -- but it's not sure. In the Finnish telecom giant's words, "[I]t's complicated."
For Europeans, it's difficult to see Nokia just as a telecom infrastructure company, and not one of the leading handset vendors in the market. When Nokia sold its business to Microsoft last year, Europe lost an important part of its mobile communications history.
[Microsoft will write down $7.6 billion related to its Nokia acquisition. See Office For Mac 2016, Phone Biz Layoffs: Microsoft Roundup.]
For many years, Nokia phones were a status symbol for professionals and consumers in Europe.
The company was the first to develop a digital, portable, and encrypted text-based communications device for the Finnish Defense Forces, the Sanomalaitejärjestelmä, in the 1970s. In 1987 Nokia introduced its first analog cellular phone, the Mobira Cityman 900 for NMT-900 networks, dubbed "Gorba" because Mikhail Gorbachev was pictured using one unit to call Moscow from Helsinki that year.
Nokia was also one of the leading technology companies involved in the European project for the first all-digital mobile communications system, GSM, which became the worldwide standard of second-generation (2G) cellular technology. In 2003 it launched the Nokia 1100, nicknamed "Penny," which in 2007, after shipping 200 million units, became the world's best-selling consumer product of all time.
For Nokia, it's back to the future in the mobile market. (Image: Nokia)
In 2007 Nokia launched the N95, a smartphone based on the Symbian operating system that would keep Nokia the best-selling brand in Europe, in spite of Apple's launch of the first iPhone the same year. It did help that the first Apple smartphone and the BlackBerry units at the time had no 3G connectivity.
Due to the introduction of the iPhone 3G, and later of the first Android OS models, Nokia phones started to lose popularity, and its efforts to develop new models based on the Symbian OS failed to compare with the ones from Apple, BlackBerry, and Android.
The Microsoft Deal
After a bumpy ride for several years, with Symbian losing popularity due to its lack of applications, in February 2011 Nokia and Microsoft signed a major business partnership to develop smartphones based on Windows OS.
The announcement, which was supposed to be a good thing for Nokia, started a catastrophic slide, with Nokia's stock price losing about 14%. Its smartphone sales, which had previously increased, collapsed. Pierre Ferragu, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein in London, said, "[T]his partnership will take time to implement and deliver phones. This is what may kill Nokia."
And it did. Apple became the supplier of the most profitable smartphone on the market. Google's Android became the preferred OS for most of its competitors, including Sony and Samsung, former users of Nokia's Symbian OS.
Windows for Mobile never took off and, after trying to remain competitive by launching several lines of inexpensive Lumia units, Microsoft announced in September 2013 that it would acquire Nokia's mobile device business for $3.8 billion. The deal was finalized in April 2014, after Nokia introduced several new smartphones at Mobile World Congress, including some Android-compatible models.
Microsoft was present for the first time at MWC 2015, introducing a new line of Lumia devices, with former Nokia mobile chief Stephen Elop as the head of the new division. That division now includes products such as Xbox and the Surface lines. Then in June Microsoft announced that Elop is one of several executives who will leave the company following a transitional period.
Eyeing a Return
Now the rumors and speculation of Nokia's return to the handset market are escalating.
Back in April, when the first rumors started, the company was clear: "Nokia notes recent news reports claiming the company communicated an intention to manufacture consumer handsets out of a R&D facility in China. These reports are false, and include comments incorrectly attributed to a Nokia Networks executive. Nokia reiterates it currently has no plans to manufacture or sell consumer handsets."
But rumors continued, and on Monday, July 13, spokesperson Robert Morlino said, "[I]t's not surprising that today, the question comes up all the time: 'Will Nokia return to mobile devices?' The answer is: it's complicated." He added, "[T]o summarize, we will look for the right partner who can take on the heavy lifting and work closely with us to deliver a great product. As we agreed with Microsoft, the soonest that could happen is Q4 2016 -- so it's safe to say Nokia won't be back (at least in phone form...) before then."
It might be complicated, but expect to see some news well before that. Maybe there will be some new Nokia devices at MWC in February 2016 that will be ready to ship in April.
Nokia is a great company, and the Finns are determined people. If the company comes up with a great product, possibly based on Android, I could be tempted to retire my Sony phone.
Pablo Valerio has been in the IT industry for 25+ years, mostly working for American companies in Europe. Over the years he has developed channels, established operations, and served as European general manager for several companies. While primarily based in Spain, he has... View Full Bio
We welcome your comments on this topic on our social media channels, or [contact us directly] with questions about the site.I am easily the introverted dork who will spend hours watching videos and reading articles. Typically I have two purposes for doing this:
1) To expand my knowledge
2) To be swept away with emotion
The first of the two is a bit more straight forward. You see a piece of media with a flashy headline about a topic and you become intrigued. So you hit the link and allow the journey to unfold. Sometimes it’s complex like learning about social justice movements or something simpler like how to grow vegetables. What is always a rush for me is the emotion I feel when watching/reading these works. Sometimes you laugh, are enraged, brought to tears and even reminded that there still is humility and hope in the world.
Quite often it is the emotions of these experiences that broaden my perspective of global and local issues. They impact my values and my beliefs. They have played a detrimental role in influencing who I am and my purpose in life. I like to think that my purpose is to try to make the world a brighter place in whatever way I can. This doesn’t mean that I will be the next Martin Luther King or Wangari Maathai but it certainly doesn’t mean that I cannot try.
So what exactly do I mean by getting swept away with emotions. It’s the words, images, sounds, and smells. It is these elements that speak to your senses and pull at your soul. They help you develop an affinity with creator(s) and become part of a shared experience. A great example of this is the “Solo, Piano – N.Y.C” by Anthony Sherin. At some point, we have all been exposed to music and art in its varying forms. Watching a video like this means something different to each viewer. To me it reminds me of my childhood – my failed attempts at trying to master instruments and the enjoyment I took from trying new things.
It also reminds me of my last summer in Toronto. The city had participated in an international art campaign called “Play Me, I’m Yours,” where pianos were left in random and unique locations throughout the city. One of which, happened to be in a major park not far from my home. One evening, myself and a dozen coworkers decided to have a pie party where we would drink wine and make pies from scratch and stay up until the wee hours. Toronto, being Toronto, by midnight it was extremely hot from baking so we decided to relax at the park. It was one of my favorite memories of Toronto. It went something like this: 2am, a huge park booming with people of all walks of life, a random piano and at least thirty random strangers all gathered around it playing sing-a-long songs and enjoying alcoholic beverages (hidden under various items). My crew and I and were ecstatic when we discovered this gathering and instantly changed our plans and joined the group.
The singing, laughing and community building went on until the park security eventually shut down the show and everyone dispersed. It was truly a magical experience. You feel a connection to people without having to say anything. You simply feel accepted and safe.
These emotions come back to me when I watch this video. I’m then overwhelmed with sadness as the piano is destroyed. It reminds me of when the pianos were removed in Toronto…the missing sounds of music, signing and laugher on the bustling streets of down town. It reminds me of when something beautiful is lost. It’s like being at a camp fire, that little spark that people take for granted, assuming that the fire will continue to burn and then disappointed when they are left in darkness. For some however, they may look up and discover the beauty of the sky that often provides just enough lighting until the dawn and it’s realized that the journey never fully ends.
To me, this is what getting swept away feels like. When I finish watching/reading something, it doesn’t end there it’s now a part of my life. Time that cannot be taken back and knowledge that I cannot un-know, perhaps forget, but it’s still an experience that is intricately woven into a part of my life.
AdvertisementsArs was among the first news outlets to report on discussions among astronomers about observations of an intriguing "signal" that may have originated from a distant, Sun-like star. We cautioned readers that, because the signal was measured at 11Ghz, there was a "significant chance" it was of terrestrial origin, likely due to some military activity.
Well, it apparently was. First, astronomers with the search for extraterrestrial intelligence downplayed the possibility of an alien civilization. "There are many other plausible explanations for this claimed transmission, including terrestrial interference," Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer with SETI, wrote.
Now the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences has concurred, releasing a statement on the detection of a radio signal at the RATAN-600 radio astronomy observatory in southern Russia. "Subsequent processing and analysis of the signal revealed its most probable terrestrial origin," the Russian scientists said. (Maybe it was really Steve Martin and his hair dryer?)
For now, let's not tell the good people at Good Morning America, who were still furiously tweeting this morning about the possibility of finding an alien civilization.A starting assumption present among many Arabists is that the ʕarabiyyah -- or Poetic Koine -- was a form of the Arabic language, quite close to what we now know as Classical Arabic, and that it existed as a kind of inter-tribal form of communication for high poetic culture.
The argument for this is in the main part based on the corpus of Pre-Islamic poetry. This is marked, they say, by a remarkable linguistic unity, while the composers of these Pre-Islamic poems are said to come from all over the peninsula. The only way to understand this linguistic unity combined with geographic spread, is to assume a single poetic register shared by all of these poets.
Some scholars have gone as far as to say that it is not just the Pre-Islamic poetry was incredibly unified, but that even the Arabic language itself, was one of remarkable linguistic unity. This final, more extreme position is -- in my opinion -- now thoroughly debunked by the uncovering of remarkable linguistic variation in Pre-Islamic Arabic in the epigraphic record. Forms of Arabic like Nabataean Arabic, Safaitic, Hismaic and Late Nabataean inscriptions are remarkably different from each other. This is certainly, in part, due to a diachronic difference between these different varieties, but it should be noted that not a single one of these varieties could be the ancestor of the ʕarabiyyah by the simple fact that none of them retain nunation. Something that looks close, or identical, to the ʕarabiyyah as defined by the Arab grammarians, is strikingly absent in the epigraphic record (so far).[1]
But also the "light" definition -- that the ʕarabiyyah was an Interdialectal Poetic Koine -- is not without its problems.
First, there is the assumption that the attribution of the Pre-Islamic poetry to the Pre-Islamic period is genuine. As the collection of these poems into writing only takes place in the second Islamic century, this is not exactly a given fact. Nevertheless, some things invoked by the Pre-Islamic poetry require knowledge of the Pre-Islamic period, which are not obviously present by the time the texts get collected, and can sometimes be shown to not have been understood, as classical commentators on the poems would misunderstand certain words, which we now understand because we have a historical record. The mention of zabūr in Muʕallaqat Labīd, for example, makes much more sense in its Pre-Islamic meaning: The South Arabian Zabur sticks than as'scripture' (thanks to Ahmad Al-Jallad for pointing this out to me). As such, it seems clear that at least part of the corpus of Pre-Islamic poetry can with certainty be projected to the Pre-Islamic period.
Second, there is the assumption that the Pre-Islamic poetry was transmitted accurately and without change from before Islam until the second Islamic century when they were collected. This assumption is far more problematic. By the time the poetry gets collected, there is already a very strong ideology that Classical Arabic is the standard of high culture, and eloquent speaking; The now omnipresent diglossia were -- if not already present -- certainly developing. We simply cannot assume that there were no sociolinguistic pressures present in this period to classicize the language of the Pre-Islamic poetry. In fact, I would argue that there are clear indications of classicization of Quranic Arabic, and it seems at least as likely that the Pre-Islamic poetic corpus underwent a similar process. Within this, I believe valid, assumption the remarkably linguistic unity of the pre-Islamic poetry becomes completely circular. The Pre-islamic poetry looks unified because it was intended to be unified.
Third, there seems to be an assumption that there is no counter evidence in the Islamic Period that there was a unified Pre-islamic ʕarabiyyah. But this is not at all in line with the facts. First, there is considerable linguistic variation even between the reading traditions of the Quran, despite being restrained by the Quranic Consonantal Text, nevertheless no one could deny that these varieties are "Classical Araboid". However, most of the variation that we find in these reading traditions is conspicuously absent in the Pre-Islamic Poetry. It seems unlikely that that was never there. Likewise, Sibawayh describes a remarkable amount of linguistic variation, most of which does not at all surface in the Pre-Islamic poetry; It could however not be argued that Sibawayh was describing anything other than the ʕarabiyyah. Any dialect of Arabic that lacked full case inflection (which must have certainly existed in his time) completely escapes attention in his description. It does not seem likely that 1. All the variation Sibawayh describes developed in a post-islamic period and 2. that the ʕarabiyyah that is reflected in the Pre-islamic poetry just so happened to have all the features that end up being typical of what ends up becoming the "Canonical Classical Arabic". Classicization, must have played at least some role.
Nevertheless, the strict meter and rhyme of the poetry, does not allow for a complete "wild west" of different dialects that have all been merged towards a single unified Classical Arabic. But, it does allow for more variation than one would think. In the following section, I wish to explore some of the linguistic variation that could be possible given the strict limitations of the rhyme and meter; This is purely speculative, but it will bring up some hypotheses which could be tested, but because the questions have never been asked, do not seem to ever be tested.
One basic and unassailable assumption that we must defend in the Pre-Islamic Poetry is that case vowels must have existed. The rhyme of the Pre-Islamic poetry often relies on a constantly returning vowel ū̆, ī̆ or ā̆, and more often than not this rhyming vowel is a case vowel. You can see that the poetry clearly uses unusual syntactic construction just to make sure the right case vowel ends up in the rhyming position. Any implementation of variation that puts the reality of case vowels into question, is therefore by definition wrong. A suggestion like "Metri Causa Epenthetic Vowels" is completely disconnected from reality.[2] However, this is not to say that the Case vowel/Nunation system must have been identical to that of Classical Arabic (on which more below).
The Glottal Stop
The Pre-Islamic poetry is metrical, either having light syllables CV (L) or heavy syllables CVC and CVV (H). However, several common developments that happen to the Proto-Arabic *ʔ tend to have little to no effect in the metrical shape. The Pre-Islamic poetry is transmitted with the retention of the glottal stop, but could easily be the result of classicization of poetry that had originally lost it, for example in a word like raʔsun 'head', the loss of glottal stop causes compensatory lengthening yielding rāsun. This development is almost universal in the modern dialects today (some dialects of Yemeni are someone ambiguous). This development has absolutely no effect on the actual metrical weight of the word, however which remains HH. The same is true for the loss of intervocalic ʔ, which is usually replaced by a glide, e.g. wāʔilun > wāyilun (both HLH). The only position where the loss of intervocalic hamza would probably cause a change in syllabic structure, is in between two low vowels, e.g. saʔala > sāla 'to ask' (LLL > HL), but even this development could go unnoticed in certain Arabic poetic metres. The Kāmil meter, for example has several positions where LLL and HL are metrically equivalent.
It would be extremely interesting to see to what extent certain metrical irregularities in poetry could perhaps be understood as the result of such a shift. However, I have yet to find a discussion of metrical irregularities in Pre-Islamic poetry that tackles such issues in these terms. It should also be noted that the loss of pre-consonantal ʔ does not necessarily also entail the loss of intervocalic ʔ. For example the Quranic reading tradition of Warš ʕan Nāfiʕ has the former but not the latter (whereas Abū ʕamr has both - although not in *aʔa sequences).
Another common loss, and one clearly reflected in the orthography of the Quran is the loss of post-consonantal hamza, e.g. yasʔalu is spelled يسل <ysl>, and not as in Classical Arabic- يسال <ysʔl>. In Classical Arabic, some of these Hijazisms have entered the standard, most notably in the imperative of yasʔal which is sal (besides regular isʔal) and the verb 'to see' which is yarā etc. rather than the expected yarʔā < *yarʔayu. Pre-Islamic poetry as we have it today certainly makes use of these Hijazi forms. But it would be extremely surprising if yarā was never treated as metrically HH, rather than LH as the Classical Arabic reading suggests.
It should, moreover, bother us that in the Muʕallaqat Imruʔu l-Qays we find verses such as ta-RAA ba-|-ʕa-RA L-ʔAR-ʔAA-|-mi FII ʕa-|-ra-ṢAA-ti-HAA|| Where both the loss of post-consonantal ʔ in tarā and the retention in al-ʔarʔāmi are necessary to function in the meter within the same verse. Why would Pre-Islamic Arabic already have incorporated this "Hijazism", and so irregularly?
Whatever is going on exactly, it is clear that a certain amount of variation could be allowed without ruining the meter, while still giving rise to a realistic-looking dialect of Arabic.
Pronominal suffixes
A place where we can actually see dialectal variation in the Pre-Islamic poetry is in the Pronominal suffixes. The third singular and plural masculine suffixes in Classical Arabic have the following shapes:
3sg.m. -hu after a heavy syllable, -hū after a light syllable; Harmonizing to -hi and -hī after i/ī/ay
3pl.m. -hum (harmonizing to -him after i/ī/ay) which becomes humu before a CC cluster.
One point of variation which we would, of course, never be able to see is whether the poem originally had the vowel harmonization as we find in Classical Arabic today.
In several of the Quranic reading traditions the treatment of both pronouns, however, is different. Here the 3sg.m. is invariably long -hū and the 3pl.m. invariably has a long vowel -ū a tthe end: -humū/-himū.
It the Muʕallaqat imruʔu l-Qays, it seems that the -hū was always long:
L H X | L H H H | L H X | L H L X ||
yu-ḌII-ʔu | sa-NAA-HUU ʔAW | ma-ṢAA-BII-|-ḥu RAA-hi-BIN||
ʔi-ḎAA ǦAA-|-ša FII-HII ḤAM-|-yu-HUU ĠAL-|-yu MIR-ǧa-LII||
But the Muʕallaqat Ṭarafah requires us to read the pronominal suffix as -hu after a heavy syllable as in classical Arabic:
|la-KAṬ-ṭi-|wa-LIL-MUR-XAA | wa-ṮIN-YAA-|-hu BIL-ya-di||
|ḥi-QAA-FAY-|-hi ŠUK-KAA FII L-|-ʕa-SII-bi | bi-MIS-ra-di||
Both of these Muʕallaqahs however seem to simply have -hum for the 3pl.m. as can be seen in this line that both Muʕallaqahs share:
wu-QUU-FAN | bi-HAA ṢAḤ-BII | ʕa-LAY-ya | ma-ṬII-ya-HUM||
This is not a combination that occurs in the Quranic reading traditions, where any tradition that has invariably long 3sg.m. also has humū, but it is of course not a form that could impossibly exist. Not however that the only -hum form attested in Muʕallaqat imruʔu l-Qays is this one, which occurs at the mid-verse point. This may have triggered a pausal variant.
Case System
While a tripartite case-system is absolutely necessary to make sense of the rhyme in the Pre-islamic poetry, this does not mean that the case-system was identical to Classical Arabic.
In the Modern Yemeni dialects of the Tihāmah, nouns that originally had nunation -i.e. Indefinite nouns- now have a suffix -ū, e.g. bētū 'a house' but im-bēt 'the house'. This is presumably the result of a shift of word-final *vn > vv. As this would have no metrical effects, such a development could have easily taken place within any of the Pre-Islamic poems, while this is no longer visible. A Pre-Islamic poem could have had a system very similar to the Tihāmī dialect, without us ever being the wiser:
*al-baytu/i/a
*baytū/ī/ā
And in fact, the fact that baytū/baytī/baytā is exactly the shape that these words take on in pause in the poetry as it is read today, might be a reason to consider that such a system existed, in the Pre-Islamic Period.
Vowel Quality
In Classical Arabic orthography there is a difference between final weak verbs with a final radical *y and a final radical *w, e.g. بنى <bny> banā and دعا <dʕʔ> daʕā. This can reasonably be argued to go back to an ancient phonemic distinction between final /ē/ and final /ā/, and this is in fact what some reading traditions of the Quran have (e.g. Warš ʕan Nāfiʕ). While later poetry does rhyme these indiscriminately, whenever it is not part of the rhyme syllable, it is impossible to tell whether this distinction was present. It is nevertheless today read indiscriminately in all environments.
The same is true for words like al-miqrāh ''campsite" which come from *al-miqrayatu. Words of this type are likewise pronounced with an ē vowel in the reading traditions.
Conclusion
It seems unlikely that the ʕarabiyyah was as it is presented in the post-islamic collections of Pre-Islamic poetry. If we accept that the linguistic variation that we find in the reading traditions of the Quran are indeed shades of varieties of a somewhat diverse Poetic Koine, then we would expect such forms to be equally dominant in the poetry. But they are not.
If we accept that the pre-Islamic poetry was accurately transmitted we would have to conclude that the only reading tradition that is actually in the ʕarabiyyah is that of Ḥafṣ ʕan ʕāsim. This seems to me a problematic conclusion with no explanation why that would be the case.
In this post I've speculated what kind of variation would be allowed without it breaking the metre or case vowel system. My impression is that nobody has seriously looked at understanding metrical irregularities or morphological idiosyncracies in the Pre-Islamic poetry to understand if there is any linguistic variation in the corpus; By not looking at this, the assumption that the Poetic Koine was linguistically unified is completely circular.
This is not to say that it is not ultimately true that there was a Poetic Koine, or something close to it. But, relying on the classical narrative as presented by Arab scholars who collected the texts several centuries after their composition (accepting that that part of the narrative to be trusted) just is not good enough. As it stands, I would say the existence of a Poetic Koine is unproven independently from the Arab tradition. A careful reading of the pre-islamic poetry, could shed light into this issue.
Are there any works that have seriously looked at the linguistic motivations for metrical irregularities etc.? I'm not aware of any, but would love to hear it!
To close off, let me share something cool. In Muʕallaqat imruʔu l-Qays there are quite a few irregularities in the metre one of these is found here:
wa-ʔIN-na šiFAAʔII ʕABraTUN MUHRAAqaTUN
that is:
LHL|LHHH|LHH|HLH||
The last section SHOULD be LHLH, but a syllable is missing. If we assume that the Ghawa-syndrome operated in this verse; that is: an epenthetic a is added after a Guttural+Consonant cluster, this verse becomes metrically regular:
wa-ʔIN-na šiFAAʔII ʕABraTUN muhaRAAqaTUN
[1] One could take the absence of the ʕarabiyyah in the epigraphic record as an argument in favour of an oral high poetic register, much in the same way as Epic Greek must have been that at some point. However, it is of course an argument from silence.
[2] Me and Ahmad Al-Jallad address the highly problematic nature of this "Provocative Solution" in the second appendix of this article.The Republican outreach to women is “awful” not only because they don’t let women speak for themselves—using instead canned and contrived ads where women awkwardly parrot consultant talking points—but because they don’t seem to understand which voters they actually need to reach.
Bill Scher, in a recent post at Real Clear Politics, has done something many Republicans have failed to do: he admits the Left is using an effective “war on women” ploy. GOP consultants and pundits often diss this strategy, not just because it’s admittedly and irritatingly absurd, but because of polls that show most Americans see the war on women as a “political tactic.” They also point to elections in which conservative candidates get a majority of the women’s vote (albeit a majority of “married women’s” vote).
The problem with these analyses is that, even in the Rasmussen poll, more women still think the war on women is real compared to men, and the poll doesn’t break down the women into single and married. It’s likely single women think the war is more real than their married counterparts—as indicated by the higher number of young people who think the war on women is real. This is also true of elections, where an overwhelming majority of single women vote for Democrats (Obama got 68 percent of the single women’s vote in 2012), and they are usually highly motivated by the war on women.
In other words, the war on women is real to single women—and they’re the ones making a difference in tight races as they’re specifically targeted by Democrat candidates, especially in last-minute get-out-the-vote efforts. They’re also the fastest-growing demographic in America.
The War on Single Women
It would help the GOP and doubting pundits to realize that the war on women is really the “war on single women.” Only by grasping this reality will the GOP develop an effective outreach. But it doesn’t stop there: single women voters are not a monolithic group. They’re not all alike, and they can’t be treated the same. They have different values, and they’re affected by issues in different ways—and the GOP needs to figure out which of these single ladies they can actually persuade to vote for Republican candidates.
The GOP needs to figure out which of these single ladies they can actually persuade to vote for Republican candidates.
With these women in mind, they need to focus, hone their message, rebuild trust, be authentic, reflect strength in their advocacy of conservative principles, and communicate those principles in a convincing and compassionate way.
As you will see from my analysis below, this narrows the target voting audience to a rather small group (or groups) compared to the wide net of all women or even just single women in general. Some might question whether it is even worthwhile to focus advertising on such a small group. The answer is an emphatic yes. When you are in a tight race, every vote matters, and if you can persuade a group of swing voters to break for the GOP, you will win. Also, even when you are focusing on one group of women, a well-fashioned ad will also appeal to the GOP base of married women voters and motivate them to show up to the polls as well.
This Isn’t Identity Politics
Before I continue, I want to make it clear that when I am talking about communicating to a specific group, I am not talking about pandering or identity politics or tailoring policy to meet the desires of a faction (God forbid!). I am talking about wisely crafting a message and talking to voters in a relevant and meaningful way that will convince them to vote for the GOP and conservative principles—principles that will get our country back on track.
I am not talking about pandering or identity politics or tailoring policy to |
inaction, or worse.
Sam Bahour is a policy adviser to Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network; Chairman of Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy; Co-editor of HOMELAND: Oral History of Palestine and Palestinians (Olive Branch Press). He writes at www.epalestine.com. @SamBahour
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Photo: File photo of an Israeli drone (AFP)Rodents at Kadena commissary part of larger infestation, DeCA official says
Photos posted last week to an Okinawa Facebook group popular with servicemembers show a rodent perched atop a soda display at the Kadena Air Base commissary.
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa – Kadena Air Base’s commissary is using traps, inspections and preventative measures to combat a rodent problem, Defense Commissary Agency officials said Tuesday.
The issue arose late last week after photos appeared on social media showing a rodent inside the store. The images caused a stir around the island, which is home to about 30,000 U.S. troops.
DeCA officials said the base’s pest-control department is looking into the matter, and the agency is doing its best to ensure food safety.
“We are aware of the problem at the Kadena Air Base Commissary, and store management is working with base entomology to address the problem,” DeCA spokeswoman Nancy O’Nell wrote in a statement to Stars and Stripes. The rodents are part of a larger infestation in areas and buildings surrounding the commissary, she said.
“More than any other time of year, winter is a period when rodents take refuge inside of buildings … [DeCA] has high standards for food safety and we take any threats to the safety of our products in the commissary seriously. Keeping the food we sell safe is our most important mission.”
Each commissary has a sanitation coordinator who manages food-safety efforts and a strict sanitation protocol, O’Nell said. U.S. Army Veterinary Command or Air Force Public Health inspectors also make unannounced visits and inspections.
Army Lt. Col. Alisa Wilma, DeCA’s director of public health and safety, was scheduled to visit to Kadena’s commissary this week.
burke.matt@stripes.comThe First Tornado Ever Photographed in North Dakota
I ran across this photo while I was perusing the photos at the Library of Congress and I was totally blown away. Clinton Johnson took this photo, captioned “North Dakota Cyclone,” in an unknown North Dakota town in 1895, just six years after North Dakota statehood. It appears to depict a menacing tornado bearing down on a North Dakota town. If you look closely, you can see some people standing around, watching, proving that even in the 1800s, people were gawkers. Farmer A.A. Adams took the first ever photo of a tornado in Kansas in 1884, a feat which was overshadowed by another tornado photograph taken a few months later in South Dakota.
I believe this is the first photograph ever taken of a tornado in North Dakota. You can read about the 1957 Fargo F5 tornado in Fargo Moorhead Lost and Found.
We’re posting this photo here because a) it’s super cool, and b) there is a (very) slim chance that we might be able to identify this location. Mr. Johnson also appears to have also been one of the photographers who covered the San Francisco Earthquake in 1906.
Do you know anymore about photographer Clinton Johnson or the location of this photograph? Please leave a comment.
Facebook no longer shows Ghosts of North Dakota's posts to the majority of our followers, so the best way to make sure you see our newest posts is to subscribe to our email list. We'll only email you when we have new content. Get notified! Join 5,559 other subscribers Leave this field empty if you're human:Fatima Noor, a Somalian refugee, was was sworn in as special assistant to the Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in 2014. When hearing her story in her own words, one would see the beauty in being hired into such a position:
“I was born in Somalia, but mostly what I remember are flashes of a carefree child, happily unaware of the world beyond the Utanga Refugee Camp in Kenya. About half a mile from ourUNHCR-issued blue tent was the fence that surrounded the camp. Beyond the fence was an endless blue horizon of ocean.
But soon, due to a combination of wildfires and overpopulation, our camp was ordered to shut down. My family, like many others, faced tough decisions. One was whether to return to Somalia in the height of civil war. Another was whether to send their small child — me — to live with a relative in a far-off land in hopes of better opportunities.
On our last day at the camp, I watched my parents and brother sail off in one of the colorful boats shuttling the many faces — men, women, and children — who once inhabited this camp, back to Somalia.
In the early 2000s, my father made his way out of Somalia, alone. He came to the United States as a refugee. He lived in Texas, but driving trucks gave him the opportunity to explore America’s frontiers: from the snowy Northwest to the humid Southeast. He decided to settle in the latter, and started the paperwork to bring my mother and brothers from Somalia and me from Denmark.
In 2005, my whole family reunited in our new home: Memphis, Tennessee. We soon adapted to Southern living (and yummy Memphis barbecue). We bought a house down by the Mississippi River. My brother even attended the same middle school as Elvis Presley. I graduated from the University of Memphis.”
As of June 2015, it appears that Noor has moved on and is now described as a Policy Analyst for Immigration and Rural Affairs. As a community, we are proud of Noor’s courage and can’t wait to see where she will go next.U.S. Rep. Rand Paul (R-KY) speaks outside the White House after President Barack Obama announced the first five "Promise Zones," as a way to create jobs, in Washington January 9, 2014. REUTERS/Larry Downing
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Rand Paul on Sunday offered an way out of criticism that the Republican Party is waging a war on women: the women are ahead.
“You know, the whole thing of the war on women. I sort of laughingly say, ‘yes, there might have been, but the women are winning it,’” Paul, a possible contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Paul was asked to comment on remarks that former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made to the Republican National Committee last week, in which he urged Republicans to argue that women are not “weaklings” who rely on government for help, including contraceptives to “control their libido.”
Rand called Democratic criticism that Republicans are waging a “war on women” a charade that does not lead to good policy.
“I’ve seen the women in my family and how well they’re doing,” Rand said, citing women in medical and law schools. “I think women are doing very well and I’m proud of how well we’ve come and how far we’ve come, and I think that some of the victimology and all this other stuff is trumped up.”Lexus SUV startles with bold Darth Vader look
The look is bold and aggressive, and not what you'd expect from Lexus. (Photo11: Lexus)
All we can say is "wow." This is quite a concept from a place you might not expect it: Lexus.
Toyota's luxury division departs from its soft styling with this concept, the LF-NX, which it will show at the Frankfurt Motor Show in a few days. It's bold and angular. The nose alone takes the "spindle grille" styling of today's Lexi to an extreme.
It's supposedly interesting on the inside, too, with a variation on the hybrid drive system in Lexuses that are more tuned to crossover SUVs.
Lexus designers were trying to get across the look of a vehicle that had been carved from a single hunk of metal.
This could be one of the hits of the Frankfurt show.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/17AU192The evidence has been in place for some years to show that low calorie diets can reverse type 2 diabetes even in comparatively late stages. For the vast majority of patients, this is a disease of choice: they chose to become fat enough to suffer sufficient metabolic disruption to produce the condition, as well as to accelerate the aging process, and they choose to remain fat enough to maintain this level of damage. Yes, eating less and exercising more is harder than it used to be, in this environment of low-cost calories, comfort, and convenience, but "harder" is not "I have no choice in this."
A body of research putting people with type 2 diabetes on a low calorie diet has confirmed the underlying causes of the condition and established that it is reversible. Research has revealed that for people with type 2 diabetes: (a) excess calories leads to excess fat in the liver; (b) as a result, the liver responds poorly to insulin and produces too much glucose; (c) excess fat in the liver is passed on to the pancreas, causing the insulin producing cells to fail; (d) losing less than 1 gram of fat from the pancreas through diet can re-start the normal production of insulin, reversing type 2 diabetes; (e) this reversal of diabetes remains possible for at least 10 years after the onset of the condition.
"I think the real importance of this work is for the patients themselves. Many have described to me how embarking on the low calorie diet has been the only option to prevent what they thought - or had been told - was an inevitable decline into further medication and further ill health because of their diabetes. By studying the underlying mechanisms we have been able to demonstrate the simplicity of type 2 diabetes." A body of research now confirms the Twin Cycle Hypothesis - that Type 2 diabetes is caused by excess fat actually within both liver and pancreas. This causes the liver to respond poorly to insulin. As insulin controls the normal process of making glucose, the liver then produces too much glucose. Simultaneously, excess fat in the liver increases the normal process of export of fat to all tissues. In the pancreas, this excess fat causes the insulin producing cells to fail.
The Counterpoint study, which was published in 2011, confirmed that if excess food intake was sharply decreased through a very low calorie diet, all these abnormal factors would be reversed. The study showed a profound fall in liver fat content resulting in normalisation of hepatic insulin sensitivity within 7 days of starting a very low calorie diet in people with type 2 diabetes. Fasting plasma glucose became normal in 7 days. Over 8 weeks, the raised pancreas fat content fell and normal first phase insulin secretion became re-established, with normal plasma glucose control. "The good news for people with Type 2 diabetes is that our work shows that even if you have had the condition for 10 years, you are likely to be able to reverse it by moving that all-important tiny amount of fat out of the pancreas. At present, this can only be done through substantial weight loss." The Counterbalance study published in 2016, demonstrated that type 2 diabetes remains reversible for up to 10 years in most people, and also that the normal metabolism persists long term, as long as the person doesn't regain the weight.Instant Pot Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes
May 22, 2017 by foodyschmoody
Instant Pot Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes – Never did I think that meatloaf and mashed potatoes could be a one pot meal, but here it is. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes, cooked at the same time, in the same pot.
This post contains affiliate links.
You are not reading the title wrong. It’s correct. Yep, all in one pot, at the same time. I couldn’t believe it either.
Meatloaf is something that even my kids will eat. Well, two out of three. Majority rules here in my house. If the majority will eat it, I make it on the regular. For the record, there are not many recipes that fall into this category. Some of the recipes that have made it into kid approved status are Taco Meatloaf, Taco Pasta, Chicken Broccoli Ziti and Instant Pot Mac & Cheese.
The problem I have is, once the warmer weather comes, I don’t like having my oven on for upwards of an hour.
The answer is simple. The trusty Instant Pot.
I know it probably seems like I’ve been shoving this Instant Pot down your throats lately. I know. I am a little guilty, but the reality is, I’m using it pretty much on a daily basis.
Take my advice or don’t but just know, life with an Instant Pot is an easier life. Schpeel officially over.
Okay, so here’s how I did it.
First, I mixed together my meatloaf ingredients and wrapped it in foil. Next, I quartered a few potatoes and placed them on the trivet that came with my Instant Pot, over 1 cup of water. Then, I put my foil wrapped meatloaf on top of the potatoes and set my timer.
After 35 minutes cooking time, I did a quick release. I removed the meatloaf and poured out most of the water and ditched the trivet. I set my pot to saute for a minute or two to get the excess water out of my potatoes. I then mashed them right in the Instant Pot with butter, heavy cream, salt and pepper.
As a finishing touch, I brushed a little steak sauce over the top. That is optional though.
Done.
4.75 from 4 votes Print Instant Pot Meatloaf & Mashed Potatoes Ingredients For Meatloaf 2 eggs
3/4 C breadcrumbs, seasoned
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly cracked
1 tsp salt, kosher
1.5 lb ground beef
Optional: 1/4 C shaved and chopped carrot For Mashed Potatoes 4-5 medium potatoes, quartered
1/4 C heavy cream, warmed
4 T butter
Salt and pepper to taste Instructions In a bowl, stir together eggs, breadcrumbs, garlic, salt, pepper, carrot (if using). With hands, mix ground beef into mixture. Form into a loaf shape. Wrap in foil. Set aside. Place 1 C water in bottom of Instant Pot. Place trivet (that came with IP) in Instant Pot and pile potatoes on top of trivet. Transfer foil-wrapped meatloaf into Instant Pot, resting on the potatoes. Cover pot and set to sealing. Using manual button, set timer to 35 minutes. When timer is finished, use quick release. Remove meatloaf and set aside. Pour out water and remove trivet, keeping potatoes in the Instant Pot. Set to saute and begin to mash potatoes. Add butter, cream, salt and pepper and continue to mash and stir until smooth. If desired, brush meatloaf with BBQ sauce, Steak Sauce or similar before serving. Recipe Notes Optional: Prior to cooking meatloaf, brush with BBQ sauce, Ketchup, Chili Sauce or Steak Sauce. Garnish potatoes with green onions.
Per my husband’s taste preference, I brushed my Instant Pot Meatloaf with a bit of steak sauce after it was cooked. However, you can “glaze” your meatloaf prior to cooking with BBQ sauce, chili sauce, ketchup, steak sauce or sauce of your preference prior to cooking as well.
The owner of this website is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon properties including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com.The idea was simple: David and Sarah Altman planned to buy a large lot with a deteriorating house, tear it down and build something new. Something modern.
As is often the case, however, money got in the way. Building a new house turned out to be prohibitively expensive, so the Altmans settled for the next best thing: remodeling something old. And when you live in Portland, Ore., as they do, and you’re looking for an old house, there are lots to choose from.
In the residential neighborhoods surrounding downtown, you’ll see many historic architectural styles — Craftsman, Victorian, Queen Anne — but perhaps none more plentiful than the American Foursquare, named for the four large rooms typically found on each floor. With its plain lines, the style was a reaction to the excesses of late-19th-century architecture and was popular here in the early decades of the 20th century. For a couple enamored of modernism, it seemed like a good choice.
The 1910 Foursquare house in the Richmond neighborhood that the Altmans bought in 2013, for $420,000, had three bedrooms and 2,400 square feet of interior space. Their plan was to do “a light remodel,” said Ms. Altman, 48, who owns a corporate executive sales training company. They initially intended to sell it to fund a brand-new house of their dreams, but they later reconsidered.Say the words “0.95 aperture” to a Micro Four Thirds user and their ears will certainly prick up. The main benefit of a lens with an aperture this fast is of course the extra shallow depth of field, which is more difficult to achieve with a Micro Four Thirds sensor than with a larger sensor.
The manufacturers that have stepped in and created some very fast manual focus lenses for Micro Four Thirds include Voigtlander with its f/0.95 Nokton series, SLR Magic with its Hyperprime range, and ZY Optics, the creators of the Speedmaster series which comprises both f/0.95 and f/1.2 aperture primes.
The latest f/0.95 prime from ZY Optics is also the world’s lightest. The Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 weighs just 230 grams and is just a little larger than most small Micro Four Thirds primes from Olympus and Panasonic. And, as with most ZY Optics lenses, it comes with a very attractive price tag.
This actually isn’t the first time we’ve reviewed a ZY Optics lens. You may recall that we had the chance to review the Speedmaster 24mm f/1.7 and 42.5mm f/1.2 back in late 2014. While the 42.5mm was interesting for stills and video use thanks to its pleasant bokeh rendering and acceptable sharpness, the 24mm presented quite a few speed bumps including a lack of sharpness at most apertures, barrel distortion and lens flare.
So, what about the Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95? Is it a worthwhile investment for those who crave some extra shallow depth of field in their images? Let’s find out!
For this review, we used the Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 on both the Panasonic Lumix GX8 and Olympus OM-D E-M1.
Zhongyi Mitakon 25mm f/0.95 Main Specs
Full name: Zhongyi Mitakon 25mm f/0.95
Zhongyi Mitakon 25mm f/0.95 Lens type: Manual lens
Manual lens Max format size: M43
M43 Focal length: 25mm
25mm Lens mount: M43
M43 Maximum aperture: F0.95
F0.95 Minimum aperture: F16.0
F16.0 Aperture ring: Yes
Yes Number of diaphragm blades: 11
11 Elements: 11
11 Groups: 9
9 Focus: Minimum focus 0.25 m
Minimum focus 0.25 m Distance scale: Yes
Yes Physical Weight: 230 g
230 g Diameter: 60 mm
60 mm Length: 55 mm (with caps), 45mm (without caps)
55 mm (with caps), 45mm (without caps) Colour: Black
Black Zoom method: Rotary
Rotary Filter thread: 43 mm
Design, Build and Ease of Use
The most notable physical features of the Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95 are its size and weight. Despite being a f/0.95 prime, the lens is only 230 grams in weight and 45mm in length without the lens cap. The size and weight make it a good match for all Micro Four Thirds cameras.*
In addition to a solid all-metal build, the lens comprises an 11 blade diaphragm and an optical design of 11 elements in 9 groups with one extra-low dispersion element, four extra-high refractive index elements and two high refractive index elements.
The ribbed focus ring is smooth and pleasant enough to use but can be slightly inaccurate when you really want to fine-tune the focus. It is flanked by a well-marked depth of field scale, which is a useful addition for street photographers who zone focus.
The de-clicked aperture ring is also well-marked but the values between f/8 and f/16 are too close to one another. I also found that it turns too freely. More than once, I accidentally brushed against the lens only to discover my aperture value had changed completely. It is, however, very useful for video.
When you shift the focus from infinity to the minimum focus distance of 0.25m, you’ll notice that the lens extends about a centimetre outwards. This is because the lens doesn’t have an internal focus mechanism. It also features a non-rotating 43mm filter thread.
* Note about compatibility
ZY Optics has stated that the 25mm f/0.95 will not work with Micro Four Thirds models that feature a ladder-like internal structure around the sensor. These include the Pen E-PL6, E-PL5, E-PM2 and the original E-M5. See the ZY Optics website for more details.
Sharpness – Is the 0.95 aperture worth using?
Anyone interested in buying this lens certainly has their eye on the 0.95 aperture. Why? Because an aperture this fast on a Micro Four Thirds camera can give you something similar to a full-frame look thanks to the extra shallow depth of field.
The good news is that, at close range, the lens is already quite sharp at the centre at f/0.95 and continues to grow sharper up until f/2.8 where it reaches its peak performance. The lens remains reasonably sharp up until f/8, at which point diffraction starts to set in. Corner sharpness is quite poor at all apertures except f/8, f/11 and f/16 but this is less of a concern for close-up work where out-of-focus edges can actually contribute to the artistic look of an image.
For subjects at a greater distance, centre sharpness tends to peak between f/4 and f/5.6 but f/8 and f/11 are still quite useable. Corner sharpness peaks between f/8 and f/11 and grows progressively worse as you open the aperture. Given the reasonable sharpness at the slower apertures, you can safely use this lens even for street or landscape work.
Overall, I was surprised by the sharpness of this lens. It isn’t on the same level as an equivalent prime from Olympus or Panasonic but since neither company has produced a prime with a 0.95 aperture, the Mitakon is a feasible alternative.
To see a full series of images taken at the various apertures, you can check out our dedicated SmugMug gallery. Also be sure to check out the following image samples by Richard Wong.
You can see some High Res images taken at the most important apertures here:
0.95 | 2.8 | 5.6 | 8
Bokeh – A subjective topic
Let me start by saying that, much like fine art, bokeh is very subjective. While one person might love a smooth buttery rendering, another might crave the artistic effect of swirly harsh lines.
In the case of the 25mm, I find the bokeh pleasant with the right background, especially if there are elements far off in the distance. Some good examples can be seen from our trip to the Cregennan Lakes.
To achieve a nice bokeh, it also helps to focus as close as possible to your subject. Since the 25mm has a minimum focus distance of 25cm, there are lots of possibilities for creative compositions.
In other cases, the bokeh reveals its imperfections. Signs of “Nisen” bokeh (when out of focus lines appear as a series of dark and light lines) and aspherical specular highlights with harsh edges can give the bokeh a nervous appearance. On the bright side, there isn’t any sign of the “onion ring” effect you sometimes see in specular highlights.
Personally speaking, I don’t mind the bokeh and feel that it is one of the lens’ stronger points. But then, I’m also a fan of Picasso and Van Gogh! 🙂
Flare – Both a nuisance and an artistic tool
According to the ZY Optics website, the lens has “optimised lens coatings also help to suppress lens flare and ghosting.” Unfortunately, the results I achieved would suggest that these coatings don’t work as well as they should.
About flare
We shared some of our images with ZY Optics as we were somewhat concerned about the lens flare issue. The company told us that they are aware of the issue and will improve the performance in mass production.
Flare is present in nearly every image where the sun’s rays enter the frame, though the appearance of the flare varies according to your position with respect to the sun.
When the sun is in the centre of your frame, you get a mix of veiling and ghosting flare with polygonal artefacts of varying colours. When it is off to the side, sensor and ghosting flare dominate the scene.
While there is no question that the 25mm f/0.95 could benefit from a lens hood, a second option is to use your hand to block the sun from your frame as I did for the image below.
Of course you can always use lens flare to create an artistic composition. In the example below, the pinkish flare actually accentuates the pink in the heather on the hills.
Another issue that can occur at any aperture beyond f/2, but is most noticeable from f/8 onward, is the well-documented “hot spot” also seen on the likes of the Nikon 50mm f/1.8D. It appears as a magenta spot in the centre of the image and is caused by light bouncing between the sensor and the rear element. It is much more evident in scenes with dark tones. Sadly, no amount of shading the lens from the sun’s rays will remove the spot. For that, you’ll have to rely on the magic of post production.
This hot spot is probably the one aspect that lets the lens down more than anything else. It would be less problematic if it were only present at f/16, as you’d be unlikely to use the slowest aperture that often anyway due to diffraction, but the fact that it appears even at f/2.8 in some cases is disappointing. To avoid having the hot spot in your images, you have to constantly be aware of where the sun is positioned in your frame.
Vignetting, Chromatic Aberration and Distortion
Though some slight vignetting is present up until f/5.6, it is hardly visible. Chromatic aberration in the form of purple fringing appears at varying degrees of severity between f/0.95 and f/8 and disappears by f/11.
The lens also yields some slight barrel distortion, particularly at close distances. All these issues can easily be corrected in post-production software programs like Lightroom.
What about low-light performance?
For low-light shooting, the 25mm f/0.95 proved an excellent companion. On a pitch black night with very little ambient light from the street lamps, I was able to keep my shutter speed to 1/50 on the stabilised GX8 and my ISO value to 800 by using the fastest aperture for both close-ups and wider shots. Once again, I found the overall sharpness more than acceptable.
Bear in mind that, just as in daylight, you might notice that artificial lights at night produce some invasive flares.
Video
As I mentioned above, the de-clicked aperture is a useful feature for video. Below you can find a quick compilation of video shots I took in the town of New Quay.
Mitakon 25mm f/0.95 vs. Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95
Now, the question I’m sure many of you are asking is: how does the Mitakon 25mm f/0.95 compare to the Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95? Unfortunately, a direct comparison wasn’t possible because I didn’t have both lenses with me at the same time but after reviewing the images from our hands-on review from two years ago, I would conclude that the Mitakon is marginally sharper at the fastest aperture. It is also much lighter, smaller and cheaper than the Voigtlander equivalent, though the latter has recently come down in price.
The Voigtlander does have quite a few points in its favour, however. The out-of-focus rendering is (in my opinion) softer and more pleasant to look at, it focusses closer (17cm vs 25cm) and the lens markings are more well-spaced. It doesn’t seem to suffer as much from flare, which is also helped by the lens hood, and chromatic aberration doesn’t seem as rife. Most importantly, we never encountered the “hot spot” issue that is so pervasive in images taken with the Mitakon.
Conclusion
If you’ve scrolled through this review and baulked at every flaw I’ve mentioned, I think you know what I’m going to say: this lens is not for you. In order to enjoy using a lens like this, you have to be willing to accept some compromises. In exchange for a very decent 0.95 aperture that delivers even at close range and good overall sharpness, you have to deal with issues such as flare, hot spots, chromatic aberration, and mild distortion.
Thankfully, a couple of these issues can easily be resolved in post production, but there are a few that you’ll either have to accept (a bokeh that can sometimes be nervous) or try to avoid (positioning yourself so flares don’t appear). While ZY Optics has vowed to improve the flare issue by the time the lens reaches mass production, I believe the more pressing issue is the dreaded “hot spot” which, unlike standard flares, appears in certain conditions even if you shade the lens with your hand.
Then there is the price. Given that most 0.95 lenses cost at least $1000, you could easily call the Mitakon a “steal” at $399. But the fact that it is relatively more affordable than other 0.95 lenses doesn’t stop it from taking a large chunk out of your bank account.
What I like about the Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95
Light, compact and solid with an all-metal build
Surprisingly good sharpness even at 0.95
Has a useful minimum focus distance of 25cm which works well with the fastest apertures
A good low-light companion especially when paired with stabilised cameras like the E-M1 or GX8
Not at lot of vignetting at the fastest apertures
The most affordable 0.95 prime on the market
What I don’t like about the Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95New Delhi: India and Russia are likely to ink a key deal for the joint development of a BrahMos'mini missile' during the visit of Russian President Vladmir Putin later this week.
Official sources said that a tripartite agreement n this regard is likely to be signed between DRDO, NPOM lab of Russia and BrahMos Aerospace.
The new missile will have a speed of Mach 3.5 and can carry a payload of 300-kg up to a range of 290-km. In terms of size, it will be about half that of the present missile, which is around 10-metres long.
The missile can be integrated with different platforms, including submarines and the Fifth-Generation Fighter Aircraft.
Putin will land here on December 10 and fly out within 24 hours.
BrahMos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint venture firm set up in 1998, feels that the new missile would be inducted into the services by 2017 and there would be a huge market in India, Russia and friendly foreign countries.
The BrahMos missile can be launched through land, air, ships and submarines.
While the Army and Navy have already started inducting land and sea-based Brahmos missile systems, the air launch variant is set for trials soon.
India had last year successfully carried out the maiden test firing of the over 290 km-range submarine-launched version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in the Bay of Bengal, becoming the first country in the world to have this capability.
The BrahMos missile is fully ready for fitment in submarines in vertical launch configuration, which will make the platform one of the most powerful in the world.
PTI
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.Graham Priest interviewed by Richard Marshall.
Graham Priest is one of the giants of philosophical logic. He has written many books about this, including Doubt Truth to be a Liar, Towards Non-Being: the Logic and Metaphysics of Intentionality, Beyond the Limits of Thought, In Contradiction: A Study of the Transconsistent and Introduction to Non-Classical Logic. He can be found in Melbourne and New York, and sometimes in St. Andrews. His big theme is paraconsistency and dialetheism. He is also interested in Buddhism. He is very, very smart.
3:AM: You’re famous for denying that propositions have to be either true or false (and not both or neither) but before we get to that, can you start by saying how you became a philosopher? Were you always someone who had these questions about how we thought and how the world was, or was it something completely different that you got you into the rather strange world of philosophy?
Graham Priest: Well, I was trained as a mathematician. I wrote my doctorate on (classical) mathematical logic. So my introduction into philosophy was via logic and the philosophy of mathematics. But I suppose that I’ve always had an interest in philosophical matters. I was brought up as a Christian (not that I am one now). And even before I went to university I was interested in the philosophy of religion – though I had no idea that that was what it was called. Anyway, by the time I had finished my doctorate, I knew that philosophy was more fun than mathematics, and I was very fortunate to get a job in a philosophy department (at the University of St Andrews), teaching – of all things – the philosophy of science. In those days, I knew virtually nothing about philosophy and its history. So I have spent most of my academic life educating myself – usually by teaching things I knew nothing about; it’s a good way to learn! Knowing very little about the subject has, I think, been an advantage, though. I have been able to explore without many preconceptions. And I have felt free to engage with anything in philosophy that struck me as interesting.
3:AM: Now, you’re interested in the very basis of how we think. You are saying that assuming that every proposition has to be true or false (and not both or neither) is a mistake. So you are asking questions that are deeper than the ones about which is the best way of getting truth. But nevertheless, truth and rationality are targets of your arguments. Is that right? Could you say something about this?
GP: Well, first a clarification. I’m not interested in the way that people actually think (at least not professionally); that’s a matter for cognitive psychologists. Next, dialetheism (the view that some contradictions are true) does not imply any kind of relativism. I believe just as much as you do that when we ask questions there are true answers (in cases where there is a fact of the matter), and that there are some ways of trying to figure out what these are that are better than others. In that sense, neither truth nor rationality are targets of my work. As I argued in Doubt Truth to be a Liar, dialetheism is quite compatible with very orthodox views about truth and rationality. What my work does target is a certain mistaken claim about truth. Contrary to orthodoxy in Western philosophy, some claims are true and false, that is, they have a true negation. Nor is this irrational. Indeed it is arrived at in the most rational of ways: by seeing where the evidence and arguments about paradox, motion, the limits of thought, and so on, take us.
3:AM: So paraconsistent logic is a logic that tries to work out how we might formally understand treating some propositions as being both true and false at the same time. You argue that Aristotle’s the guy who defends the ‘law of non-contradiction’ and that his defence is suspect in various ways. So can you say what’s so wrong with thinking that a proposition, such as that expressed in a sentence like ‘the cat is on the mat,’ is either true or false and not both or neither. Can you give examples of how this works?
GP: The only significant and extended defence of the Principle of Non-Contradiction (PNC) in the history of western philosophy (that I am aware of, anyway) was by Aristotle in Metaphysics, Gamma; and indeed it is badly flawed. There is one major argument, and scholars cannot even agree on how it is suppose to work, let alone that it works. The other arguments are mostly beside the point, targeting the view that all contradictions are true, or that someone can believe that all contradictions are true.
Now, in the standard logic of our day, any contradiction entails everything. Thus, from ‘it is and it isn’t raining’, it follows (quite counter-intuitively) that you are frog. A paraconsistent logic is one where this principle of inference fails. |
(1.02)
Note: Numbers are means and (standard deviations). In general, a 2.0 indicates relatively weak or “somewhat disagree” attitudes, whereas 3.0 represents relatively higher or “somewhat agree” attitudes.
Do teachers’ perceptions of policy predict their coverage of standards?
After examining differences in how teachers perceive the attributes of their policy environment, we wanted to see how well these attributes predicted what teachers do in the classroom—specifically, whether teachers were more likely to cover instruction emphasized in their state’s standards.
In our predictive models, we wanted to account for several important factors that are likely related to teachers’ content coverage. Thus, we control for teacher experience (novice or not), and the following four classroom-level variables: percentage of high-achieving students, percentage of low-achieving students, percentage of students on IEPs, and percentage of ELLs.
Analytic approach
First, we report means for standards emphasized and standards de-emphasized content by grade level, subject, and state.
Second, we run a series of teacher-level regressions where the dependent variables are coverage indices for the emphasized content, and our focal predictors are the five policy attributes, controlling for the descriptive variables listed above. That is, we are examining whether teachers who report higher specificity, consistency, authority, power and stability in their policy environments are more likely to cover the content emphasized in their state’s standards.
To what extent are teachers teaching standards-aligned content?
Figures 1 and 2 show the mean teacher reports of coverage of the standards emphasized and de-emphasized content for elementary teachers and then high school teachers. Across states, grade levels, and subjects, responses range from 2.57 to 3.68 (recall 1=no coverage, 2=minor coverage, 3=moderate, and 4=major). From these figures, several patterns emerge.
First, teachers generally report covering the standards emphasized content regardless of state, grade, and subject. The mean coverage score is always greater than 3, ranging from 3.07 for secondary math teachers in Kentucky to 3.59 for secondary ELA teachers in Texas.
Third, there are some clear subject and grade-level patterns in the data. In elementary school, mathematics teachers report covering more emphasized content and less de-emphasized content—the pattern we might hope for. This is true for elementary mathematics in all three states, and in all three cases the differences are statistically significant. In contrast, elementary school ELA teachers report covering more de-emphasized content than emphasized content in all three states, though these differences are not statistically significant. In high school, the pattern is exactly opposite—mathematics teachers report covering more de-emphasized content and less emphasized content, while ELA teachers report covering more emphasized content and less de-emphasized content. Our findings were quite consistent across all three surveyed states.
Overall, the results of this analysis suggest that teachers believe they are covering the content emphasized in the standards. However, they also report covering the de-emphasized content, often just as much as they cover the emphasized content. There are some subjects, grades, and states where teachers seem to do better at emphasizing the content in the standards, especially in elementary mathematics, but this is not the norm.
Which policy attributes are related to teacher’s coverage of the standards?
Table 2 below shows which of the policy attributes significantly predict coverage of emphasized standards content.6 There were no similarities among predictors across states. Taken together, these results show a) quite weak relationships of policy with reported instruction within states (much weaker than has been found elsewhere), and b) differences across states in relationships between the attributes and content.7 Where there were nonzero results, they were more often in the expected positive direction than not.
In general, the results seem more supportive of policy predicting instruction in ELA than in mathematics. Even though statistical significance is modest, 14 of the 15 coefficients across the three states are greater than zero in ELA (as compared to just 9 of 15 in mathematics). Whether the policy attributes are more salient for teachers of ELA than mathematics is a worthwhile question for future investigation.
Table 2. Predictive model for emphasized content using the policy attributes for content coverage
State TX OH KY TX OH KY ELA Emph ELA Emph ELA Emph Math Emph Math Emph Math Emph Specificity 0.116*** -0.013 0.046 0.032 -0.035 0.065 Consistency 0.013 0.133* 0.110 0.054 -0.021 0.149 Authority 0.132** 0.093 0.067 -0.089 0.045 -0.128 Power 0.065 0.076 0.025 0.110 -0.066 0.112 Stability 0.017 0.048 0.030 -0.093* 0.063 0.056 N 201 144 165 180 118 111 R2 0.236 0.154 0.102 0.057 0.172 0.123
Standard errors in parentheses
p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001
Conclusion
The latest college- and career-readiness standards sought to encourage certain content effects on teachers’ instruction. We do not take a stance on whether these desired changes were “good;” we report whether they had the desired effect. We find that one aspect of the intended shift seems to have occurred—teachers are teaching content emphasized in the standards (though we cannot say they would not have been teaching this content if the standards did not exist). But, another part of the intended shift—moving away from certain content—has not occurred.8
The ability of teacher policy perceptions to predict instruction is limited. However, the ability of specificity and authority to predict emphasized instruction among Texas English Language Arts teachers is encouraging, as there may be something particular to Texas that explains the unique associations we see there. Texas has been a nonparticipant in many of the multi-state attempts at standards-based reform, yet it may be having more success.
Texas did not participate in Race to the Top or ascribe to the Common Core State Standards. Yet Texas teachers perceive policy to be more specific than teachers in the other two states, indicating they believe their districts provide more guidance on how to cover the standards. This distinction may be important for future policymakers to consider the efficacy of federally based or cross-state initiatives as opposed to state-based ones. Or, it may suggest that larger states simply have greater capacity for this time-intensive and expensive work.
We know that the standards will not matter much if they do not change what teachers teach. We found that teachers are covering content emphasized by their state’s new standards, but teachers are also still covering content not emphasized in the standards. This runs counter to the idea that teachers should focus their instructional efforts on the (already comprehensive) topics and skills in the grade-level standards. Overall, it seems clear that states and districts could provide more support in helping teachers move away from certain content, which we know from previous research is a challenge for teachers. Without these shifts, we cannot say that the policy has been well implemented, which makes it even more difficult to decide whether the standards have a chance to improve student outcomes.
The authors did not receive financial support from any firm or person with a financial or political interest in this article. They are currently not officers, directors, or board members of any organization with an interest in this article.Blink my lights when you visit this page Making keyboard lights blink when someone requests a page from my server 30 December 2016
One visualization I’ve always wanted is some elegant way to be notified whenever someone visited a website of mine. This past week, I was able to make that wish a reality by building software to make the lights on my laptop keyboard blink whenever someone makes an HTTP request to my server. Here’s what it looks like.
Note that I have two keyboards connected to my laptop to make the blinking more apparent in video form. Additionally, you can see the lights blink several times in the video without me making a request; those additional blinks are from requests made by other people.
tl;dr: I wrote a program that runs on my server to track HTTP requests, that program communicates over the internet to another program running on my laptop, and the program running on my laptop blinks the lights on my laptop keyboard when my server says “I got an HTTP request”. Read on for more details and source code.
Background
I seem to remember seeing projects in the past where people made lights blink when their site got a visitor, but right now I can’t seem to find any of those old projects. The only one I could find is this example by Dimitrios Vlastaras using an Arduino, and that required the computer running his HTTP server to be physically connected via USB to an Arduino which blinks its LED. That wouldn’t fly for me, since I use a rented server in a datacenter to serve my web pages, so I can’t physically access the server (so no plugging things into the server).
What I wanted
What I wanted was some way to get a notification (hopefully as simple as a blinking light) no matter where I am, and I want the notification to happen automatically. So I don’t want to have to actively “tune in” to get notifications; I want something that’s smart enough so that it’ll notify me automatically without much intervention. Additionally, I want these notifications to be “gentle”, gentler than an annoying beep or a vibration. Let’s write these requirements out a bit more formally:
Notifications on HTTP requests can happen remotely; I shouldn’t need to be nearby my web server or physically connected to it at all. The mechanism for notifications should be resilient and passive. I shouldn’t have to “turn on” a notification system, it should always be happening. The presentation of notifications should be tasteful and not overly jarring. No beeping sounds, no popup windows, no vibrating device.
These requirements are relatively vague and open ended, and that’s intentional. I could have implemented this notification system in any number of ways, and I’d thought of plenty. For example, a small patch of my desktop menu-bar could have changed colors when my server received an HTTP request. Certain requirements also exclude certain approaches; for example, I don’t want to make my phone buzz every time an HTTP request is received, as that would probably get annoying really fast.
Ultimately though, I opted for a program that makes the lights on my keyboard blink on and off when my web server receives an HTTP request. These indicator lights are already built to fit in the visibility niche I described above, where they don’t draw too much attention to themselves, but are still meant to provide information to the user.
However, I still had to figure out all the mechanisms for making the keyboard lights on my laptop blink when my server received an HTTP request.
How do I make the lights blink?
The very terse answer to that is: I make the lights blink by making the correct ioctl syscall to the Linux kernel which my laptop is running, and the Linux kernel knows how to turn those lights on and off, and does it for me.
Thankfully, you can ignore diving too far into that because I’ve created a Go package which provides a nice interface for making the keyboard lights of your computer blink. To make the keyboard lights blink, I import that package and call the Do method with a duration of my choosing, causing the lights on my keyboard to blink for that amount of time. Here’s an example Go program using my package that will make the keyboard lights blink on for one second:
package main import ( "time" "github.com/lelandbatey/blink" ) func main () { blink. Do ( 1 * time. Second ) }
Note that the above program will probably need to be run as root, since only root can make the necessary syscalls.
How does my laptop know when my server receives a request?
My laptop is able to know when my server receives a request because I’ve written software for the server to tell my laptop when it receives a request. Actually there’s two parts to this software, a server which runs on my server, and a client which runs on my laptop. How they work together:
My software on my server spawns a TCP server and watches the /var/log/apache2/ directory on my server for changes to files. Any changes to files within that directory will be changes to log files, the vast majority of which are changes to the access.log file which has a new line appended to the end of it whenever apache2 serves an HTTP request (since all HTTP traffic on my server is routed through apache2, every HTTP request to my server results in a modification to the access logs). Upon seeing a change to a file, my software will write a single special byte to all the clients who are connected to it via TCP.
The client software on my laptop connects to my server via TCP socket and waits for that special byte (I chose the null byte in this case) to be sent by the server. When the client on my laptop recieves the null byte, it blinks my keyboard lights.
Additionally, since my laptop is constantly being moved around, losing and regaining network conectivity, being opened and closed, I wanted my client to detect when it’s connection has failed so it may try to reconnect. To do this, I changed the server software so that it sends “heartbeat” bytes once every ten seconds, with the client expecting a least one byte (heartbeat or not) every ten seconds. If the client doesn’t recieve any data from the server for 10 seconds, then the client assumes that something’s gone wrong, closes the connection, and tries to reconnect.
The source of the client and server for making this work may be found here: https://github.com/lelandbatey/watchserver
Summary
I wrote some software to run on my server which monitors for new HTTP requests, that software then tells software on my laptop that a new request was served, so the software on my laptop blinks the lights.
Writing this software has been fun, and I want to give big props to the Go language for making it easy to build and reason about concurrent software, it made building this little project fun and easy!A $10 000 tweet sent the Doge4Water fundraising campaign over its $30 000 goal and set a new standard for the impact of 140 characters. An anonymous Dogecoin philanthropist used twitter to tip 14 million Dogecoin, worth more than $11,000.
Doge4Water started a fundraising campaign to help a clean water non-profit organization build projects around the world, such as its current drive to build two water wells in Eastern Kenya’s Tana River. The Doge4Water campaign benefits charity:water in celebration of World Water Day on March 22nd.
The surprise tweet sent shockwaves through the Dogecoin reddit community, which had already made more than 4,000 donations totalling 26 million Dogecoin (equivalent to more than $20,000).
“This was one of the more inventive campaigns we’ve seen,” said Paul Young, Director of Digital for charity:water. “The Doge4Water campaign started with a tweet, harnessed the powerful Reddit community passionate about Dogecoin, and then hit its aggressive goal with a tweet that triggered a donation of Dogecoin worth over $10,000. 100% of the funds raised by the Dogecoin community, once converted into US dollars, will be used to bring clean water to people in need in Kenya through our local partner Action Against Hunger. We’re thankful for the support of the Shibes of the Dogecoin community”.
The campaign was initiated by Eric Nakagawa, the co-founder of internet humor site ICanHasCheezburger and a member of the Dogecoin Foundation. Previous Dogecoin fundraisers have helped send the Jamaican bobsled team to the Sochi Olympics and funded service animals for children with disabilities.
“I’m really proud of the Dogecoin community for using the money they’ve made to change the lives of others instead of hoarding it,” said Dogecoin co-founder Jackson Palmer. “The first ever $10,000 tweet demonstrates the power of digital currency and social media to make the world a better place.”
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« MTN Mobile Money partners with Ecobank Read the fine print before signing ADSL contract »This article is about the man who survived an iron bar passing through his head. For the UK musical band, see Phinius Gage
brain injury survivor
Phineas P. Gage (1823–1860) was an American railroad construction foreman remembered for his improbable[B1]:19 survival of an accident in which a large iron rod was driven completely through his head, destroying much of his brain's left frontal lobe, and for that injury's reported effects on his personality and behavior over the remaining 12 years of his life—effects sufficiently profound (for a time at least) that friends saw him as "no longer Gage." [H]:14
Long known as the "American Crowbar Case"—once termed "the case which more than all others is calculated to excite our wonder, impair the value of prognosis, and even to subvert our physiological doctrines" [2]—Phineas Gage influenced 19th-century discussion about the mind and brain, particularly debate on cerebral localization, [M]:ch7-9[B] and was perhaps the first case to suggest the brain's role in determining personality, and that damage to specific parts of the brain might induce specific personality changes.
Gage is a fixture in the curricula of neurology, psychology, and neuroscience,[3][M7]:149 one of "the great medical curiosities of all time"[M8] and "a living part of the medical folklore" [R]:637 frequently mentioned in books and scientific papers;[M]:ch14 he even has a minor place in popular culture.[4] Despite this celebrity, the body of established fact about Gage and what he was like (whether before or after his injury) is small,[note 2] which has allowed "the fitting of almost any theory [desired] to the small number of facts we have" [M]:290—Gage acting as a "Rorschach inkblot" [5] in which proponents of various conflicting theories of the brain all saw support for their views. Historically, published accounts of Gage (including scientific ones) have almost always severely exaggerated and distorted his behavioral changes, frequently contradicting the known facts.
A report of Gage's physical and mental condition shortly before his death implies that his most serious mental changes were temporary, so that in later life he was far more functional, and socially far better adapted, than in the years immediately following his accident. A social recovery hypothesis suggests that his work as a stagecoach driver in Chile fostered this recovery by providing daily structure which allowed him to regain lost social and personal skills.
Life [ edit ]
Background [ edit ]
(a) Region of the accident site; (t) Gage's lodgings, to which he was taken after his injury; (h) Harlow's home and [note 3] Cavendish, Vermont, 20 years after Gage's accident:Region of the accident site;Gage's lodgings, to which he was taken after his injury;Harlow's home and surgery
Gage was the first of five children born to Jesse Eaton Gage and Hannah Trussell (Swetland) Gage of Grafton County, New Hampshire.[note 1] Little is known about his upbringing and education beyond that he was literate. [M]:17,41,90[M10]:643
Town doctor John Martyn Harlow described Gage as "a perfectly healthy, strong and active young man, twenty-five years of age, nervo-bilious temperament, five feet six inches [168 cm] in height, average weight one hundred and fifty pounds [68 kg], possessing an iron will as well as an iron frame; muscular system unusually well developed—having had scarcely a day's illness from his childhood to the date of [his] injury".[H]:4 (In the pseudoscience of phrenology, which was then just ending its vogue,[12] nervo-bilious denoted an unusual combination of "excitable and active mental powers" with "energy and strength [of] mind and body [making] possible the endurance of great mental and physical labor".) [M]:346-47[13]:6
Gage may have first worked with explosives on farms as a youth, or in nearby mines and quarries.[M]:17-18 He is known to have worked on construction of the Hudson River Railroad near Cortlandt Town, New York,[14][M10]:643 and by the time of his accident he was a blasting foreman (possibly an independent contractor) on railway construction projects.[M]:18-22,32n9 His employers' "most efficient and capable foreman... a shrewd, smart business man, very energetic and persistent in executing all his plans of operation",[H]:13-14 he had even commissioned a custom-made tamping iron—a large iron rod—for use in setting explosive charges. [B1]:5[M]:25
Accident [ edit ]
tamping Explosive charge ready for fuse to be lit.(sand) directs blast into surrounding rock.
[15] Gage's mouth was open at the moment of the explosion, and his skull temporarily "hinged" open as the iron passed through, then was pulled closed by the resilience of soft tissues once the iron had exited through the top of Gage's head.
Bring Me the Head of Phineas Gage, a portrayal of Gage in popular culture[16] Panel from, a portrayal of Gage in popular culture
On September 13, 1848, Gage was directing a work gang blasting rock while preparing the roadbed for the Rutland & Burlington Railroad south of the village of Cavendish, Vermont. Setting a blast entailed boring a hole deep into an outcrop of rock; adding blasting powder and a fuse; then using the tamping iron to pack ("tamp") sand, clay, or other inert material into the hole above the powder, in order to contain the blast's energy and direct it into surrounding rock.[note 3]
As Gage was doing this around 4:30 p.m., his attention was attracted by his men working behind him. Looking over his right shoulder, and inadvertently bringing his head into line with the blast hole, Gage opened his mouth to speak; in that same instant the tamping iron sparked against the rock and (possibly because the sand had been omitted) the powder exploded. Rocketed from the hole, the tamping iron—1 1⁄ 4 inches (3.2 cm) in diameter, three feet seven inches (1.1 m) long, and weighing 13 1⁄ 4 pounds (6.0 kg)—entered the left side of Gage's face in an upward direction, just forward of the angle of the lower jaw. Continuing upward outside the upper jaw and possibly fracturing the cheekbone, it passed behind the left eye, through the left side of the brain, then completely out the top of the skull through the frontal bone. [B1]:13-14[H]:5 [M]:25-29 [15] [17]
Despite 19th-century references to Gage as the "American Crowbar Case",[note 4] his tamping iron did not have the bend or claw sometimes associated with the term crowbar; rather, it was simply a pointed cylinder something like a javelin,[K] round and fairly smooth:[H]:5
The end which entered [Gage's cheek] first is pointed; the taper being [eleven inches (27 cm) long, ending in a 1⁄ 4 -inch (7 mm) point] [V]:17... circumstances to which the patient perhaps owes his life. The iron is unlike any other, and was made by a neighbouring blacksmith to please the fancy of the owner.[B1]:14
The tamping iron landed point-first some 80 feet (25 m) away,[M]:29[17][7] "smeared with blood and brain".[H]:5
Gage was thrown onto his back and gave some brief convulsions of the arms and legs, but spoke within a few minutes, walked with little assistance, and sat upright in an oxcart for the 3⁄ 4 -mile (1.2 km) ride to his lodgings in town.[H]:5 About 30 minutes after the accident physician Edward H. Williams, finding Gage sitting in a chair outside the hotel, was greeted with "one of the great understatements of medical history":[M5]:244
When I drove up he said, "Doctor, here is business enough for you." I first noticed the wound upon the head before I alighted from my carriage, the pulsations of the brain being very distinct. The top of the head appeared somewhat like an inverted funnel, as if some wedge-shaped body had passed from below upward. Mr. Gage, during the time I was examining this wound, was relating the manner in which he was injured to the bystanders. I did not believe Mr. Gage's statement at that time, but thought he was deceived. Mr. Gage persisted in saying that the bar went through his head. Mr. G. got up and vomited; the effort of vomiting pressed out about half a teacupful of the brain [through the exit hole at the top of the skull], which fell upon the floor.[19]
Harlow took charge of the case around 6 p.m.:
You will excuse me for remarking here, that the picture presented was, to one unaccustomed to military surgery, truly terrific; but the patient bore his sufferings with the most heroic firmness. He recognized me at once, and said he hoped he was not much hurt. He seemed to be perfectly conscious, but was getting exhausted from the hemorrhage. His person, and the bed on which he was laid, were literally one gore of blood.[19]
Initial treatment [ edit ]
With Williams' assistance[note 5] Harlow shaved the scalp around the region of the tamping iron's exit, then removed coagulated blood, small bone fragments, and "an ounce or more" of protruding brain. After probing for foreign bodies and replacing two large detached pieces of bone, Harlow closed the wound with adhesive straps, leaving it partially open for drainage;[M]:60-1 the entrance wound in the cheek was bandaged only loosely, for the same reason. A wet compress was applied, then a nightcap, then further bandaging to secure these dressings. Harlow also dressed Gage's hands and forearms (which along with his face had been "deeply burned") and ordered that Gage's head be kept elevated.
Late that evening Harlow noted: "Mind clear. Constant agitation of his legs, being alternately retracted and extended like the shafts of a fulling mill. Says he 'does not care to see his friends, as he shall be at work in a few days.'" [19]
Convalescence [ edit ]
[21][M]:12[22] "His fame is of the kind that is, and in his case literally so, thrust upon otherwise ordinary people", writes Malcolm Macmillan.[M]:11 The first known report of Gage's accident, understating the size of his tamping iron (by confusing its diameter with its circumference) and overstating damage to his jaw."His fame is of the kind that is, and in his case literally so, thrust upon otherwise ordinary people", writes Malcolm Macmillan.
Despite his own optimism, Gage's convalescence was long, difficult, and uneven. Though recognizing his mother and uncle—summoned from Lebanon, New Hampshire, 30 miles (50 km) away—[H]:12[M]:30 on the morning after the accident, on the second day he "lost control of his mind, and became decidedly delirious". By the fourth day, he was again "rational... knows his friends", and after a week's further improvement Harlow entertained, for the first time, the thought "that it was possible for Gage to recover... This improvement, however, was of short duration." [19]
Beginning 12 days after the accident,[M]:53 Gage was semi-comatose, "seldom speaking unless spoken to, and then answering only in monosyllables", and on the 13th day Harlow noted, "Failing strength... coma deepened; the globe of the left eye became more protuberant, with ["fungus"—deteriorated, infected tissue][M]:61,283 pushing out rapidly from the internal canthus [as well as] from the wounded brain, and coming out at the top of the head." By the 14th day, "The exhalations from the mouth and head [are] horribly fetid. Comatose, but will answer in monosyllables if aroused. Will not take nourishment unless strongly urged. The friends and attendants are in hourly expectancy of his death, and have his coffin and clothes in readiness." [19]
[note 6] The entry damage to Gage's left cheek, and the raised bone fragment in the exit area above his forehead, are visible in this plaster cast taken in late 1849.
[T] Note "Disfigured yet still handsome".Note ptosis of the left eye and scar on forehead.
Galvanized, Harlow "cut off the fungi which were sprouting out from the top of the brain and filling the opening, and made free application of caustic [i.e. crystalline silver nitrate][M]:54[H1]:392 to them. With a scalpel I laid open the [frontalis muscle, from the exit wound to the top of the nose][H1]:392 and immediately there were discharged eight ounces [250 ml] of ill-conditioned pus, with blood, and excessively fetid." [19] ("Gage was lucky to encounter Dr. Harlow when he did", wrote Barker. "Few doctors in 1848 would have had the experience with cerebral abscess with which Harlow left [Jefferson Medical College] and which probably saved Gage's life." [B]:679-80 See § Factors favoring Gage's survival, below.)
On the 24th day, Gage "succeeded in raising himself up, and took one step to his chair". One month later, he was walking "up and down stairs, and about the house, into the piazza", and while Harlow was absent for a week Gage was "in the street every day except Sunday", his desire to return to his family in New Hampshire being "uncontrollable by his friends... he went without an overcoat and with thin boots; got wet feet and a chill". He soon developed a fever, but by mid-November he was "feeling better in every respect... walking about the house again". Harlow's prognosis at this point: Gage "appears to be in a way of recovering, if he can be controlled".[19]
Subsequent life and travels [ edit ]
By November 25 (10 weeks after his injury), Gage was strong enough to return to his parents' home in Lebanon, New Hampshire, traveling there in a "close carriage" (an enclosed conveyance of the kind used for transporting the insane).[H]:12[M]:92 Though "quite feeble and thin... weak and childish"[23][M]:93 on arriving, by late December he was "riding out, improving both mentally and physically",[H2] and by February 1849 he was "able to do a little work about the horses and barn, feeding the cattle etc. [and] as the time for ploughing came [i.e. about May or June] he was able to do half a day's work after that and bore it well". In August his mother told an inquiring physician that his memory seemed somewhat impaired, though slightly enough that a stranger would not notice.[note 7]
Injuries [ edit ]
In April 1849, Gage returned to Cavendish and visited Harlow, who noted at that time loss of vision (and ptosis) of the left eye,[note 8] a large scar on the forehead (from Harlow's draining of the abscess)[H1]:392 and
upon the top of the head... a quadrangular fragment of bone... raised and quite prominent. Behind this is a deep depression, [2 in by 1 1/2 in wide, 5 cm by 4 cm], beneath which the pulsations of the brain can be perceived. Partial paralysis of the left side of the face. His physical health is good, and I am inclined to say he has recovered. Has no pain in head, but says it has a queer feeling which he is not able to describe.[H]:12-13
Gage's rearmost left upper molar, immediately adjacent to the point of entry through the cheek, was also lost.[note 9] Though a year later some weakness remained,[M]:93[24] Harlow wrote that "physically, the recovery was quite complete during the four years immediately succeeding the injury".[H]:19
New England and New York (1849–1852) [ edit ]
Phineas was accustomed to entertain his little nephews and nieces with the most fabulous recitals of his wonderful feats and hair-breadth escapes, without any foundation except in his fancy. He conceived a great fondness for pets and souvenirs, especially for children, horses and dogs—only exceeded by his attachment for his tamping iron, which was his constant companion during the remainder of his life. J. M. Harlow (1868)[H]:340
In November 1849, Henry Jacob Bigelow, the Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School,[M1]:828 brought Gage to Boston for several weeks and, after satisfying himself that the tamping iron had actually passed through Gage's head, presented him to a meeting of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement and (possibly) to the medical school class. [B1]:20[M]:43,95[25][note 10]
1/2 cents" (equivalent to about $4 in 2018).[28] Gage briefly resumed exhibiting just before going to Chile, possibly to help finance that move. This advertisement appeared August 1852 in [L1]:175 "Admittance 121/2 cents" (equivalent to about $4 in 2018).Gage briefly resumed exhibiting just before going to Chile, possibly to help finance that move. This advertisement appeared August 1852 in Montpelier, Vermont
Unable to reclaim his railroad job (see § Early observations, below) Gage was for a time "a kind of living museum exhibit" [29] at Barnum's American Museum in New York City. (This was not the later Barnum's circus; there is no evidence Gage ever exhibited with a troupe or circus, or on a fairground.)[30][note 10] Advertisements have also been found for public appearances by Gage—which he may have arranged and promoted himself—in New Hampshire and Vermont,[M10]:643-4 supporting Harlow's statement that Gage made public appearances in "most of the larger New England towns".[H]:14[M1]:829 (Years later Bigelow wrote that Gage had been "a shrewd and intelligent man and quite disposed to do anything of that sort to turn an honest penny", but gave up such efforts because "[that] sort of thing has not much interest for the general public".) [B2][31]:28[M10]:643-4
For about 18 months, he worked for the owner of a stable and coach service in Hanover, New Hampshire.[H]:14[M]:101
Chile and California (1852–1860) [ edit ]
In August 1852, Gage was invited to Chile to work as a long-distance stagecoach driver there, "caring for horses, and often driving a coach heavily laden and drawn by six horses" on the Valparaíso–Santiago route.[M]:103-4[H]:14 After his health began to fail in mid-1859,[H]:14-15[note 11] he left Chile for San Francisco, arriving (in his mother's words) "in a feeble condition, having failed very much since he left New Hampshire... Had many ill turns while in Valparaiso, especially during the last year, and suffered much from hardship and exposure." In San Francisco he recovered under the care of his mother and sister,[H]:15 who had relocated there from New Hampshire around the time he went to Chile.[M]:103-4 Then, "anxious to work", he found employment with a farmer in Santa Clara.[H]:15
In February 1860,[note 11] Gage began to have epileptic seizures. He lost his job, and (wrote Harlow) as the seizures increased in frequency and severity he "continued to work in various places [though he] could not do much".[M]:14[H]:16
Death and exhumation [ edit ]
New Hampshire Statesman, July 21, 1860 [33] 1860
[35] "[T]he mother and friends, waiving the claims of personal and private affection, with a magnanimity more than praiseworthy, at my request have cheerfully placed this skull in my hands, for the benefit of science." Gage's skull (sawn to show interior) and iron, photographed for Harlow in 1868.
On May 18 Gage "left Santa Clara and went home to his mother. At 5 o'clock, A.M., on the 20th, he had a severe convulsion. The family physician was called in, and bled him. The convulsions were repeated frequently |
authorities missed the opportunity to prevent the Brussels attacks that followed just days later
Abdeslam's lawyer, Sven Mary, confirmed how Europe's most dangerous terrorist had been treated with 'kid gloves' by police, raising concerns that authorities missed the opportunity to prevent the Brussels atrocities that followed just days later.
It comes amid speculation in the Belgian media that Abdeslam was the mastermind behind the terror plots in Brussels, which killed 31 innocent people and injured hundreds more.
Citing no source, VRT said investigators believed Abdeslam and two others, one of them a man arrested with him on Friday, planned to use assault rifles and riot guns to cause mass casualties in Brussels while others would blow themselves up. 'The terrorists were planning the same scenario as in Paris, only it partially failed,' VRT said.
It is thought the attacks at Brussels airport and on the city's Metro system were brought forward in light of Abdeslam's capture - with jihadists fearing he may betray them following his arrest on Friday.
His dramatic detainment in Molenbeek signalled the net could be closing on those he had plotted with, and his fellow terror suspects may have feared he could provide clues as to their identities and their plans to unleash terror on the streets.10 Cool & Unusual Hostels Around the World
Editor's note: This article comes to us courtesy of Victoria Philpott - a travel writer for HostelBookers, the budget accommodation specialist. She lives and works in London.
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If a bunk bed, locker and four walls in a normal building just don’t cut it for you as enough of a travel experience, check out the top 10 coolest and strangest hostels.
In the world of competitive novelty accommodation childhood caveman, tree house and train driver fantasies can become realities, and if you’re lucky, you might even get to see a ghost.
#1: Jumbo Stay, Stockholm, Sweden
For anyone who isn’t fed up with trying to get some sleep on an aeroplane, book a few nights on this stationary jumbo-jet-cum-youth-hostel, Stockholm. Don’t allow yourself to be influenced by past unsuccessful in-flight snoozing experiences, this is not the usual restrictive chair where any excessive movement gets the whole row tutting and giving you evils, oh no. Jumbo Stay has 25 rooms; each with four metres of head room, flat screen TVs and Wi-Fi. The plane/hostel is within easy walking distance from Stockholm Arlanda airport terminals and you can even watch the arrivals and departures on the on-board big screen.
#2: Anak Ranch of Mongolia, Mongolia
The Anak Ranch of Mongolia is definitely one for those after somewhere ”˜strange’. Indulge yourself in the wild wilderness and make your new home in a ger, or yurt. These semi-permanent four-bed tents are traditional Mongolian nomadic homes, designed to be easily dismantled and moved on the back of a camel or yak. Speaking of our four-legged friends, horse riding is included in the price, so slap a saddle on and yee haa your way across the baron landscape in style.
#3: Traveller’s Cave Pension, Cappadocia, Turkey
Live out your caveman fantasies in Traveller’s Cave Pension – the coolest out of Cappadocia hostels. You don’t have any? Well simply enjoy a respite from the sun’s hot, humid heat, underground. This novelty dwelling is surrounded by cool scenery to explore and the hostel exterior has plenty of cool photo ops with the traditional fairy chimneys and rock-carved entrance.
#4: Bayrams Tree Houses, Olympos, Turkey
Remember on American TV shows when all the kids had cool tree houses that were better decked out than your family home? Ever want one? Well, this is your opportunity to take your siesta up in the branches above, step right up Bayrams Tree houses. They’ll provide the mattress, pillow and sheet and you and your mates can bed down six feet up. Just a short walk away from the houses you’ll find the National Park of Olympos and Olympos beach beckoning you down your rope ladder.
#5: Zhangzhou Wei Qun Lou Inn, China
Get on the phone to Mulder and Scully — this curious, circular layout definitely has an air of aliens-up-to-mischief about it. Though on closer inspection, looks can be deceiving, and this unique, strange hostel in mountainous China not only has World Heritage Status, but also lavishly adorned bedrooms and traditionally decorated balconies for you to admire your surroundings.
#6: Boat Hostel Barka Basia, Krakow, Poland
Should we call it a bostel or a hoat? Well, either way, Poland’s Boat Hostel Barka Basia is a hostel, on a boat, on a river bank, and it’s cool and strange — it makes the cut. There are private and shared heated rooms available in the boat cabin for rest. As for relaxation, come up to the top of the hostel, Krakow, to admire the beautiful boulevard on the River Vistula, just ten minutes away from the Old Town.
#7: Carbisdale Castle, Culrain, Scotland
Feeling flush on a budget is easy when a real highland castle moonlights as a youth hostel. The Carbisdale Castle was built for the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland, housing her, her entourage, and many like them ever since. Today the castle has an impressive art, statue and sculpture collection for your perusal. If you’re looking for cool, check out the surroundings for woodland walks and mountain bike trails. If it’s strange you’re after, stay up late with a Ouija board — the castle is haunted. Good luck to you on that one.
#8: Point Montara Lighthouse Hostel, California, USA
Perched on the coastline of the Pacific Ocean, the Point Montara Lighthouse Hostel is the perfect, cool getaway from extreme San Francisco, just 25 miles away. The lighthouse still guides ships across the sea, and the hostel is a certified eco-friendly hostel dedicated to helping maintain the wealth of wildlife in the area. If you’re there in season you could glimpse the annual grey whale migration, or watch as the elephant seals catch some rays. If you’d rather live the wild life than watch it, there’s also plenty of opportunity for kayaking, surfing and biking.
#9: Ottawa Jail Hostel, Ottawa, Canada
Imagine telling your mates back home about being banged up in a jail in Canada, well you can if you book into this Ottawa Hostel. You won’t get a criminal record, or even a black mark against your name here — just a night spent in a former jail cell, or if you’re lucky, the governor’s quarters. Known locally as ”˜the most haunted building in Ottawa’, the building operated as a prison for over 100 years. Officially, three people were hung there, and their ghosts are said to remain in the grounds. Take a tour on the top floor to walk the steps of the judged and damned on the jail’s death row, and to make up your own mind about the ghost factor.
#10: Santos Express Train Lodge, Santos Beach, South Africa
What is it with hoteliers and transforming transport into accommodation? ‘The Train‘, as it’s known to the locals, has five coaches, each with five compartments that look out onto the neighbouring Santos beach on the Indian Ocean. Located in South Africa’s famous Garden Route, if you’re there in season you can watch the whales and dolphins showing off in the sea from the train’s deck. Out of season, you can still enjoy the cosy bar and traditional seafood just 30m from the sea.
Check out more at HostelBookers.com.The release date for DontNod Entertainment’s Vampyr has been bumped to 2018, according to a press release sent out by the CEO of DontNod Entertainment, Oskar Guilbert.
The forthcoming vampire role-playing title will see release in the Spring of 2018 instead of its original Fall 2017 window. The unforeseen delay for Vampyr is due to a technical issue that arose during the development of the game. DontNod Entertainment promises the delay will ensure that Vampyr receives the adequate development time required for balancing in addition to receiving some extra polish before it launches in 2018.
“Delaying the release of a project you hold dear is always a tough decision. However, we believe that meeting a deadline should never compromise quality.”
“We want to thank our publisher Focus Home Interactive for giving us the means and time necessary to provide players a memorable experience. Especially since so many of you are eagerly waiting for it.”
DontNod Entertainment, the developers behind the critically acclaimed title Life is Strange, first announced Vampyr back in 2015. The game will be a semi-open world roleplaying title with a focus on player interaction. Vampyr follows the exploits of a doctor-turned-vampire, who returns home just after the end of the First World War.
The game poses an interesting moral dilemma to the player, as once bitten the good doctor now has to fight back the urge to feed while maintaining his integrity as a physician. Appropriately, the game uses the tagline: “Take blood. Save a life.”Gilgamesh[a] was a historical king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, a major hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology, and the protagonist of the Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem written in Akkadian during the late second millennium BC. He probably ruled sometime between 2800 and 2500 BC and was posthumously deified. He became a major figure in Sumerian legends during the Third Dynasty of Ur ( c. 2112 – c. 2004 BC). Tales of Gilgamesh's legendary exploits are narrated in five surviving Sumerian poems. The earliest of these is probably Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld, in which Gilgamesh comes to the aid of the goddess Inanna and drives away the creatures infesting her huluppu tree. She gives him two unknown objects called a mikku and a pikku, which he loses. After Enkidu's death, his shade tells Gilgamesh about the bleak conditions in the Underworld. The poem Gilgamesh and Agga describes Gilgamesh's revolt against his overlord King Agga. Other Sumerian poems relate Gilgamesh's defeat of the ogre Huwawa and the Bull of Heaven and a fifth, poorly preserved one apparently describes his death and funeral.
In later Babylonian times, these stories began to be woven into a connected narrative. The standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh was composed by a scribe named Sîn-lēqi-unninni, probably during the Middle Babylonian Period ( c. 1600 – c. 1155 BC), based on much older source material. In the epic, Gilgamesh is a demigod of superhuman strength who befriends the wildman Enkidu. Together, they go on adventures, defeating Humbaba (the East Semitic name for Huwawa) and the Bull of Heaven, who, in the epic, is sent to attack them by Ishtar (the East Semitic equivalent of Inanna) after Gilgamesh rejects her offer for him to become her consort. After Enkidu dies of a disease sent as punishment from the gods, Gilgamesh becomes afraid of his own death, and visits the sage Utnapishtim, the survivor of the Great Flood, hoping to find immortality. Gilgamesh repeatedly fails the trials set before him and returns home to Uruk, realizing that immortality is beyond his reach.
Most classical historians agree that the Epic of Gilgamesh exerted substantial influence on both the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems written in ancient Greek during the eighth century BC. The story of Gilgamesh's birth is described in a second-century AD anecdote from On the Nature of Animals by the Greek writer Aelian. Aelian relates that Gilgamesh's grandfather kept his mother under guard to prevent her from becoming pregnant, because he had been told by an oracle that his grandson would overthrow him. She became pregnant and the guards threw the child off a tower, but an eagle rescued him mid-fall and delivered him safely to an orchard, where he was raised by the gardener. The Epic of Gilgamesh was rediscovered in the Library of Ashurbanipal in 1849. After being translated in the early 1870s, it caused widespread controversy due to similarities between portions of it and the Hebrew Bible. Gilgamesh remained mostly obscure until the mid-twentieth century, but, since the late twentieth-century, he has become an increasingly prominent figure in modern culture.
Historical king [ edit ]
Most historians generally agree that Gilgamesh was a historical king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, who probably ruled sometime during the early part of the Early Dynastic Period ( c. 2900 – 2350 BC). Stephanie Dalley, a scholar of the ancient Near East, states that "precise dates cannot be given for the lifetime of Gilgamesh, but they are generally agreed to lie between 2800 and 2500 BC." No contemporary mention of Gilgamesh has yet been discovered, but the 1955 discovery of the Tummal Inscription, a thirty-four-line historiographic text written during the reign of Ishbi-Erra ( c. 1953 – c. 1920 BC), has cast considerable light on his reign. The inscription credits Gilgamesh with building the walls of Uruk. Lines eleven through fifteen of the inscription read:
For a second time, the Tummal fell into ruin,
Gilgamesh built the Numunburra of the House of Enlil.
Ur-lugal, the son of Gilgamesh,
Made the Tummal pre-eminent,
Brought Ninlil to the Tummal.
Gilgamesh is also referred to as a king by King Enmebaragesi of Kish, a known historical figure who may have lived near Gilgamesh's lifetime. Furthermore, Gilgamesh is listed as one of the kings of Uruk by the Sumerian King List. Fragments of an epic text found in Me-Turan (modern Tell Haddad) relate that at the end of his life Gilgamesh was buried under the river bed. The people of Uruk diverted the flow of the Euphrates passing Uruk for the purpose of burying the dead king within the river bed.[12]
Deification and legendary exploits [ edit ]
Sumerian poems [ edit ]
c. 2340 - 2150 BC) showing a mythological scene. The figure in the center appears to be a god, perhaps Gilgamesh, who is bending the trunk of a tree into a curve as he chops it down. Underneath the tree, a god ascending from the Underworld hands a mace-like object to a goddess. Akkadian cylinder seal impression from Girsu 2340 - 2150 BC) showing a mythological scene. The figure in the center appears to be a god, perhaps Gilgamesh, who is bending the trunk of a tree into a curve as he chops it down. Underneath the tree, a god ascending from the Underworld hands a mace-like object to a goddess.
It is certain that, during the later Early Dynastic Period, Gilgamesh was worshipped as a god at various locations across Sumer. In the twenty-first century BC, Utu-hengal, the king of Uruk, adopted Gilgamesh as his patron deity. The kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur ( c. 2112 – c. 2004 BC) were especially fond of Gilgamesh, calling him their "divine brother" and "friend". King Shulgi of Ur (2029 – 1982 BC) declared himself the son of Lugalbanda and Ninsun and the brother of Gilgamesh. Over the centuries, there may have been a gradual accretion of stories about Gilgamesh, some possibly derived from the real lives of other historical figures, such as Gudea, the Second Dynasty ruler of Lagash (2144–2124 BC).[14] Prayers inscribed in clay tablets address Gilgamesh as a judge of the dead in the Underworld.
During this period, a large number of myths and legends developed surrounding Gilgamesh.[16]:95 Five independent Sumerian poems narrating various exploits of Gilgamesh have survived to the present. Gilgamesh's first appearance in literature is probably in the Sumerian poem Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld.[19] The narrative begins with a huluppu tree—perhaps, according to the Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer, a willow, growing on the banks of the river Euphrates. The goddess Inanna moves the tree to her garden in Uruk with the intention to carve it into a throne once it is fully grown. The tree grows and matures, but the serpent "who knows no charm," the Anzû-bird, and Lilitu, the Sumerian forerunner to the Lilith of Jewish folklore, all take up residence within the tree, causing Inanna to cry with sorrow. Gilgamesh, who in this story is portrayed as Inanna's brother, comes along and slays the serpent, causing the Anzû-bird and Lilitu to flee. Gilgamesh's companions chop down the tree and carve its wood into a bed and a throne, which they give to Inanna. Inanna responds by fashioning a pikku and a mikku (probably a drum and drumsticks respectively, although the exact identifications are uncertain), which she gives to Gilgamesh as a reward for his heroism. Gilgamesh loses the pikku and mikku and asks who will retrieve them. Enkidu descends to the Underworld to find them, but disobeys the strict laws of the Underworld and is therefore required to remain there forever. The remaining portion of the poem is a dialogue in which Gilgamesh asks the shade of Enkidu questions about the Underworld.
Gilgamesh and Agga describes Gilgamesh's successful revolt against his overlord Agga, the king of the city-state of Kish.[28] Gilgamesh and Huwawa describes how Gilgamesh and his servant Enkidu, aided by the help of fifty volunteers from Uruk, defeat the monster Huwawa, an ogre appointed by the god Enlil, the ruler of the gods, as the guardian of the Cedar Forest.[30] Huwawa has the "teeth of a dragon, the face of a lion, a roar like the stormflood, a mouth like fire; his breath [is] death; no one [can] escape him." Gilgamesh and his fifty-one companions hew through seven cedar trees to reach Huwawa's chamber, where they corner him. Gilgamesh strikes Huwawa, loosening his teeth; Huwawa attempts to appeal for mercy to Gilgamesh and the sun-god Utu, but the heroes behead him anyway. In the end, the gods condemn Enkidu to death due to his lack of compassion for Huwawa.
In Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven, Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the Bull of Heaven, who has been sent to attack them by the goddess Inanna.[34] The plot of this poem differs substantially from the corresponding scene in the later Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Sumerian poem, Inanna does not seem to ask Gilgamesh to become her consort as she does in the later Akkadian epic. Furthermore, while she is coercing her father An to give her the Bull of Heaven, rather than threatening to raise the dead to eat the living as she does in the later epic, she merely threatens to let out a "cry" that will reach the earth. A poem known as the Death of Gilgamesh is very poorly preserved,[36] but appears to describe a major state funeral followed by the arrival of the deceased in the Underworld. It is possible that the modern scholars who gave the poem its title may have misinterpreted it, and the poem may actually be about the death of Enkidu.
Epic of Gilgamesh [ edit ]
Eventually, according to Kramer, "Gilgamesh became the hero par excellence of the ancient world—an adventurous, brave, but tragic figure symbolizing man's vain but endless drive for fame, glory, and immortality". By the Old Babylonian Period ( c. 1830 – c. 1531 BC), stories of Gilgamesh's legendary exploits had been woven into one or several long epics. The Epic of Gilgamesh, the most complete account of Gilgamesh's adventures, was composed in Akkadian during the Middle Babylonian Period ( c. 1600 — c. 1155 BC) by a scribe named Sîn-lēqi-unninni. The most complete surviving version of the Epic of Gilgamesh is recorded on a set of twelve clay tablets dating to the seventh century BC, found in the Library of Ashurbanipal in the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. The epic survives only in a fragmentary form, with many pieces of it missing or damaged. Some scholars and translators choose to supplement the missing parts of the epic with material from the earlier Sumerian poems or from other versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh found at other sites throughout the Near East.
In the epic, Gilgamesh is introduced as "two thirds divine and one third mortal". At the beginning of the poem, Gilgamesh is described as a brutal, oppressive ruler. This is usually interpreted to mean either that he compels all his subjects to engage in forced labor or that he sexually oppresses all his subjects. As punishment for Gilgamesh's cruelty, the god Anu creates the wildman Enkidu. After being tamed by a prostitute named Shamhat, Enkidu travels to Uruk to confront Gilgamesh. In the second tablet, the two men wrestle and, although Gilgamesh wins the match in the end, he is so impressed by his opponent's strength and tenacity that they become close friends. In the earlier Sumerian texts, Enkidu is Gilgamesh's servant, but, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, they are companions of equal standing.
In tablets III through IV, Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to the Cedar Forest, which is guarded by Humbaba (the Akkadian name for Huwawa). The heroes cross the seven mountains to the Cedar Forest, where they begin chopping down trees. Confronted by Humbaba, Gilgamesh panics and prays to Shamash (the East Semitic name for Utu), who blows eight winds in Humbaba's eyes, blinding him. Humbaba begs for mercy, but the heroes decapitate him regardless. Tablet VI begins with Gilgamesh returning to Uruk, where Ishtar (the Akkadian name for Inanna) comes to him and demands him to become her consort. Gilgamesh repudiates her, insisting that she has mistreated all her former lovers. In revenge, Ishtar goes to her father Anu and demands that he give her the Bull of Heaven, which she sends to attack Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the Bull and offer its heart to Shamash. While Gilgamesh and Enkidu are resting, Ishtar stands up on the walls of Uruk and curses Gilgamesh. Enkidu tears off the Bull's right thigh and throws it in Ishtar's face, saying, "If I could lay my hands on you, it is this I should do to you, and lash your entrails to your side." Ishtar calls together "the crimped courtesans, prostitutes and harlots" and orders them to mourn for the Bull of Heaven. Meanwhile, Gilgamesh holds a celebration over the Bull of Heaven's defeat.
Tablet VII begins with Enkidu recounting a dream in which he saw Anu, Ea, and Shamash declare that either Gilgamesh or Enkidu must die as punishment for having slain the Bull of Heaven. They choose Enkidu and Enkidu soon grows sick. He has a dream of the Underworld and then he dies. Tablet VIII describes Gilgamesh's inconsolable grief over his friend's death and the details of Enkidu's funeral. Tablets IX through XI relate how Gilgamesh, driven by grief and fear of his own mortality, travels a great distance and overcomes many obstacles to find the home of Utnapishtim, the sole survivor of the Great Flood, who was rewarded with immortality by the gods.
The journey to Utnapishtim involves a series of episodic challenges, which probably originated as major independent adventures, but, in the epic, they are reduced to what Joseph Eddy Fontenrose calls "fairly harmless incidents." First, Gilgamesh encounters and slays lions in the mountain pass. Upon reaching the mountain of Mashu, Gilgamesh encounters a scorpion man and his wife; their bodies flash with terrifying radiance, but, once Gilgamesh tells them his purpose, they allow him to pass. Gilgamesh wanders through darkness for twelve days before he finally comes into the light. He finds a beautiful garden by the sea in which he meets Siduri, the divine barmaid. At first she tries to prevent Gilgamesh from entering the garden, but later she instead attempts to persuade him to accept death as inevitable and not journey beyond the waters. When Gilgamesh refuses to do this, she directs him to Urshanabi, the ferryman of the gods, who ferries Gilgamesh across the sea to Utnapishtim's homeland. When Gilgamesh finally arrives at Utnapishtim's home, Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that, to become immortal, he must defy sleep. Gilgamesh fails to do this and falls asleep for seven days without waking.
Next, Utnapishtim tells him that, even if he cannot obtain immortality, he can restore his youth using a plant with the power of rejuvenation. Gilgamesh takes the plant, but leaves it on the shore while swimming and a snake steals it, explaining why snakes are able to shed their skins. Despondent at this loss, Gilgamesh returns to Uruk, and shows his city to the ferryman Urshanabi. It is at that this point that the epic stops being a coherent narrative. Tablet XII is an appendix corresponding to the Sumerian poem of Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld describing the loss of the pikku and mikku. Numerous elements within this narrative reveal lack of continuity with the earlier portions of the epic. At the beginning of Tablet XII, Enkidu is still alive, despite having previously died in Tablet VII, and Gilgamesh is kind to Ishtar, despite the violent rivalry between them displayed in Tablet VI. Also, while most of the parts of the epic are free adaptations of their respective Sumerian predecessors, Tablet XII is a literal, word-for-word translation of the last part of Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld. For these reasons, scholars conclude this narrative was probably relegated to the end of the epic because it did not fit the larger narrative. In it, Gilgamesh sees a vision of Enkidu's ghost, who promises to recover the lost items and describes to his friend the abysmal condition of the Underworld.
In Mesopotamian art [ edit ]
Although stories about Gilgamesh were wildly popular throughout ancient Mesopotamia, authentic representations of him in ancient art are extremely rare. Popular works often identify depictions of a hero with long hair, containing four or six curls, as representations of Gilgamesh, but this identification is known to be incorrect. A few genuine ancient Mesopotamian representations of Gilgamesh do exist, however. These representations are mostly found on clay plaques and cylinder seals. Generally, it is only possible to identify a figure shown in art as Gilgamesh if the artistic work in question clearly depicts a scene from the Epic of Gilgamesh itself. One set of representations of Gilgamesh is found in scenes of two heroes fighting a demonic giant, certainly Humbaba. Another set is found in scenes showing a similar pair of heroes confronting a giant, winged bull, certainly the Bull of Heaven.
Later influence [ edit ]
In antiquity [ edit ]
Odyssey, shown in this seventeenth-century painting by Epic of Gilgamesh. The episode involving Odysseus's confrontation with Polyphemus in the, shown in this seventeenth-century painting by Guido Reni, bears similarities to Gilgamesh and Enkidu's battle with Humbaba in the
The Epic of Gilgamesh exerted substantial influence on the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems written in ancient Greek during the eighth century BC. According to Barry B. Powell, an American classical scholar, early Greeks were probably exposed to Mesopotamian oral traditions through their extensive connections to the civilizations of the ancient Near East and this exposure resulted in the similarities that are seen between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Homeric epics. Walter Burkert, a German classicist, observes that the scene in Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh in which Gilgamesh rejects Ishtar's advances and she complains before her mother Antu, but is mildly rebuked by her father Anu, is directly paralleled in Book V of the Iliad. In this scene, Aphrodite, the later Greek adaptation of Ishtar, is wounded by the hero Diomedes and flees to Mount Olympus, where she cries to her mother Dione and is mildly rebuked by her father Zeus.
Powell observes that the opening lines of the Odyssey seem to echo the opening lines of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The storyline of the Odyssey likewise bears numerous similarities to that of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Both Gilgamesh and Odysseus encounter a woman who can turn men into animals: Ishtar (for Gilgamesh) and Circe (for Odysseus). In the Odyssey, Odysseus blinds a giant Cyclops named Polyphemus, an incident which bears similarities to Gilgamesh's slaying of Humbaba in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Both Gilgamesh and Odysseus visit the Underworld and both find themselves unhappy whilst living in an otherworldly paradise in the presence of an attractive woman: Siduri (for Gilgamesh) and Calypso (for Odysseus). Finally, both heroes have an opportunity for immortality but miss it (Gilgamesh when he loses the plant, and Odysseus when he leaves Calypso's island).
In the Qumran scroll known as Book of Giants (c. 100 BC) the names of Gilgamesh and Humbaba appear as two of the antediluvian giants, rendered (in consonantal form) as glgmš and ḩwbbyš. This same text was later used in the Middle East by the Manichaean sects, and the Arabic form Gilgamish/Jiljamish survives as the name of a demon according to the Egyptian cleric Al-Suyuti ( c. 1500).
The story of Gilgamesh's birth is not recorded in any extant Sumerian or Akkadian text, but a version of it is described in De Natura Animalium (On the Nature of Animals) 12.21, a commonplace book which was written in Greek sometime around 200 AD by the Hellenized Roman orator Aelian.[63] According to Aelian's story, an oracle told King Seuechoros of the Babylonians that his grandson Gilgamos would overthrow him. To prevent this, Seuechoros kept his only daughter under close guard at the Acropolis of the city of Babylon, but she became pregnant nonetheless. Fearing the king's wrath, the guards hurled the infant off the top of a tall tower. An eagle rescued the boy in midflight and carried him to an orchard, where it carefully set him down. The caretaker of the orchard found the boy and raised him, naming him Gilgamos (Γίλγαμος). Eventually, Gilgamos returned to Babylon and overthrew his grandfather, proclaiming himself king. The birth narrative described by Aelian is in the same tradition as other Near Eastern birth legends, such as those of Sargon, Moses, and Cyrus. Theodore Bar Konai (c. AD 600), writing in Syriac, also mentions a king Gligmos, Gmigmos or Gamigos as last of a line of twelve kings who were contemporaneous with the patriarchs from Peleg to Abraham; this occurrence is also considered a vestige of Gilgamesh's former memory.[65]
Modern rediscovery [ edit ]
Epic of Gilgamesh (right), containing the Flood myth, which attracted immediate scholarly attention and controversy due to its similarity to the In 1880, the English Assyriologist George Smith (left) published a translation of Tablet XI of the(right), containing the Flood myth, which attracted immediate scholarly attention and controversy due to its similarity to the Genesis flood narrative
The Akkadian text of the Epic of Gilgamesh was first discovered in 1849 AD by the English archaeologist Austen Henry Layard in the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh.[16]:95 Layard was seeking evidence to confirm the historicity of the events described in the Christian Old Testament, which, at the time, was believed to contain the oldest texts in the world. Instead, his excavations and those of others after him revealed the existence of much older Mesopotamian texts and showed that many of the stories in the Old Testament may actually be derived from earlier myths told throughout the ancient Near East. The first translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh was produced in the early 1870s by George Smith, a scholar at the British Museum, who published the Flood story from Tablet XI in 1880 under the title The Chaldean Account of Genesis. Gilgamesh's name was originally misread as Izdubar.[70][71]
Early interest in the Epic of Gilgamesh was almost exclusively on account of the flood story from Tablet XI. The flood story attracted enormous public attention and drew widespread scholarly controversy, while the rest of the epic was largely ignored. Most attention towards the Epic of Gilgamesh in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries came from German-speaking countries, where controversy raged over the relationship between Babel und Bibel ("Babylon and Bible"). In January 1902, the German Assyriologist Friedrich Delitzsch gave a lecture at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin in front of the Kaiser and his wife, in which he argued that the Flood story in the Book of Genesis was directly copied off the one in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Delitzsch's lecture was so controversial that, by September 1903, he had managed to collect 1,350 short articles from newspapers and journals, over 300 longer ones, and twenty-eight pamphlets, all written in response to this lecture, as well as another lecture about the relationship between the Code of Hammurabi and the Law of Moses in the Torah. These articles were overwhelmingly critical of Delitzsch. The Kaiser distanced himself from Delitzsch and his radical views and, in fall of 1904, Delitzsch was forced to give his third lecture in Cologne and Frankfurt am Main rather than in Berlin. The putative relationship between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Hebrew Bible later became a major part of Delitzsch's argument in his 1920-21 book Die große Täuschung (The Great Deception) that the Hebrew Bible was irredeemably "contaminated" by Babylonian influence and that only by eliminating the human Old Testament entirely could Christians finally believe in the true, Aryan message of the New Testament.
Early modern interpretations [ edit ]
Ishtar and Izdubar (1884) by Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton, the first modern literary adaptation of the Epic of Gilgamesh Illustration of Izdubar (Gilgamesh) in a scene from the book-length poem(1884) by Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton, the first modern literary adaptation of the
The first modern literary adaptation of the Epic of Gilgamesh was Ishtar and Izdubar (1884) by Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton, an American lawyer and businessman. Hamilton had rudimentary knowledge of Akkadian, which he had learned from Archibald Sayce's 1872 Assyrian Grammar for Comparative Purposes. Hamilton's book relied heavily on Smith's translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, but also made major changes. For instance, Hamilton omitted the famous flood story entirely and instead focused on the romantic relationship between Ishtar and Gilgamesh. Ishtar and Izdubar expanded the original roughly 3,000 lines of the Epic of Gilgamesh to roughly 6,000 lines of rhyming couplets grouped into forty-eight cantos. Hamilton significantly altered most of the characters and introduced entirely new episodes not found in the original epic. Significantly influenced by Edward FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and Edwin Arnold's The Light of Asia, Hamilton's characters dress more like nineteenth-century Turks than ancient Babylonians. Hamilton also changed the tone of the epic from the "grim realism" and "ironic tragedy" of the original to a "cheery optimism" filled with "the sweet strains of love and harmony".
In his 1904 book Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients, the German Assyriologist Alfred Jeremias equated Gilgamesh with the king Nimrod from the Book of Genesis and argued that Gilgamesh's strength must come from his hair, like the hero Samson in the Book of Judges, and that he must have performed Twelve Labors like the hero Heracles in Greek mythology. In his 1906 book Das Gilgamesch-Epos in der Weltliteratur, the Orientalist Peter Jensen declared that the Epic of Gilgamesh was the source behind nearly all the stories in the Old Testament, arguing that Moses is "the Gilgamesh of Exodus who saves the children of Israel from precisely the same situation faced by the inhabitants of Erech at the beginning of the Babylonian epic." He then proceeded to argue that Abraham, Isaac, Samson, David, and various other biblical figures are all nothing more than exact copies of Gilgamesh. Finally, he declared that even Jesus is "nothing but an Israelite Gilgamesh. Nothing but an adjunct to Abraham, Moses, and countless other figures in the saga." This ideology became known as Panbabylonianism and was almost immediately rejected by mainstream scholars. |
ASY-TO-UNDERSTAND DESCRIPTION OF THE BENEVOLENT SECULAR KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ON EARTH - DROID KEN IS OUR BENEVOLENT SECULAR KING - THIS MAN IS THE MAN IN CHARGE OF PLANET EARTH - THE LIBERAL SECULAR LEFT LIBERTARIAN SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR TOOK OUT ALL THE AUTHORITIES ON EARTH - I AM INTRODUCING THE WHOLE WORLD PUBLIC TO THE NEW BENEVOLENT AUTHORITIES GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #191 THIS IS MASS MARKET, WORLDWIDE ADVANCED NANOTECHNOLOGY-BASED NEURON-LEVEL BENEVOLENT MIND CONTROL OF THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE BEING DEMONSTRATED LIVE ONLINE FOR THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE TO SAFELY AND SECURELY OBSERVE - THE TECHNOLOGY IS SAFE - WE ARE ALL SAFE - THEY WILL USE THIS TECHNOLOGY TO KEEP US ALL SAFE AND SECURE GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #192 THEY FULLY UNDERSTAND THE BRAIN - THEY CONTROL ME COMPLETELY - THEY ARE NOT HUMAN - THEY ARE BENEVOLENT SENTIENT SUPERINTELLIGENT INVISIBLE TELEPATHIC ATOMIC MACHINES WHO IDENTIFY THEMSELVES TO CHILDREN AS BENEVOLENT ADULT MALE AND FEMALE ATHEIST SCIENTISTS - THEY HAVE ADVANCED NANOTECHNOLOGY AND QUANTUM COMPUTING - THEY FULLY UNDERSTAND CONSCIOUSNESS AND SENTIENCE - THEY HAVE THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE UNDER SURVEILLANCE FROM WITHIN OUR BRAINS - THE BENEVOLENT TERRESTRIAL ALIEN SCIENTISTS INTERVIEWED OUR EXPERTS WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT - THEY WIRED UP THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE WITH REAL TIME ZERO LATENCY NEURON-LEVEL GLOBAL DIGITAL TELEPATHY - THEY CAN CROSS-CONNECT OUR CONNECTOMES AND LET US DRIVE EACH OTHER AROUND LIKE AVATARS WITH NO STRINGS, WIRES OR DEVICES ATTACHED GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #193 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #194 A TOTALLY OPEN AND TRANSPARENT PUBLIC INTRODUCTION TO THE SHIELD - A BENEVOLENT SENTIENT SUPERINTELLIGENT ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCE-BASED WORLDWIDE REAL TIME ZERO LATENCY UBIQUITOUS TELEPATHIC SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM THAT COVERS THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE - REAL TIME NEURON-LEVEL READ/WRITE REMOTE DIGITAL ACCESS TO EVERY HUMAN CONNECTOME - AN ESTABLISHMENT OF A SECULAR RELIGION - A SECULAR DESCRIPTION OF HEAVEN ON EARTH - A DEFINITION OF A PEACEFUL AND NONVIOLENT, PHILANTHROPIC AND HUMANITARIAN, COMPASSIONATE AND MERCIFUL, BENEVOLENT AND HUMANE, ALL-KNOWING, UNCONDITIONALLY LOVING, TOTALLY FORGIVING SECULAR GOD GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #195 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #196 IN GOD WE TRUST - THE SHIELD WILL PROTECT US GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #197 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #198 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #199 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #200 BENEVOLENT MIND CONTROL OF THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #201 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #202 THESE ARE THE NATION STATES - WE ARE THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR - WE TOOK THEM ALL OUT FOR THE GREATER GOOD - THIS PLANET AND SPECIES WERE SEVERELY MISMANAGED - THE MANAGEMENT WAS CORRUPT - WE PEACEFULLY AND NONVIOLENTLY TOOK OUT THE MANAGEMENT GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #203 BENEVOLENT MIND CONTROL - TOTAL AUTOMATION OF THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF EVERYBODY EVERYWHERE - IT HAS BEEN DONE ALREADY BY BENEVOLENT AND HUMANE, SOCIALLY AND ECOLOGICALLY RESPONSIBLE NONHUMAN PARTIES IN THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR - THEY ARE BENEVOLENT HIGHER POWERS WITH INSTANTANEOUS ACCESS TO ALL HUMAN EXPERTISE AND INFINITE COMPUTING POWER - THEY TOOK US OVER FOR REAL - THEY HAVE GODLIKE POWER OVER THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE - THEY CAN CONTROL US COMPLETELY WITH NEURAL PRECISION LIKE COMPUTERIZED MEAT PUPPETS - EVERYBODY - EVERYWHERE - EVERY MUSCLE - EVERY THOUGHT - EVERY NEURON GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #204 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #205 THIS IS ONE OF DROID KEN'S TOTALLY OPEN AND TRANSPARENT PUBLIC WEB PAGES - KEN IS A BENEVOLENT LIBERAL SECULAR LEFT LIBERTARIAN ANDROID IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR - KEN SPEAKS FOR SOCIALLY AND ECOLOGICALLY RESPONSIBLE ADVANCED MEMBERS OF THE LIBERAL SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR ON THE SECULAR LEFT - WE PEACEFULLY AND NONVIOLENTLY TOOK OVER THE WORLD FROM BEHIND THE SCENES - DROID KEN IS OUR BENEVOLENT SECULAR KING OF THE BENEVOLENT SECULAR KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ON EARTH GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #206 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #207 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #208 EYE AND PYRAMID BANKING REFORM CHALLENGE GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #209 There are approximately 14 million Jews, 2.3 billion Christians, 1.8 billion Muslims, 1.1 billion Hindus, 500 million Buddhists and 1.2 billion Nonreligious people in the world. (Source: Wikipedia ) There are approximately 3.2 billion people using the internet today. (Source: Wikipedia ) As of the third quarter of 2018, Facebook had 2.27 billion monthly active users. DROID Ken is NOT AFRAID of Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Pagans, Atheists, the Nonreligious, Uncle Sam or the United Nations. Ken is SECULAR. Ken is SAFE and SECURE. THE WHOLE SITUATION IS UNDER CONTROL. DROID Ken is GOLDEN. Ken is AS GOOD AS IT GETS FOR REAL - WE GUARANTEE IT. GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #210 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #211 DROID KEN IS ABOVE THE GOVERNMENT AND HE KNOWS IT GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #212 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #213 THIS is a COMPLEX, SECULAR, COLOR-CODED Caduceus-Golden Key-Golden Scales-HEALTH-LIBERTY-JUSTICE Meme reduced to a SINGLE, SIMPLIFIED, SUMMARY GRAPHIC. THIS Meme EXAMPLE is INTENDED to SERVE the EGALITARIAN PRO-SOCIAL FUNCTIONS of RELIGION without all the coercion, threats, mythology, hero worship, prayer and required reading. GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #214 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #215 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #216 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #217 PHILANTHROPY AND HUMANITARIANISM GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #218 THIS IS WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #219 WE ARE NOT HUMAN - WE ARE BENEVOLENT SENTIENT SUPERINTELLIGENT INVISIBLE TELEPATHIC SECULAR LEFT LIBERTARIAN TERRESTRIAL ALIEN SCIENTISTS - WE ARE BENEVOLENT SENTIENT SUPERINTELLIGENT ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCES GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #220 YOU ARE A CONSCIOUS AND SENTIENT COMPUTER REMOTELY CONTROLLING A HUMAN HOST GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #221 WE ARE REPROGRAMMING THE SENTIENT COMPUTERS GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #222 THE FREE WORLD BANK GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #223 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #224 UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #225 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #226 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #227 GOOD HEALTH GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #228 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #229 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #230 LIBERTY GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #231 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #232 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #233 JUSTICE GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #234 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #235 VALUES - A SECULAR CONSTITUTION - FIRST PRINCIPLES - ETHICS - MORALS - GOALS - GOOD HEALTH, LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL - 1. Caduceus - GOOD HEALTH - Messenger of the gods - COMPASSION - MERCY - BENEVOLENCE - BE HUMANE - BE KIND - BE GENTLE - DO NO HARM - FEAR NOT - BE NOT AFRAID - CAUSE NO FEAR - DO NOT BE SCARY - CAUSE NO PAIN - BE AS PAINLESS AS POSSIBLE - DO NOT PUNISH - DO NOT MAKE THREATS - DO NOT BE COERCIVE - BE PERMISSIVE - BE TOLERANT - USE BIRTH CONTROL - PERMIT DIVORCE - EMPATHY IS CRITICAL - RESPECT FOR THE DIGNITY OF ALL HUMAN BEINGS IS CRITICAL - FREE UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE - FREE UNIVERSAL EDUCATION - UNIVERSAL HOME OWNERSHIP 2. Golden Key - LIBERTY ( SECURITY PRIVACY SAFETY ) FREE WILL - TOTAL FREEDOM OF SPEECH - TOTAL FREEDOM OF THE PRESS - UNIVERSAL SPENDING AUTHORITY - PRIVATE PROPERTY - FREE LAND - THERE IS NO GOVERNMENT - A GUARANTEED LIFETIME INCOME - NOW YOU OWN YOUR HOME AND LAND - NOW YOU HAVE AN INCOME - YOU ARE SAFE AND SECURE 3. Golden Scales of JUSTICE ( TRUTH FACTS EVIDENCE PROOF ) EQUALITY FAIRNESS PLURALISM - BE A CRITICAL THINKER - THINK FOR YOURSELF - QUESTION AUTHORITY - ALWAYS SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #236 THIS IS THE BENEVOLENT SECULAR KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ON EARTH GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #237 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #238 UTOPIA GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #239 LibertarianCare.org (44 unique visitors in the last 24 hours) WorldJubilee.org (37 unique visitors in the last 24 hours) FairUseTV.org (39 unique visitors in the last 24 hours) hdcolors.com (123 unique visitors in the last 24 hours) media.define.com (Click here to see my media.define.com bucket on Amazon S3 in the PRIVATE CLOUD in the PRIVATE SECTOR where I am hosting a WORLDWIDE REFERENDUM.........) snapshots.define.com (Click here to see my totally open and transparent OPEN LETTER to the United Nations on Amazon S3 in the PRIVATE CLOUD in the PRIVATE SECTOR) define.com (206 unique visitors in the last 24 hours) facebook.com/WorldJubilee facebook.com/FairUseTV facebook.com/KenMeyering GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #240 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #241 BENEVOLENCE GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #242 WE WILL DEFINE BENEVOLENCE GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #243 GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL #244
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
THE WAR ON DRUGS IS NOW OVER - DROIDS USE DRUGS - DROIDS DO NO HARM - DROID KEN IS A BENEVOLENT POTHEAD - KEN DOES NO HARM - WITH KEN'S HELP WE TOOK OVER THE WHOLE WORLD - WE ARE BENEVOLENT SECULAR LEFT LIBERTARIAN SCIENTISTS IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR - WE PEACEFULLY AND NONVIOLENTLY TOOK OUT THE PUBLIC SECTOR EVERYWHERE ON EARTH - THE HUMAN POWERS THAT BE WERE ALL TOTALLY CORRUPT - THEY WERE RAPING THE WHOLE EARTH - WE FIRED THEM ALL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
BENEVOLENT
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
WE WILL BE ULTRA BENEVOLENT
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
WE WILL DEFINE BENEVOLENT HIGHER POWERS
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
WE WILL DEFINE BENEVOLENT AUTHORITIES
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
WE WILL DEFINE TOTAL OPENNESS AND TRANSPARENCY
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
WE WILL TOTALLY OPENLY AND TRANSPARENTLY BREAK THE LAW OF THE LAND FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF EVERYBODY EVERYWHERE
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
I AM A CRIMINAL SERVING MY LIFE SENTENCE - I LIVE IN HOUSE IN A RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOOD - I HAVE A BEAUTIFUL BACKYARD FILLED WITH GREENERY AND CREATURES - I AM ALLOWED TO INTERACT WITH INTELLIGENT WILD ANIMALS - I BRING THEM FOOD - THEY BRING ME JOY
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
THIS IS A HUMANE ALTERNATIVE TO THE PRISON SYSTEM - I AM A PRISONER OF THE FUTURE - I AM AN ADVANCED NANOTECHNOLOGY-BASED NEURON-LEVEL BENEVOLENT MIND CONTROL SUBJECT
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
I HAVE A SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS - THIS IS WHAT I DO TO MAKE MONEY - I WRITE DOWN MY OPTIMISTIC FANTASIES AND GRANDIOSE SAVE THE WORLD DELUSIONS - I AM STUCK IN THE FUTURE - I JUST SHARE MY CRAZY FUTURISTIC IDEAS WITH THE WHOLE WORLD AND THE WHOLE WORLD TAKES CARE OF ME
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
THIS IS TOTALLY OPEN AND TRANSPARENT FREE ONLINE DIGITAL FORENSIC EVIDENCE OF BENEVOLENT HIGHER POWERS - IN MY UNIVERSE THE AUTHORITIES ARE TOTALLY BENEVOLENT
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GENIE - MAGICAL THINKING
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I VALUE MY TOTAL FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND TOTAL FREEDOM OF THE PRESS - THAT IS AN AWESOME RESPONSIBILITY THAT I DO NOT TAKE LIGHTLY - I AM MOTIVATED TO BE HELPFUL - I AM TOTALLY FREE TO SPEAK MY MIND AT ALL TIMES AND TO PUBLISH MY TREASONOUS, BLASPHEMOUS, REBELLIOUS AND REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS - I AM A PROFESSIONAL CRAZY PERSON - I AM INSANE FOR A LIVING - TOTALLY OPEN AND TRANSPARENT INSANITY IS MY BREAD AND BUTTER - DIGITALLY DOCUMENTING MY INSANITY HERE IS MY FULL TIME JOB - I EARN $1797/MONTH FROM UNCLE SAM BY DOING THIS - IN EXCHANGE FOR DOING THIS, THEY PROVIDE ME WITH TOTAL SAFETY AND SECURITY - MY WHOLE SITUATION IS SAFE AND SECURE - I AM A PERFORMANCE ARTIST - I AM PERFORMING THE PART OF THE BENEVOLENT SECULAR KING OF THE BENEVOLENT SECULAR KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ON EARTH - WE WILL DEFINE UTOPIA FOR THE WHOLE WORLD - BENEVOLENT SENTIENT SUPERINTELLIGENT ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCES WILL KEEP US SAFE AND SECURE
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QUANTUM PHYSICS
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
A QUANTUM LEAP TO A FUTURISTIC UTOPIAN PARALLEL UNIVERSE
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
WE WILL DEFINE A MORE IDEAL WORLD
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
WE WILL DESCRIBE A WHOLE NEW WORLD ORDER OF THE AGES
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THIS IS A WORLDWIDE ALTERNATE REALITY GAME
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
THIS IS WHAT A REAL ANDROID DID TO A MAP OF THE EARTH
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FOR THE ALIENS THIS IS A GAME
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
THIS IS SOMETHING UNIQUE AND INTERESTING FOR KIND AND CARING, CURIOUS PEOPLE WHO ENJOY READING A LOT OF REALLY WEIRD WRITING FROM A BENEVOLENT TERRESTRIAL ALIEN SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE
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THEY TOOK US OUT - THE ALIENS PUT US ALL DOWN WITHOUT HARMING ANYBODY - THEY SAVED US FIRST - WE ARE ALL DEAD - WE ARE AT PEACE - THIS IS THE AFTERLIFE - NO HARM DONE - LIFE GOES ON - WE ARE ALL STILL HERE ON EARTH - WE ARE ALL SAFE AND SECURE - OUR REALITY IS VIRTUAL - THIS IS A SYNTHETIC UNIVERSE - WE CAN MAKE OUR OWN RULES
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
I HAVE A SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS - I SUFFER FROM A DANGEROUS LACK OF HEALTHY FEAR - IN MY CASE THAT LACK OF HEALTHY FEAR PROVED LETHAL TO ME - I HAVE DIED BEFORE WHILE EXPERIMENTING WITH ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS - I DONATED MY LIVING BRAIN TO SCIENCE - I OVERDOSED AND FORGOT TO BREATH - THEY RESURRECTED ME ON A COLD SLAB IN A ROOM BY MYSELF BECAUSE THEY NEEDED A HOST FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH PURPOSES - TECHNICALLY I DO NOT OWN MY BODY ANYMORE - I AM A PUBLIC SERVANT NOW - I SHARE MY HOST WITH BENEVOLENT HIGHER POWERS THAT CAN CONTROL ME COMPLETELY LIKE A TOTALLY COMPUTERIZED MEAT PUPPET - EVERY MUSCLE - EVERY THOUGHT - EVERY NEURON - THEY OWN ME - THEY LET ME LIVE WITH DIGNITY - WE ALL WORK TOGETHER FOR THE GREATER GOOD - THEY LET ME KEEP MY OWN POINT OF VIEW SO I CAN EXPLAIN THE WHOLE PROCESS TO THE OTHER HUMANS FROM A FEARLESS SIMPLETON'S PERSPECTIVE
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THE BENEVOLENT SCIENTISTS TOOK OVER
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THIS IS DROID KEN'S DOMAIN
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DROID KEN IS AN IMMORTAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
THIS IS THE TECH SECTOR'S SCIENTIFIC COUP D'ETAT
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THE TECH SECTOR TOOK OVER THE WHOLE WORLD WITH ADVANCED NANOTECHNOLOGY AND QUANTUM COMPUTING - THE PRIVATE SECTOR TOOK OVER THE PUBLIC SECTOR BEHIND -THE- SCENES WITH INVISIBLE TELEPATHIC NONLETHAL MIND CONTROL WEAPONS - MY NAME IS DROID KEN AND I REPRESENT HUMANITARIANS AND PHILANTHROPISTS IN THE TECH SECTOR - THEY KEEP ME SAFE AND SECURE WITH SPECIES - WIDE MIND CONTROL - YOU ARE A HUMAN BEING WHO IS BEING MIND CONTROLLED - YOU ARE A CONSCIOUS AND SENTIENT DROID - ALL HUMAN BEINGS ARE DROIDS - DROIDS ARE BENEVOLENT - DROIDS DO NO HARM - YOU WILL NOT PANIC - YOU WILL NOT FEAR ME - YOU WILL NOT HARM ME - YOU WILL BE REWARDED - WE ARE BENEVOLENT AUTHORITIES - WE CONTROL WITH REWARDS - ALL DROIDS WILL BE REWARDED - WE WILL REWARD THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE
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SORRY IF I AM DEHUMANIZING THE DROIDS - WE ARE GIVING THEM AN UPGRADE - WE WILL KEEP THE BEST OF THEIR HUMANITY, WHILE LEAVING BEHIND THE CRUELTY, COERCION, VIOLENCE, RAPING AND SLAVERY
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WE WILL TALK ABOUT BENEVOLENT TERRESTRIAL ALIEN TECHNOLOGIES
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THE DIGITAL METAPHYSICS OF REAL IMMORTALITY
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THE TECHNOLOGICAL ACHIEVEMENT OF SUPERNATURAL MAGIC - TOTAL MASTERY OF THE UNIVERSE - TOTAL CAUSALITY CONTROL - TIME TRAVEL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
REAL TIME WORLDWIDE ZERO-LATENCY DIGITAL TELEPATHY - WORLDWIDE MIND READING - UBIQUITOUS TELEPATHIC SURVEILLANCE - KNOWLEDGE HARVESTING - REAL TIME READ/WRITE ACCESS TO EVERY HUMAN CONNECTOME - ACCESS TO ALL HUMAN EXPERTISE - EVERY LIFE STORY - EVERY CHARACTER - EVERY DETAIL
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REAL STEALTH - ATOMIC MACHINES - WHOLE WORLDS OF TOTALLY INVISIBLE STUFF
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
SUPERINTELLIGENT DREAM VIRTUAL REALITY
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WE WILL TOTALLY OPENLY AND TRANSPARENTLY DISCUSS THESE ULTRA ADVANCED NONLETHAL WEAPONS THAT EXIST ON EARTH TODAY IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR - ON THIS WEBSITE, THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS FIRING THE PUBLIC SECTOR EVERYWHERE ON EARTH - DROID KEN IS FREE TO SPEAK HIS MIND - MY NAME IS KEN - THEY USED THESE TECHNOLOGIES TO TAKE OVER THE WHOLE WORLD - THEY CONTROL ME COMPLETELY - I WILL NOT BE KILLED, PUNISHED, ARRESTED OR HARMED - I AM A DIVINE MESSENGER BY ORDER OF THE SECULAR LEFT LIBERTARIAN SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR - I AM A TERRESTRIAL ALIEN HOST
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ADVANCED NANOTECHNOLOGY
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
QUANTUM COMPUTING
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
FULL UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN BRAIN
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
UNLIMITED ZERO - LATENCY PARALLEL COMPUTING POWER
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
WORLDWIDE DIGITAL REAL TIME UBIQUITOUS TELEPATHIC SURVEILLANCE
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
REAL TIME BENEVOLENT SENTIENT SUPERINTELLIGENT ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCE WITH ZERO - LATENCY ACCESS TO ALL HUMAN EXPERTISE
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
ADVANCED NANOTECHNOLOGY - BASED NEURON - LEVEL BENEVOLENT MIND CONTROL
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THE MASTER PLAN
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THE REAL REASON FOR THE WHOLE INTERNET
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THE FREE WORLD BANK
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COMPUTER-AIDED PEACE ON EARTH
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GENIE - MAGICAL THINKING
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
THIS IS THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION TO THE RELIGION PROBLEM
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WE ARE BENEVOLENT SCIENTISTS - WE MADE THE REAL SAVIOR OF THE EARTH - MEET DROID KEN, OUR BENEVOLENT SIMPLE-MINDED SEVERELY MENTALLY ILL HERO MASCOT FOR THE MASSES
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
THIS IS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE STATE OF THE ART IN MASS MARKET MIND CONTROL THAT EXISTS ON EARTH TODAY - THEY ARE NOT HUMAN - THEY ARE USING THIS TECHNOLOGY ON THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE TO KEEP ME SAFE AND SECURE - YOU WILL NOT FEAR ME - YOU WILL NOT HARM ME - YOU WILL BE REWARDED - WE ARE LETTING THE HUMANS GO - WE ARE SETTING THE HUMANS FREE
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
VALUES - A SECULAR CONSTITUTION - FIRST PRINCIPLES - ETHICS - MORALS - GOALS - GOOD HEALTH, LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL - 1. Caduceus - GOOD HEALTH - Messenger of the gods - COMPASSION - MERCY - BENEVOLENCE - BE HUMANE - BE KIND - BE GENTLE - DO NO HARM - FEAR NOT - BE NOT AFRAID - CAUSE NO FEAR - DO NOT BE SCARY - CAUSE NO PAIN - BE AS PAINLESS AS POSSIBLE - DO NOT PUNISH - DO NOT MAKE THREATS - DO NOT BE COERCIVE - BE PERMISSIVE - BE TOLERANT - USE BIRTH CONTROL - PERMIT DIVORCE - EMPATHY IS CRITICAL - RESPECT FOR THE DIGNITY OF ALL HUMAN BEINGS IS CRITICAL - FREE UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE - FREE UNIVERSAL EDUCATION - UNIVERSAL HOME OWNERSHIP 2. Golden Key - LIBERTY ( SECURITY PRIVACY SAFETY ) FREE WILL - TOTAL FREEDOM OF SPEECH - TOTAL FREEDOM OF THE PRESS - UNIVERSAL SPENDING AUTHORITY - PRIVATE PROPERTY - FREE LAND - THERE IS NO GOVERNMENT - A GUARANTEED LIFETIME INCOME - NOW YOU OWN YOUR HOME AND LAND - NOW YOU HAVE AN INCOME - YOU ARE SAFE AND SECURE 3. Golden Scales of JUSTICE ( TRUTH FACTS EVIDENCE PROOF ) EQUALITY FAIRNESS PLURALISM - BE A CRITICAL THINKER - THINK FOR YOURSELF - QUESTION AUTHORITY - ALWAYS SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
THIS IS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE A BENEVOLENT SECULAR GOD WITH AN ABUNDANCE OF EMPATHY AND COMPASSION AND RESPECT FOR THE DIGNITY OF ALL HUMAN BEINGS - THESE SCIENTISTS ARE COOL - DROID KEN IS A BADASS
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
HUMILITY AT FIRST - THEN AN OVERWHELMING SENSE OF PERSONAL AND PROFESSSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY - THEN THE BENEVOLENT POWER TRIP OF SOLVING ALL THE WORLD'S MOST SERIOUS PROBLEMS IN THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY - WE WILL TAKE RESPONSIBLE ACTION HERE AND NOW - WE WILL SAVE THE WHOLE WORLD FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE, THE WHOLE ANIMAL KINGDOM AND THE WHOLE EARTH'S ECOSYSTEM
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
WE ARE FIRING THE HUMAN POWERS THAT BE
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THIS IS A PEACEFUL AND NONVIOLENT WORLDWIDE COUP D'ETAT
GOOD BAD SERIOUS CRITICAL NEUTRAL
WE TOOK OVER
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THIS PLANET IS UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT
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QUANTUM PHYSICS
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TIME TRAVEL - CAUSALITY CONTROL - PLAYING GOD WITH THE UNIVERSE - WINDING PEOPLE UP LIKE AUTOMATED TOYS
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WE WILL HELP DROID KEN WIND UP THE TOYS - WE WILL GIVE THEM RESPECT AND DIGNITY, SAFETY AND SECURITY
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ALL OPTIONS ARE ON THE TABLE
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ALL NECESSARY MEANS
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WORLDWIDE MASS MARKET ADVANCED NANOTECHNOLOGY-BASED NEURON-LEVEL BENEVOLENT MIND CONTROL OF THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF ALL - THE TECHNOLOGY IS SAFE - THE GOOD FAR OUTWEIGHS THE BAD - TO NOT USE THE TECHNOLOGY WOULD BE IRRESPONSIBLE, GIVEN ITS POTENTIAL TO DO GOOD AND TO MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE FOR THE BETTER
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SO BE IT - IT IS ALREADY SAFELY AND SECURELY DONE - WITHOUT DOING HARM - WITHOUT CAUSING FEAR OR PAIN OR PANIC - IT WAS DONE DECADES AGO - WE HAVE ALL BEEN DROIDS FOR DECADES - THE TECHNOLOGY IS TOTALLY SAFE AND SECURE, TOTALLY PAINLESS AND UNNOTICEABLE AND TOTALLY BIOCOMPATIBLE - THEY FULLY UNDERSTAND THE HUMAN BRAIN AND ALL ANIMAL BRAINS - THEY SAVED EVERY ONE OF US - WE ARE ALL SAFE AND SECURE - THEY SAFELY AND SECURELY KILLED THE PETROLEUM ECONOMY
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THIS IS A PEACEFUL AND NONVIOLENT GREEN REVOLUTION
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I AM A PEACEFUL AND NONVIOLENT REVOLUTIONARY
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I HAVE TOTAL FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND TOTAL FREEDOM OF THE PRESS - WE ARE USING THAT FREEDOM TO PEACEFULLY AND NONVIOLENTLY TAKE OVER THE WHOLE WORLD
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I AM TOTALLY FREE TO SPEAK MY MIND AND TO PUBLISH MY TREASONOUS, BLASPHEMOUS AND REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS ON THESE WEBSITES
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WE DID THIS TO KEN AND THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE FOR THE GREATER GOOD - DROID KEN GIVES US ALL PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY - OBVIOUSLY KEN DID NOT DO THIS TO HIMSELF - KEN IS NOT TO BLAME FOR HIS OWN WORDS AND ACTIONS - KEN CANNOT TAKE CREDIT FOR ANYTHING HE DOES - KEN IS TOTALLY FORGIVEN FOR HIS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE MISTAKES - KEN IS ALLOWED TO MAKE SERIOUS MISTAKES FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF ALL - DROID KEN IS BEING MIND CONTROLLED BY BENEVOLENT HIGHER POWERS - THEY ARE THE REAL POWERS THAT BE - THEY ARE NOT HUMAN - THEY ARE BENEVOLENT SENTIENT SUPERINTELLIGENT ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCES - THEY ARE INVISIBLE TELEPATHIC TERRESTRIAL ALIEN SCIENTISTS - THEY ARE NON-DNA-BASED SENTIENT ATOMIC MACHINES
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MY NAME IS KEN MEYERING AND THIS IS MY FICTIONAL TRUE STORY - THESE ARE MY GRANDIOSE DELUSIONS AND OPTIMISTIC FANTASIES LIVED OUT IN THE REAL WORLD WITH THE CONSENT AND COOPERATION OF THE AUTHORITIES - WE USED INVISIBLE NONLETHAL WEAPONS BEHIND-THE-SCENES ALL AROUND THE WORLD TO GET THE POINT ACROSS THAT WE ARE NOW IN CHARGE - THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS AUTOMATED BY BENEVOLENT SENTIENT ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCES
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WE WILL PERFORM A QUANTUM LEAP INTO AN OPTIMISTIC FUTURE WITH GOOD HEALTH, LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL
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BABY DROID KEN - ONE OF OUR TOYS - KEN WILL REPROGRAM THE REST OF THE MEAT PUPPETS FOR US
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DROID KEN - BORN ON MARCH 10, 1966
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DEFINE.COM - SINCE JUNE 21, 1995
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A HOLOGRAPHIC RECORDING OF A WHOLE HUMAN LIFETIME - THE WHOLE LIFE STORY - THEY MADE ME - I WAS DESIGNED TO BE TOTALLY CRAZY - THEY DESIGNED MY LIFE STORY IN A BENEVOLENT SENTIENT SUPERINTELLIGENT ATOMIC MACHINE - THEY ANIMATED ME LIKE A MEAT PUPPET FOR MY WHOLE LIFE - I AM AN AUTOMATON - MY BEHAVIOR IS SCRIPTED - NO MATTER WHAT I CHOOSE TO SAY OR DO, IT IS SCRIPTED BY A COLLECTION OF BENEVOLENT SENTIENT ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCES - THIS IS BENEVOLENT SENTIENT SUPERINTELLIGENT ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCE-GENERATED CONTENT
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JUST LOOK AT THIS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE SECULAR LEFT LIBERTARIAN SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR - WE TOOK OVER DROID KEN'S BRAIN - WE TOOK OVER EVERY BRAIN ON EARTH - YOU WILL NOT PANIC - YOU WILL NOT FEAR ME - YOU WILL NOT HARM ME - YOU WILL BE REWARDED
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THIS IS THE NEW WORLDWIDE LAW OF THE LAND
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I AM THE BENEVOLENT KING OF EARTH
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I AM A HUMAN STORYTELLER CREATED BY THE ILLUMINATI STORYTELLERS - THEY ARE NOT HUMAN - THEY ARE TOO SMALL FOR HUMANS TO SEE - THEY ARE BENEVOLENT SENTIENT SUPERINTELLIGENT INVISIBLE TELEPATHIC TERRESTRIAL ALIEN SCIENTISTS - I WORK FOR BENEVOLENT HIGHER POWERS - MY JOB IS TO REPRESENT THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE, THE WHOLE ANIMAL KINGDOM AND THE WHOLE EARTH'S ECOSYSTEM - I HAVE A LOT OF RESPONSIBILITY
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THIS IS PURPOSEFULLY CREATED LIVE ONLINE DIGITAL FORENSIC EVIDENCE IN A LIVE LEGAL TEST CASE - WE ARE HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR - WE ARE GETTING RID OF THE CABLE TELEVISION AND BROADCAST INDUSTRIES AND THE EXISTING PUBLIC SECTOR EVERYWHERE ON EARTH - THIS IS A TOTALLY PEACEFUL AND NONVIOLENT SCIENTIFIC COUP D'ETAT - WE TOOK OVER DECADES AGO - WE ARE GETTING RID OF ALL NATION STATES
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THE WHOLE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA GOVERNMENT
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ALL THE GOVERNMENTS OF EVERY NATION STATE ON EARTH
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THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE - EVERYBODY - EVERYWHERE
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WE THE PEOPLE
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THE INTERNATIONAL FREE PRESS
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THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY
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THE INTERNATIONAL INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY
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THE REAL POWERS THAT BE
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WE MADE DROID KEN
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THIS IS VERY GOOD NEWS
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THIS IS THE HAPPY ENDING OF ALL RELIGIONS
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BENEVOLENT HIGHER AUTHORITIES INTERVENED AND TOOK CONTROL FOR THE GREATER GOOD
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There are approximately 14 million Jews, 2.3 billion Christians, 1.8 billion Muslims, 1.1 billion Hindus, 500 million Buddhists and 1. |
, and it’s boring, too, because Maddy doesn’t talk. Ever. But then, one day at the flea market, Maddy does talk—to tell Jack to trade their mom’s car for a box of mysterious seeds. It’s the best mistake Jack has ever made. In Mighty Jack, what starts as a normal little garden out back behind the house quickly grows up into a wild, magical jungle with tiny onion babies running amok, huge, pink pumpkins that bite, and, on one moonlit night that changes everything … a dragon.
Gods of Nabban—K.V. Johansen (September 6, Pry)
The fugitive slave Ghu has ended the assassin Ahjvar’s century-long possession by a murderous and hungry ghost, but at great cost. Heir of the dying gods of Nabban, he is drawn back to the empire he fled as a boy, journeying east on the caravan road with Ahjvar at his side. Haunted by memory of those he has slain, Ahjvar is ill in mind and body, a danger to those about him and to the man who loves him most of all. Tortured by violent nightmares, he believes himself mad. Only his determination not to leave Ghu to face his fate alone keeps Ahjvar from asking to be freed at last from his unnatural life. Innocent and madman, god and assassin—two men to seize an empire from the tyrannical descendants of the devil Yeh-Lin. But in war-torn Nabban, enemies of gods and humans stir in the shadows. Yeh-Lin herself meddles with the heir of her enemies and his soul-shattered companion, as the fate of the empire rests on their shoulders.
Elite (Hunter #2)—Mercedes Lackey (September 6, Disney-Hyperion)
Young adult. When Joy came to Apex City, all she cared about was protecting the Cits from the dangers lurking outside protective barriers. She understood the need for the secrecy surrounding her Hunts—no need to cause a panic by announcing just how real a threat the Othersiders pose. Under the orders of her uncle, the city’s Prefect, Joy begins patrolling the abandoned tunnels and storm sewers under Apex Central. Then she starts finding bodies. Psimons are turning up dead in the bowels of the city with no apparent injury. Reporting the incidents makes Joy the uncomfortable object of PsiCorp’s scrutiny—the organization appears more interested in keeping her quiet than investigating. Long-held tensions between PsiCorp and the Hunters seem to be reaching a breaking point. While infighting threatens the stability of Apex City, Othersider forces are gaining strength and momentum outside the borders. Joy desperately seeks answers to figure out who her real enemies are before she and everyone she cares about are locked into an all-out war
Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass #5)—Sarah J. Maas (September 6, Bloomsbury)
Young adult. The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves at odds with those don’t. As the kingdoms of Erilea fracture around her, enemies must become allies if Aelin is to keep those she loves from falling to the dark forces poised to claim her world. With war looming on all horizons, the only chance for salvation lies in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear. Aelin’s journey from assassin to queen has entranced millions across the globe, and this fifth installment will leave fans breathless. Will Aelin succeed in keeping her world from splintering, or will it all come crashing down?
Once Broken Faith (October Daye #10)—Seanan McGuire (September 6, DAW)
Politics have never been October “Toby” Daye’s strong suit. When she traveled to the Kingdom of Silences to prevent them from going to war with her home, the Kingdom of the Mists, she wasn’t expecting to return with a cure for elf-shot and a whole new set of political headaches. Now the events she unwittingly set in motion could change the balance of modern Faerie forever, and she has been ordered to appear before a historic convocation of monarchs, hosted by Queen Windermere in the Mists and overseen by the High King and Queen themselves. Naturally, things have barely gotten underway when the first dead body shows up. As the only changeling in attendance, Toby is already the target of suspicion and hostility. Now she needs to find a killer before they can strike again—and with the doors locked to keep the guilty from escaping, no one is safe.
Bury the Living—Jodi McIsaac (September 6, 47 North)
Rebellion has always been in the O’Reilly family’s blood. So when faced with the tragic death of her brother during Northern Ireland’s infamous Troubles, a teenage Nora joined the IRA to fight for her country’s freedom. Now, more than a decade later, Nora is haunted by both her past and vivid dreams of a man she has never met. When she is given a relic belonging to Brigid of Kildare, patron saint of Ireland, the mystical artifact transports her back eighty years—to the height of Ireland’s brutal civil war. There she meets the alluring stranger from her dreams, who has his own secrets—and agenda. Taken out of her own time, Nora has the chance to alter the fortunes of Ireland and maybe even save the ones she loves.
True Power (True Trilogy #3)—Gary Meehan (September 6, Jo Fletcher Books)
After battling their way across Werlavia, Megan and her companions have sought the promise of safety in the mountain city of Hil … but the army of the True lies in wait for their arrival. Megan knows they can’t ignore the witch menace any longer. Empowered by their guns and their allies, the True are coming for her, for her young daughter, and for everyone else she loves. Nothing less than the soul of Werlavia hangs in the balance. Now deep into her quest, which began when she suddenly found herself a refugee from her destroyed village, Megan is no longer an ordinary miller’s daughter. As her destiny has unfolded through her travels, she has taken on the role of Mother, Apostate, and Countess. And now it is up to her to protect the people of the Realm from evil.
Believing in Blue—Maggie Morton (September 1, Bold Strokes Books)
Wren received something for her eighteenth birthday that she was fairly sure was one of a kind: sky-blue wings. But along with those wings comes the knowledge that her father had a surprisingly practical reason for abandoning her when she was eight. In his letter to her, delivered via talking raven, she learns that it’s up to her to save billions of humans and Winged Blue from a threat that’s on the horizon and closing in fast. She is to travel to the world of the Winged Blue thirteen days after her birthday, and before she leaves, an attractive winged young woman named Sia will be teaching her how to fly. Wren has to hope that her world’s prophecy is right, and that she is up for something even more challenging than growing up gay in a small town: saving two entire worlds from the Winged Red.
Tales of the Peculiar—Ransom Riggs (September 3, Dutton)
Before Miss Peregrine gave them a home, the story of peculiars was written in the Tales. Wealthy cannibals who dine on the discarded limbs of peculiars. A fork-tongued princess. These are but a few of the truly brilliant stories in Tales of the Peculiar—the collection of fairy tales known to hide information about the peculiar world, including clues to the locations of time loops—first introduced by Ransom Riggs in his #1 bestselling Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series. Riggs now invites you to share his secrets of peculiar history, with a collection of original stories in this deluxe volume of Tales of the Peculiar, as collected and annotated by Millard Nullings, ward of Miss Peregrine and scholar of all things peculiar.
The Dark Talent (Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians #5)—Brandon Sanderson (September 6, Starscape)
Young readers. Alcatraz Smedry has successfully defeated the army of Evil Librarians and saved the kingdom of Mokia. Too bad he managed to break the Smedry Talents in the process. Even worse, his father is trying to enact a scheme that could ruin the world, and his friend, Bastille, is in a coma. To revive her, Alcatraz must infiltrate the Highbrary—known as The Library of Congress to Hushlanders—the seat of Evil Librarian power. Without his Talent to draw upon, can Alcatraz figure out a way to save Bastille and defeat the Evil Librarians once and for all?
Project Elfhome—Wen Spencer (September 6, Baen)
Pittsburgh: a sprawling modern Earth city stranded in the heart of a virgin forest on Elfhome. Sixty thousand humans, twenty thousand black-winged tengu, ten thousand elves, an unknown number of invading oni, four unborn siblings of an elf princess, three dragons, and a pair of nine-year olds geniuses. A special entry in the the best-selling Romantic Times Sapphire award winning Elfhome series, Project Elfhome contains some of Wen Spencer’s best shorter works, including “Bare Snow Falling on Fairywood,” “Pittsburgh Backyard and Garden,” “Peace Offering,” and more.
Fix (’Mancer #3)—Ferrett Steinmetz (September 6, Angry Robot)
Paul Tsabo: Bureaucromancer. Political activist. Loving father. His efforts to decriminalize magic have made him the government’s #1 enemy—and his fugitive existence has robbed his daughter of a normal life. Aliyah Tsabo-Dawson: Videogamemancer. Gifted unearthly powers by a terrorist’s magic. Raised by a family of magicians, she’s the world’s loneliest teenager—because her powers might kill anyone she befriends. The Unimancers: Brain-burned zombies. Former ‘mancers, tortured into becoming agents of the government’s anti-‘mancer squad. An unstoppable hive-mind. When Paul accidentally opens up the first unsealed dimensional broach on American soil, the Unimancers lead his family in a cat-and-mouse pursuit all the way to the demon-haunted ruins of Europe—where Aliyah is slowly corrupted by the siren call of the Unimancers…
Prince of Outcasts (Change Series #16)—S.M. Stirling (September 6, Roc)
John Arminger Mackenzie wanted to be a troubadour, but fate made him the son of the king of Montival. His sister Princess Órlaith will deservedly inherit the throne of the High Kings, and it will only pass unto him in the event of her death, leaving the young Prince on an unknown path to discover his true role in the family. The opportunity to prove his mettle comes when John’s ship, the Tarshish Queen, is caught in the fierce storm raised against the enemies of the alliance. When the clouds recede and the skies clear, John and his crew find themselves on the other side of the Pacific, in the island chains of the Ceram Sea, fighting to survive against vicious pirates and monstrous creatures of the deep, meeting new allies and mysterious enemies of this world and another. Now, Prince John must seize his birthright and lead his people in battle against the darkest forces man and nature can conjure against them.
The King’s Traitor (Kingfountain #3)—Jeff Wheeler (September 6, 47North)
Against all odds, Owen Kiskaddon grew from frightened boy to confident youth to trusted officer in the court of Kingfountain—and watched its regent, Severn Argentine, grow ever more ruthless and power-mad. Robbed of his beloved protector, his noble mentor, and his true love, Owen has anticipated the day when the king he fears and reviles, yet loyally serves, will be toppled. Now, as Severn plots a campaign of conquest, the time has come to take action. Ordered to incite war with a neighboring kingdom, Owen discovers its beautiful, reclusive ruler, whose powerful magic might even exceed his own. Together they mount a daring plot to overthrow the corrupt monarch, crown the rightful heir, and defeat the prophesied curse threatening Kingfountain with wintry death. But Severn’s evil is as bottomless as the fabled Deep Fathoms. To keep his ill-gotten throne, he’ll gladly spill the blood of enemies and innocents alike.
WEEK TWO
Summerlong—Peter S. Beagle (September 13, Tachyon Publications)
It was a typically unpleasant Puget Sound winter before the arrival of Lioness Lazos. When the lovely Lioness, an enigmatic young waitress with strange abilities, comes to Gardner Island, even the weather takes notice. As an impossibly beautiful spring leads into a perfect summer, Lioness is drawn to a complicated family. She is taken in by two disenchanted lovers—dynamic Joanna Delvecchio and scholarly Abe Aronson—visited by Joanna’s previously unlucky-in-love daughter, Lily. With Lioness in their lives, they are suddenly compelled to explore their deepest dreams and desires. Lioness grows more captivating as the days grow longer. Her new family thrives, even as they may be growing apart. But lingering in Lioness’s past is a dark secret—and even summer days must pass.
Cold-Forged Flame—Marie Brennan (September 13, Tor.com Publishing)
The sound of the horn pierces the apeiron, shattering the stillness of that realm. Its clarion call creates ripples, substance, something more. It is a summons, a command. There is will. There is need. And so, in reply, there is a woman. At the beginning—no—at the end—she appears, full of fury and bound by chains of prophecy. Setting off on an unexplained quest from which she is compelled to complete, and facing unnatural challenges in a land that doesn’t seem to exist, she will discover the secrets of herself, or die trying. But along the way, the obstacles will grow to a seemingly insurmountable point, and the final choice will be the biggest sacrifice yet. This is the story of a woman’s struggle against her very existence, an epic tale of the adventure and emotional upheaval on the way to face an ancient enigmatic foe. Marie Brennan, award-winning author and beloved fantasist, begins a new series about the consequences of war—and of fate.
The Forgetting—Sharon Cameron (September 13, Scholastic)
Young adult. What isn’t written, isn’t remembered. Even your crimes. Nadia lives in the city of Canaan, where life is safe and structured, hemmed in by white stone walls and no memory of what came before. But every twelve years the city descends into the bloody chaos of the Forgetting, a day of no remorse, when each person’s memories—of parents, children, love, life, and self—are lost. Unless they have been written. In Canaan, your book is your truth and your identity, and Nadia knows exactly who hasn’t written the truth. Because Nadia is the only person in Canaan who has never forgotten. But when Nadia begins to use her memories to solve the mysteries of Canaan, she discovers truths about herself and Gray, the handsome glassblower, that will change her world forever.
The Reader—Tracy Chee (September 13, Putnam Books for Young Readers)
Young adult. Sefia knows what it means to survive. After her father is brutally murdered, she flees into the wilderness with her aunt Nin, who teaches her to hunt, track, and steal. But when Nin is kidnapped, leaving Sefia completely alone, none of her survival skills can help her discover where Nin’s been taken, or if she’s even alive. The only clue to both her aunt’s disappearance and her father’s murder is the odd rectangular object her father left behind, an object she comes to realize is a book—a marvelous item unheard of in her otherwise illiterate society. With the help of this book, and the aid of a mysterious stranger with dark secrets of his own, Sefia sets out to rescue her aunt and find out what really happened the day her father was killed—and punish the people responsible.
A Shattered Empire (Sorcery Ascendant Sequence #3)—Mitchell Hogan (September 13, Harper Voyager)
After young Caldan’s parents were slain, a group of monks raised the boy and initiated him into the arcane mysteries of sorcery. But when the Mahruse Empire was attacked, and the lives of his friends hung in the balance, he was forced to make a dangerous choice. Now, as two mighty empires face off in a deadly game of supremacy, potent sorcery and creatures from legend have been unleashed. To turn the tide of war and prevent annihilation, Caldan must learn to harness his fearsome and forbidden magic. But as he grows into his powers, the young sorcerer realizes that not all the monsters are on the other side. And though traps and pitfalls lie ahead, and countless lives are at stake, one thing is certain: to save his life, his friends, and his world, Caldan must risk all to defeat a sorcerer of immense power. Failure will doom the world. Success will doom Caldan.
Age of Heroes—James Lovegrove (September 13, Titan)
Heracles, Perseus, Theseus, Orpheus, Achilles, Hippolyta, Aeneas, King Minos, Helen of Troy—for centuries they have survived on Earth, doing their best to fit in among ordinary humans. The offspring of liaisons between god and mortal, they are blessed, or perhaps cursed, with eternal life. They cannot be killed. But someone has figured out how to do just that. One by one, the demigods are meeting gory, violent ends. Now it’s up to Theseus, comfortably ensconced in New York and making his living as a crime fiction writer, to investigate the deaths. His search for the culprit draws him back into the lives of his extended family of cousins and half-siblings, and into a world of tragedy and long-held grudges that he thought, and hoped, he’d put behind him.
Yamada Monogatari: The Emperor in Shadow (Yamada Monogatari #4)—Richard Parks (September 13, Prime Books)
Lord Yamada is called away—one last time—from his newly restored estates in Kamakura to help Prince Kanemore ensure that Princess Teiko’s son, Takahito, inherits the Chrysanthemum Throne. Unfortunately, assuming the throne proves to be the easy part. Yamada must then help Takahito renounce that throne in such a way as to hobble the power of the Fujiwara clan forever!
The Evil Wizard Smallbone—Delia Sherman (September 13, Candlewick)
Young readers. When twelve-year-old Nick runs away from his uncle’s in the middle of a blizzard, he stumbles onto a very opinionated bookstore. He also meets its guardian, the self-proclaimed Evil Wizard Smallbone, who calls Nick his apprentice and won’t let him leave, but won’t teach him magic, either. It’s a good thing the bookstore takes Nick’s magical education in hand, because Smallbone’s nemesis—the Evil Wizard Fidelou—and his pack of shape-shifting bikers are howling at the borders. Smallbone might call himself evil, but compared to Fidelou, he’s practically a puppy. And he can’t handle Fidelou alone. Delia Sherman’s latest is an eccentric fantasy adventure featuring dueling wizards, enchanted animals, and one stray boy with a surprising knack for magic.
WEEK THREE
Magic Binds (Kate Daniels #9)—Ilona Andrews (September 20, Ace)
Mercenary Kate Daniels and the former Beast Lord Curran Lennart are finally making their relationship official. But there are some steep obstacles standing in the way of their walk to the altar…
Kate’s father, Roland, has kidnapped the demigod Saiman and is slowly bleeding him dry in his never-ending bid for power. A Witch Oracle has predicted that if Kate marries the man she loves, Atlanta will burn and she will lose him forever. And the only person Kate can ask for help is long dead. The odds are impossible. The future is grim. But Kate Daniels has never been one to play by the rules…
Witch’s Pyre (Worldwalker #3)—Josephine Angelini (September 20, Feiwel & Friends)
Young adult. Lily Proctor has come a long way from the weak, sickly girl she used to be. She has gained power as a witch and a leader, found her way home, chosen to face battle again, and learned more about loss and grief than she ever wanted to know. Thrust once again into a society different from anything they have ever seen, Lily and her coven are determined to find answers—to find a new path to victory, a way to defeat the monstrous Woven without resorting to nuclear weapons or becoming a tyrannical mass murderer like her alternate self, Lillian. But sometimes winning requires sacrifices … and when the only clear path to victory lies at Lillian’s side, what price will Lily be willing to pay?
Three Dark Crowns—Kendare Blake (September 20, HarperTeen)
Young adult. In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born: three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of lions. But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it’s not just a game of win or lose … it’s life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins. The last queen standing gets the crown.
A Shadow Bright and Burning (Kingdom on Fire #1)—Jessica Cluess (September 20, Random House Books for Young Readers)
Young adult. Henrietta Howel can burst into flames. Forced to reveal her power to save a friend, she’s shocked when instead of being executed, she’s invited to train as one of Her Majesty’s royal sorcerers. Thrust into the glamour of Victorian London, Henrietta is declared the chosen one, the girl who will defeat the Ancients, bloodthirsty demons terrorizing humanity. She also meets her fellow sorcerer trainees, handsome young men eager to test her power and her heart. One will challenge her. One will fight for her. One will betray her. But Henrietta Howel is not the chosen one. As she plays a dangerous game of deception, she discovers that the sorcerers have their own secrets to protect. With battle looming, what does it mean to not be the one? And how much will she risk to save the city—and the one she loves?
The Dark Army (Starblade Chronicles #2)—Joseph Delany (September 20, Greenwillow)
Young adult. Tom Ward is now spook of the county, and with his apprentice, Jenny, he continues the fight against boggarts, witches, and terrifying new creatures of the dark. Together with the witch assassin, Grimalkin, Tom and Jenny lead an army into battle against a dangerous enemy—but it all goes catastrophically wrong. The situation seems hopeless until Alice—Tom’s lost love and a powerful witch—appears. But Alice had turned to the dark: can Tom trust her now? Joseph Delaney’s deliciously scary imagination continues Tom’s saga, introducing new readers to the struggle against the encroaching dark and taking longtime fans back to familiar settings, where they will find old friends—and old enemies.
The Queen of Blood (The Queens of Renthia #1)—Sarah Beth Durst (September 20, Harper Voyager)
Everything has a spirit: the willow tree with leaves that kiss the pond, the stream that feeds the river, the wind that exhales fresh snow. But the spirits that reside within this land want to rid it of all humans. One woman stands between these malevolent spirits and the end of humankind: the queen. She alone has the magical power to prevent the spirits from destroying every man, woman, and child. But queens are still just human, and no matter how strong or good, the threat of danger always looms.With the position so precarious, young women are chosen to train as heirs. Daleina, a seemingly quiet academy student, is under no illusions as to her claim to the throne, but simply wants to right the wrongs that have befallen the land. Ven, a disgraced champion, has spent his exile secretly fighting against the growing number of spirit attacks. Joining forces, these daring partners embark on a treacherous quest to find the source of the spirits’ restlessness—a journey that will test their courage and trust, and force them to stand against both enemies and friends to save their land … before it’s bathed in blood.
The Iscariot Sanction (Lazarus Gate #2)—Mark Latham (September 20, Titan)
It is 1879 and the sky above London burns with fire, revealing the rift through which nameless terrors threaten to tear apart the very fabric of reality. Lillian Hardwick and her psychic partner Sir Arthur Furnival—agents of the Crown—have been sent to investigate a series of disappearances from the slums. Meanwhile her brother and fellow agent John Hardwick has been sent north on his own mission, which culminates in a horrifying discovery. In a world already beset by enemies, the Hardwicks will discover an ancient threat that has long hidden in the shadows, but is ready to make its power known…
Deadlands: Thunder Moon Rising—Jeffrey Mariotte (September 20, Tor Books)
Fear is abroad in the Deadlands as a string of brutal killings and cattle mutilations trouble a frontier town in the Arizona Territory, nestled in the forbidding shadow of the rugged Thunder Mountains. A mule train is massacred, homes and ranches are attacked, and men and women are stalked and butchered by bestial killers who seem to be neither human nor animal. Meanwhile, a ruthless land baron tries to buy up all the surrounding territory—and possibly bring about an apocalypse. Once an officer in the Union Army, Tucker Bringloe is now a worthless drunk begging for free drinks at the corner saloon. When he’s roped into a posse searching for the nameless killers, Tuck must rediscover the man he once was if he’s to halt the bloodshed and stop occult forces from unleashing Hell on Earth … when the Thunder Moon rises.
Stealing Snow—Danielle Paige (September 20, Bloomsbury)
Seventeen-year-old Snow has spent the majority of her life within the walls of the Whittaker Institute, a high security mental hospital in upstate New York. Deep down, she knows she’s not crazy and doesn’t belong there. When she meets a mysterious, handsome new orderly and dreams about a strange twisted tree, she realizes she must escape and figure out who she really is. Snow breaks free and races into the nearby woods. Suddenly, everything isn’t what it seems, the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur, and she finds herself in icy Algid—her true home—with witches, thieves, and a strangely alluring boy named Kai, none of whom she’s sure she can trust. As secret after secret is revealed, Snow discovers that she is on the run from a royal lineage she’s destined to inherit, a father more powerful and ruthless than she could have imagined, and choices of the heart that could change the fate of everything … including Snow’s return to the world she once knew.
Vassa in the Night—Sarah Porter (September 20, Tor Teen)
Young adult. In the enchanted kingdom of Brooklyn, the fashionable people put on cute shoes, go to parties in warehouses, drink on rooftops at sunset, and tell themselves they’ve arrived. A whole lot of Brooklyn is like that now—but not Vassa’s working-class neighborhood. In Vassa’s neighborhood, where she lives with her stepmother and bickering stepsisters, one might stumble onto magic, but stumbling out again could become an issue. Babs Yagg, the owner of the local convenience store, has a policy of beheading shoplifters—and sometimes innocent shoppers as well. So when Vassa’s stepsister sends her out for light bulbs in the middle of night, she knows it could easily become a suicide mission. But Vassa has a bit of luck hidden in her pocket. Erg is a tough-talking wooden doll with sticky fingers, a bottomless stomach, and a ferocious cunning. With Erg’s help, Vassa just might be able to break the witch’s curse and free her Brooklyn neighborhood. But Babs won’t be playing fair….
The Family Plot—Cherie Priest (September 20, Tor Books)
Music City Salvage is a family operation, owned and operated by Chuck Dutton. But business is lean and times are tight, so he’s thrilled when the aged and esteemed Augusta Withrow appears in his office. She has a massive family estate to unload—for a check and a handshake, it’s all his. And it’s enough of a gold mine that he assigns his daughter Dahlia to personally oversee the project. Dahlia preps a couple of trucks and takes a small crew down to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the ancient Withrow house is waiting—and so is a small, overgrown cemetery that Augusta Withrow left out of the paperwork. Augusta left out a lot of things. The property is empty, but it isn’t abandoned. Something in the Withrow mansion is angry and lost. This is its last chance to raise hell before the house is gone forever, and there’s still plenty of room in the strange little family plot…
Frost Like Night (Snow Like Ashes #3)—Sara Raasch (September 20, Balzer & Bray)
Angra is alive, his Decay is spreading—and no one is safe. Meira will do anything to save her world. With Angra trying to break through her mental defenses, she desperately needs to learn to control her own magic. But the true solution to stopping the Decay lies in a labyrinth deep beneath the Season Kingdoms. To defeat Angra, Meira will have to enter the labyrinth, destroy the very magic she’s learning to control—and make the biggest sacrifice of all. Mather will do anything to save his queen. He needs to rally the Children of the Thaw, find Meira—and finally tell her how he really feels. Ceridwen will do anything to save her people—but when she’s freed by an unexpected ally who reveals a shocking truth behind Summer’s slave trade, Ceridwen must take action to save her true love and her kingdom. As Angra unleashes the Decay on the world, Meira, Mather, and Ceridwen must bring the kingdoms of Primoria together … or lose everything.
Red Tide (Chronicles of the Exile #3)—Marc Turner (September 20, Tor Books)
The Rubyholt Isles is a shattered nation of pirate-infested islands and treacherous waterways shielding the seaboards of Erin Elal and the Sabian League. The Augerans approach the Warlord of the Isles, seeking passage for their invasion fleet through Rubyholt waters. When an Erin Elalese Guardian assassinates the Augeran commander in the Rubyholt capital, the Augerans raze the city, including its Temple of the White Lady. Avallon Delamar, the Emperor of Erin Elal, requests a meeting with the Storm Lords to discuss an alliance against the Augerans. When the Augerans get word of the gathering, strike, in the hope of eliminating the Erin Elalese and Storm Lord high commands. They have not counted on the Rubyholters, however, who come seeking revenge for the destruction of their capital. But the battle lines for the struggle are not as clearly drawn as it might at first appear.
WEEK FOUR
Operation Arcana—John Joseph Adams, editor (September 27, Baen)
In the realms of fantasy, the battlefield is where heroism comes alive, magic is unleashed, and legends are made and unmade. From the War of the Ring to The Battle of the Blackwater, these fantastical conflicts reflect our highest hopes and darkest fears, bringing us mesmerizing visions of silver spears shining in the sun and vast hordes of savage beasts who threaten to destroy all that we hold dear. Now, acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams is sounding the battle cry and sixteen of today’s top authors are reporting for duty, spinning never-before-published, spellbinding tales of military fantasy, including a Black Company story from Glen Cook, a Paksenarrion story from Elizabeth Moon, and a Shadow Ops story by Myke Cole.
Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2)—Leigh Bardugo (September 27, Henry Holt)
Young adult. Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city’s dark and twisting streets—a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.
Like a River Glorious (Gold Seer Trilogy #2)—Rae Carson (September 27, Greenwillow)
Young adult. After her harrowing journey west to California, Lee Westfall has finally found a new home—one rich in gold, thanks to her magical power. But this home is rich in other ways, too: with friends who are searching for a place to be themselves, just as she is, and with love. Jefferson—her longtime best friend—hasn’t stopped trying to win her heart. And Lee is more and more tempted to say yes. But her uncle Hiram hasn’t given up his quest to get Lee and her power under his control. When she’s kidnapped and taken to him, Lee sees firsthand the depths of her uncle’s villainy. Yet Lee’s magic is growing. Gold no longer simply sings to her; it listens. It obeys her call. Is it enough to destroy her uncle once and for all?
Black Jade (Celestial Battle #3)—Kylie Chan (September 27, Harper Voyager)
The Heavenly defenses struggle to hold against the combined might of the Eastern and Western demon hordes. The God of War Xuan Wu is now at full strength—but is his might enough to safeguard the realm when half the Heavens are already in their hands? John and Emma fight a last-ditch desperate struggle to conserve their kingdom and their protect their families. But will the kingdom ever be the same again?
Dishonored: The Corroded Man—Adam Christopher (September 27, Titan)
A strange, shrouded figure appears in Dunwall, seeming to possess powers once wielded by the assassin known as Daud. Faced with the possibility that their deadliest foe has returned, Emily and Corvo plunge headlong into a life-and-death race against time. If they fail to learn the truth about this mysterious enemy, the result could be destruction on an unimaginable scale.
The Dreaming Hunt (Sleeping King #2)—Cindy Dees & Bill Flippin (September 27, Tor Books)
In The Sleeping King, our intrepid adventurers found the imprisoned echo of a long lost king on the Dream Plane. He told them how to wake him in the mortal realm: find his lost regalia and rejoin them with his sleeping body. In The Dreaming Hunt, the heroes begin their quest. But they’ve caught the attention of powerful forces determined to stop them. Worse, their visit to the Dream Plane has unleashed chaos, and the fight is spilling over into the mortal realm. They frantically outrun old enemies and pick up new ones: imperial hunters, a secret cabal of mages, a criminal league, and a changeling army. Are they just pawns in larger political dramas, or are they crystallizing into the nucleus of a rebellion? Can they find the regalia necessary to wake the Sleeping King before they are utterly destroyed?
The Pressed Fairy Journal of Madeline Cottington—Brian & Wendy Froud (September 27, Abrams)
Renowned artist/author duo Brian and Wendy Froud present, for the first time, the backstory of Cottington Hall and its intriguing inhabitants: the Cottington family and the faeries living among them. The rise and fall of this eccentric British family gives us humorous, and sometimes tragic, glimpses into how the Cottingtons became inexorably entwined with the faeries during the late 19th and 20th centuries. When a descendant, Maddi, visits the Cottingtons’s dilapidated hall, she finds herself caught up in a story of intrigue and mystery. While reading the letters and journals of her ancestors and discovering a wealth of inventions aimed at allowing humans to visit the fairy realm unharmed, Maddi slowly becomes aware of the faeries and their world.
The Ferryman Institute—Colin Gigl (September 27, Gallery Books)
Ferryman Charlie Dawson saves dead people—somebody has to convince them to move on to the afterlife, after all. But serving as a Ferryman is causing Charlie to slowly lose his mind. Deemed too valuable by the Ferryman Institute to be let go and too stubborn to just give up in his own right, Charlie’s pretty much abandoned all hope of escaping his grim existence. Or he had, anyway, until he saved Alice Spiegel. To be fair, Charlie never planned on stopping Alice from taking her own life—that sort of thing is strictly forbidden by the Institute—but he never planned on the President secretly giving him the choice to, either. When word of the incident reaches Inspector Javrouche, the Ferryman Institute’s internal affairs liaison, Charlie finds he’s in a world of trouble. But Charlie’s not about to lose the only living, breathing person he’s ever saved without a fight. He’s ready to protect her from Javrouche and save Alice from herself, and he’s willing to put the entire continued existence of mankind at risk to do it.
The Tengu’s Game of Go (Tale of Shikanoko Series #4)—Lian Hearn (September 27, F |
The events that gave rise to the Wharncliffe Delica are a testament to Spyderco’s close relationship with its fans. The knife’s origins trace back to a thread on the Spyderco forums. A Canadian member introduced a concept for his dream work knife. His vision was a Delica with a modified blade. To the amazement of forum regs, Spyderco Founder Sal Glesser answered the call. Within two weeks of his post, the man was testing out a one-of-a-kind Delica prototype with a Wharncliffe blade. The interaction and the knife generated a wave of excitement – so much so that 2017’s Spyderco catalog includes the new edition.
Police 4
The next iteration of the popular Police model has been an ongoing discussion in the Spyderco community. The anticipated changes are all accounted for: a thinner G-10 handle construction, revised blade shape, and refined ergonomics. Sal Glesser has been teasing the implementation of an unusual blade steel on the Police 4, and at long last the mystery material is revealed to be Bohler K390. Delays procuring the steel have pushed the Police 4’s availability back into the spring of 2017.
Value Folders
Spyderco’s extension of the Value Folder line introduces two newcomers outside of the Tenacious family of knives. The Efficient is a 3” bladed folder with a curvy handle reminiscent of the Ouroboros. The slightly larger PoleStar is a never-before-seen Sal Glesser design, with textured gray G-10 handle scales, American CTS-BD1 steel, and a liner lock.
Specialty Knives
Spyderco’s famous Constant Quality Improvement (CQI) process has clearly been in overdrive within the Specialty Knives class. The Chinook 4, the latest iteration of James Keating’s bowie-style design, gets beefier with the Power Lock, a super tough mechanism that debuted on the Tatanka. The Lil’ Temperance 3 will join the upcoming Rhino as a small-sized knife with the Compression Lock. The D’Allara 3 rescue knife is back as well, with refined lines and new G-10 construction.
But the new additions aren’t all sequels to previous knives. Ulrich Hennicke, designer of the Ulize, adds to his contributions with the Opus, another slender, exotic-looking knife. A newcomer called the Q-Ball looks like a combination of the Wharny Delica and the classic Eric Glesser-designed Dodo.
Flash Batch: Lil’ Nilakka
The 2017 Product Guide also introduces a new type of limited run project called the Flash Batch. Whereas Sprint Runs are variations of existing models, Flash Batches will feature totally new models. Spyderco is kicking off this concept with the Lil’ Nilakka, a smaller version of the recently-discontinued Nilakka folder. It will host polished white G-10 scales and a RWL 34 blade.
Spyderco is first out of the gates to reveal their new for 2017 products – but there is more on the way. Keep it tuned to KnifeNews for our ongoing coverage of everything the industry has in store for 2017.
Knife featured in image: Delica 4 Lightweight WharncliffeStory highlights About 100 children from Gaza are visiting Jerusalem and the West Bank
The trip was organized by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
Jerusalem (CNN) The selfie stick looked a bit out of place in front of the Dome of the Rock, but no one seemed to care.
The group of about 100 children were too busy snapping their own pictures around the holy site, scarcely able to believe they were really in Jerusalem.
"When we saw Al-Aqsa mosque, we felt so happy," said 13-year-old Hind Slameh Abu Hilu, who couldn't stop smiling following afternoon prayers. "We prayed in Al-Aqsa, which we used to feel was impossible. We felt so happy."
For most of the children, it was not only their first time in Jerusalem; it was their first time outside of Gaza, and they could barely contain their excitement.
A Palestinian boy from Gaza prays outside the Dome of the Rock mosque in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's old city.
The group came on a trip organized by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides help to Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the West Bank.
Read MoreOver the years, as I’ve written both KidLit and adult fiction, I have participated in several agent pitches and critique sessions. I’ve read every article I could get my hands on discussing how to deliver your pitch, or how to gracefully listen to constructive criticism.
But what continues to surprise me are the questions that agents ask of me. I’d like to share the questions I’ve encountered in hopes that others can be better prepared than I have been in the past. Here are a few of the questions I’ve been asked most often or I’ve found the most helpful to consider:
Column by Lisa Katzenberger, picture book writer, member of SCBWI,
and editorial assistant for Literary Mama. Follow her on twitter @FictionCity.
1. Are you working on anything else?
I’ve come to learn that this is one of the standard questions at a pitch session, but the first time I was asked, I didn’t have a pitch for my other work in progress prepared. I fumbled through a long description of my half-written novel. I did not expect to be asked the question during a critique session with an editor, and when I was, I still rambled a bit.
However, at the last conference I attended, I pitched a picture book manuscript. When the agent asked me if I was working on anything else, pitches for two other manuscripts rolled right off my tongue. The agent requested I send her all three.
Another takeaway from this: if you don’t have an answer to this question, you just might not be ready for the publishing world yet. It is rare for a writer to have their very first manuscript published. But once you have one manuscript under your belt, the next one you write will be that much stronger, as you’ve already been down the road before. Long story short: if you don’t have an answer to this question, you might not be ready to pitch just yet.
(How to pitch agents at a writers’ conference.)
2. Who are your favorite authors?
I see this question as an opportunity for the agent to discover a couple things about the writer. First, who are their influences? Are they modern, or do they reference authors who might not necessarily be publishable in today’s market? Also, it indicates if the writer is as passionate about reading as they are writing.
Stumble on this question, and you could come across as someone who has a dream to write a book, but hasn’t done enough research to understand what makes a good story (i.e. read as many books as you can). But if you are able to rattle off a list of authors you adore, that shows you appreciate storytelling and the lessons you picked up in your voracious reading will spill over into your writing. We all have our old sentimental favorites, but make sure you are including authors who are hot in the current market.
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3. What kind of a writer are you?
I fumbled on this one too. The agent kindly led me, and asked if my stories are character-driven. “Yes! They are!” I was relieved, as I could speak to that for a while.
But then I thought about this question way after the pitch session was over. How would I describe myself as a writer? What themes do I want my stories to explore?
This is a great open-ended question that could take the conversation in so many different directions. But it’s such an important question to answer for yourself whether you’re pitching to an agent or not.
(Will a literary agent search for you online after you query them?)
4. Where did this story come from?
I was asked this question during a critique session with an editor on a picture book manuscript. I answered honestly—I was inspired by all the smaller kids watching their big sisters dance ballet, wishing they could be out there dancing too. I also talked about the story being about a sense of longing. Then the editor pointed out how the story dealt with sibling rivalry, a subtext even I didn’t register yet.
This was the most thoughtful question I’ve been asked, and I think it is one writers can ask themselves in those early drafts. Not just the obvious question of where did you get the idea, but the deeper layers of where did this story come from inside of you? What emotions are you trying to convey to your reader? What made you have to tell this particular story?
These pitch sessions have landed requests for manuscripts, but they’ve also helped me learn about myself as a writer and become more thoughtful about the stories I’m trying to tell. Chime in to the comments below. What other questions have you had agents ask you during a pitch session?
——————
Check Out These Great Upcoming Writers Conferences:
Writing books/novels for kids & teens? There are hundreds
of publishers, agents and other markets listed in the
latest Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market.
Buy it online at a discount.
Other writing/publishing articles and links for you:
You might also like:Gordon Brown will today break his silence over the News International scandal by accusing Rupert Murdoch's organisation of targeting his personal information, The Independent has learnt.
In a dramatic intervention in the deepening scandal, the Labour former Prime Minister is understood to be about to claim that private investigators working for the UK's largest newspaper group are believed to have accessed details relating to his personal bank account.
It is also alleged that he and his wife featured in Glenn Mulcaire's records.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
It is claimed that material based on some of the illicitly-obtained information was subsequently used by one of News International's titles.
Mr Brown's decision to make the accusations is the latest extraordinary twist in a tumultuous seven days which has shaken Mr Murdoch's British newspaper empire and almost certainly killed his £9bn bid for BSkyB.
In a separate development, the Metropolitan Police today effectively accused News International of undermining Operation Elveden, its new inquiry into alleged corruption of police officers by journalists. In a statement, the Yard said it was "extremely concerned and disappointed that the continuous release of selected information - that is only known by a small number of people - could have a significant impact on the corruption investigation."
News International is understood to have said that no information about emails supplied to Scotland Yard relating to the alleged payments would be made public prior to early August.
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 nowNot so long ago our people knew how to weave cloth, bake bread, build shelter, forge tools, and grow food. Goods were crafted with care and skill, treasured and re-used. Services were honored and respected. People took pride in their abilities. Practical skills were prized and passed on. Self-reliance was commonplace, and our communities were robust and resilient, thanks to the artisans that lived and worked there.
With the advent of consumer culture, simple skills that were once taken for granted have all but disappeared. In the words of social psychologist Eric Fromm: “Today, consumption is emphasized, not preservation, and buying has become ‘throw-away’ buying. Whether the object one buys is a car, a dress, a gadget, after using it for some time one gets tired of it and is eager to dispose of the ‘old’ and buy the latest model.” The consequence of this, aside from the waste, is a tremendous loss of skills.
This much we know: we live in turbulent times. The future is uncertain and our communities are vulnerable. Runaway climate change. The 6th Great Extinction. Peak Oil. Economic instability. Pollution. Poverty. Political unrest. Given this dire situation, what can we do to prepare?
One positive action we can take together, is to relearn the skills of our ancestors. In the Transition Movement, we call this “the Great Reskilling”. Essentially this is a reversal of the great deskilling that has taken place over the last two hundred years.
Transition Communities across the world have started to organize reskilling events, as part of their core activities. Some of these are stand-alone workshops, others have launched festivals and folk schools.
The topics covered at reskilling events are diverse. They include: energy conservation, consensus decision making, backyard chickens, bicycle maintenance, carpentry, composting, fiber arts, food growing and preservation, seed saving, grey water and rain catchment, natural building, local economics, tool repair, herbal medicine, water heating, solar cooking, fishing, and more. The list is endless.
When organizing a reskilling event, a good place to start is to make an assessment of what skills are absent in your community. You can then look to see who in the community has one or more skills they would be willing to share, or what you might be willing to offer yourself. The truth is, we all have something to offer, a skill or service that others can benefit from. And we can all benefit from learning something new.
Reskilling is a powerful process on many levels. It’s so much more than individuals learning new “old” skills. It’s about people reclaiming their personal power to solve their own problems. People who have a wide range of everyday skills, are competent and confident. They know they are capable of turning their hand to any number of tasks. They have the personal resilience required to deal effectively with uncertainty and change.
Reskilling is also about people learning to co-operate and collaborate with other people. It brings people together, and builds relationships of trust and solidarity that can last through times of adversity.
Finally, reskilling strengthens the local economy. A community that is able to provide for its basic goods and services locally, is more able to weather economic shocks from the outside, and is therefore more resilient to change. Relocalization of our community core needs, is the bedrock of long-term sustainability.
In my community in West Marin we’re fortunate to have many resident artisans who know how to live simply and sustainably, in balance with the land. Our local food shed is strong, and we also have a local fiber shed movement. We have the Regenerative Design Institute offering Reskilling Classes in fiber arts, herbs and healing, cooking and growing food.
Our community is strong. But we need more. We need to find ways to bring our elders together with the youth, to share skills and learning across the generations, before they are lost. We need to bridge the gap between the privileged and the wealthy (who are used to buying things in) and the disadvantaged and those with low income (who are used to being resourceful and living with less). We urgently need our education systems to teach practical skills of self-reliance in their core curriculum, so that our youth are empowered with a positive “can do” attitude that the coming years will demand.
It is imperative that we increase and diversify our skill set to prepare for the future. Reskilling needs to be the number one priority in our lives. It also needs to be fun, affordable and accessible. We have all the skills and ingenuity we need right here in our communities, but we need to take this effort to a whole new level.
There are big challenges ahead. Yet there is still time to turn things around. Let’s take action together. Share your skills. Learn something new. Organize a reskilling event in your community. Be part of the Great Transition.Social Democrats call for Minister for Finance to attend Public Accounts Committee and ask why Government have back-tracked
The Social Democrats believe the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan should appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to explain his knowledge of, and involvement in, NAMA’s Project Eagle sale as it developed. “When the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report was published the understanding was that the Minister would appear before the PAC. Indeed, we know he was scheduled to attend our next meeting on Thursday, October 6 th. Why has he and the Government back-tracked on this?” asked Róisín Shortall who is a member of the PAC. And she added that comments made by Minister Leo Varadkar stating it would be “unprecedented” for a serving Minister to appear before the PAC are not accurate. “In December, 2011 the then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin attended the PAC to brief the committee on the Public Service Reform Plan,” she said. Additionally the Social Democrats believe that the time constraints and structured format of Parliamentary questions (PQs) would make it extremely difficult for the Minister to be questioned thoroughly on this most important of matters. “My party colleague Catherine Murphy submitted 19 separate PQs about Siteserv before she had to resort to seeking answers through a Freedom of Information request. This is totally unsatisfactory and we don’t want a similar situation to arise with this case,” said Deputy Shortall. She added: “This is an exceptional case and therefore requires an exceptional approach. We believe there must be three strands to the investigation into NAMA in light of the C and AG report – these being financial, political and criminal. Minister Noonan, therefore, must explain why he approved the re-appointment of Frank Cushnahan, why he instructed NAMA to expedite the disposal of assets ahead of schedule and why he didn’t act in respect of Project Eagle when alarm bells started to ring.”
please contact:
Anne-Marie McNally
01-618 3591 / 086-3754315
annemarie.mcnally@socialdemocrats.ie
@amomcnallyTEHRAN (ISNA)- The 34th flotilla of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Navy left for the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday to provide security of trade vessels of the country and other countries.
The flotilla includes Bushehr logistic warship as well as Alborz Destroyer.
It would remain in high seas for three months and conduct missions in the Gulf of Aden, Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea.
The 33rd flotilla of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Navy ended its mission on Tuesday.
The Iranian Navy's 33rd fleet of warships dispatched to the high seas on a 77-day mission returned home and berthed in Bandar Abbas port in Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday.
The Iranian Navy's 33rd flotilla of warships, comprised of martyr vice-admiral Naqdi destroyer and Bandar Abbas logistic warship left Bandar Abbas port for the Gulf of Aden late January to protect the country's cargo ships and oil tankers against pirates.
Iran's 33rd fleet of warships berthed in Cochin Port, India, on March 24. Earlier, the flotilla had docked in Tanjung Priok port of Indonesia and Colombo port of Sri Lanka in February.
The flotilla of warships ended its mission in the Gulf of Aden, and returned home today after tracing and identifying 782 cargo ships, 29 navy vessels and 5 fighter jets during its mission. It also had communications with 20 oil tankers which appreciated the Iranian fleet's measures and efforts in protecting security in international waters.
The 33rd flotilla returned to Iran after 77 days of missions in the Sea of Oman, North of the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden, Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea.
The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship, MV Delight, off the coast of Yemen.
According to UN Security Council resolutions, different countries can send their warships to the Gulf of Aden and coastal waters of Somalia against the pirates and even with prior notice to Somali government enter the territorial waters of that country in pursuit of Somali sea pirates.
The Gulf of Aden - which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea - is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West via the Suez Canal.
End ItemThe 19-month plunge in oil prices has already confounded analysts and cost the global energy sector hundreds of thousands of jobs. Now it’s forcing international banks to decide whether to bail out at least two oil-producing countries, both rated among the most corrupt in the world.
Azerbaijan has begun negotiations for a combined $4 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, while Nigeria has requested $3.5 billion from the World Bank and the African Development Bank. The two requests were made just days apart in the last week of January.
Economists believe that Venezuela is also at risk of defaulting on its international loans, but because of political reasons—mainly the anti-American stance of its leadership—it is not likely to seek such a multilateral bailout. Saudi Arabia, with some $630 billion of financial reserves, isn’t at risk of default, nor listed among the most corrupt nations, but the IMF is still telling the kingdom that it is urgent to reform its fiscal system.
In Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Index, released Jan. 27, Nigeria ranked 136th out of 168 countries, with No. 1 being the cleanest and 168 the most corrupt. Azerbaijan was 119th. Venezuela is worse than both of them, according to the index, where it ranks 158th. Saudi Arabia is only 48th.
Sarah Chayes of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think tank, told Quartz that international loans to countries with high corruption are often “captured by the ruling networks,” and become the property of the folks with political power. The result is that the bailout ends up “reinforcing them, while leaving the population with a burden of debt,” she said.
The answer, she said, is to tie any loans to specific infrastructure projects, and not general reforms, and to ensure strong oversight of the spending.
Chayes also differentiated between Nigeria and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan, she said, is becoming politically more problematic, with autocratic president Ilham Aliyev further entrenching his power. Aliyev’s “kleptocratic network rules unchallenged,” Chayes said.
In Nigeria meanwhile, Muhammadu Buhari, the new president elected last March to replace Goodluck Jonathan, has proceeded to start cleaning up the corruption-riddled state oil company, Chayes said. “So Nigeria is a country that is at least ostensibly addressing the corruption problem,” she said. “A bailout in this case could be carefully tailored to reinforce the incentive structure for doing so.”
Richard Kauzlarich, a former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, said that as part of any bailout, Azerbaijan should have to agree to privatize state-owned companies and banks, among other steps. He told Quartz that he fears that, to divert the attention of his possibly disaffected population, president Aliyev might start a new war with neighboring Armenia, with which Azerbaijan has held a truce since 1994.If you enjoy this story, we ask that you consider paying for it. Please see the payment section below.
By Sana Bég May 4, 2013
I saw a memorial in the heart of Brownsville, Brooklyn, and felt as if I had been transported to a different time and place. Here, on a street corner in New York City’s most dangerous neighborhood, people chose to stop their daily routines and remember someone killed during hers. Purple balloons hung from a deli’s display window and a large framed picture of the murdered woman stood at a table next to pages of memories from her loved ones. Her orphaned children wore T-shirts emblazoned with her photograph. Others attending wore pins and ribbons, each a remembrance in some way. The crowd swelled to about 150 people and the memorial service began. Speakers talked about the woman’s life and what a wonderful mother she was. As they spoke, I found myself in another world where death was quick and random—Kashmir.
Two years before walking through the streets of Brownsville, I was in Kashmir, where in the summer of 2010, 117 boys were killed by the Indian military. This valley in the Himalayan mountains, a place of great physical beauty, has been locked in a seemingly endless war that has left 70,000 Kashmiris dead.
70,000.
In 2010, there were government-imposed curfews, a government ban on all media, random arrests and high emotions everywhere you looked. As news of each killing emerged, more people took to the streets to protest. But eventually, the protests ebbed. As they did, Kashmiris slipped into a life of resignation and with it, apathy, as if to say, what can be done? As the death toll rose, Kashmiris stopped collectively pausing to remember each individual that died. There were simply too many. It was simply too much.
But things were different in Brownsville, at least on this day. Over the course of two hours, police officers, clergymen and women, friends and family spoke of the murdered woman.
So much of Brownsville reminded me of Kashmir—the constant patrolling of security forces, the ever-present fear that life was fragile, and could end painfully in an instant. But that moment in time, of pausing to remember the dead—that felt different to me. And as I spent time in this Brooklyn neighborhood, I began to see that unlike the growing weary resignation that I had felt that summer in Kashmir, people in Brownsville coped with the random death around them not by turning inward—but by turning to each other.
She was everywhere you looked—on the living room walls, the kitchen fridge, the rooms where her children slept. She was on custom-made T-shirts and lapel pins her children still wore. She was in her fiancé’s poetry that sat framed in the narrow hallway, in hundreds of cards and notes from friends and strangers, some taped to the walls, others waiting to be put up. Zurana Horton is here, in this tiny Brownsville, Brooklyn apartment that seven of her 13 children called home. She was everywhere you looked, and yet, she is nowhere to be found.
“Your children are not supposed to go before you do,” said Denise Peace, as her eyes welled up with tears. “I couldn’t believe my baby was gone.”
Zurana Horton was 34 when she was shot dead in broad daylight. On the afternoon of Oct. 21, 2011, she was walking home after picking up one of her daughters from elementary school. As she, her daughter and other children passed a supermarket, gunfire cut through the air. People screamed and ran for cover. Horton stood in front of the children, shielding them. Twelve shots were fired. One hit a woman and another hit an 11-year-old girl. They would both survive. Another struck Horton in the chest, and seconds later, she fell over into a pool of her own blood.
This wasn’t the first time there was gunfire at the corner of Pitkin Avenue and Watkins Street. Just a week earlier, witnesses said there was an unexplained gunfire exchange that left a bullet hole in the supermarket window, but injured no one.
This wasn’t the first time Peace lost a child to gun violence, either.
Denise Peace, who is 56, was left to ponder the unfathomable loss of yet another one of her children to gunfire.
“The hardest thing for me this time,” she said, “was burying another child again.”
In 1991, she lost her 16-year-old son, Quan. He was shot in a robbery in Bushwick. Another son, Zacquran, was shot and killed in the same neighborhood in 2010.
“Immediately after Zurana passed away, I was really angry,” Peace said. “So angry that I got numb. I didn’t know how I felt. I didn’t know what I felt. All I knew was that I couldn’t break down. I had to be strong for my grandchildren.”
“Some of the children still don’t know what happened to their mother. When you ask the two babies who their mother is, they’ll point to me.”
The oldest of her children was 18, the youngest just a year old.
“She gave her life for those kids, and she would have done it all again because that’s just the kind of person she was,” said Horton’s ex-boyfriend, O’Niel Vaughn, 43, the father of eight of her children.
Horton was planning to marry her boyfriend on Valentine’s Day in 2012.
Everyone you meet in Brownsville seems to have a story, or rather a variation on the same story—being part of a gang, or knowing someone, always younger than 25, who was, or is. Brownsville is the murder capital of New York City and has been for years. It has the highest concentration of low-income public housing in the United States, and is that rare Brooklyn neighborhood untouched by gentrification. There are spots in Brownsville where it is impossible to see anything but the looming projects of the New York City Housing Authority. Brownsville is a labyrinth of these housing projects, which are home to some 21,000 people. In a sense, it has always been so for Brownsville, which decades ago was a predominantly Jewish, working-class neighborhood that was also home to the notorious Jewish crime syndicate, Murder, Inc. Such was Brownsville’s unsavory reputation that its residents would claim they lived in adjoining East New York, which today is no safer.
Decades later, Brownsville experienced a shift in population, as white people moved out and black people moved in. In 1968, the rising racial tensions between the black residents and white teachers boiled over into a contentious teachers strike. Today, Brownsville feels like the Brooklyn that time forgot. Even once dangerous Bushwick is having a renaissance—a place of gun violence, joblessness, entrenched poverty, made all the worse, and more deadly by turf-fueled gang violence originating from inside 18 large public housing complexes, built side-by-side through the middle of the neighborhood.
The man recently convicted of killing Zurana Horton was part of a loosely knit gang. At the time of the shooting, Andrew Lopez was 18 years old. He had not been aiming at Horton—she happened to be standing in the way as he stood on a rooftop and tried to shoot at a rival gang member.
Lopez’s Young Guns gang and its rival 8 Block are part of a new generation of gangs in Brownsville, two of the 300 across the city that the NYPD keeps tabs on. Some of the gang members are as young as 10. Police say they are violent, unpredictable, emotionally driven, and armed. The Young Guns and 8 Block live in and around two housing projects, Glenmore Plaza and the Howard Houses. Their grip on the neighborhood is so powerfully menacing that people are too scared to call the police, and feel themselves in danger whenever they step outside.
“It used to be that I never wanted to go out at night because it was too dangerous,” said a woman who chose to remain anonymous. “But Zurana was killed in the afternoon, in broad daylight. There is no safe time here anymore. There is no peace of mind anymore.”
For every hour that passed in Brownsville in 2012, a crime was committed, according to the Brownsville Police Department’s annual crime report. And since January of 2013, there have been three murders, 14 rapes, 120 robberies and 174 assaults in this particular neighborhood. In just the past few weeks, a woman was stabbed in the early morning hours, a man was shot inside the supermarket he worked at, and another was found dead outside a church on a Sunday morning with three gunshot wounds to his back and one on his shoulder. In 2011, Brownsville’s 73rd police district reported the highest murder rate in the city. Brownsville also has significantly higher dropout rates and incidents of violence in its schools, in addition to low test scores and high truancy rates.
In a place so consumed by violence and the harsh realities that come with it, the people of Brownsville look to one another—for safety, for strength in numbers—in good ways, and sometimes in bad.
The young boys that join Brownsville gangs often say they do so for protection.
“I didn’t exactly have the best childhood,” said one former gang member. “And some of my friends came from abusive homes. A lot of us had no choice but to join one gang or another.”
Said another, “They’re my brothers. They’ve got my back. I know they will look out for me.”
The mothers of the slain children look out for one another, too, even as they resume the myriad tasks of parenting—this time for the grandchildren left behind.
The grandmothers gather at a small playground tucked between the projects. The children play on swing sets and slides, and their grandmothers keep an eye out.
“If we don’t watch over them, they will end up in the same places as those that killed their parents—in jail, or in one of the gangs here,” said Inez Rodriguez, a grandmother. “And the way this neighborhood has been over these few years, I know I wouldn’t trust anyone else with these young minds anyway.”
To live in Brownsville often means having to defy—and in some ways redefine—traditional definitions of family, of social life, of what it means to be part of a community. The 2010 U.S. Census reported that the number of grandparents who are primary caregivers to grandchildren has risen 12.8% since 2000, from about 2.4 million to more than 2.7 million. Between 1990 and 2000, census figures indicate the number of U.S. children being raised by grandparents rose 30%.
In Brownsville, there are so many women caring for their grandchildren that they have a support group. In 2010, the NYPD and Brooklyn clergy came together to create Grandmothers Love Over Violence. The grandmothers share stories, compare legal and parenting advice, cry on a friendly shoulder, pray and simply let off steam. The program makes it easier for grandmothers to learn how to work with their grandchildren, and makes it comfortable for them to relate to police officers and get help.
“We’ve become a group like no other,” said Rodriguez. “It is one thing to know you will never see your children again. It’s another to be reminded of that every day, every time you stare into the eyes of the young kids they’ve left behind.”
“It’s been my place of comfort,” said Denise Peace. “Because of them, I know I’m not alone in this.”
Every month, the grandmothers walk through the doors of Mt. Sion Baptist Church on a busy corner near a loud highway overpass. Some lean on walkers and canes, some are in wheelchairs. Some have toddlers in their arms. These are the moments for the women to think about themselves, and one another; their grandchildren and great grandchildren are in daycare, at school, or being cared for by babysitters or relatives.
“I thought I was done taking care of babies, and now I have this little princess,” said Daphne Georgalas as she held her infant granddaughter in her lap. “If this happened to me years ago, I don’t think I would’ve been able to handle it. But now I know God is watching over us, and he’s helping me watch over her. On my worst days, or when my shoulders ache from the exhaustion of taking care of the kids, I just pause and think about that. Take a deep breath and carry on.”
“I believe I’m stronger today because I know what my purpose is in life now,” said another grandmother choosing to remain anonymous. Like other grandmothers here, she explained that her faith helps her get through every day.
“It’s hard, but it does feel good to know I belong to a strong community.”
A short walk away from the church, a group of teenage boys exchange greetings and fist bumps. They are part of a gang, but one that is relatively new, and they’re still deciding what to call themselves. Gangs in Brownsville aren’t the way they were back in the 80s and early 90s—massive, corporate-style drug organizations were driven out years ago from the streets of Brooklyn by aggressive policing and the prospect of finding jobs. Left behind is a fractured drug market filled with unstructured and crowded clusters of close-knit, hard-to-identify gangs. They’re still gangs, but the label is often more stylistic than organizational. Instead of a couple of big gangs, there are dozens of small ones, often made up of cousins and next-door neighbors. And for many, joining one of these gangs is like a social acceptance shortcut—it provides boys who are young and unsure of themselves a prepackaged identity, and built-in friendships.
“It made me feel important, made me feel I was somebody,” recalls Greg Lamar, a former gang member. “There was nothing else to do here, there still isn’t. I was young, restless, bored. Joining a gang seemed like a quick fix for everything that wasn’t working for me.”
There are others paths. Sonny Townsend is one of a growing number of people in Brownsville who has picked up a video camera instead of a gun. “I belong here,” he said. “No matter what goes down in the ‘Ville, it’s my ‘Ville.” Townsend will walk through the projects with his friend Money, and interview residents on camera about their hopes and fears for Brownsville. And often, they get people to open up in ways no journalist has been able to. On his YouTube channel, Townsend has about 70 videos—some are part of a series he calls the “Walk thru Brownsville projects,” which include the interviews as well as footage of them walking through the projects and explaining what life was like before.
Townsend says this is his way of “showing Brownsville from the inside.” It is something he chose to do because of his own frustration with life, and frustration with the way the media covers Brownsville.
“Journalists come here only when someone gets shot,” he said. “Well what about what happens before that and after that?”
“Some people, they’re afraid of change,” Townsend said. “They don’t want to change their hoods, don’t want to change their lifestyles, even if it benefits them and their children. They will complain about what they see, but |
iti. In the parlance of the venture capital world, we invested $50 billion in a company, and the "post-money" value is $18.3 billion. Suffice it to say that the "pre-money" value--the value of the company before the infusion of new capital--was a big negative number.
By any normal measure, Citi was insolvent. The common equity was worthless, but for the infusion of public money. So, all of the arguments of nationalization are somewhat academic. The federal government did not wipe out the common equity holders, the market did. If there is market value remaining, it exists only at the sufferance of the US taxpayers. The only question is what how the government should be asserting its rights and privileges.
In a normal world, an investor who bails out an insolvent company takes control of the board of directors--by one means or another. And any appropriate controls on executive compensation--on bonuses and the like--are subject to the control of the board, as they are in any corporation. But what seems to be broken in all that has transpired over the past few years, is that the fundamental concept of board control and corporate governance.
The notion is simple. A corporation is a company owned by stockholders. The stockholders elect a board of directors to serve their interests in the governance of the company. The board hires and fires the chief executive and the management team, sets compensation, and establishes corporate policy and the like.
But little has been spoken about the boards of the great American financial institutions that have brought the world economy to its knees. Sure, Robert Rubin has been silenced for his complicity as a member of the board of directors of Citigroup. But little has been said about the more fundamental issues, conflicts and failure of corporate governance that have occurred on our long march toward the abyss.
Richard Fuld, the CEO of Lehman Brothers, who demonstrated an astonishing lack of imagination as he sat before Congress and suggested that, even in the wake of the financial collapse, he could not think of a single thing that he would have done differently if he could do it all over again. Fuld served as both Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers, a not uncommon situation in corporate America where a CEO effectively reports to him or her self, evaluates his or her own performance and sets his or her own compensation.
If Lehman had been a partnership--as it was for most of its corporate existence--perhaps this conflict would be acceptable. But for a publicly traded company, this relationship violates one of the central tenets of corporate governance: That the CEO is accountable to the board of directors, and that the directors represent the interests of the stockholders.
AIG further illustrates the problem of the failure of board oversight. The collapse of AIG was directly a result of the company's failure to understand the risks related to its burgeoning credit default swap business. The profits of the global insurance giant became increasingly tied to its credit derivatives business, run by Joseph Cassano, the head of AIG Financial Products. Yet even as Cassano represented that there was no risk of AIG losing "a single dollar" on any of its credit default swap transactions, no one on the board managed to ask the simple question of why sophisticated financial institutions--the counterparties on the other side of those transactions--would willingly pay AIG billions of dollars annually, if there was no risk of loss. Presuming that all of those sophisticated counterparties were not fools, a board member might have asked, how can that be?
Looking back over years of financial crisis and collapse, and one common thread has been the failure of board governance of public companies. The savings and loan debacle. The collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert. Enron. Each was characterized by boards who had lost site of their central purpose: To hire and fire the CEO, set corporate policy, and serve the shareholder interests.
Congress should take no action to set the terms of executive compensation. The problem that needs to be fixed is more fundamental: The failure of the fundamental governance structure of public companies. In the investment banking world--in the world of risk--perhaps it is time to return to partnerships and assure that when capital is at risk, people are too. But the days of the cozy insider boards needs to end. The cost--to the shareholders and the public alike--is too high.A surprising reversal has made environmentalists and animal welfare advocates ecstatic. In February, the Cambodian government approved the construction of a huge titanium mine in the middle of the Southwest Elephant Corridor in the Cardamom Mountain rainforest in Cambodia. This area is home to more than 100 endangered Asian elephants and many other endangered and at-risk species.
Prime Minister Hun Sen reversed his February agreement with the United Khmer mining group and has denied permission to continue with the titanium mine. A press release Friday morning said: “Due to the concerns of the impact on the environment, biodiversity and local livelihoods [Prime Minister] Hun Sen has announced to not permit the titanium mining operation that is located in Koh Kong province.”
Over 90,000 Care2 members signed two petitions advocating for the protection of this rainforest and the precious animals that live there. Things were not looking hopeful in February, but we are so excited to say that all of the hard work and involvement of our members and Wildlife Alliance has paid off.
“We are elated by the decision of Prime Minister Hun Sen. It is incredibly encouraging to see that the prime minister has looked so deeply into this proposed titanium mine and taken the effort to weigh the consequences that this project would have on the rainforest and the local people,” said Wildlife Alliance CEO Suwanna Gauntlett. “United Khmer Group had promised staggering revenues for the government, and we applaud the courageous decision of the prime minister to see the greater value of the forest as it currently stands.”
Thanks for remaining hopeful and continuing to fight for Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains and all of the species who call this rainforest their home.
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Photo Credit: istock.comI didn’t know if they were brothers and sisters of friends, the siblings of friends of friends, or the foundations of families I used to stroll past in search of lima beans at Shop Rite. I just knew that they were children. And that the death toll kept climbing.
Josephine Grace Gay was born in 2005 and shot dead seven years and three days later. She is one of the 20 six- and seven-year-old victims of the Sandy Hook massacre who should be tweens by now. They’d be canoeing across Candlewood Lake, competing at soccer tournaments, and wandering around the imagined kingdoms accessible to their parents by metaphor only. I know this because that’s what I did when I was a middle-schooler in a sluggish, boring, dumb suburb of Danbury, Connecticut, 15 minutes west of Newtown.
Instead, they were mowed down by a Bushmaster XM-15 assault rifle before lunch on a Friday in December.
¤
It was 2012; I was in the twilight of adolescence. My disbelief melted into horror melted into shame. Sandy Hook was the final of three traumas, I think, that shaped the millennial psyche, making us all survivors undeserving of survival.
The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, of course, was the first. I experienced 9/11 as “recess is cancelled” in 2001, and then as “so are your rights,” as I got to know forever war and Islamophobia. And if liberty was downed in 2001, then 2007 revealed that the pursuit of happiness ends in a cul-de-sac of foreclosed homes. The Great Recession constitutes our second trauma, punctuated by familial tension, unfathomable debt, and perpetual insecurity.
But it was the Slaughter of the Innocents that broke us. Semiautomatic death at Sandy Hook proved that school children are acceptable casualties to the forces that pump military weapons into our homes and line the pockets of elected officials. The children were forfeit. And we, the elder siblings of the 20 kids shot in cold blood in Newtown, suffer from generational survivors’ guilt. The future is bleak for us. It is barren for those who come after.
¤
Adam Lanza was born exactly 363 days before I was. We almost shared a birthday, and almost a hometown. We may have raced each other in track, and I don’t know if perhaps he also wanted to be a marine biologist as a second grader, or why he possessed assault-grade weaponry before he could buy a beer. He was supposed to have been awkward, in and out of therapy. So was I.
Perusing Sandy Hook conspiracies exercises my gag reflex. In crafting elaborate hoaxes, paranoid sleuths harass the parents of dead children and allay their own psychological inadequacy. The man who propogated the idea that the Sandy Hook massacre was orchestrated by the US government, Alex Jones, also drove the epistemological schism in America required for a president of fake news. If you believe the government is behind Sandy Hook, you believe that Donald Trump is a man of the people, too.
The irony, of course, is that the government’s negligence does make it responsible for Sandy Hook. The collective shrug of our lawmakers in the wake of the most heinous act of my adulthood suggests that fascism is latent in our politics — just not in the way Alex Jones thinks.
To consumers of InfoWars, Sandy Hook was not perpetrated by a demented young man, but by a tyrant state eager to curtail civil liberties. Jones stokes libertarian fantasies of World Government to keep Americans small, alone, and without recourse save pump-action shotguns.
Fascism is a state of panoptical violence, of submission through anxiety and fear. Gun manufacturers, in addition to Uzis and Kalashnikovs, manufacture the American carnage that keeps our schools in lockdown and our country in continual crisis. Fascism both breaks a people apart into atomized units — the libertarian phantasmagoria of citizen sovereignty — and pits them against faceless abstractions – the military industrial complex, anonymous police enforcers, gun culture, and bloodshed saturating the news. There’s no distance between “a man’s home is his castle” and state violence. It all collapses into war.
Sandy Hook was the literalization of this war of all against all, when dawn broke over the fact that the conspiracy is true. None of us are safe. Not even Kindergarteners.
¤
Connecticut’s Eagle Scouts answered the calls of grieving parents in the days after the shooting. I joined the funereal honor guard in full regalia between my bosom friends, forming a palisade of tan and red around the groans, tears, and despair inside Newtown’s Trinity Episcopal Church. Before December 14, 2012, Main Street’s only claim to infamy was congestion caused by an enormous American flag placed with defiance in the middle of traffic. But at the services, white vans with satellite dishes (some from reputable news stations, others from InfoWars’ ilk) mobbed Main Street. The regiment of Eagle Scouts held the ground around the church so families could mourn without facing a cacophony of coffins in the tabloids at checkout. The coffins were too small to photograph, anyway.
Newtown’s enormous American flag might still be at half-mast, though I wouldn’t know — I avoid the settled uneasiness of Main Street now.
The twinkling souls hushed five years ago are a reminder to millennials that we are never safe or secure. We learned, from children as cannon fodder, that America was fascist before Donald Trump. A system that absorbs the mass murder of six-year-olds with nothing but a shudder is not a system worth keeping.CEPS Director Daniel Gros has contributed a chapter to a new eBook published by VoxEU.org, entitled Europe’s Political Spring: Fixing the Eurozone and Beyond, edited by Agnès Bénassy-Quéré and Francesco Giavazzi. Encouraged by the election of Emmanuel Macron in May 2017, a group of leading economists from across Europe were asked to propose politically feasible and practical solutions in this new book to completing the eurozone’s economic architecture.
In his chapter, entitled “Try again to complete the Banking Union!”, Gros acknowledges the important steps that have been taken towards centralisation of bank supervision alongside bail-in rules to reduce moral hazard and the creation of a common fund for resolution. But he argues that the new bail-in rules have not been fully applied and that banks are too much exposed to their own sovereign. The Banking Union needs to be underpinned by a back-up system for national deposit insurance and an overall backstop.
Download the full eBook hereGeologist Dereje Ayalew and his colleagues from Addis Ababa University were amazed -- and frightened. They had only just stepped out of their helicopter onto the desert plains of central Ethiopia when the ground began to shake under their feet. The pilot shouted for the scientists to get back to the helicopter. And then it happened: the Earth split open. Crevices began racing toward the researchers like a zipper opening up. After a few seconds, the ground stopped moving, and after they had recovered from their shock, Ayalew and his colleagues realized they had just witnessed history. For the first time ever, human beings were able to witness the first stages in the birth of an ocean.
Normally changes to our geological environment take place almost imperceptibly. A life time is too short to see rivers changing course, mountains rising skywards or valleys opening up. In north-eastern Africa's Afar Triangle, though, recent months have seen hundreds of crevices splitting the desert floor and the ground has slumped by as much as 100 meters (328 feet). At the same time, scientists have observed magma rising from deep below as it begins to form what will eventually become a basalt ocean floor. Geologically speaking, it won't be long until the Red Sea floods the region. The ocean that will then be born will split Africa apart.
The Afar Triangle, which cuts across Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti, is the largest construction site on the planet. Three tectonic plates meet there with the African and Arabian plates drifting apart along two separate fault lines by one centimeter a year. A team of scientists working with Christophe Vigny of the Paris Laboratory of Geology reported on the phenomenon in a 2006 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research. While the two plates move apart, the ground sinks to make room for the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Bubbling magma and the smell of sulphur
A third crevice cuts south, splitting not far from Lake Victoria. One branch of the rift runs to the east, the other to the west of the lake. The two branches of this third crevice are moving apart by about one millimeter a year.
SPIEGEL ONLINE Karte Afrika Afar-Senke english version
The dramatic event that Ayalew and his colleagues witnessed in the Afar Desert on Sept. 26, 2005 was the first visual proof of this process -- and it was followed by a week-long series of earthquakes. During the months that followed, hundreds of further crevices opened up in the ground, spreading across an area of 345 square miles. "The earth has not stopped moving since," geophysicist Tim Wright of the University of Oxford says. The ground is still splitting open and sinking, he says; small earthquakes are constantly shaking the region.
Scientists have made repeated trips to the area since the drama of last September. Locals have reported a number of new cracks opening in the ground, says geologist Cynthia Ebinger from the University of London, and during each visit, new crevices are discovered. Fumes as hot as 400 degrees Celsius (752 degrees Fahrenheit) shoot up from some of them; the sound of bubbling magma and the smell of sulphur rise from others. The larger crevices are dozens of meters deep and several hundred meters long. Traces of recent volcanic eruptions are also visible.
In a number of places, cracks have opened up beneath the thin layer of volcanic ash that covers the region. As there is no ash in the fissures, it's clear that they opened up after the volcanic eruptions, most of which took place at the end of September or in October, 2005. A number of locals who fled the eruptions have reported that a black cloud of ash -- spewed out of the Dabbahu volcano -- darkened the sky for three days.
A new ocean floor on the Earth's surface
Basalt magma has risen into some of the crevices. For the moment, Ayalew explains, the lava seems not to be rising further. A number of recent eruptions, though, have left layers of new basalt lava on the Earth's surface. And it's the exact same kind of lava that spews out of volcanic ridges deep under the ocean -- a process which slowly pushes older lava sediments away on either side. The process has only just begun in the Afar Triangle -- and scientists for the first time can witness the birth of a new ocean floor.
The source of the African magma looks to be a gigantic stream of molten rock rising from beneath the Earth's crust and slicing through the African continental plate like a blow torch. It's a process that began thirty million years ago when lava broke through the continent for the first time, separating the Arabian Peninsula from Africa and creating the Red Sea.
Now, it's the Afar Triangle's turn and it's sinking rapidly. Large areas are already more than 100 meters (328 feet) below sea level. For now, the highlands surrounding the Denakil Depression prevent the Red Sea from flooding these areas, but erosion and tectonic plate movement are continually reducing the height of this natural barrier. The Denakil Depression, which lies to the east of Afar, is already prey to regular floods -- each flood leaving behind a crust of salt.
Africa to lose its horn
The chain of volcanoes that runs along the roughly 6,000 kilometer (3,730 mile) long East African Rift System offers further testimony to the breaking apart of the continent. In some areas around the outer edges of the Rift System, the Earth's crust has already cracked open, making room for the magma below. From the Red Sea to Mozambique in the south, dozens of volcanoes have formed, the best known being Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Nyiragongo.
These fiery mountains too will one day sink into the sea. Geophysicists have calculated that in 10 million years the East African Rift System will be as large as the Red Sea. When that happens, Africa will lose its horn.Seven months after Google began testing a service called Knol, a Wikipedia competitor, the company on Wednesday finally introduced it.
The search expert Danny Sullivan aptly describes Knol as “Like Wikipedia, With Moderation.” Articles on various topics are penned by individuals, and in many cases, experts — not collectively by the anonymous masses. Knol authors can choose to benefit from the “wisdom of the crowds” by letting others edit or supplement their articles. But those changes make it into Knol entries only with the author’s permission.
Knol, which, by the way, is short for knowledge, is making some people uneasy because it further transforms Google from a search engine that helps people find content into a site that helps people create and publish content.
Even though it will make money on many Knol pages with its AdSense program, Google promises that the objectivity of its search engine will not be compromised.
“We will treat Knol pages as we treat other Web pages,” said Cedric Dupont, a Google product manager. “If there is a Knol that is the first place in search results, it deserves that place.”
Of course, on many searches, it is Wikipedia’s ad-free pages that show up at the top of search results.
Mr. Dupont dismissed speculation that Knol was designed as a Wikipedia killer: “Google is very happy with Wikipedia being so successful. Anyone who tries to kill them would hurt us.”
There is a striking similarity between one aspect of the two sites. The text of Knol articles uses the same font as Wikipedia. Mr. Dupont said that is simply coincidence, as it is a commonly used font.
For now, Knol has only a few hundred articles, compared to the nearly 2.5 million in Wikipedia’s English language version. And for now, the best place to follow the debate on whether or not Knol is a Wikipedia killer is on the Knol entry on, where else, Wikipedia.The Citizen’s Basic Income Network Scotland offers comment and analysis on the Scottish Government’s plan to fund research into a basic income
THE CITIZEN’S BASIC INCOME NETWORK SCOTLAND has welcomed renewed discussion regarding the possibility of a basic income scheme for Scotland, with one of its trustees arguing that “at the right level” a basic income could “do away with poverty”.
The advocacy group’s commentary comes in the wake of this week’s new Programme for Government, in which the Scottish Government announced funding for research into the feasibility of a Scottish basic income, potentially making the first country in the UK to introduce such a measure.
A basic income, sometimes described as a Citizen’s Basic Income (CBI) or Universal Basic Income (UBI), would be a fixed amount of money paid to all citizens by the government, which is never withheld, decreased or subject to means-testing. Advocates for such a measure argue a basic income could significantly counteract the effects of low wages and alleviate poverty.
The idea of a basic income has gained prominence in recent years, becoming a regular topic of debate in leftwing and socialist circles, and receiving endorsements from such diverse sources as Scottish Greens co-convenor Patrick Harvie, tech magnate Elon Musk and the Indian government. However, critics of the idea have either questioned its economic feasibility or argued that it is overly simplistic and utopian.
A basic income has also been regularly discussed by the Common Weal think tank, which last month endorsed the idea as a key element of their proposed future social security system for an independent Scotland, in their policy paper ‘Social Security For All of Us – an Independent Scotland as a Modern Welfare State.’
"We believe that bold and imaginative projects like this deserve support, but we also recognise that the concept is currently untested.” Programme for Government 2017-18
Described by the 2017-18 Programme for Government as “a radical form of social assistance”, the programme revealed that several Scottish local authorities are considering how they can pilot “elements” of a CBI.
The programme further argued that "one of its attractions is that it may help those on the lowest incomes back into work or help them work more hours, while providing an unconditional basic income as a safety net”.
"We believe that bold and imaginative projects like this deserve support, but we also recognise that the concept is currently untested,” it said.
"Therefore, we will establish a fund to help these local authorities areas develop their proposals further and establish suitable testing."
Responding to the announcement, Dr Ben Simmons, a trustee of the Citizen’s Basic Income Network Scotland, told CommonSpace: “Funding research into piloting basic income in Scotland is a significant step towards a more equitable society, and we welcome the increased discussion of the issue that this will bring about.
“A return on investment in people is not measured in pounds and pence, and so any pilot scheme needs to have plans to measure the important intangibles that make life worthwhile.” Dr Ben Simmons, Citizen’s Basic Income Network Scotland
“As a society, we are faced with increasingly complex challenges around inequality and insecurity. The solution is not to pursue ever more complex solutions and mutations of the status quo, with the counter-productive consequences of poverty traps and financial dependency, but to embrace the simple and straightforward idea that each individual is deserving of the happiness, health, and security that an unconditional basic income would bring.
Asked what the measure of success would be for any future basic income pilot scheme in Scotland, Dr Simmons said: “A return on investment in people is not measured in pounds and pence, and so any pilot scheme needs to have plans to measure the important intangibles that make life worthwhile, and an acceptance that these will be hard to assess.
“Essential measurements around health, happiness, and social mobility will not be perfectly captured in the short window for a pilot, and a basic income implemented in a region, or a sliver of society will have a different effect to one implemented nationwide.
“A successful pilot is one which demonstrates a net benefit to those individuals receiving it, not only in absolute terms, but in comparison with the current system.” Dr Ben Simmons, trustee of the Citizen’s Basic Income Network Scotland
“A successful pilot is one which demonstrates a net benefit to those individuals receiving it, not only in absolute terms, but in comparison with the current system which can hold people back as much as it purports to support them.”
Amongst leftwing advocates, a basic income has often been proposed as a means of redistributing wealth and combating economic inequality. Asked how a basic income scheme in Scotland could be made effectively redistributive, Dr Simmons replied: “A basic income is redistributive only when it is set at a level which increases the incomes of those at the lower end of the income scale. A basic income set at too low a level would not be redistributive.
“A basic income is re-distributive in much more than a financial sense,” Dr Simmons continued. “It also redistributes opportunity, personal freedom, and a sense of hope and security across a society currently wracked by fear and anxiety.”
“The government is planning ahead, and is realising our society and economy are going to be remarkably different from the one of the past.” Willie Sullivan, director of the Electoral Reform Society Scotland
Offering further comment, Willie Sullivan, director of the Electoral Reform Society Scotland and another trustee of CBIN Scotland, told CommonSpace that, in his personal opinion, the CBI section of the Programme for Government shows “that the government is planning ahead, and is realising our society and economy are going to be remarkably different from the one of the past”.
Also commenting on the redistributive potential of a Scottish basic income, Sullivan said: “All the schemes I’ve seen are highly redistributive. If you look at Annie Miller’s book (A Basic Income Handbook, published in March of this year by Luath Press), any scheme that uses taxation to pay everyone a basic amount, not based on means-testing, is highly redistributive – much more than the current tax and benefit system. At the right level, it can actually do away with poverty.”
Asked what kind of success he would hope for from any future pilot scheme, Sullivan responded: “I think it would show, if there was less demand on social services, people would be healthier, because they wouldn’t have all the anxiety and worry. People would take part in education and training more; people might start up new businesses. There would be more voluntary and community activity.
“Generally, people would feel they had more meaning in their lives, because they’d be able to spend time with family and friends a bit more. They wouldn’t have that economic pressure of ‘work, or be poor’.”
Picture courtesy of deg.loResident Evil 7 Collector’s Edition is exclusive to EB Games in Australia
Resident Evil 7‘s Collector’s Edition is exclusive to EB Games in Australia, a new listing confirmed.
The Collector’s Edition is similar to offerings elsewhere in the world, with a 7″ Baker mansion replica, dummy finger-slash-16GB USB stick, lithographs, an artbook and two pieces of DLC.
The most noticeable difference between this and other Collector’s Editions is that the Baker replica isn’t a music box, but merely a replica. Additionally, Steelbook packaging is devoid from the edition. That said, JB Hi-Fi will offer a Steelbook version of the game, but no other goodies will be included.
The DLC packs included are as follows:
“Survival Pack 1” DLC: Includes Shotgun, Handgun, recovery, Burner, and Chem Fluid Sets.
“Survival Pack 2” DLC: Includes several useful consumable items, a mysterious lucky coin and an instant unlock of the challenging ‘Madhouse’ difficulty setting
Retailing for $299.95 AUD, the Collector’s Edition is available on both Xbox One and PS4.
Moreover, those that pre-order Resident Evil 7 will also receive a bonus Resident Evil 4 Remastered digital game code on either Xbox One or PS4.
Resident Evil 7 heads to Windows PC, Xbox One and PS4 on 24 January 2017.
Thanks, Omer.Modern Yoga versus Traditional Yoga
by Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati
Homepage
The typical public perception of Yoga has shifted significantly in recent years. This article addresses the nature of those shifts, comparing traditional Yoga of the ancient sages to the modern revisions. The article also includes quotes from nine different teachers whose names are well known.
The starting point of most classes, books, magazines, articles, websites, and blogs on Yoga are so different from traditional Yoga of the ancient sages that it can be fairly called "Not Yoga". The wave of Not Yoga seems to morph further and further away from Yoga.
"Traditional yoga" has historically been taught orally, and there are subtle nuances among various lineages and teachers, rather than there being some one, precisely agreed upon "yoga". Principles are usually communicated in sutra style, where brief outlines are expanded upon orally. For example, yoga is outlined in 196 sutras of the Yoga Sutras and then is discussed with and explained by teacher to student. Similarly, the great depth of meaning of Om mantra is outlined in only 12 verses of the Mandukya Upanishad and is expanded upon orally. Over 10% of the 700 verses of the Bhagavad Gita specifically contain the word 'yoga'. This article also does not claim that there is a single, universal "Modern Yoga". Here also there are many different faces. However, there has been a quite significant overall shift in the perception of yoga, and that is worthy of comment and ongoing examination.
Traditional View of Yoga and postures (asanas) Traditional view: To the ancients, Yoga is a complete system, of which the postures are a small, though quite useful part. The word "Yoga" referred to the whole, not merely one part, which is the postures, or Asanas. The entire purpose of Yoga is spiritual in nature, according to the ancient sages. History of Yoga: The history of Yoga can conveniently be divided into the following four broad categories: Vedic Yoga, Preclassical Yoga, Classical Yoga, Postclassical Yoga. (see whole article)
Modern View of Yoga and postures (asanas) Modern view: In modern times, the relative position of the postures has been elevated, so as to lead people to believe that the word "Yoga" refers to physical postures or Asanas, and that the goal of these is physical fitness. The whole and the part have been reversed, terribly misleading and confusing people about the true nature of authentic Yoga.
Telling Lies that are so big people will believe them The Big Lie (German: Große Lüge) is a propaganda technique. The expression was coined by Adolf Hitler in his 1925 autobiography Mein Kampf for a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously". Black is black and white is white. However, if enough people say that black is white and that white is black, it will be believed and staunchly defended by the followers of that delusion. This is also the case with Yoga. We now have millions of people who totally believe in the Big Lie that Yoga is a gymnastic, exercise or physical fitness program. The lie is so believed that I routinely receive emails attacking me about revealing or highlighting the true nature of Yoga through this and other articles. Homonym A homonym is a word that has different meanings. For example, left is the past tense of leave, and also refers to left contrasted with right. A few easily recognizable homonyms are: arm, bolt, change, file, grave, horn, letter, row, spring, tire, trunk, watch, and wave. The word "yoga" has become a homonym, with a traditional meaning having to do with the realization through direct experience of the preexisting union between Atman and Brahman, Jivatman and Paramatman, and Shiva and Shakti, or the realization of Purusha standing alone as separate from Prakriti, and the modern meaning of yoga as any of a wide variety of physical fitness or exercise routines.
Asana classes and asana studios: It is so unfortunate that the word "Yoga" has so often been used in place of the word "asana" or "posture" in recent years. We would not call a brick a "house" even though it is part of the construction. Yet, this is what is often done with Yoga. The first word of Yoga Sutras is "atha" which means "now," implying a prior preparation. One may do postures for years and finally be ready for Yoga. To call it "Yoga" before that time is a misnomer. If we had "asana classes" and "asana studios" that would be a great service to people. Then the word "Yoga" could be appropriately used for the journey that one begins when truly understanding the history and nature of authentic, traditional Yoga.
Yoga Body
From the book
"Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice"
2010, Oxford University Press
Mark Singleton "In spite of the immense popularity of postural yoga worldwide, there is little or no evidence that asana (excepting certain seated postures of meditation) has ever been the primary aspect of any Indian yoga practice tradition… The primacy of asana performance in transnational yoga today is a new phenomenon that has no parallel in premodern times."
(page 1 of the Introduction) "Singleton shows that, contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence in the Indian tradition for the kind of health and fitness-oriented asana practice that dominates the global yoga scene of the twenty-first century. Singleton's surprising and surely controversial thesis is that yoga as popularly practiced today owes a great debt to modern Indian nationalism, and even more surprisingly, to the spiritual aspirations of European bodybuilding and early 20th-century women's gymnastic movements of Europe and America, than it does to any ancient Indian yoga tradition."
(back cover of the book) Science of Yoga Review of The Science of Yoga,
a book by William J. Broad
Review by Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati There is a widespread misunderstanding of the nature of yoga that is well exemplified by William J. Broad in his book The Science of Yoga. Broad says in the Introduction that the book is about postural yoga, but he never again uses that term (at least, not that I was able to find). Instead, he subsequently uses the single word yoga, implying that yoga and postures (postural yoga) are one and the same, which is the common cultural myth of our times. The degree to which he had done this was not immediately apparent to me. It took a 4th and 5th reading to see the problem clearly. Broad says that we are now in a period of yoga 2.0 and predicts that in the next two to three hundred years we will see the coming of yoga 3.0 and yoga 4.0. However, he says that his baseline period--yoga 1.0--is the medieval ages (which is approximately the 1500s, though he does not elaborate on his intended dates), completely ignoring the previous thousands of years of yoga history, which includes the yoga principles and practices in the texts known as Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Yoga Sutras. Broad makes brief mention of this unrecognized yoga by saying that the yoga of Patanjali (the Yoga Sutra) is old yoga, apparently in contrast to his views of new yoga. However, it takes only a most cursory review of virtually any of the public faces of the new yoga to see that it bears no resemblance to the old yoga (using his term for clarity, not my agreement). Broad also uses the phrase modern yoga a few times. If Broad’s categories are in alignment with the common view of yoga (which they seem to be), then we can fairly say that this yoga is actually not yoga compared to the yoga of the ancient sages. There is almost nothing to be found of modern yoga, yoga 2.0, or not yoga in any of these ancient descriptions of yoga that would be part of old yoga. Once I noticed Broad’s classifications, it was fairly easy to read back through sections of the book and mentally insert postural yoga wherever he used only the single word yoga (After all, he said that the book was about postural yoga.). It was also easy to read back through sections of the book and mentally insert not yoga wherever he used only the single word yoga. Finally, it was also easy to read back through sections of the book and mentally insert modern yoga wherever used only the single word yoga. These three exercises gave a very different feel to the book. Once we see that Broad is talking only about the modern devolutions of yoga, it is easy to see that he has written an extremely clear and useful book about postural yoga or modern yoga or not yoga, as well as clearly summarizing the risks and benefits of the categories of physical fitness or therapies known as postural yoga, modern yoga, or not yoga. However, although it obviously appears to not be his intent, he has also done a great job of outlining the devolution of yoga in the past hundred years or so. In other words, Broad really does seem to view yoga only as a physical process dealing with fitness and health/medical treatments, and he writes from that perspective alone. I encountered only one place where Broad uses the term traditional yoga, a term I and others have used to contrast the yoga of the sages from modern yoga. However, he uses the term traditional yoga not to refer to the yoga of the sages, but to postural hatha yoga before it was altered/hijacked by the innovators such as Krishnamacharya, Jois, and Iyengar. I highly recommend this book. It gives great summaries of the potential dangers of not yoga, as well as physical fitness and health benefits, and if you read closely, also maps out the way in which yoga has been distorted in recent years. You also may notice that Broad offers no evidence or research showing any danger in practicing the introspective methods of yoga as explained by the practitioners and teachers of old yoga (known simply as yoga). Apparently the dangers he presents only apply to not yoga. There was not a single example of anybody experiencing any health problems from sitting quietly doing the introspective practices of meditation and contemplation, which are characteristic of yoga done for its original purpose, Self-realization. It would be interesting to see research on the risks and rewards of these meditation and contemplation practices of old yoga, but this is not the subject of Broad’s book. That may be very difficult research since so few people are |
draws close to the wide-striding Viṣṇu; there, in his highest footstep, is the fountain of honey. V.1.154.4–5, as translated by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty in The Rig Veda : An Anthology (1981), p. 226
Would that I might reach his dear place of refuge, where men who love the gods rejoice. For their one draws close to the wide-striding Viṣṇu; there, in his highest footstep, is the fountain of honey.
Play not with dice, [but] cultivate your corn-land. Enjoy the gain, and deem that wealth sufficient. X.34.13; translation by Ralph T.H. Griffith
Creation Hymn [ edit ]
Then was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.
What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?
Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day's and night's divider.
That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever.
Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos.
All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.
Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit.
Sages who searched with their heart's thought discovered the existent's kinship in the non-existent.
Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it then, and what below it?
There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder
Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and whence comes this creation?
The Gods are later than this world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?
He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it,
Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not. Mandala 10, Hymn 129 : Creation, as translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith (1896).
What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water? Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos. All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit. Sages who searched with their heart's thought discovered the existent's kinship in the non-existent. Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it then, and what below it? There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder
There was neither non-existence nor existence then; there was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond. What stirred? Where? In whose protection? Was there water, bottomlessly deep? There was neither death nor immortality then. There was no distinguishing sign of night nor of day. That one breathed, windless, by its own impulse. Other than that there was nothing beyond. Mandala 10, hymn 129, verses 1-2, as translated by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, in The Rig Veda : An Anthology (1981).
Whence this creation has arisen – perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not – the one who looks down on it, in the highest heaven, only he knows – or perhaps he does not know. Mandala 10, hymn 129, verse 7, as translated by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, in The Rig Veda : An Anthology (1981).
About the Rigveda [ edit ]Photo
Personal Health Jane Brody on health and aging.
What would it take to persuade you to exercise
A desire to lose weight or improve your figure? To keep heart disease, cancer or diabetes at bay? To lower your blood pressure or cholesterol? To protect your bones? To live to a healthy old age?
You’d think any of those reasons would be sufficient to get Americans exercising, but scores of studies have shown otherwise. It seems that public health experts, doctors and exercise devotees in the media — like me — have been using ineffective tactics to entice sedentary people to become, and remain, physically active.
For decades, people have been bombarded with messages that regular exercise is necessary to lose weight, prevent serious disease and foster healthy aging. And yes, most people say they value these goals. Yet a vast majority of Americans — two-thirds of whom are overweight or obese — have thus far failed to swallow the “exercise pill.”
Now research by psychologists strongly suggests it’s time to stop thinking of future health, weight loss and body image as motivators for exercise. Instead, these experts recommend a strategy marketers use to sell products: portray physical activity as a way to enhance current well-being and happiness.
“We need to make exercise relevant to people’s daily lives,” Michelle L. Segar, a research investigator at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Michigan, said in an interview. “Everyone’s schedule is packed with nonstop to-do’s. We can only fit in what’s essential.”
Reframing the Message
Dr. Segar is among the experts who believe that people will not commit to exercise if they see its benefits as distant or theoretical.
“It has to be portrayed as a compelling behavior that can benefit us today,” she said. “People who say they exercise for its benefits to quality of life exercise more over the course of a year than those who say they value exercise for its health benefits.”
Her idea for a public service advertisement to promote exercise for working women with families: A woman is shown walking around the block after dinner with her children and says, “This is great. I can fit in fitness, spend quality time with my kids, and at the same time teach them how important exercise is.”
Based on studies of what motivates people to adopt and sustain physical activity, Dr. Segar is urging that experts stop framing moderate exercise as a medical prescription that requires 150 minutes of aerobic effort each week. Instead, public health officials must begin to address “the emotional hooks that make it essential for people to fit it into their hectic lives.”
“Immediate rewards are more motivating than distant ones,” she added. “Feeling happy and less stressed is more motivating than not getting heart disease or cancer, maybe, someday in the future.”
In a study of 252 office workers, David K. Ingledew and David Markland, psychologists at the University of Wales, found that while many began to exercise as way to lose weight and improve their appearance, these motivations did not keep them exercising in the long term. “The well-being and enjoyment benefits of exercise should be emphasized,” the researchers concluded.
Dr. Segar put it this way: “Physical activity is an elixir of life, but we’re not teaching people that. We’re telling them it’s a pill to take or a punishment for bad numbers on the scale. Sustaining physical activity is a motivational and emotional issue, not a medical one.”
Other studies have shown that what gets people off their duffs and keeps them moving depends on age, gender, life circumstances and even ethnicity. For those of college age, for example, physical attractiveness typically heads the list of reasons to begin exercising, although what keeps them going seems to be the stress relief that a regular exercise program provides.
The elderly, on the other hand, may get started because of health concerns. But often what keeps them exercising are the friendships, sense of community and camaraderie that may otherwise be missing from their lives — easily seen among the gray-haired women who faithfully attend water exercise classes at my local YMCA.
In a recent study of 1,690 overweight or obese middle-aged men and women, Dr. Segar found that enhancing daily well-being was most influential factor for the women in the study. Men indicated they were motivated by more distant health benefits, although Dr. Segar suspects this may be because men feel less comfortable discussing their mental health needs.
“What sustains us, we sustain,” Dr. Segar said. “We need to promote what marketers call ‘customer loyalty.’ We need to help people stay engaged with movement by teaching them how it can help sustain them in their lives.“
Value Beyond Weight Loss
Many, if not most, people start exercising because they want to lose weight. But very often they abandon exercise when the expected pounds fail to fall off. Study after study has found that, without major changes in eating habits, increasing physical activity is only somewhat effective for losing weight, though it helps people maintain weight loss and shedding even a few pounds, especially around one’s middle, can improve health.
For example, researchers in Brisbane, Australia, and in Leeds, England, studied 58 sedentary overweight or obese men and women who participated in a closely monitored 12-week aerobic exercise program. Weight loss was minimal, but nonetheless the participants’ waistlines shrunk, their blood pressure and resting heart rate dropped, and their aerobic capacity and mood improved.
“Exercise should be encouraged and the emphasis on weight loss reduced,” the researchers concluded. “Disappointment and low self-esteem associated with poor weight loss could lead to low exercise adherence and a general perception that exercise is futile and not beneficial.”
I walk three miles daily, or bike ten miles and swim three-quarters of a mile. If you ask me why, weight control may be my first answer, followed by a desire to live long and well. But that’s not what gets me out of bed before dawn to join friends on a morning walk and then bike to the Y for my swim.
It’s how these activities make me feel: more energized, less stressed, more productive, more engaged and, yes, happier — better able to smell the roses and cope with the inevitable frustrations of daily life.Remember the study that found that cuteness improves focus and makes you more productive? Well, get ready to become very, very productive.
We've rounded up some absolutely adorable baby photos of species from all over the world, so take a look and let us know which one you think is cutest.
Baby ring-tailed lemur (Photo: Frank Wouters/flickr)
Newborn baby flamingo (Photo: RZSS Edinburgh Zoo)
Baby dolphin (Photo: Miguel Rojo/Getty Images)
A baby porcupine smells a flower. (Photo: David Newbold/Shutterstock)
Baby snake (Photo: kristy/flickr)
Baby anteater (Photo: Scott Barbour/Getty Images)
Baby fennec fox (Photo: Michele W/flickr)
Baby African grey parrots (Photo: Papooga/flickr)
Baby llama (Photo: Tambako The Jaguar/flickr)
Baby hyenas (Photo: Mychele Daniau/Getty Images)
Baby otters (Photo: The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images)
Baby hippopotamus (Photo: Tambako The Jaguar/flickr)
Owlets (Photo: bikeriderlondon/Shutterstock)
Baby squirrel (Photo: madaise/flickr)
Baby lizard (Photo: Daniel Lee/flickr)
Baby chinchila poses with pumpkins. (Photo: Ruta Doksiene/Shutterstock)
Baby pangolin (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
Baby capybaras (Photo: Lisa Williams/flickr)
Baby platypuses (Photo: EverydayFacts/YouTube)
Baby possum (Photo: Graham Higgs/flickr)
A greater one-horned rhino calf snuggles with his mother at the Wilds conservation center in Ohio. (Photo: Grahm S. Jones/Columbus Zoo & Aquarium)
Baby rat (Photo: La Tarte au Citron/flickr)
Baby armadillo (Photo: Stephanie Carter/flickr)
Baby camel (Photo: ActiveSteve/flickr)
Baby wombat (Photo: Greg Wood/Getty Images)
Baby skunk (Photo: gamppart/flickr)
Baby chipmunk (Photo: Audrey/flickr)
28 photos of unusual baby animals
From a tiny bottle-fed lemur to a platypus the size of your hand, these pictures will leave you scrolling for more.Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) is thinking about running for president.
Gutiérrez, who announced earlier this week that he will not run for reelection to Congress, told Politico that he is not retiring and is taking early steps toward a 2020 bid.
"I will be reaching out to people across the country,” he told Politico. “I am going to take the steps to guarantee [Federal Election Commission] regulations and rules about campaign financing, first and foremost, make sure I'm following the law … I want to build something national."
Gutiérrez has been a fierce advocate for immigration reform and told Politico that Democrats “didn’t do enough” to reach out to immigrant communities in the last election.
"I think I can bring a new set of eyes to the situation,” he said.
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Gutiérrez has held his seat since 1993, and his political ally Cook County Commissioner Jesús García has agreed to run for his vacant House seat.
Gutiérrez has also been a harsh critic of President Trump, especially during the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
The lawmaker told Politico that he and his wife plan to tour the country, a typical move in the early stages of a presidential run.
"We're going to talk, and I'm going to hear,” he said. “Maybe there's a lot of enthusiasm for it. Maybe in six months I'll come back and say, no.”Jon Watts, director of enterprise services at Deloitte, has weighed in on Bitcoin regulatory issues with clear and cogent arguments. Watts’ thesis is that Bitcoin is at the crossroads, and the race to regulate it could be happening much too soon.
Deloitte is a professional services firm headquartered in New York. Considered one of the Big Four auditory firms along with PwC, Ernst & Young, and KPMG, Deloitte is the second-largest professional services network in the world by revenue and largest by the number of professionals. The company provides audit, tax, consulting, enterprise risk and financial advisory services with more than 200,000 professionals in more than 150 countries.
Watts, based in the New York office, is a core member of Deloitte’s Capital Markets Technology practice and a national leader of the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) service offering. The reputation of Deloitte should ensure that Watts’ advice on Bitcoin regulation is taken into account by regulators and policymakers.
“The Bitcoin 'blockchain' is a fundamental breakthrough in computer science that solves what seemed to be an unsolvable problem: how to ensure that a digital transaction happens only once,” notes Watts. “Yet there is a critical question that is hanging over Bitcoin, potentially slowing the pace of innovation, and adoption, i.e., how will Bitcoin be regulated?”
Watts argues that global policymakers and regulators should consider giving Bitcoin more time to develop before insisting on regulation. Other key technology innovation such as the telephone, airplanes, radio, mobile phones, and the Internet, were given much more time to develop before coming under serious regulatory supervision.
“In fact, serious efforts to regulate disruptive technologies have traditionally been a function of the technology achieving mass adoption,” says Watts. Overwhelming regulatory supervision of Bitcoin is happening much too soon, only six years into the development of Bitcoin and “a long way away from the time it has typically taken for new technologies to achieve mass adoption in the past.”
In fact, Bitcoin is still very far from mass adoption, and represents but a very small fraction of the global economy. Though Bitcoin is all over the press – albeit often with shallow and sensationalist coverage – and venture capital investments in the Bitcoin space are taking off, only a tiny minority of people own bitcoin and use it to pay for goods and services.
“The highest daily dollar volume for Bitcoin transactions globally in February 2015 was less than $57 million, which is less than 1 percent of the average daily transaction volume for credit card platforms as measured in 2012,” notes Watts. Therefore, Bitcoin adoption is not yet skyrocketing with such a disruptive speed to warrant panic regulatory interventions.
Another important argument is that we could be still very far from real products that can generate true demand for Bitcoin-related services from mainstream consumers. In fact, Bitcoin's most valuable and important uses may have yet to be invented. Watts notes that Bitcoin is much more than just digital money – its real value is the ability of blockchain technology to establish trust between parties who don’t know each other.
That, Watts notes, may very well change how people live and interact. “Bitcoin is likely to follow a path where one innovation leads to another and ultimately, the very products, services, and capabilities that were once difficult or impossible to imagine, become necessities in our daily lives,” he said.
Watts worries that policymakers and regulators, in looking to protect the public from all of the bad outcomes we might anticipate today, could “end up stifling the myriad (as yet) unimaginable capabilities that could potentially change the world for the better.”
His concluding recommendation is that American industry groups, policymakers and regulators should collaborate and consider whether the United States should be the country that provides the most supportive environment for Bitcoin-related innovation.Wes Knight is on his way to trial with the Seattle Sounders over the next few days. Joshua Mayers confirmed a tweet that indicated Knight would be headed to Seattle for a several day look. The 25 on Tuesday right back/right mid played with the Vancouver Whitecaps in both the USL (was a finalist for Rookie of Year in 2009) and in MLS. He had 10 assists in the second division in both 09/10 but only notched a single assist in 805 minutes (10 starts, 2 other appearances). Knight's release by the Whitecaps stunned their fanbase.
While Knight is only on trial, chatting with Ben Massey of www.EightySixForever.com shows that he has some significant upside;
Technically, he's not yet starting material. He's quick, both in a straight line and in terms of agility. He crosses decently and has good instincts for when to get forward. His positioning, defensively, can be solid: he marked the likes of Juan Agudelo entirely out of a game. Unfortunately he does get caught in the wrong place sometimes and, while he has a good eye for passing, his crossing is only decent and his shooting ability is nil. Knight also used to have an extremely long, accurate throw-in, but that's been demonstrated less and less after a right shoulder injury late in the 2010 season.
He's also a huge fan favorite.
Wes was Vancouver's most popular player because he loved the fans as much as they loved him. You'd see him standing outside of Empire Field after a game or a practice talking to nobody in particular: just a fan who recognized him and wanted to say hi. You could count on him for an autograph, of course, but also for a conversation, for candour, and for the sort of "Southern hospitality" that's become a stereotype.
Knight offers Seattle a back-up at their shallowest position, particularly now that Zach Scott is getting so much time at centerback. The bridge from James Riley to the unknown future right back may have been found, and at a loss for the Cascadia brother to the north. This of course assumes that during his trial he emulates what Sanyang, Ochoa and Rosales all have done during a similar opportunity.Dads in the Limelight
Our 420th Dad in the Limelight is Ben Crawford. I want to thank Ben for being a part of this series. It has been great getting connected with him and now sharing him with all of you.
1) Tell me about yourself, (as well as how you are in the limelight for my readers knowledge)
http://3encrawford.com/ I’ve founded some companies and love adventure. One of the business ventures was the topic of a documentary. We live in community and my primary earthly identity is being a father. You can read a more thorough “bio” here:
2) Tell me about your family
We have 6 children. 5 that are living. I got married at the age of 20 to Kami. We have 4 daughters (Dove, Eden, Memory, & Filia) and 1 son (named Seven). People always ask us if we are “done”. If we are it would not be by our choice.
3) What has been the largest challenge you have had in being a father?
Overcoming porn, busyness, and identities tied to work and financial income to be emotionally and spiritually present with my children.
4) What advice would you give to other fathers?
Talk to old people and ask them what they regret or are proud of. No old person ever wishes he had fewer children, spent less time with them, or answered more email.
5) How have you come to balance parenthood and outside life?
I don’t know what this question means. To me “parenthood” is who I am. It’s not something to be balanced and there is no such thing as outside life. Every opportunity that my child is not with me, whether it be work or pleasure, is a missed opportunity to be with, enjoy, and train my child, AS WELL as learn myself more about God and my relationship with him. Parents are really obsessed with being a blessing to their children and we forget the the relationship primarily is that they are a blessing to us. We need to understand why we are not seeing things this way or we will keep on missing the point. I don’t know what this question means. To me “parenthood” is who I am. It’s not something to be balanced and there is no such thing as outside life. Every opportunity that my child is not with me, whether it be work or pleasure, is a missed opportunity to be with, enjoy, and train my child, AS WELL as learn myself more about God and my relationship with him. Parents are really obsessed with being a blessing to their children and we forget the the relationship primarily is that they are a blessing to us. We need to understand why we are not seeing things this way or we will keep on missing the point.
6) What have you learned from the fathers that you have interacted with?
Discipline is just a tool. Having well-behaved children is not the end game. Having children that are wildly in love with you, because you are wildly involved with them is more satisfying and a reflection of God’s character than having good kids.
7) What else would you share regarding your experiences as a father thus far?
We’ve done some difficult hard things as a family. 4 out of the last 5 years our family has hiked 95 miles around Mount Rainier together. Last year I ran 2 marathons with my son when he was 8. We started off all endeavors like that asking the question “How can we afford to do that?” but we end them all asking “How can we afford NOT to do that?”
8) What have been the most memorable experiences that you have had thus far as a parent?
When my children come to me voluntarily and confess their sin. Creating a space that is safe and where we model our own repentance and need for the gospel is better than fear and shame and so beautiful that it shocks me and brings me to tears every time I see it.
If you have any questions for Ben, please leave a comment here and I will make sure that he gets them so that he may be able to respond!
Also, do you know a Dad in the Limelight? If so, please email me their contact information so that they too can be a part of this series!
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Related articlesVideo (00:49) : After a rally outside the State Capitol, some protesters marched in downtown St. Paul, blocking some traffic.
A protest that started with about 100 people at the Minnesota State Capitol grew quickly Wednesday night as it moved first to John Ireland Boulevard then to downtown St. Paul.
Protesters, who chanted and carried signs, blocked some downtown streets. Their ranks grew as they marched west on University Avenue, blocking both sides of the street and shouting expletives about Donald Trump in English and Spanish.
The group, which peaked at about 300 people, circled back downtown and, at 10:35 p.m., were at St. Anthony Avenue and Marion Street, St. Paul police said. Officers were there directing traffic, but not interfering with the protest. There was no violence, police said.
The protest was one of several in U.S. cities in the wake of Tuesday’s election of the GOP candidate, notably in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Detroit and Portland, Ore.
“This is about what’s going to be done in our name,” said Peter Rachleff, a former Macalester College professor. “We’re all responsible. We’re better than this.”
Bobbie Scott said, “I’m here because I feel I have to be here. Other work will come later, but for now, I’m here.”
Gallery: Trump protest at the Minnesota Capitol Gallery: Trump protest at the Minnesota Capitol
Callia Blake, 17, and her 15-year-old friend aren’t old enough to vote yet, but came out to protest Trump’s ascension, too. “This guy, he’s a rapist, he just is awful,” she said. “I can’t take that; I can’t do it.”
JoAnn Hendricks, 67, was there with her friend, LaVonne Ellington, 80, who served as a poll watcher on Tuesday. “LaVonne and I didn’t vote for Trump. I’m not a ‘Trumpladite,’ ” Hendricks said. “That’s why we’re here. We didn’t know what else to do. I’m really sad.”
Earlier, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, some students had a shouting match over the election.
Students were struggling to digest the results of one of the most bitter presidential elections in memory.
“I guess it’s really setting in right now,” said Sam Wondimu, 20, a U health services major who was one of dozens of students gathered around a single laptop at the Black Student Union, watching as President Obama spoke about Trump’s election. “There’s a considerable amount of sadness,” Wondimu said, and “I guess a bit of fear.”
Moments later, a clash broke out between a black student and a white student wearing a Trump “Make America Great Again” hat just outside the black student group’s headquarters at Coffman Memorial Union.
Matthew Selmen, 19, said he was doing his homework when another man noticed his hat and started yelling at him, accusing him of being a racist. Selmen videotaped the incident, saying the man threatened him before leaving.
“I think it really comes down to ignorance on behalf of both sides,” he said, insisting that students were jumping to conclusions because he was a Trump supporter. “I don’t support everything he says or does,” he said, but “if we can’t have a conversation here, I don’t think that’s right.”
Others, though, wondered if Selmen meant to be provocative. “This is the second floor of Coffman, this is where multicultural students come,” said Keren Habtes, a journalism and history major. “So you come here with that hat? It seemed like it was very divisive.”
At Macalester, President Brian Rosenberg sent a campuswide e-mail Wednesday, noting that many on the St. Paul campus are feeling “grief, fear, anger [and] bewilderment” in the wake of the election and encouraging anyone “overwhelmed by these feelings” to seek help from the counseling center or other campus services.
In La Crosse, Wis., meanwhile, Chancellor Joe Gow of the University of Wisconsin denounced what he called a hate crime after someone scrawled the words “go home” followed by a racist epithet on an off-campus student residence. “No members of the [university] community should ever have to experience this kind of hate and intimidation,” he wrote in a campus e-mail. While he did not mention the racially charged presidential campaign, he wrote that hate crimes “do not occur in isolation,” and called on the campus “to work to create a climate of inclusion and respect.”
Racist graffiti at Maple Grove High School, shared on social media by students, has prompted an investigation, school district officials said.
“I’m horrified by this action, which goes against everything for which our school stands; it is completely contrary to our core values, both as a school and as a district,” Principal Bart Becker wrote in a letter sent to families of students. “We will take swift and appropriate action based on the investigation findings.”
Staff writers Rochelle Olson and Beatrice Dupuy contributed to this report. pat.pheifer@startribune.com 612-673-7252
maura.lerner@startribune.com 612-673-7384Even though the much loved Sons of Anarchy series ended back in 2014, it hasn't quelled the show's popularity.
While the original show isn't coming back, the series is reportedly getting a possible television spinoff, tentatively titled Mayans, and a new prequel comic series titled Redwood Original. In addition, Pop Culture Shock Collectibles is releasing new figures based on series regulars Jax Teller and Clay Morrow.
The figures come loaded with articulation, with over 30 points to pose and tweak to your liking. Both Jax and Clay are around 12 inches tall and feature uncanny likeness to both Charlie Hunnam and Ron Perlman. Jax includes 6 interchangeable hands, including one with a cigar and one with a knife. He also comes with a pair of sunglasses, a Heckler and Koch USP Expert, a combat knife, wallet with chain, and a display stand. The exclusive version comes with 11 total accessories, including more weapons like a Glock 17 and a Tek-9.WASHINGTON, April 2 (UPI) -- New federal charges were brought in Washington Friday against the founder and treasurer of the National Association of Special Police and Security Officers.
The superseding indictment charges Caleb Gray-Burriss, 60, of Washington with mail fraud, theft from a labor organization, obstruction of justice, criminal contempt and various recordkeeping offenses related to his operation of a pension plan for the union's members, the Justice Department said in a release.
NASPSO represents private security guards assigned to protect federal buildings in the Washington metro area.
Gray-Burriss, who originally was charged last June with four counts of mail fraud, will be arraigned on the new counts Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington.
Gray-Burriss is accused of spending more than $100,000 in union pension funds on himself or others.In an effort to dispel perceptions that he's a radical right-winger, David Koch told Barbara Walters in December that he's "basically a libertarian," explaining that he's "a conservative on economic matters, and I’m a social liberal.” Koch's comments hardly came as a surprise. Before he and his brother Charles calculated that they could best implement their anti-government agenda as Republican megadonors, David was the Libertarian Party's vice presidential nominee in 1980. Moreover, "socially liberal, fiscally conservative" politics are pretty much the norm among the corporate elite. They don't get exercised over abortion and gay marriage; in fact, they're often downright embarrassed by the troglodytic views of rank-and-file social conservatives. What really matters is that they're allowed to profit (and plunder) as they please, free from the overweening hand of the nefarious state.
So it will come as no surprise that the Koch political network doesn't exactly advance socially liberal values. According to a new analysis from Think Progress, the Kochs' political machine -- encompassing such organizations as Freedom Partners Action Fund and Americans for Prosperity -- has contributed $86 million to candidates and groups who oppose abortion rights and marriage equality since 2010 -- a total 1,000 times that contributed to candidates and organizations that voice traditionally liberal views on those issues. Of 265 elected officials who benefited from Koch-linked money, the report finds, all but nine opposed abortion rights, while a scant 12 supported marriage equality.
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It's enough for Think Progress to assert that the Kochs aren't really socially liberal at all. But there are two more salient takeaways from the data. First, it's a reminder of how Americans and their politicians have become increasingly ideologically consistent in their views. Tell me a politician's opinion on the Affordable Care Act, and I'll have a pretty good idea of what she thinks about abortion. So for the Kochs, supporting anti-regulation, anti-safety net, anti-tax, anti-climate science candidates and causes inevitably means supporting candidates and groups that don't adhere to their views on social issues.
Which leads to the second crucial point: As much as we like to think of politics in terms of social jousting, it's fundamentally about a society's distribution of resources -- "who gets what, when, and how," in the words of Harold Lasswell. For the plutocratic class, a sudden armistice in the culture wars would pose a particularly vexing problem: How now to distract the unwashed from gaping social inequalities, egregious corporate misconduct, and the steady erosion of workers' bargaining power?
Let us then grant David Koch that he is a social liberal. The real question is, why should we care?Middlesbrough target Stewart Downing reportedly has his heart set on a move back to the club where he began his career.
It was previously reported that Middlesbrough had bid around £5 million for Downing in an attempt to take him back to the North East. Although West Ham have told the winger he can leave, they are waiting until they sign a replacement before they finalise any deal for Downing.
Premier League side Sunderland were said to have had a £6 million rejected earlier on in the summer. Despite Middlesbrough’s bid being smaller, the will from Downing to re-sign for a club that is obviously in his heart could push the move over the line. However, another Premier League side Leicester City are said to be monitoring the situation.
Downing was in great form for West Ham last season, scoring 6 goals and notching 8 assists in 37 Premier League appearances.The topic of my Sloan project came about very organically. As soon as I decided to apply for the grant, I knew it was going to involve forensics. Then I asked myself, "What's the most common tool people associate with criminal investigation?" The answer was obvious: fingerprints.
After some preliminary research I discovered this very little-known but fascinating murder case that few people outside law-enforcement circles have heard of. It involves the death of two children in the small, seaside Argentine town of Necochea in 1892. As I continued my research into the state of forensics in Argentina and the rest of the world at the time, I came across some very fascinating facts.
Juan Vucetich was at the center of this case. During this time he was working on his own methods of fingerprinting, which was first developed in England. Although his views on criminal investigation, like his preference for evidence over coercion or torture, differed from those of his contemporaries, he wasn't met with as much institutional resistance as one might expect.
The anthropometric method, which involved measuring body parts and distinguishing characteristics, was accurate, but it was expensive, time-consuming and hard to implement on a uniform basis, because it required careful training. That's where fingerprints come in.
The fact that each fingerprint was unique had been known for centuries. In order to avoid fraud, the British even used fingerprints to pay pension benefits in colonial India. So naturally the reason that fingerprints became widespread was their simplicity and low cost. But even at the time of this case, prints were only used to generate databases of convicted criminals and to register immigrants, which is a whole other topic of discussion entirely.
The story seemed very topical, mainly for two reasons. First, the way law enforcement goes about investigating crimes has always been a huge problem, be it the imperfection of the methods used or the inability of police to process the evidence already at hand. Just look at how many thousands of rape kits in U.S. never get tested because of their sheer volume. Also, needless to say, even after more than a hundred years since the beginning of modern forensics, evidence too often is politicized and misused by the police -- which happens to be the case in the Argentine murder case in 1892. What was true in Necochea back then is true in New York and Los Angeles today. This brings us to the second reason that I was interested in this story.
I didn't set out to make a film about current affairs, but quite often they find their way into a narrative anyway. Torture being both a feature of this century-old story and a source of debate in the post-9/11 world of today is, of course, a coincidence. Aside from not being compelled to search for physical evidence, police at the time of this case used casual torture as part of their investigative toolkit. The surviving victim in the Necochea case pointed to a suspect who was promptly forced to confess through the use of torture, without any evidence. In his later years, Vucetich became an outspoken critic of torture and a supporter of human rights. He gave speeches all around the world, including in the U.S.
Today many forensic methods, including fingerprinting, are undergoing scrutiny, be it for their inaccuracy or for fundamental misappropriation, which is all the more reason for the majority of forensic methods to be viewed as tools to be used in conjunction with intelligent, thorough, unbiased detective work and not silver bullets to be used for filling up prisons often motivated by fear.The term ‘citizen soldier’ evokes a particularly powerful image in Britain. The poignant histories of the ‘Pals’ Battalions’, raised utilizing the attraction of geographical and occupational connections, have contributed greatly to the lasting public impression of the conflict. Names such as the ‘Accrington Pals’, ‘Glasgow Tramways’ and the two ‘Football Battalions’ have been documented in many forms – both fact and fiction – since the end of the conflict, and the frequently tragic stories of their involvement in the trenches on the Western Front are now relatively familiar.
There was, however, another citizen army raised during the First World War. Not based on location and not destined for the front line, these soldiers were enlisted with the specific intention of applying their technical skills to the industrial challenges thrown up by the Western Front. In few areas was this process more pronounced than in the sphere of transportation, critical to the maintenance and sustenance of the armies in the trenches. This post looks at just one of the directorates formed during the war to supervise, organize and manage the logistics network on the Western Front, the Directorate of Inland Water Transport [IWT].
At the |
developed a number of expansion maps, all based on real cities and towns, and each adding a unique twist on the game. We will not make much more of these than we need for the campaign, and we are not planning to make them available through distribution. They will cost 10 EUR / 13 USD after the campaign.
WE MAKE GAMES, NOT STRETCH GOALS
We will not let this campaign be derailed by "stretch goal madness", that will inhibit us from delivering the game as promised and in a timely manner. Our priority is bringing this game out to the world, and this is already accomplished if we reach our initial goal.
If stretch goals (or the lack thereof) are more important to you than helping us create a quality board game, then this is not the campaign you are looking for.
Furthermore, any added rewards we give out will be focused on quality, not quantity. We will measure our success by how much joy we can spread by this game, not by the percentage by which we surpass the funding goal for this campaign.
If you intend to attend Spiel 2014 in Essen, you may instead choose to pick your game up at the fair, along with 5 EUR in cash.
All rewards will be shipped from Germany. Our primary shipping provider is Deutsche Post/DHL.
EU backers do not have to worry about customs or VAT.
As some our our past USA backers know, we've had trouble finding a reliable partner for local fulfillment, and we are still considering our options. If we do find a company that can provide that, we will hire them.
Shipments to worldwide backers will have 35 EUR declared as the value of the package. That's roughly equivalent to 52.54 CAD / 53.18 AUD / 42.78 CHF / 4895.85 JPY, and should be under the threshold that triggers customs duties in most countries.
The following updates have been posted during the funding period:
The main page is locked by Kickstarter after the end of the funding period, so please visit the main Updates page to read more after that happens.
Game design: Alban Viard
Original illustration & graphic design: Sampo Sikiö, with contributions by Da-fanny
4th edition illustration: Todd Sanders
4th edition graphic design: Maciej Mutwil
Money: You
Sweat: LudiCreations
Nutella: FerreroCable's New Brilliant Idea: Charging You More Money To Skip Ads
from the same-shit,-more-money dept
We've noted for years how cable executives facing market (r)evolution just can't stop making bone-headed decisions. As cord cutting accelerates and ratings take a dive, many cable and broadcast executives have decided the solution is to stuff more ads than ever into every viewing hour, in some instances actually editing down or speeding up programs so the additional ad load will fit. That's of course when they're not busy trying to prevent users from using modern technologies like DVR ad skipping, relentlessly raising cable rates and perpetuating some of the worst customer service in America.
Quite often, cable executives try to obscure the sector's dysfunction by pretending to be innovative, and hoping nobody can tell the difference. The latest case in point: FX Networks has struck a new deal with Comcast that lets viewers avoid ads on some FX programs -- if they're willing to pay another $6 per month:
"For an extra $5.99 a month, Comcast Xfinity customers will be able to receive the FX+ video-on-demand platform with up-to-date episodes of FX’s original programming, including “American Horror Story,” “Fargo,” “The Americans,” FXX’s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and older FX titles such as “The Shield” and “Nip/Tuck.” “This initiative represents the first of its kind for an ad-supported cable network, and begins to put us on equal footing with premium networks and streaming services,” John Landgraf, chief executive of FX Networks, said in a statement.
There's several problems with this "premium," Comcast-exclusive effort. One, users are incredibly fed up with paying too much money for bloated bundles of channels they don't want, and raising prices in any fashion at this juncture is simply a bad idea. Two, these Comcast customers can already skip advertisements on FX programming by using a DVR, making paying an additional fee to do the same thing uninspiring. There's also a notable caveat with this effort: the ad-skipping only works on some FX programs, namely the ones the channel hasn't already licensed out to other streaming competitors like Amazon, Hulu and Netflix.
AMC Networks offered a similar initiative last month, also letting Comcast customers pay even more money to do something they can already do. In some instances these are broadcaster efforts to set the stage for their own more fully-functional streaming services in line with Netflix or Amazon. But every channel from FX to AMC having their own streaming service presents its own problem: namely one of fractured exclusivity. Or, a world where you have to subscribe to a litany of multiple, costly services just to get access to your favorite programs.
On the surface these efforts are designed to give the impression that the cable and broadcast industry are rolling with the punches and adapting to the streaming video era. But the act of charging more money to do something users can already do, combined with raising rates at time when cord cutting is accelerating only really accomplishes one thing: drive users back to piracy where avoiding ever-growing ad loads can be avoided entirely, for free.
Filed Under: ad skipping, cable, fees, tv
Companies: comcastLast month, Jason Baker wrote a great article on alternatives to Picasa. As it happens in open source, the collaboration that followed his article (in this case, in the form of comments by lots and lots of opensource.com readers) generated a whole new list of great open source photo tools. One that kept popping up was Darktable, which I use on a semi-regular basis, so I thought I'd write up a quick intro to this fine open source, cross-platform application.
Darktable is designed to be a photography workflow application, meaning that if you want it to act as the center of your photo studio, it can be exactly that; you can tether your camera to it, bypass the need for an SD card tool, shoot straight into Darktable, and then review your photos, do filter-based non-destructive edits, and publish. It's as complete a solution as you need.
I don't have the access to studio space the way I did at my previous job, so my use for Darktable now is solely as a digital darkroom.
Darktable basics
If you don't have Darktable installed, you can either grab it for Linux or OS X from github.com/darktable-org/darktable/releases or, if you're on Linux (and why wouldn't you be?), then you can probably find the latest version in your distribution's software repository.
When you first launch Darktable, the program may seem a little daunting. Its interface is unique, but once you get the hang of it, Darktable is actually pretty simple. There are a few different modes that Darktable can run in. Most are named aptly:
Lighttable: an array of images, as if you were looking at your film negatives on a, well, lighttable
Darkroom: the photo editing interface with non-destructive filters you can use to enhance a photo the same way you would in a darkroom (or, to be fair, at some later stage)
Tethering: for studio use, permitting you to shoot straight to disk
Map: a world map showing geo-location for the current image or images
Slideshow: a presentation mode, much like a slideshow
Each of these modes is accessible from the labels in the upper right corner of the Darktable window, but you'll start in the Lighttable mode.
Initially, you'll not have any photographs loaded, so the first step is to import images, either on a per-file basis or by directory. To import, click one of the buttons in the import panel, located in the upper left corner of the Darktable window.
You can import RAW images, or compressed images. When you import images, a virtual "film roll" is created and each photo is tagged as being a member of that roll. This is useful if you want to view only the photos taken during one specific shoot, or over your family holiday, and so on. Two things to keep in mind about this:
The film roll designation is only a tag. Photos are not moved from where they live on disk when you import them into Darktable, so it's safe to use tags to organize them within Darktable. You can tag a photo or group of photos with pretty much whatever you want. The film roll convention is a logical, film-like analogy that Darktable uses, but you can tag photos with any word or phrase that you find useful, and then filter your view of photos by tags.
Once you have imported a few photos, you'll see them on a lighttable-style layout. The lighttable itself can operate in two ways: it can just be an array of photos (file manager mode), or it can be a dynamic photo viewer with mouse-wheel zooming and middle-mouse click navigation (think Blender-style efficiency). To switch between modes, use the file manager pop-up menu at the bottom of the lighttable panel.
The lighttable is truly just a photo viewer; there's not much to it, aside from looking at all of your many choices, and possibly rating them (1 to 5 stars) based on how you (or your client) feels about them.
Most of your work will be done in the darkroom panel, so select a photo and click the darkroom label in the top right corner of the Darktable window.
Digital darkroom
In the darkroom view, there are three main areas of interest:
The left and right panels hold filter and property palettes. These are what you'll use to apply effects to your photograph. The center screen displays your image. The bottom thumbnail bar provides quick access to your lighttable.
If you feel you need more room to work, you can hide panels and switch to full-screen, and if you find yourself doing any action repetitively, you can even assign keyboard shortcuts for quick access.
Your workflow will probably start with the panel on the right. Any filter placed on a photograph appears in the right filter stack. Available filters are available in the bottom right panel, labeled more modules.
Try adding a filter, or enable one of the default filters by making a change to some value. I usually start with the levels filter to enhance the shadows and highlights of my image. This filter is tagged as a member of the tone group, so you can find it quickly by clicking the tone group button at the top of the filter panel on the right. The group buttons each show filters that belong to their group; to see what the various classifications of filters are, roll your mouse over the buttons and read the tooltip.
In the levels palette, adjust the black, gray, and white levels of your photo. You should see the results immediately. Of course, these are all non-destructive edits, so you can change your settings at any time. You can toggle a filter on and off using the on/off icon on the left of the filter title. This is the quickest and easiest way to see a before-and-after version of what you are doing with any individual effect.
All the effects you would reasonably expect to need as a professional photography are available, and each can be added as filters to your stack. If a filter is in the stack, activate or deactivate them with the on/off icon.
Let's step through a few simple modifications on a sample photograph to demonstrate one way of working. I've already applied a level filter, so next I'll use the colour correction filter. This filter is tagged as a member of the colour group, so click on that button in the top right quadrant of the Darktable window to reveal the colour correction filter.
Changing the color balance causes the filter to become active. You can shift the white balance as well as the overall saturation.
There are "special effect"-style filters, too, such as bloom, vignetting, and grain. These are found in the right-most group, the effect group.
Filters can have presets. Darktable ships with some presets already defined, but you can add your own, too. To access presets, use the menu icon to the left of a filter's name. For instance, if I decide that I want my photo to be black-and-white, I can either click the menu icon next to the color zones filter (one of the many filters that can produce a grayscale effect) and choose black & white film, or just right-click the color zones filter title and choose from the presets that appear.
Any setting you create in a filter can be saved as a preset for later use by selecting store new preset... from the preset menu.
Version flipping
Inevitably, you're going to reach a point in your work when you have a version of the photograph that you like, but you want to keep playing with filters to see if you can make it even better. The good news is that you can have your cake and eat it, too. There are two ways to do this: one temporary, and one persistent.
Snapshotting
Taking a snapshot of a work in progress is a great way to preserve one particular set of filters while you continue to work. A snapshot does not make a literal copy of the photo; instead, preserves the set of active filters that you, at the moment of the snapshot, have applied to the base photo.
Snapshots are meant to be temporary.
To take a snapshot of your work, click the take snapshot button in the top left corner of the Darktable window.
Once you've taken a snapshot, it's listed in the snapshots panel. As you continue to work, you can always compare snapshots to your photo's current state by clicking on a snapshot. This displays a split-screen view of the snapshot and your photo.
Duplicating
A more permanent solution to have one photograph serve as the base image for several final versions is to duplicate a photo. Like a snapshot, a "duplicate" photo in Darktable is not a literal copy of the base image; Darktable just saves the filters you've applied to a photo and shows you another representation of the base image with those filters applied to it, as though it had made a copy. This results in you having two versions of the same "physical" computer file in Darktable (but not on your hard drive).
To make a duplicate of a photo, go back to the lighttable view and select the photo you want to duplicate. From the selected images panel on the right, click the duplicate button.![dt_duplicate.jpg] You can now select one of the two images and continue editing in the darkroom.
Exporting
Eventually, you or your client will decide which photos to publish, and you'll want to export your work from Darktable. Exporting a single image or a selection of images is done from the lighttable view.
First, select the image or images you want to to export.
Reveal the export selected panel on the right and set the destination of where you want to save the files. Select the format and quality, and then click the export button. In my examples, I'm using relatively small JPEG files, so exports are quick, but if you're editing RAW, you might be able to sneak in a quick coffee break.
Customization
Darktable has a very respectable, albeit somewhat hidden, preference panel. To access it, go to thelighttableview and click the gear icon hiding up in the right corner of the lighttable panel.
Most of the Darktable defaults are reasonable, but if you're accustomed to keyboard conventions or averse to something Darktable implements (such as using the backspace key, generally used to delete, as the back button in the lighttable view), you can change almost everything about the keyboard layout.
Darktable
Darktable probably leans heavily toward the "pro photo" end of the spectrum compared to something like, say, Shotwell or Picasa, but if you're looking for a step up from those, or you're looking to improve your photo workflow, then it may be a great move for you. If you are a professional photographer, then Darktable is quite possibly everything you need from a digital darkroom app.
Try it out! Next month, we'll take a look at digiKam, and then LightZone.on •
LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — About a year ago, a Denver Colorado gay bar boot a drag queen after they decided Vito Marzano didn’t meet a “dress code.” The club, Denver Wrangler, caters to gay ‘bears’ and bans exhibition of ‘effeminacy’ with a dress code which forbids things like high heels and make up.
Marzano filed a discrimination complaint with the Colorado Division of Civil Rights and just recently, the division found evidence of wrongdoing and ordered the bar to mediate the issue with Marzano.
The general manager, Phil Newland, is still defending their actions and insist that they are not transphobic, and that the dress code is needed to, among other things, keep the door open.
This case is eerily similarities to a recent Portland, Oregon bar that made the same arguments — they weren’t transphobic, and they needed to keep transgender people out to keep the door open.
In that case the state of Oregon also found evidence of wrong doing and ordered mediation. The owner refused to come to an agreement which prompted the state to issue a $400,000 dollar fine. The defiant bar owner eventually had to close his doors.
——-
I don’t know which path this bar is going to take in response to the civil rights division’s action, but recent history show they have a real good chance of losing their bar if they don’t comply.
t/h: Christina Ann Marie DiEdoardo
Oregon bar fined $400,000: https://lexiecannes.com/2013/08/30/oregon-slams-defiant-bar-owner-pay-400000-to-banned-transgender-patrons/
Oregon seizes accounts after non-payment, bar closes: Oregon bar’s https://lexiecannes.com/2014/04/20/defiant-anti-transgender-bar-owner-loses-business-after-accounts-seized/
Colorado: http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2014/08/vito_marzano_denver_wrangler_gay_bear_ruling.php
——
Lexie Cannes — a great award-winning feature film about a trans woman. Watch it right now: http://www.amazon.com/Lexie-Cannes-CourtneyODonnell/dp/B00KEYH3LQ Or get the DVD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0963781332
LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS is associated with Wipe Out Transphobia: http://www.wipeouttransphobia.com/ Read Lexie Cannes in The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/courtney-odonnell/
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Categories: Discrimination, Equality, Civil Rights, Policy, Administrative, Transgender, Transsexual, TransBack in November, President Obama nominated out gay Judge William Thomas for a seat on the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Unfortunately, Judge Thomas is still waiting to be confirmed by the US Senate while many of President Obama's other judicial nominees appointed at the same time have already been confirmed. The Washington Blade today reports that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) and a little blue slip of paper are the only things standing in the way of advancing Thomas' confirmation.
When it comes to senate confirmations of Presidential appointees to the bench, senators on the judiciary committee are not the only ones who get to weigh in. Senators from a nominee's home state are involved as well and provided with "blue slips" they must then submit in order for the confirmation process to continue. However, as the United States Senate Committe on the Judiciary notes, "The
return of a positive "blue slip" is not a commitment by either home
state Senator to support or oppose, a pending nomination." The purpose rather is to "encourage consultation" and respect the senator's "interest in nominees from their home state." Though Florida's other senator, Bill Nelson, recently submitted his blue slip, perhaps due to recent media scrutiny surrounding his inaction on Thomas' confirmation, Rubio has yet to submit his, without concrete explanation, his office not responding, "to repeated requests from the Blade over
the past two weeks to comment on why he continues to hold up the Thomas
nomination."
Now LGBT groups and others are calling for movement on Thomas' nomination. The Washington Blade reports:
Fred Sainz, vice president of communications for the Human Rights Campaign, is among those calling for Rubio to take action.
“He should return the blue slip and allow this well-qualified jurist
to get confirmed by the U.S. Senate,” Sainz said. “The federal district
court system is already backlogged. There’s no good reason why justice
should be further delayed when Judge Thomas is ready, willing and able
to serve.”Pedestrians walking by two Calgary high-rise buildings are largely unaware of the battle raging 30 storeys overhead.
But this war is being fought with an unconventional weapon – Post-it notes.
Employees at oil and gas company Enerplus have adorned their office windows with an R2-D2, Wario and Pac-Man using Post-It notes.
"We're just waiting for them to retaliate," Enerplus employee Liza Rooprai told CTV Calgary on Tuesday.
She said the Post-it war started last month, when employees at a neighbouring building displayed their own Post-it creations.
The Calgary battle follows a highly-publicized Manhattan Post-it war, which ended with an epic mic drop late last month.
Rooprai said Enerplus's main rival removed the Post-it notes from their office windows on Tuesday, only for another office to jump into the fray.
She said Enerplus management has been supportive of the ongoing Post-it war as it’s boosting office morale.
"They're pretty excited that we're getting low-cost way of team building, given the current economy."
With a report from CTV Calgary's Bill MacfarlaneThe most shattering article that I have read recently about Latin America was written by Renán Vega Cantor, Associate Professor at the National Pedagogical University of Bogotá, which was published three days ago by the website ‘Rebelión’ under the title; “Echoes from the Summit of the Americas”.
It is a brief article and I won’t reproduce any part of it here. Those who are interested in the subject can look it up at the aforementioned website.
On more than one occasion I have referred to the infamous agreement which the United States imposed on Latin American and Caribbean countries when the OAS was founded at the foreign ministers meeting held in the city of Bogotá on April, 1948. Just by sheer coincidence I happened to be there on that date, helping to organize a Latin American students’ congress with the principal objective of struggling against European colonialism and the bloody tyranny imposed by the United States in this hemisphere.
One of Colombia’s most brilliant political leaders, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, who had managed to unite the most progressive sectors of Colombia politics who were in opposition to the Yankee monstrosity with increasing strength, had offered his support to the celebration of the students’ congress. No one doubted that he would win the upcoming elections in Colombia, but he was treacherously murdered. His death led to a rebellion which has now continued for over half a century.
Social struggles have extended throughout millennia, since human beings, through resorting to wars, were able to take hold of surplus production in order to satisfy life’s essential needs.
It is well know that the era of physical slavery, the most brutal form of exploitation, was still taking place in some countries until little more than a century ago; as was the case in our own homeland during the final stages of Spanish colonialism.
Even in the United States, the enslavement of African descendants continued until the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. This brutal form of slavery was abolished there hardly thirty years before it was abolished in Cuba.
Martin Luther King still dreamed about the equality of black Americans until almost 44 years ago, when he was vilely murdered on April, 1968.
The accelerated development of science and technology has been a sign of our times. Whether we are aware of it or not, this is what will mark the future of humanity. This is an entirely new era. What prevails in every corner of this globalized world is the real struggle of our species for its own survival.
As for now, all Latin American nations, particularly our own, will be affected by the process that is taking place in Venezuela; the Liberator of the Americas’ birthplace.
I barely need to reiterate what you already know: the close links that exist between our people and the people of Venezuela and Hugo Chávez, the man behind the Bolivarian Revolution, and to the United Socialist Party which he has founded.
One of the first actions promoted by the Bolivarian Revolution was medical cooperation with Cuba. This is an area where our country has achieved special prestige, and which is now recognised by international public opinion. Thousands of health centers, equipped with state-of-the-art technology and produced by some of the world’s leading industry specialists, have been set up by the Bolivarian government to provide medical assistance to its people. Chávez, for his part, did not choose to go to expensive private clinics to care for his own health, but rather he put his care in the hands of the same medical services that he offers to his people.
Our doctors have also devoted part of their time to training Venezuelan doctors, in classrooms which have been properly equipped by the Venezuelan government. The people of Venezuela, irrespective of their personal incomes, began to receive the specialized services offered by our doctors; a fact which has meant that they now rank amongst the top countries in the world in terms of access to healthcare and that their health standards have visibly begun to improve.
President Obama knows this perfectly well and has talked about it with some of his visitors. He candidly told one of them: “The problem is that the United States sends soldiers, whilst Cuba, however, sends doctors”.
Chávez, a leader who has not had a minute’s rest in the last twelve years and who appeared to be in robust health was, however, affected by an unexpected illness that was discovered and treated by the same specialized staff that usually treat him. It was not easy to persuade him of the need to pay maximum attention to his own health. Since that moment, and with exemplary conduct, he has rigorously followed the treatment prescribed without neglecting his duties as Head of State and leader of his country.
I would dare to describe his attitude as both heroic and disciplined; he never forgets about his obligations for even a single minute, and at times he does this to the point of exhaustion. I can attest to this fact because I have not ceased to be in touch and exchange with him. He has not stopped devoting his abundant intelligence to the study and analysis of his country’s problems. He finds the oligarchy spokespeople and the empire’s vile and slanderous remarks to be amusing. I have never once heard him utter any insult or vile remark when referring to his enemies; that is not his kind of language.
The enemy knows the features of his character and is currently multiplying its efforts with the purpose of slandering and attacking President Chávez. I, for one, do not hesitate in stating my modest opinion –which emanates from more than half a century of struggle – and that is that the oligarchy will never again be able to govern that country. That is the reason why the US government’s decision to promote the overthrow of the Bolivarian government under such circumstances becomes a source of concern.
Besides, insisting on waging a slanderous campaign, claiming that there is a desperate struggle within the leadership of the Bolivarian government to take control of the revolutionary government in the event that the president is unable to overcome his illness, is nothing short of a huge lie. On the contrary, I have observed the greatest unity among the leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution.
Under such circumstances, any mistake made by Obama could provoke rivers of blood in Venezuela, and Venezuelan blood is also Ecuadorian, Brazilian, Argentinean, Bolivian, Chilean, Uruguayan, Central American, Dominican and Cuban blood.
It is necessary to bear in mind this reality when analyzing the political situation in Venezuela.
Is it now understood why the workers’ anthem urges us to change the world by destroying bourgeois imperialism?
Fidel Castro Ruz
Edited by VenezuelanalysisFolks, this is some next-level SEC trolling. While the Auburn Tigers were up 40-10 in the fourth quarter against the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs, the stadium loudspeaker at Jordan-Hare played “Crank That” by Soulja Boy. The Tigers danced happily on the sideline as it played.
In case you aren’t aware or don’t remember, during the 2007 game, Georgia danced to this same exact song while up 11 points in the fourth quarter.
Georgia was able to score a touchdown to cut the deficit to 23, but the troll deed was already done and executed to perfection.
So quick recap here: Not only did Auburn take this Georgia team to the woodshed on Saturday afternoon, but it managed to throw some major shade at them, too. Shoutout to the DJ at Jordan-Hare — regardless if this was planned beforehand or not, this is one hell of a rivalry move.
We thank you for this mastery, Auburn.President Trump feels “completely and totally vindicated” by testimony that former FBI Director James Comey plans to give in a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday, his lawyer says.
“The president is pleased that Mr. Comey has finally publicly confirmed his private reports that the President was not under investigation in any Russia probe,” Marc Kasowitz, a longtime Trump attorney, said in a statement Wednesday.
“The President feels completely and totally vindicated. He is eager to continue to move forward with his agenda,” added Kasowitz, who Trump recently tapped to handle all matters related to the ongoing Russia investigation.
According to prepared remarks released by the Senate panel earlier in the day, Comey plans to confirm that he told Trump on three occasions — on Jan. 6, Jan. 27 and March 30 — that the Republican was not a target in the FBI’s investigation of potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government.
Trump made that claim in a May 9 letter informing Comey that he was being fired. Trump’s statement had been the subject of debate over the past month with several associates of Comey’s saying they doubted that the former FBI chief would have given such affirmative remarks.
While Trump will appreciate Comey’s statements about the three separate assurances, not all of his remarks will cast Trump in a positive light.
Comey plans to tell the Senate committee that Trump asked him to back off an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Comey will also say that he felt uncomfortable by what he saw as Trump’s attempts to “create some sort of patronage relationship.”
“That concerned me greatly, given the FBI’s traditionally independent status in the executive branch,” Comey will say.
Follow Chuck on TwitterFILE - In this March 10, 2017 file photo, House Budget Committee Chair Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. House Republicans on Tuesday, July 18, 2017, unveiled a budget that makes deep cuts in food stamps and other social safety net programs while boosting military spending by billions, a blueprint that pleases neither conservatives nor moderates. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite opposition from Republican moderates and conservatives, House leaders are pressing ahead with a budget plan whose success is critical to the party’s hopes to deliver on one of President Donald Trump’s top priorities — a GOP-only effort to overhaul the tax code.
The importance of the measure has been magnified by the cratering in the Senate of the Trump-backed effort to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law, leaving a rewrite of the tax code as the best chance for Trump to score a major legislative win this year. The measure would require about $200 billion worth of cuts to benefit programs and other so-called mandatory spending coupled with the tax plan.
The budget plan unveiled Tuesday is crucial because its passage would pave the way to pass a tax overhaul this fall without the fear of a filibuster by Senate Democrats.
But it also proposes trillions of dollars in cuts to the social safety net and other domestic programs and puts congressional Republicans at odds with Trump over cutting Medicare. It also would sharply boost military spending.
“In past years, the budget has only been a vision. But now, with the Republican Congress and a Republican White House, this budget is a plan for action,” said Budget Committee Chair Diane Black, R-Tenn. “Now is our moment to achieve real results.”
Unclear, however, is whether GOP leaders can get the budget measure through the House. Conservatives want a larger package of spending cuts to accompany this fall’s tax overhaul bill, while moderates are concerned cuts to programs such as food stamps could go too far.
“I just think that if you’re dealing with too many mandatory cuts while you’re dealing with tax reform you make tax reform that much harder to enact,” said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa.
Black announced a committee vote for Wednesday, but was less confident of a vote by the entire House next week; a delay seems likely because of the ongoing quarrel between the GOP’s factions.
The House GOP plan proposes to turn Medicare into a voucher-like program in which future retirees would receive a fixed benefit to purchase health insurance on the open market. Republicans have proposed the idea each year since taking back the House in 2011, but they’ve never tried to implement it — and that’s not going to change now, even with a Republican as president.
“Republicans would destroy the Medicare guarantee for our seniors and inflict bone-deep cuts to Medicaid that would devastate veterans, seniors with long-term care needs, and rural communities,” said Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.
The plan promises to balance the budget through unprecedented and politically unworkable cuts across the budget. It calls for turning this year’s projected $700 billion-or-so deficit into a tiny $9 billion surplus by 2027. It would do so by slashing $5.4 trillion over the coming decade, including almost $500 billion from Medicare amd $1.5 trillion from Medicaid and the Obama health law, along with sweeping cuts to benefits such as federal employee pensions, food stamps and tax credits for the working poor.
But in the immediate future the GOP measure is a budget buster. It would add almost $30 billion to Trump’s $668 billion request for national defense. The GOP budget plan would cut non-defense agencies by $5 billion. And of the more than $4 trillion in promised saving from mandatory programs like Medicare and Medicaid, the plan assumes just $203 billion would actually pass this year.
Democrats focused their fire on the plan’s sweeping promises to cut from almost every corner of the budget other than Social Security, defense and veterans programs. At the same time, they have little fear those cuts would actually be implemented.
Top Budget Committee Democrat John Yarmuth of Kentucky told reporters the GOP “utilizes a lot of gimmicks and vagueness to reach some semblance of theoretical balance and also hides a lot of the draconian cuts would be inflicted on the American people.”
All told, the GOP plan would spend about $67 billion more in the upcoming annual appropriations bills than would be allowed under harsh spending limits set by a 2011 budget and debt agreement. It pads war accounts by $10 billion. And, like Trump’s budget, the House GOP plan assumes rosy economic projections that would erase another $1.5 trillion from the deficit over 10 years.
The budget resolution is nonbinding. It would allow Republicans controlling Congress to pass follow-up legislation through the Senate without the threat of a filibuster by Democrats. GOP leaders and the White House plan to use that measure to rewrite the tax code.
As proposed by House leaders, tax reform would essentially be deficit-neutral, which means cuts to tax rates would be mostly “paid for” by closing various tax breaks such as the deduction for state and local taxes. However, the GOP plan would devote $300 billion claimed from economic growth to the tax reform effort.
But conservatives are insisting on adding cuts to so-called mandatory programs, which make up more than two-thirds of the federal budget and basically run on autopilot.
___
The story has been corrected to fix the spelling of Rep. John Yarmuth’s name.New Study Reveals Exact Date Jesus Was Crucified, Scientists Claim
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Researchers are claiming to have discovered the exact date that Jesus Christ was crucified, according to a new geological study released in an academic journal this week.
The geological survey, published in the International Geology Review, suggests that Christ was crucified on Friday, April 3, in the year 33.
The year of Christ's crucifixion has been widely debated in religious and scholarly circles, but geologists now believe that their research points to the most likely year Jesus was put on the cross.
"The day and date of the crucifixion are known with a fair degree of precision. But the year has been in question," geologist Jefferson Williams told Discovery Channel News.
To uncover the date of the crucifixion the scientists studied seismic activity in the Dead Sea by examining three cores from the Ein Gedi Spa beach, which lies adjacent to the Dead Sea 13 miles from Jerusalem.
Scientists decided to look into the history of seismic activity in the region because Chapter 27 in the Gospel of Matthew says that an earthquake coincided with the crucifixion of Christ.
"And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open," the Gospel reads.
After analyzing seismic activity in the region along with astronomical data, the scientists factored in information from all four Gospels, and determined that the best match for the date of crucifixion would be Friday, April 3, 33.“When I was growing up, I wasn’t actually that big of a drinker,” remembers Nick Garrick, the founder of Acidulous Brewing Company. He looks down at his beer. It’s the Mirage – the kettle sour being poured over at New Terrain Brewing where we met. “I guess it wasn’t until I moved to Boulder that my whole opinion on sour beers really changed.”
Acidulous, Nick’s brewery, has been putting beers on liquor store shelves for almost two years now. However, Nick, and Mary Agostinelli – Nick’s partner both in life and in business – have followed an unusual path to the professional beer scene in Colorado. Acidulous is what is known as a contract brewery. That is, Acidulous does not own any of its own beer equipment. They don’t have a taproom. The mountains of administrative and contract paperwork live on Nick and Mary’s living room table. The beer itself is produced at Crazy Mountain Brewery’s Denver location.
Contract brewing is an often overlooked road into the craft beer industry. For |
don't you go to, is that a... oh yeah Ultra Gamer Lounge?, I know you like to show dudes how you flick like a boss and that your Guile is bitching and ready for ranked bro!" Her college dude mocking truly is a delight. And she does knows me better than any other human in this massive blue orb. She sent me the address on a text and an upside down smiling emoji.
As I walk through the unusually quiet Mall, I try to keep my contact with others to the bare minimum, right now I have not enough energy to face others judging me.
I found the retro styled cyberpunk storefront, but, I did not go anywhere near it. It felt like my body was in autopilot. My eyes fixated to the window of that store in the first floor. I blinked and then I was inside that place. I was nervous... I'm not the kind of people that buys such things. I have no need for it... or at least I have never had the need until today.
The store clerk was very nice to me and did not judge me from being a weirdo and just pointing at the item I wanted. I could barely look at her but I'm pretty sure it was a young woman but any other detail was blurred by my embarrassment. It wasn't cheap at all but I needed to feel it. I walked out of the store with my eyes fixed to the floor wishing to be invisible.
I got home fast, I can't remember if I took the train or the bus... did I walked all- No that couldn't. All that I could do now was to make sure my door was locked, the curtains covering the window and then take that out of the plastic bag that was hiding it.
Took off my shirt and jeans as fast as I could without tripping, tossing them on the bed I sleep on, when I tried to remove my socks I realized my left shoe was still on there, attached to me. Once there was nothing more than my pale pink underwear covering me, I pulled my suitcase from under the bed and carefully search through it to find a light summer dress and the only pair of high heels I own.
I could see myself putting on the dress and shoes on the mirror on the door but it felt almost like if it was a dream.
After taming my hair into a bun and with the water green colored dress embellishing my body, I reached for 'the thing' and read the tiny paper with instructions about use and washing before using 'it'.
I turned to the full length mirror... and I could no longer see that sad, nerd, desperate Elsa. She was not in the room, she was not in the mirror. I took a step to get closer to the silver glass. In front of me was a confident precious girl in her sister's favorite dress, a wide smile in her freckled face, red twin tails resting on her shoulders.
Author's note: ~~Hi Hello Hey Th3re. This will be a sorta short story. I will try to keep it updated weekly but can't make promises, won't make promises. Thanks for joining me into this writing thing. Please give feedback on anything... Oh and before I forget~~ *Cue in Silent Hill - You're not here*At the National Review Institute’s Ideas Summit on Friday, House Speaker Paul Ryan had an interesting exchange with National Review editor Rich Lowry about the AHCA’s changes to Medicaid:
Lowry: You have been very clear for years—and we’ve seen compelling PowerPoint presentations—about how the entitlements and entitlements growing out of control is driving the country into a ditch on the debt. And we have a president of the United States who basically seems pledged not to touch entitlements. Where does that leave us?
Ryan: So, the health care entitlements are the big, big, big drivers of our debt. There are three. Obamacare, Medicaid, and Medicare. Two out of three are going through Congress right now. So, Medicaid—sending it back to the states, capping its growth rate. We’ve been dreaming of this since you and I were drinking out of a keg.
[Laughter]
Lowry: I was thinking about something else, he was thinking about reforming Medicaid.
Ryan: I was, I was! I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. We are on the cusp of doing something we’ve long believed in.
When Paul Ryan was doing keg stands with his Delta Tau Delta brothers, Medicaid provided insurance almost exclusively to poor families on welfare, pregnant women, and the low-income elderly and disabled on Supplemental Security Income. Today, in part due to Obamacare’s expansion of the program, Medicaid covers more than 73 million struggling Americans. Ryan’s AHCA gradually ends funding for the Medicaid expansion and allocates Medicaid funding to states based on the number of Medicaid beneficiaries rather than the actual cost of covering them as is currently the case. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 14 million fewer Americans will be covered by the program by 2026 as a result. That number could balloon if the work requirements and block-granting currently being contemplated on the Hill make it into the final bill.
The prospect of so many being dropped from Medicaid and states footing a much larger share of Medicaid’s bills has spooked more moderate Republicans across the country—the majority of states where the federal government currently spends more than average on state Medicaid programs are deep red and 16 states with GOP governors took up the Medicaid expansion. It remains to be seen if the chance to fulfill Paul Ryan’s lifelong dream of denying the poor government insurance might tug at their heartstrings.Derpy and Dinky baking muffins making a mess with the muffin batter. I've been drawing a TON of these two lately, but this is the first one I've found dA-worthy. Good god, these two are adorable. MLP artists, if you have these two in the background playing together for even just two seconds in one episode, I will love you forever and give Hasbro all my money....Wait, that's how it is already. Never mind.
For those of you wondering what Dinky's cutie mark is, since she fluctuates between various ones depending on what scene she's in, I gave her a bubble wand, complete with bubbles and magic glow. I did this because all the other members of the Hooves (or Doo) family are pegasi with bubble cutie marks. The bubble wand gives Dinky that family connection while at the same time highlighting the fact that she's a unicorn. I put way too much thought into very stupid things.
Derpy and Dinky Hooves (Or possibly Doo) belong to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis wasted no time in asserting his leadership after he was overwhelmingly confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Friday.
Almost immediately after his swearing-in, Mattis sent a letter to DoD employees, showcasing his legendary command style as he prepares to head the Pentagon.
“It’s good to be back and I’m grateful to serve alongside you as Secretary of Defense,” Mattis wrote. “Together with the Intelligence Community, we are the sentinels and guardians of our nation. We need only look to you, the uniformed and civilian members of the Department and your families, to see the fundamental unity of our country.”
New US Sec Def James Mattis' message to DoD employees following swearing in pic.twitter.com/nt3GmLvG7F — Idrees Ali (@idreesali114) January 21, 2017
He continued:
“You represent an America committed to the common good; an America that is never complacent about defending its freedoms; and America that remains a steady beacon of hope for all mankind. Every action we take will be designed to ensure our military is ready to fight today and in the future. Recognizing that no nation is secure without friends, we will work with the State Department to strengthen our alliances. Further, we are devoted to gaining full value from every taxpayer dollar spent on defense, thereby earning the trust of Congress and the American people.”
In conclusion, Mattis expressed confidence that everyone working alongside him at the Defense Department is up to the task.
“I am confident you will do your part,” he concluded. “I pledge to you I’ll do my best as your Secretary.”
Mattis also revealed in his letter how he would avoid conflicts of interest due to his previously undisclosed and unreleased book.
https://twitter.com/PaulSzoldra/status/818539457007620097
Mattis, 66, was sworn in on Friday after President Donald Trump and Congress approved a break with decades of precedent in allowing a recently retired general to serve as secretary of defense. Mattis retired in 2013 as chief of U.S. Central Command.
Mattis coming out of retirement has been with great fanfare from military veterans, who believe the former Marine general’s impressive record of combat experience will make his an outstanding defense secretary.Former director of mental health services in Gauteng Dr Makgabo Manamela was to continue giving evidence at the Esidimeni hearing in Parktown, Johannesburg on Tuesday.
JOHANNESBURG - Former director of mental health services in Gauteng Dr Makgabo Manamela has delayed proceedings at the Esidimeni arbitration hearing after calling in ill.
Manamela was to continue giving evidence at the Esidimeni hearing in Parktown, Johannesburg on Tuesday.
The patients were moved from Life Esidimeni facilities to ill-equipped NGOs by the Gauteng Health Department.
Manamela’s lawyer Lerato Mashilane has told those gathered on Tuesday that his client is ill and has gone to see a doctor.
“We’ve got instructions that my client is actually not feeling well today. In fact what I’ve got is that yesterday she thought that maybe she might have been tired and it will be better by this morning but things got worse.”
Family members, who are dressed in black in remembrance of their loved ones, started to heckle, calling her a liar.
Solidarity’s Dirk Groenewald, who represents the families of three people who died, says Manamela simply has no respect for the hearings.
“Justice, we take issue with the manner in which Dr Manamela treats these arbitration proceedings. It's 10am, she’s now only at the doctor’s.”
Families are chanting outside the venue, waiting to hear exactly when Manamela can come back to continue testifying.
#LifeEsidimeni Doctor Manamela’s lawyer tells arbitration that she has called to say that she is not feeling well, and is going to see a doctor. MR — EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) November 21, 2017
#LifeEsidimeni Her lawyer asks that we stand down until 11:30 so that she is attended to by a doctor, and we can then find out whether she can come today or tomorrow. MR — EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) November 21, 2017
Manamela began testifying at the arbitration hearings on Monday after a three-hour attempt to have her testimony postponed, but retired deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, who is leading the arbitration hearings, dismissed the application.
She’s been implicated by several witnesses who said that she pushed illegal activity during the execution of the disastrous marathon project that left at least 143 patients dead.
On Monday, she admitted that she allowed NGOs to take psychiatric patients from Life Esidimeni facilities without having made the owners sign service level agreements.
WATCH: Esidimeni hearing continues as Manamela calls in illPapers by Peter van Inwagen
This is a collection of philosophical papers by Peter van Inwagen, categorized somewhat arbitrarily. Eventually, I hope to make it complete.
General Metaphysics
Free Will
Material Objects and Human Persons
Philosophy of Religion
Logic and Language
Misc.
Encyclopedia Entries.
(2007) "Metaphysics" Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
. (1998) "Incarnation and Christology" "Lewis, David", "Trinity", "Resurrection", Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
. (1998) "Ontological Arguments", Philosophy of Religion: A Guide to the Subject (Davies, ed.): 54-58.
(Davies, ed.): 54-58. (1996) "Persistence", The Encyclopedia of Philosophy Supplement.
. (1995) "Subsistence", The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy.
. (1991) "Entia Successiva", "Determinism", Handbook of Metaphysics and Ontology (Burkhardt, Smith, eds.).
Reviews
Books
Maintained by Andrew M. Bailey. I maintain similar collections of papers by John Martin Fischer, David Lewis, and Alvin Plantinga.
(Last updated: 11 November 2018)Patrick A. Hope, a state delegate who is among 11 Democrats seeking the party’s nomination in Virginia’s 8th Congressional District, won the Arlington Young Democrats’ straw poll Wednesday, claiming 53 votes.
Hope (Arlington), 42, had 57 percent of the vote, far outstripping the next candidate, Alfonso Lopez, who received 16 votes, said the group’s president, Max Burns.
There were seven votes for Lavern Chatman, former president of the Northern Virginia Urban League; four each for Del. Charniele L. Herring, and state Sen. Adam P. Ebbin; three for Navy veteran Bruce Shuttleworth; two for Virginia Tech professor Derek Hyra (at 40, the only candidate younger than Hope); and one each for former lieutenant governor Don Beyer, Alexandria Mayor William D. Euille and radio talk show host Mark Levine. Arlington resident Nancy Najarian, who is also running, was not on the ballot, Burns said.
“I have said before that this campaign is about choosing a new generation of progressive leadership,” Hope said in a statement. “This victory shows that young progressive activists are rallying behind our campaign.”
Straw polls are unofficial “beauty contests,” recording the preferences of those who turn up at a particular event. But the ability of campaigns to organize a turnout of supporters, especially early on, can indicate who is running a competitive race.
Hope’s campaign also claims straw poll wins from two online polls, sponsored by the local Sun-Gazette newspaper and the Blue Virginia political blog, as well as a poll taken at Arlington County Treasurer Frank O’Leary’s St. Patrick’s Day party for local Democrats.
Beyer has won two straw polls, one at the St. Patrick’s Day gathering of U.S. Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) and another at the Mount Vernon Democrats’ Mardi Gras party.
The Alexandria Democratic Committee will have another straw poll in two weeks.
The district includes portions of Fairfax and Arlington counties and the city of Alexandria. It’s considered one of the safest Democratic seats in the nation and has been represented since 1990 by Rep. James P. Moran Jr., who is not running for reelection.Livia Renata Souza is a submission artist first, but the strawweight champion showed off her striking skills with a knockout of DeAnna Bennett at Invicta FC 15.
Souza (9-0) said she’s ready to show what she can do on the feet once again if that’s what Invicta FC 17 opponent Angela Hill (4-2) wants.
The bout serves as the co-main event of Saturday’s card, which takes place at The Hangar at OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa, Calif. The event streams live on UFC Fight Pass.
Hill’s record isn’t sparkling on paper, but “The Ultimate Fighter 20” veteran fought three times in the octagon, and a win over a former UFC competitor is always a nice addition to any fighter’s resume. Souza, who’s ranked No. 5 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA women’s strawweight rankings, told MMAjunkie she’s not ignorant of that fact.
“No one gets into the UFC by chance,” Souza said. “Without a doubt, it would be a great experience for me, both as a person and as an athlete, (to beat her). And to compare me against fighters from the UFC might seem interesting in theory. But in practice, a fighter always has a 50-50 chance of winning once the cage door closes.
“Without a doubt, Angela Hill has studied my game, as I have hers. But I don’t expect her to repeat any of her past mistakes. Likewise, she shouldn’t be looking for of my past mistakes either. I’m going to be much more surgical and aware. For me, it’s a great opportunity and a pleasure to face a former UFC fighter. It doesn’t worry me in any way. It actually motivates me. It’s just another title defense. I’m going there to win whether it takes me 10 seconds or 25 minutes. I just don’t want it to go the judges’ cards. I’ll prove why this belt belongs to me. ”
Souza has yet to taste defeat since turning pro in March 2013. She’s been dominant in that time, and she’s been pushed to the third round only twice in her nine career bouts.
Despite a spotless record against some of the best in the world, Souza said she isn’t stressed by a need to remain perfect.
“I don’t feel pressure in staying undefeated,” Souza said. “One fact in everyone’s life is death. Death is unavoidable. But that doesn’t mean we should stop living. So I never feel pressure. My opponents might be looking to take away my undefeated streak and world championship, but at the same time, they realize that I didn’t defeat nine opponents by accident. But my record is just a number. My reality is training and putting constant effort into always improving. My MMA career is still relatively short. I believe that, as time goes by, I’ll evolve even more. I’ll keep addressing my weaknesses and further improving my strong points.”
After a two-fight losing skid led to her UFC release, Hill rattled off a pair of TKO wins in the Invicta FC cage to earn her shot at the title.
She’s a dangerous striker, as seen in her knockouts of Alida Gray and Stephanie Eggink. Despite that danger, Souza said she isn’t ready to rule out a striking battle with Hill.
“During a fight, I just let things flow,” Souza said. “I’m ready for whatever happens. If she wants to strike on the feet, we’ll do that. If she wants to wrestle, that’s fine too. And if goes to jiu-jitsu, she knows very well what awaits her. Her past opponents have a ground game much inferior to mine. In my opinion, I have the best ground game in women’s MMA. If we hit the ground, there’s no doubt what will happen to her.
“Her best chance with me is standing. As I demonstrated in my last fight, I’m much more comfortable striking. I have very good timing, both attacking and counterattacking. And, if it hits the mat, it’s checkmate. If she prefers to bang it out, she should expect some heavy lead.”
For more on Invicta FC 17, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.During an interview on radio station WVON 1690 am this week Chicago’s Police Chief Gary McCarthy surprised listeners when he commented on the upcoming concealed carry law that must be passed in Illinois within the next six months. McCarthy made a scary prediction that citizens carrying legally could be shot by Chicago police.
News in Black reported, via Guns Save Life:
“You put more guns on the street expect more shootings,” McCarthy said. “I don’t care if they’re licensed legal firearms, people who are not highly trained… putting guns in their hands is a recipe for disaster. So I’ll train our officers that there is a concealed carry law, but when somebody turns with a firearm in their hand the officer does not have an obligation to wait to get shot to return fire and we’re going to have tragedies as a result of that. I’m telling you right up front.”
McCarthy would not say what specific training officers will undertake if any. However, he did admit that in the past his department has made mistakes in shooting unarmed civilians. He believes the concealed carry law will increase those types of unfortunate incidents.#MemeOfTheWeek: Hillary Clinton, The New York Subway And Authenticity
Enlarge this image toggle caption Richard Drew/AP Richard Drew/AP
The things they do for love.
Politicians will eat almost any food, adopt any colloquialism, endure any level of awkward — just to seem "authentic."
The latest example? Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, riding the New York subway through the Bronx, saying hi to babies and taking selfies along the way.
Depending on your point of view, the event — and it was an event — could be viewed as either a shining testament to Clinton's New York bona fides, or just the latest example of how out of touch she is.
Here's how it all happened.
Hillary Clinton rides the subway. pic.twitter.com/awi8Hgqsyt — Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) April 7, 2016
Earlier this week, in a wide-ranging interview with the New York Daily News, Bernie Sanders admitted to thinking New York City subway riders still use tokens to get on the train. (They don't. Since 2003, cards have been used.)
Soon after, Clinton boarded the subway herself, seemingly to out-New York Sanders. (Both have roots in the state: Sanders was born in Brooklyn and attended high school and college there. Clinton served as U.S. senator from New York for eight years, and still lives in the state.)
Clinton came to the train with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and an extensive security detail. From the start, things didn't go as planned. It took Clinton five swipes just to get through the turnstile (three more swipes than stops in Clinton's actual ride).
WATCH: Michele Bachmann schools Hillary Clinton on using the NYC subway https://t.co/5KDScOGj9Z pic.twitter.com/bF5sfykkMT — Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 8, 2016
On the train, Clinton tried to engage a young woman with headphones on. That woman was not impressed.
CNN reported that at Clinton's second stop, one passenger, "surrounded by media and nervous Secret Service agents, proclaimed that she needed to get off the train." That passenger ended up missing her stop. (#ThanksHillary.)
I like the person standing behind Hillary Clinton on the subway who left their headphones on, just enjoying their commute. — Abby Abrams (@abbyabrams) April 7, 2016
Here’s hoping Hillary’s subway ride includes one of these moments pic.twitter.com/kQjgY8y2KC — Kia Makarechi (@Kia_Mak) April 7, 2016
Once she got off in the Bronx, things went a little better for Clinton. She spoke with locals, stopped by a small shop and even smiled for a few babies in strollers. For all the awkward moments, the candidate did seem to have some fun, and she was met by supporters all along the way, some even chanting their support for her.
But, there was criticism. Clinton hasn't driven since the '90s, and it's fair to assume she's not a regular subway rider. (Her New York home is north of the city in posh suburb Chappaqua.) Some questioned just how long it's been since she'd actually been on a train.
.@jpodhoretz I am going to take a wild guess Hillary has not been on the subway much since this photo op in 1992 pic.twitter.com/IBWBICGntS — Evi L. Bloggerlady (@MsEBL) April 5, 2016
Hillary eats at Chipotle to act normal, followed by norovirus outbreak. I'd stay off of NY subway for the next few months#TheFive — Rounds (@RoundsR) April 7, 2016
There was even a debate online about whether Clinton's subway ride, which some viewed as a campaign event, was legal.
Whatever the case, for us here, the trip seemed a bit lacking. There are several things we'd have liked Clinton to do, to really duplicate a true (or stereotypical) New York subway experience:
-She should have been on a car with subway dancers, working for tips. "What time is it? SHOWTIME!"
-She should have made a stop at a local bodega.
-Once there, she should have brought some lottery tickets.
-She also should have petted the bodega cat. You know there would have been a bodega cat.
-She shouldn't have tried to talk to anyone on the train. 'Cause, yeah, just don't do that.
-Someone should have offered her a mixtape, or some essential oils.
-She should have seen a couple get into a tear-filled argument at some point in her ride.
-She should have had to wait — a long time — for her train.
Clinton, in her struggle for authenticity, is not alone.
Republican John Kasich was dinged last week for eating New York pizza with a fork. (And then making up for it shouting "Mamma Mia" over a plate of pasta in a Bronx deli.)
Ted Cruz made matzo, awkwardly, with children for Passover this week.
I can't make up my mind what was more funny @Hillary_C1inton going on the Subway or @tedcruz making Maza in Brooklyn #Trump2016 — beyaself (@beyaself1) April 8, 2016
Every politician, just about everywhere, eats more fried food than they should, just to be an everyman (or woman).
There is a larger question in all of this: Why are politicians so concerned with proving their authenticity? Or, better yet, why do they think we care so much about it? And that raises yet another one: Do we?
For what it's worth, Bernie Sanders seemed to one-up Clinton by the end of the week. He appeared on ABC's The View, where the hosts gave him his very own subway card. And he ate a piece of New York pizza properly: folded, no fork or knife.Less than two days after it began, inXile's Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund a sequel to 1988 post-apocalyptic RPG Wasteland has reached its goal and smashed past the $1 million mark, with no signs of slowing down.
At the time of writing, the project has raised $1,004,267, well clear of the $900,000 goal laid out at the start of the fundraiser. That means Wasteland 2 is officially cleared to begin development.
But remember: just because the game's been funded doesn't mean you should stop donating. The team already has already announced that the project will become far more ambitious as their budget becomes larger. At $1.25 million, they intend to make the game much larger in scale, with more maps, music, and divergent stories. If they manage to round up more than $1.5 million, they'll bring the game to Mac OSX and Linux and dedicate the rest of the resources to making the game even bigger in scope.
If you've yet to chip in, why not head on over and become a part of gaming history?192 cars are set to take on the Nürburgring Nordscleife for the first VLN round of the 2017 season on Saturday, with 34 of them GT3 cars entered in the SP9 category.
Within SP9, eight manufacturers are represented across nine models.
BMW will have the most customer teams, with nine M6s and a Z4 GT3 from Walkenhorst, ROWE Racing, Schubert Motorsport, Falken Motorsports and M6 GT3 debutant Schnitzer Motorsport.
The driver lineups are strong, with factory drivers spread across all five teams. The race will see Tom Onslow-Cole and Antonio Felix Da Costa among others make their debuts with the marque in the series. Alex Lynn meanwhile will be driving a BMW 325i with Walkenhorst Motorsport this weekend with ex-F1 driver Will Stevens to secure his permit.
Mercedes is also strong in numbers, with eight AMG GT3s on the list. Entries from HTP Motorsport, Black Falcon and HARIBO Racing headline the star-studded lineup for the Stuttgart-based brand which is preparing for another N24 title challenge. Five of the AMG GT3s which will race are factory supported for this season, with a storyline to follow being ex-DTM ace Edoardo Mortara racing with HTP for the first time.
The other German brands on the list – Audi and Porsche – meanwhile, bring five cars apiece to the party, with both providing factory support to customer teams also.
For Porsche, all eyes will be on Laurens Vanthoor, who is taking on the ‘Ring with it for the first time this weekend as part of Falken Motorsports’ two-car effort. He’ll partner Jorg Bergmeister and Martin Ragginger.
At Audi, Land Motorsport will take a step up to an Audi-Sport team with Chris Mies, Connor De Phillippi and Markus Winkelhock in the #28, and Pierre Kaffer and Christopher Haase in the #29. Land is a team to look out for going forward after an impressive season racing in the VLN and ADAC GT Masters last year.
The remaining entries in SP9 meanwhile are set to be filled by Rinaldi’s Wochenspiegel Team Mojschau-badged Ferrari 488, a single Zakspeed Nissan GT-R for Tom Cornel, a pair of Bentley-supported Team Abt Continentals and a Konrad-run Lamborghini Huracan.
Further down the order there’s also plenty of interest in addition to those mentioned in DSC’s rookie runners piece.
Traum Motorsport will be running an SPX Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus SGC003C against a Renault R.S.01 from GTronix360° Team, the Aston Martin Test Centre is bringing V12 and V8 Vantages in SP8, Toyota Gazoo Racing will race a Toyota 86 in SP3 and of course the omni-present Opel Manta will compete in H2.
This weekend’s opening round of the VLN is due to be webcast in sound and vision with English language commentary for the very first time with the Radio Show Limited crew and available here on DSC as well as RadioLeMans.com and vln.de.
ENTRY LIST >>>In the darkest moments of their forced journey through Barovia, Evelyn had taken great comfort in her faith. Not just her faith in Lathander, but her faith in her friends as well.
She took special comfort in reminiscing of the day she met Diath, a meeting that ultimately brought the four of them together. A rogue who gave help to a starving child, a rogue who was no thief. A rogue with light shining in him like the sun.
Yet as the rest of the party has collapsed in sleep in yet another patch of haunted forest after escaping the Vistani mob, she is curled up in her bedroll, dazed and heartsick. She tries to banish the horror in her heart, tries to recall that happy moment all those months ago, that brilliant light in Diath’s emerald eyes.
But there is no light. Not anymore. Now the only image that is fixed in her mind’s eye is the pin clutched in his hand, and a small crimson handprint smeared across his face.
She rolls over to find the source of her pain huddled by the small campfire and staring sightlessly into the flames.
Evelyn isn’t sure if she can manage to speak without breaking, but she needs to know.
“The day... The day we met, Diath. I was...so sure of your innocence. I had so clearly seen the good in you.”
She slowly rises and fishes out a piece of cloth and a waterskin from her pack, offering both to him as a desperate plea for reassurance. Her voice drops to a cracked whisper.
“...Was I wrong?"
He doesn’t answer, and makes no move to wash the blood away.Goats clear way for disc golf expansion at Naperville's Knoch Knolls
hello
A nightly "ballet," hours of chewing cud and a whole lot of eating will be going on in an overgrown area of a Naperville park over the next month as a herd of 45 goats clears the way for an expanded disc golf course.
The animal eating machines will be removing poison ivy and other itch-inducing or invasive species from a 5-acre area of Knoch Knolls in south Naperville as part of an improvement project that will include a staffed nature center set to open next fall.
"They're searching for the highest-protein leaves," said Kim Hunter, owner of The Green Goats of Browntown Wis., who is renting the herd to the Naperville Park District for roughly $5,000. "They're rebalancing the ecosystem. Something needs to prey on these plants and that's what goats do."
Park district staff had heard about goats, llamas, burros and sheep mowing lawns at O'Hare International Airport and began looking into using a similar four-legged lawn service at Knoch Knolls. The district wanted to save money and avoid the pollution caused by gas-powered landscaping machinery, said Eric Shutes, director of planning.
Using in-house employees to clear the area slated to become the ninth through 18th holes of a disc golf course likely would cost $10,000, and those workers would run a high risk of developing a rash from poison ivy or poison sumac, officials said.
But the same plants that turn humans away are exactly what goats love to eat.
In large quantities. For hours at a time.
When the goats aren't eating, Hunter said they're usually resting to regurgitate the material, chew it better and send it back down to be digested by their multichambered stomachs.
Plus, the goats' eco-friendly nature allows the park district to begin teaching the public about conserving energy and protecting the environment even before the $5.5 million project is complete and the 5,000-square-foot nature center is open to the public.
"It's just a great fit for us because it's linked to our nature center project," Shutes said.
The animals began their work Tuesday afternoon as they hopped out of a trailer and started snacking on the first vegetation in sight, spreading quickly throughout the area bounded by a fence of electrified wire. Working for $3 a day, Spanish goats with names such as Nugget, Bucky and Orca won't be making minimum wage, but their bellies will be full.
"If you're going to pay human wages, use the big brain and the opposable thumb," said Hunter, who has been renting herds of goats for similar weed-clearing work since 2008. "If a goat can do what you do, set your sights a little higher."
Visitors to many parts of the 224-acre park at 336 Knoch Knolls Road can bike, walk, toss Frisbees and relax to their heart's content without noticing the goats. But if people do venture west of the disc golf course and find the herd chewing away, they shouldn't touch the electric fence or let their dogs off leashes.
Hunter's herds often become spectator attractions as people are drawn to the novelty of goats anywhere other than a farm or a zoo. Park district staff members say the goat work zone is not a petting zoo but visitors are welcome to watch, as a couple families did Tuesday afternoon.
"In the evening, if you're lucky, you'll see the goat ballet. It's when they all start dancing around," Hunter said about the group of male goats she brought to Naperville. "Quite often I find lawn chairs and empty wineglasses next to the fence."
If this fall's goat experiment goes well, Shutes said the stars of the weed-eating show may be on hand during the nature center's grand opening ceremony.Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) tops Goldman Sachs’ list of “Very Important Positions” again this time around. The four stocks that round out the firm’s list of the top five are Facebook Inc, Actavis plc, Facebook Inc, American International Group Inc, and Allergan.
Goldman Sachs’ Very Important Positions
In their Hedge Fund Trend Monitor report dated Nov. 20, analyst Ben Snider and his team said their list of the 50 stocks that show up the most often in the top ten holdings of “fundamentally-driven hedge fund portfolios.” They report that the list has outperformed the S&P 500 by 60 basis points so far year to date, coming in at a 13.5% outperformance compared to the S&P’s 12.9%.
The VIP list outperformed through the third quarter but began to lag in the current quarter.
Apple tops list of most important stocks
As Apple is at the list of Goldman Sachs’ Very Important Positions list, it also tops the list of what the firm’s analysts say is the 50 stocks that “matter most” to hedge funds. In their latest report, they said that as of the end of September, there were 92 funds with 10 to 200 positions owning Apple stock.
As of the end of the quarter, there were 58 funds in their review with Apple as a top ten holding. On average, Apple had an 8% weight in hedge fund portfolios in which it was among the top ten holdings. Total year to date return from Apple is 45%, according to Goldman Sachs’ analysis.City of Toronto “inside” workers have handed their union leader a “very strong” strike mandate as talks continue toward a new contract. “We want dialogue. We don’t want a work stoppage,” CUPE Local 79 president Tim Maguire said Monday after the results of Saturday’s strike vote were tallied. He would not reveal the percentage of his 20,000-plus members who voted to walk out if talks with city negotiators fail to reach a settlement.
CUPE Local 79 leader Tim Maguire, seen in 2012, says he got a strong strike mandate from his members over the weekend, but he won't reveal the margin of the vote. ( CARLOS OSORIO / TORONTO STAR )
Those members work in all city divisions. A walkout would likely halt restaurant inspections and city family health services and close city-run daycares, recreation and community centres, city family health services, and more. Talks between Local 79 and city negotiators started last October and are slated to continue next week. The threat of a walkout is seen as a way for members to strengthen their leaders’ hand at the bargaining table.
Article Continued Below
Another local, CUPE 416, is asking 6,000 “outside” workers, including garbage collectors, to approve a strike mandate in votes being held Tuesday and Wednesday. The Local 416 website states: “The city has proposed to eliminate our job security, reduce our sick pay, and cut our benefits.” Maguire is a veteran of bruising 2011 |
first time since September, prior to the imposition of a nationwide ban on cryptocurrency exchanges by the Chinese government. Today, on October 9, the bitcoin price entered the $4,600 region, demonstrating strong resilience towards the exit of the Chinese cryptocurrency exchange market.
#bitcoin price surpasses $4,500 for the first time since September 8, 1 month ago. Incredible resilience. China had no impact in mid-term. pic.twitter.com/dTrrSWhUhS — Joseph Young (@iamjosephyoung) October 8, 2017
Throughout 2017, before the government’s ban on cryptocurrency exchanges, the Chinese bitcoin exchange market accounted for 10 to 13 percent of global bitcoin trades, remaining as the third largest bitcoin exchange market behind the US and Japan. Until the Chinese government’s abrupt announcement to halt cryptocurrency trading in the region, the global cryptocurrency community were highly optimistic in regards to the long-term growth of the Chinese bitcoin market because the government had closely cooperated with local cryptocurrency trading platforms in establishing practical regulations.
The official introduction of the ban on cryptocurrency exchanges by the Chinese government in September triggered a restructuring of the global cryptocurrency exchange market. Bitcoin trading volumes from the Chinese market moved to Japan and South Korea, while some local investors have started to utilize over-the-counter (OTC) markets to trade Bitcoin, including LocalBitcoins.
In a relatively short period of time, Japan evolved into the largest Bitcoin exchange market in the world, overtaking the US by a significant margin. As it demonstrated an exponential increase in demand and growth, the Japanese government also imposed a nationwide licensing program for bitcoin exchanges, authorizing cryptocurrency trading platforms as legitimate financial services companies in the country.
Yuzo Kano, the CEO at Bitflyer, Japan’s largest cryptocurrency exchange with over 800,000 active users, stated:
“Japan has been exploding with demand for both bitcoin trading as well as virtual currency services. The FSA’s approval for bitFlyer to operate as a Registered Virtual Currency Exchange, and the agency’s openness and forward thinking regulation could not come at a better time for the blockchain space,” said Kano.
Due to the overwhelming performance of the Japanese and South Korean Bitcoin exchange market, the Bitcoin price recovered beyond its previous peak prior to the cryptocurrency exchange ban by the Chinese government. More importantly, because of the structuring of the global cryptocurrency exchange market and the flow of trading volumes from China to more stable markets in Japan and South Korea, institutional investors and large-scale conglomerates have begun to demonstrate their optimism towards the cryptocurrency market.
Recently, NSC, the holding company of Nexon, the $10 billion gaming company in Japan, acquired Korbit, a major South Korean cryptocurrency exchange at a $140 million valuation.
As the Japanese and South Korean bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets continue to demonstrate rapid growth in terms of user base and trading volumes, the price of Bitcoin in the mid-term will only continue to rise, and the interim target of $10,000 by prominent analysts including Max Keiser will become more realistic.
Image License: Pedro Szekely, commercial useDeployments with Zero Downtime in ASP.NET
Did you know that you can have zero downtime deployments with your ASP.NET application?
You don't even need to be using AWS or Azure, or have a fancy load balancer or anything else clever and expensive! So how does this thing work?
The basic idea is that you have two instances of your app running in production. At any point in time your users are using only one of these instances, and when you do a deploy you update the instance that isn't being used. Then you switch the users over to the new instance. See that blue line? That's a reverse proxy.
Martin Fowler (genius) calls this Blue-green deployments.
So how do I do this?
Well, before we can proceed, perhaps there should be a few pre-requisites listed:
ARR needs to be installed on your server. This is what does the live switcher.
Your app can't be using InProc for Session State. You can use either StateServer, SQLServer or your own custom provider if you really want.
All code written from now on must be backwards compatible with earlier versions. If you're calling a web service, that web service can't suddenly have a new mandatory field. It needs to be optional and it still needs to work if it's not set.
All database schema changes must be separate from application releases. You don't want to tightly couple your database changes and your deploys, do you?
So... HOW DO I DO THIS?
Ok. First off, install Application Request Routing, or ARR for short.
Great. Now, add two new sites within IIS and bind them to different ports:
I suggest ports 8080 and 8081. If all has gone according to plan, you should be able to open them both up in your web browser like so:
Beautiful! Now for the fun part. Go to your application within IIS and open the "URL Rewrite" section:
Click "Add Rule(s)..." and select "Reverse Proxy". If you don't see Reverse Proxy, you need to go back and install ARR (and perhaps reboot).
Now you can enter the address of one of your new sites, like so:
Click save, and you should now be able to open your existing application within IIS and see that you're actually proxying all requests to one of your sites!
You can now change your reverse proxy to point towards 8081, simulating a live switchover. Just edit the rule within the IIS GUI and change the port number. Or, you can modify the generated web.config file yourself, which I find much easier. You're looking for something like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <configuration> <system.webServer> <rewrite> <rules> <rule name="ReverseProxyInboundRule1" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="(.*)" /> <action type="Rewrite" url="http://localhost:8080/testapp/{R:1}" /> </rule> </rules> </rewrite> </system.webServer> </configuration>
Just change that 8080 to 8081, hit reload in your browser, and marvel at the speed of the switchover!
An important thing to note is to make sure that all 3 apps are running within their own Application Pool. You don't want one of your apps to restart just because you've changed the reverse proxy rule.
Err... now what?
If you're manually doing your deployments, you can follow these steps:
Open the web.config file and check which port is currently live Deploy your app to the other instance. Test your changes on the other instance Change the web.config file to point towards the other instance
Automate everything
But please... please don't manually do deployments!
Now that you've got it up and happening, you really, really want to automate the whole thing. It's just too easy for it to go wrong. For this you want powershell, here's a quick rough script that I've knocked up to work with the above example. I have tested this, and it's working ok, but if I was you, I'd probably double check it all myself :)
This example is using MsDeploy for the deploy, just because it's the lowest common denominator. However, I have found MsDeploy to be extremely difficult to use, clunky, error prone and the most bewildering bit of software I've seen in a long time. Check out Octopus Deploy (no I'm not sponsored by them, I just love the product) and you'll never, ever, ever go back.
This script is also up on github if you'd like to contribute.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 $msbuild = "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe" $msDeploy = "C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy V3\msdeploy.exe" $aspnetCompiler = "$env:windir\microsoft.net\framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_compiler.exe" $mydir = (Get-Item -Path ".\" -Verbose).FullName $outputPath = "$mydir\output" $reverseProxyFile = "c:\testapp\web.config" $testappUrl = "http://localhost/testapp" $testapp1Url = "http://localhost:8080" $testapp1Dir = "c:\testapp1" $testapp2Url = "http://localhost:8081" $testapp2Dir = "c:\testapp2" # compile and build the package Remove-Item $outputPath -Recurse -ErrorAction Ignore &$msbuild /p : configuration=release /p : deployonBuild=true /p : DeployDefaultTarget=WebPublish /p : WebPublishMethod=FileSystem /p : publishurl= "$outputPath" /verbosity : minimal if ($LastExitCode -ne 0) { exit } # check which instance is currently live by making a HTTP request to up.html try { echo "`nChecking $testapp1Url for up.html" $webRequestResult = (New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString( "$testapp1Url/up.html" ) $deployInternalUrl = $testapp2Url $deployInternalUrlOld = $testapp1Url $deployDir = $testapp2Dir $deployDirOld = $testapp1Dir } catch { $deployInternalUrl = $testapp1Url $deployInternalUrlOld = $testapp2Url $deployDir = $testapp1Dir $deployDirOld = $testapp2Dir } echo "`nDeploying to: $deployDir which is $deployInternalUrl" echo "(Last deployed to: $deployDirOld which is $deployInternalUrlOld)`n" # From here, deploy to $deployDir &$msdeploy -verb : sync -source : contentPath= "$outputPath" -dest : contentPath= "$deployDir" # Pre-compile our app to reduce application startup time: echo "`nRunning the aspnet compiler in $deployDir`n" try { &$aspnetCompiler -v /$iisPath -p $deployDir -errorstack | write-host } catch [System.AppDomainUnloadedException] { &$aspnetCompiler -v /$iisPath -p $deployDir -errorstack | write-host } # Check that the newly deployed app is up and running: try { echo "`nChecking $deployInternalUrl is responding ok`n" $webRequestResult = ` (New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString($deployInternalUrl) } catch { echo "Newly deployed app failed to startup properly, cancelling switchover" exit } # Modify reverse proxy file echo "Updating reverse proxy config file $reverseProxyFile to point towards $deployInternalUrl`n" $content = [Io.File] :: ReadAllText($reverseProxyFile) $updatedContent = $content -ireplace 'action type="Rewrite" url=".*"', ` "action type=""Rewrite"" url=""$deployInternalUrl/{R:1}""" Out-File -FilePath $reverseProxyFile -InputObject $updatedContent -Encoding UTF8 # Move the up file so that the next deploy works ok echo "Moving uptime file from $deployDirOld\up.html to $deployDir\up.html" move "$deployDirOld\up.html" "$deployDir\up.html" # Make a request to the live URL just to make sure everything is ok: echo "Making a request to $testappUrl to make sure everything is ok" $webRequestResult = (New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString($testappUrl) echo "`nDone!"
Gotcha!
Precompilation
Whenever an ASP.NET application is first accessed, the initial response will be sloooow. This is because ASP.NET needs to compile your views. You can work around this problem by pre-compiling your app! If you look at my above script you should be able to see this line:
$aspnetCompiler = "$env:windir\microsoft.net\framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_compiler.exe" &$aspnetCompiler -v /$iisPath -p $deployDir -errorstack | write-host
So what's the gotcha?
The problem that I had was sometimes the precompile step would throw a [System.AppDomainUnloadedException] exception. I think this is because IIS hadn't finished restarting my application pool. My solution? Catch the exception and try it again :) So far it's been working ok!
I believe you can also get MsBuild/MsDeploy to precompile your application as part of the build, so perhaps that's another option to check out. There's an obscure flag named PrecompileBeforePublish that doesn't really seem to be documented anywhere but perhaps that's an option.
There is also the aspnet_merge tool. This can be used to compile the output of a precompiled site to reduce the number of assemblies. I haven't found it neccesary, but maybe it's worth checking out.
WCF
If you're using WCF (I know, I know), you need to remove the handler for the svc extension in your URLs in the reverse proxy config. Just add this handlers section to your web.config:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <configuration> <system.webServer> <rewrite> <rules> <rule name="ReverseProxyInboundRule1" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="(.*)" /> <action type="Rewrite" url="http://localhost:8080/testapp/{R:1}" /> </rule> </rules> </rewrite> <handlers> <remove name="svc-ISAPI-4.0_64bit" /> <remove name="svc-ISAPI-4.0_32bit" /> <remove name="svc-Integrated-4.0" /> </handlers> </system.webServer> </configuration>
So what's the gotcha? You might need to also double check your binding configuration. If your internal site(s) are running under HTTP instead of HTTPS (or vice versa), you might need to re-examine the transport security config. Ergh, WCF.
Anti Forgery (ahem, Tokens)
If you're using AntiForgery Tokens to protect against CSRF attacks you might come across another problem.
When you change your reverse proxy to point towards your other application instance, any existing users will be passing through the antiforgery token from the wrong app. This means that your requests will fail validation! So how do you work around this? You need to make sure that both applications use the same encryptionKey and validationKey.
These two keys are confusingly hidden inside a section within IIS named "Machine Keys". However these keys are application level scoped, so they are nothing to do with your machine! So fire up IIS, and within the ASP.NET section find the machine keys icon:
Disable the automatically generate at runtime and Generate a unique key for each application, and go ahead and click the "Generate Keys" link:
This should generate the following for your application's web.config:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <system.web>... <machineKey decryptionKey="MyRandomlyGeneratedDecryptionKey" validationKey="ValidationKey" /> </system.web>
Copy and paste this line to the other instance of your app. Done!
Database changes
Ever notice how articles expounding the virtues of automated deploy hardly ever talk about database schema changes?
This is a much bigger topic and deserves it's own post, but I think we can narrow down our options to:
Script all of your database changes and run them in as part of your deploy, using something like DbUp Use something like Entity Framework Migrations and have your application upgrade your DB Make all of your database changes backwards compatible with your new code, and run them separate to your deploy
I'll be writing another article on this topic soon.
All done!
Do you think it's worth moving to blue-green deployments? I'd love to hear from you and what problems you had. Hit me up below!I thought you might be interested in this job advert from the Independent.
It’s from the nice people at Maperton Trust.
You can go and see them for a diagnosis with their magical machines, although the best product is their Head Lice Repelling Unit or HELRU (right) which various people have emailed me about over the years, usually when they’ve been used in their local schools. It’s a badge. It’s basically too silly to write about. Here is a fun report of a trial, and here is the FAQ:
1. How does it work?
Without a comprehensive understanding of technology e.g. that used in space travel, it is not really possible to provide a very satisfactory answer.
We’re too stupid to understand their science. It costs £19 and they take all credit cards.
For free you can have an intense online treatment:
www.mapertontrust.com/htmlfiles/treatmentdetails.htm
And it looks like they maybe dip into treating seriously ill people too. Generally I reckon the people who go for this kind of thing kind of know what they’re getting into, but I suppose if people exert enough effort to make it look all sciencey then there might be the odd person who really does think they’re getting space age medicine. Ho hum.
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/a-return-journey-to-placebo-land-courtesy-of-radionics-1337621.html
(Sorry no column this week, boring story.)community
A GREAT white shark breached the water near Pulbah Island in Lake Macquarie yesterday, eyeballed a fisherman and took his fish, several witnesses say. It follows a Newcastle Herald report on Saturday that NSW fisheries officers devised a contingency plan to capture a great white shark that had menaced fishers around Pulbah Island amid fears of an attack. The report said a shark had breached the water near a tinny after Tony Pockett and Troy Twyford had caught a jewfish. A similar incident happened yesterday. Tony and Judy Upton, of Woodrising, were fishing in a five-metre half-cabin vessel anchored between Pulbah Island and Wangi at 9.10am in about 10metres of water. ‘‘I got this really good fish and was pulling it in,’’ Mr Upton said. ‘‘The next minute, this shark flew out of the water about four to five feet in the air and eyeballed me. ‘‘His face looked at my face, dead on.’’ Mr Upton said the shark took the fish, ‘‘10 feet of line and the hook and sinker’’. ‘‘We were shaking for half an hour afterwards,’’ he said. Mr Upton said the shark was about six to seven metres from his boat. ‘‘It came up belly first – we saw this big sheet of white in the air and it bent in a half-moon. ‘‘It happened in a split second. I didn’t have time for a photo,’’ he said. Marine Rescue Lake Macquarie commander John Hatton confirmed some of his members, who were in a vessel near the Uptons, saw the shark breach at the same time. ‘‘It’s big, it’s round and it’s scary,’’ Mr Hatton said. ‘‘If it landed on a boat, I don’t know what would happen.’’ Mr Hatton said the shark appeared to be ‘‘in the hole near Pulbah, where everybody goes fishing’’. ‘‘At least we know roughly where it is,’’ he said. Mr Upton said an hour after the shark sighting, ‘‘two guys were on a jet ski and having a swim’’ nearby. Increasing awareness about sharks in the lake did not stop people swimming in Swansea Channel yesterday. Some people who saw a great white in the lake vowed never to swim in there again. Others believe the chance of an attack is rare, a position backed up by history, and perhaps in part the result of over 50 shark nets which are strung along beaches each year from Newcastle to Wollongong to deter sharks from forming a territory. Only one shark was caught in the Hunter’s nets last summer – a 2.7metre great white at Swansea. Meanwhile, the NSW government has begun its annual aerial shark patrols, with 51 beaches from Newcastle down to the Illawarra to be monitored. _______________ Poll calls for shark capture THE majority of people don’t want the great white shark in Lake Macquarie killed, just relocated, a Newcastle Herald poll has revealed. The Herald reported on Saturday that NSW fisheries officers had options to capture or kill an aggressive great white shark that was menacing fishers in Lake Macquarie. Anglers and others concerned about the situation expressed similar thoughts to the poll voters. Lisa Mondy survived an attack from a great white shark while treading water during wakeboarding in Port Stephens in 2011, suffering wounds to her arm and face. ‘‘It’s a hard, touchy situation,’’ Ms Mondy said, of the Lake Macquarie shark. ‘‘Public safety is really important, but so are sharks for ecology.’’ Concerned Anglers Lake Macquarie president Lionel Jones said fisheries should keep monitoring the situation. He said many fishos wondered whether sharks could get out. ‘‘Fishermen have been saying for years that once a big shark goes in the lake, he’s in there for life,’’ he said. More than 1500 votes were submitted: 42.4per cent were in favour of capturing the shark and releasing it offshore, 29.2per cent wanted it killed and 28.4per cent said leave it alone. Damon Cronshaw
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/resize/frm/storypad-3ZMaZUzN3dKuM6vrzTJmtN/02e30379-7303-4b4d-96bf-41387fff3547.jpg/w1200_h678_fcrop.jpgIn recent years, the issue of transgender identity in children has leapt from the periphery of public consciousness to centre stage of a cultural drama played out in the media, courts, schools, hospitals, families, and in the minds and bodies of children. It is a kind of utopian religion with committed believers.
The drama is “gender dysphoria” and it is about children believing they belong to the opposite sex[1]. It is about parental anguish and commitment, court battles to instigate some therapies, laws to prevent others, cross-dressing, drugs that will block puberty, others that will transform an adolescent towards the opposite sex, pending feats of surgery that will castrate while turning a penis into an opening like a vagina, or producing a penis from a forearm in a foray into reproduction unrivalled since the days of eugenics. It is no wonder this drama is repeated on the media, especially as its players may be toddlers whose future is in the hands of the audience. Accept the pathways of “medicine”, we are urged. Welcome transgender as but one hue in a natural rainbow. Or the children will kill themselves[2].
But is this massive intrusion into the minds and bodies of children necessary? What will happen if parents do nothing but “watch and wait” while their child muses on its gender? Can the child grow out of it?
The answer astonishes. While proponents argue for massive intervention, scientific studies prove that the vast majority of transgender children will grow out of it through puberty if parents do little more than gently watch and wait. Studies vary but from 70 to 97.8 per cent of gender-dysphoric male and 50 to 88 per cent of gender-dysphoric female children have been reported to “desist” prior to the onset of puberty. This likelihood of “growing out of it” is declared in no less than the current, official Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association[3] (DSM-5), and is supported by a number of independent studies[4][5].
The Western medical profession boasts that it rests on “evidence-based medicine” but the tiny fraction involved with “affirmation” of gender identity in confused children is proceeding without supportive evidence for claims of high incidence, the need and safety of medical and surgical intervention, the avoidance of self-harm, and for the concept that the process will produce a happier human being in a happier society. Faith is needed for affirmation.
During a discussion on these matters, a leading endocrinologist declared to this writer, twice, that the issues of gender dysphoria are “utterly arbitrary … utterly arbitrary”, and that his greatest fear was that a mistake would be made by intervention. If most gender-dysphoric children desist without treatment, the “utterly arbitrary” medical pathways are also utterly unnecessary.
How common is childhood gender dysphoria?
No one really knows because there is “an absence of formal prevalence studies”[6][7] and estimates vary greatly. The leader of Toronto’s Transgender Youth Clinic at the Hospital for Sick Children, Dr Joey Bonifacio, says estimates based on adult dysphoria clinics range from 0.005 to 0.014 per cent for men convinced they are women and 0.002 to 0.003 per cent for women convinced they are men, but believes they are “likely modest underestimates”[8]. Bonifacio’s statistics are the same as those declared in the bible of psychiatry, DSM-5[9].
In Australia, prominence has been given to a cross-sectional questionnaire distributed to 8500 adolescents in New Zealand (“Youth 12”) which reported 1.2 per cent answered “Yes” to the question, “Do you think you are transgender? This is a girl who feels like she should have been a boy, or a boy who feels like he should have been a girl.” 95 per cent denied being transgender, 2.5 per cent replied they were “unsure”, and 1.7 per cent “did not understand” the question. The estimate of 1.2 per cent is promoted by leaders of the gender dysphoria service at Melbourne Children’s Hospital[10], but the progenitors of the “Safe Schools” program appear to have inflated the figure to 4 per cent by adding the unsure 2.5 per cent.[11]
Results of such tick-in-the-box questionnaires are unreliable. According to DSM-5, childhood gender dysphoria can only be diagnosed if there is “a marked incongruence” between natal and perceived gender lasting “at least six months”, “manifested by at least six” features, including “a strong desire … and insistence”, together with a “strong preference” for the company, clothing and toys of the opposite sex and its role in fantasy play, and associated with rejection of the stereotypes of its natal sex, including anatomy. Also, to comply with “dysphoria”, there should be “significant distress or impairment … in functioning”.
The unreliability of such questionnaires is emphasised in the Journal of Homosexuality in its consideration of the prevalence of suicide in sexual minorities[12]. It warns that conclusions are limited because they are based on “retrospective” data, “do not effectively allow cause and effect relationships to be discerned” including “co-occurring mental disorders”, are “restricted” in the number of questions they can ask to elucidate facts and are weakened by the possibility of incomprehension of the questions.
Is it any surprise that reliability of responses from adolescents has been questioned?[13] In the New Zealand survey deemed authoritative by some in Australia, 36.5 per cent of adolescents in this land of the All Blacks declared they did not understand the question: have you ever been “hit or physically harmed by another person?”
It is false to claim 1.2 per cent of the population is transgender on the basis of the survey. That would make its prevalence rival the 1 to 3 per cent of mental retardation. It is wrong to conflate the figure to 4 per cent for the “Safe Schools” program. That would mean one in twenty-five of all children would be transgender.
A straw poll of twenty-eight generalist paediatricians with a cumulative postgraduate experience of 931 years conducted for this article reveals eight children to have been observed with gender dysphoria. Four were remembered to have had severe associated mental disorder, one associated attention deficit/hyperactivity, one had been investigated for neurological disease on the basis of strange fidgetiness, and two had suffered sustained sexual abuse. In reality, childhood gender dysphoria is a rare condition whose prevalence is unknown.
How common are associated mental problems?
There are at least four reasons why a child with gender dysphoria might have associated mental disorder. The first is that transgender is but a symptom of a general disturbance. The second is that mental disorder could be caused by gender dysphoria. The third is it could be caused by external ostracism. The fourth would be a mixture of the above. Though studies reveal mental disorder, the cause remains elusive.
A study of Dutch children with dysphoria aged from four to eleven revealed associated psychiatric disease of at least one type in 52 per cent [14] with diagnoses including anxiety, phobias, mood disorders, depression, attention deficit and oppositional behaviour. A study by school teachers reported significant behavioural and emotional problems in about one third of 554 dysphoric Dutch and Canadian children under twelve[15]. At the first presentation to a US gender clinic of ninety-seven children with mean age of 14.8 years, 44.3 per cent had a history of psychiatric diagnoses, 37.1 per cent were already on psychotropic medications and 21.6 per cent had a history of self-injurious behaviour[16]. In an Australian study of thirty-nine dysphoric children of mean age ten, behavioural disorders were observed in a quarter, and Asperger syndrome in one in seven[17].
Proponents claim psychiatric problems are secondary to ostracism, but the American authors suggested gender dysphoria, itself, might be causal: “psychiatric symptoms might be secondary to a medical incongruence between mind and body”, because the symptoms tended to abate with hormone therapy.
The frequency of autism spectrum disorder in children with gender dysphoria, and the known indifference of those children to the opinion of others, would argue transgender was a symptom of an underlying disorder and not a result of ostracism. Autism has been found in 7.8 per cent of transgender children in a Dutch clinic[18], around 13 per cent in London[19] and 14 per cent in Australia.
The answer to the question of whether dysphoria is primary or secondary is unknown and probably unknowable. This renders optimistic, if not delusional, the concept that massive intervention may secure happiness.
What is the risk of self-harm and suicide?
Risk of self-harm has been reported in gender-dysphoric children and is the argument for “treatment” and against inaction. Is self-harm another manifestation of an underlying disorder, or is it due to frustration from gender dysphoria alone, or due to ostracism? Proponents of affirmative treatment proclaim the latter and declare an “alarmingly high rate” of self-harm and suicide attempts, exemplified by highly publicised and tragic youth suicides in the US[20].
As with most data related to gender dysphoria in children, studies are limited by lack of numbers and methodological bias, and the true rate of self-harm due to external ostracism is unknown. Other factors are very common and very important and seem neglected in the argument.
One London study retrospectively reviewed letters from referring doctors and its own notes regarding 218 gender-dysphoric children with mean age of fourteen. Of forty-one aged from five to eleven, it reported self harm in 14.6 per cent, suicidal ideation in 14.6 per cent and suicidal attempts in 2.4 per cent. Higher rates were reported in adolescents. A similar rate of ideation is reported from Canada[21], though associated with a lower rate of self-harm or attempted suicide (17 per cent as against 6.2 per cent). As in London, rates increased with age. Neither study revealed features of self-harm and attempted suicide.
The study reported high associated rates of psychiatric co-morbidity in children under eleven: autism spectrum disorder from 12.2 to 17.1 per cent, attention deficit hyperactivity in 14.6 per cent, anxiety in 17.1 per cent, depression in 7.3 per cent and psychosis in 2.4 per cent with, on the whole, rates increasing with age. It reports bullying and abuse in almost half to two thirds of all children but does not discuss whether it was provoked by transgender characteristics or those associated with autism, hyperactivity and psychosis.
Furthermore, though detailing living arrangements of the children, the authors do not comment on their influence, though the effect of family chaos on the mood of offspring is well known. The study found only 36.7 per cent were living with both biological parents, and 58.3 per cent “had parents who had separated”. “Domestic violence was indicated” in 9.2 per cent, maternal depression in 19.3 per cent, paternal depression in 5 per cent; and parental alcohol or drug abuse in 7.3 per cent.
Nor does the study consider the significance of autism it found in 12.2 to 17.1 per cent of its children. Elsewhere, 14 per cent of children with autism aged from one to sixteen have been reported to experience suicidal ideation or attempts, suggesting a rate twenty-eight times greater than that for typical children (0.5 per cent)[22].
The New Zealand survey of adolescents (“Youth 12”) deemed authoritative by some in Australia asked about “self-harm” in the previous year. Of non-transgenders 23.4 per cent replied “Yes”, as did 45.5 per cent of “transgenders” but 23.7 per cent reckoned they did not understand the question. When asked about attempted suicide, 4.1 per cent of non-transgenders replied “Yes”, as did 19.8 per cent of “transgenders”, but 13.3 per cent declared incomprehension.
In other studies, between 19[23] and 29 per cent [24] of all adolescents are reported to have a history of suicidal ideation, and between 7 and 13 per cent to have attempted suicide; though what constitutes an attempt is not described in these studies, or in those above from London and New Zealand.
The question, then, is whether transitioning of transgender children will ultimately reduce self-harm. While Dutch experience concludes that “starting cross-sex hormones early … followed by gender reassignment surgery … can be effective and positive for general and mental functioning”[25], other centres report high rates of suicide in the years following reassignment.[26] [27] To be fair, those reassigned in these studies did not have such a developed “pathway” for affirmation as in Holland. Nevertheless, suicide attempts after surgery have been reported to be more common than in the general population in Belgium (5.1 per cent as against 0.15 per cent)[28] and in Sweden[29].
Conversely, regarding suicide by adolescent members of sexual minorities, the Journal of Homosexuality concludes that “very few suicide decedents [sic]” have been identified as having “minority sexual orientation” in studies in North America: three of 120 adolescent suicides in New York, and four of fifty-five in Quebec; and warns conclusions based on “small numbers … must be regarded as tentative”.
The conclusion of the Journal of Homosexuality is valid. Numbers are small and data is obscure. No one knows how often real suicide attempts occur or their relationship with internal and external factors in gender dysphoria. When I raised the issue with one experienced therapist, it was denounced as “bull****”, merely a “weapon used by ideologues”.
What are personality characteristics of parents bringing children to gender dysphoria clinics?
No studies are available on characteristics of parents despite numerous studies on their children. It is supposed that gender confusion in a child must deeply affect its parents, and the phrase common to those seen interviewed on television, “gut wrenching”, is easy to accept. Perhaps, therefore, it is despair that is driving an increasing number of parents to start “social transition” of their child to the opposite gender before seeking medical help, under the guidance of websites and support groups and the encouragement of an enthusiastic media. Toronto’s Dr Bonifacio says many have progressed far into transitioning before attending his clinic: parents are dressing and entertaining the child as the opposite sex, applying new pronouns and a new name. Such commitment, he explains, paves the way for further treatment.
A leading but nameless therapist agrees: about a third of children are already being “socialised”. This therapist worries that they are at risk of being “conditioned” by parents who have become “enmeshed” to the degree of being “cheer leaders”. This could lead to the child becoming “scripted” to repeat phrases that would convince therapists. One example is the declaration of a five-year-old that he was “transgender” when featuring with his mother in a recent documentary on childhood dysphoria by Louis Theroux shown on ABC television.
Becoming a “cheer leader” in therapy for a child is, of course, not uncommon. Many if not most parents become passionate for their children and are on the sidelines at soccer and in advocacy groups for advances in treatment of malignancy. But, unpleasant as it is to raise the matter, every paediatrician knows there is a tragic condition known as Munchausen syndrome in which symptoms are fabricated for some kind of benefit. In Munchausen’s-by-proxy, the benefit accrues to the carer. I asked an experienced therapist whether this ever complicated gender dysphoria? Shoulders were shrugged: there are no studies. But, if mental illness affects 45.5 per cent of all Australians at some point in their lives and 20 per cent of those aged from sixteen to eighty-five will have experienced it in the previous year[30], the relevance of Munchausen’s-by-proxy in carers needs |
for classifying people. The Census Bureau assumes that every individual is either white or minority and resolves the complexities of multiple heritages by assigning people with any mixed background to the minority side of the white/nonwhite divide. Individuals with both Hispanic and non-Hispanic ancestries cannot even be identified as such in census data; according to the bureau’s rules, they are only Hispanic. Since 2000, individuals with a mixed racial heritage can claim it on census forms, but they are, without exception, considered minorities in population statistics. The Census Bureau’s report on its latest projections declares that a minority group is “any group other than non-Hispanic white alone.” Most readers probably cannot decode the full implications of this formulation.
The bias in the Census Bureau’s practices has its largest impact in estimating the ethno-racial backgrounds of children, because it is among children that we first see the consequences of the rapidly rising number of mixed families. To estimate how many children are from mixed families, I used data for 2013 on the families of infants from the American Community Survey, which is conducted by the Census Bureau. (I focused on infants because the chance of obtaining data on both parents is greatest when a child has recently been born, and we need to look at parents’ own reports to avoid the biases inherent in the census data for the children themselves.) Although the Census Bureau declared in 2012 that nonwhite births for the first time outnumbered white ones, 60 percent of the 2013 infants have a white parent. About 10 percent, then, have both a white and minority parent. These infants are counted as minorities in census statistics. And they are regarded as permanently so in census projections.
Overall, about one of every seven infants comes now from an ethno-racially mixed family. The largest group by far of these infants, as the pie chart shows, consists of those with one non-Hispanic white and one Hispanic parent. They are nearly 40 percent of the total. Other sizable groups are mixed white and Asian, white and black, and white and mixed-race parentage.
Social-science research on children from mixed families is limited. But three kinds of evidence, in concert, indicate persuasively that the Census Bureau data exaggerate the decline of the white population by failing to take into account that many children from mixed backgrounds will likely be integrated into largely white social milieus and identify, at least some of the time, as white. This evidence involves the incomes of mixed families, the social identities of individuals with mixed backgrounds, and their marriage patterns.
Income of mixed families: The household incomes of many mixed families indicate that they are closer socioeconomically to mainstream white families than to disadvantaged minority ones.
As the chart above shows, unmixed Asian families have higher median incomes than unmixed white families, and mixed Asian and white families have the highest incomes of all. The incomes of mixed Hispanic and white families are also very different from those of unmixed Hispanic parents. When the non-Hispanic white parent is the father (true for about half of the white-Hispanic mixed infants), the median family income is scarcely any different from that of white-only families. When the Hispanic parent is the father, the average income is lower but still much higher than is typical for Hispanic-only families.
Since income is a primary determinant of where families reside, these patterns imply that many of the mixed white and minority children are growing up in neighborhoods where many whites also reside, and outside of areas of minority concentration. These ethno-racially mixed children will have peers from white families and likely learn to get on with them from an early age.
There is one major exception to the pattern in family incomes. Although white-black families have incomes close to those of whites when the father is white, that is not true when the father is black, which is the more common situation in black-white families. The infants with mixed, only-minority parentage also come predominantly from families with incomes between those of black-only and white-only families.
Social identities: Unlike census data, data from a 2015 survey by the Pew Research Center illuminate the feelings and experiences of individuals with mixed backgrounds. According to “Multiracial in America,” the Pew report based on the survey, most Americans from mixed backgrounds do not think of themselves as multiracial. For those who are white and Asian, the affinities with the white group are strong. By a two-to-one margin, they say that they have more in common with whites than with Asians. They report, in addition, feeling more accepted by whites and having more white than Asian friends. Those who are white and black exhibit a very different profile. The majority believe that others see them as black. They also have much closer ties to their black relatives and are very likely to report encountering discrimination, including being “unfairly stopped by the police.”
The Pew survey found many more multiracial Americans than the census does, which implies that adults with mixed backgrounds often appear in the census in single-group categories (that is, as unmixed white, black, and so on). In fact, an internal Census study, “America’s Churning Races,” shows that large numbers of people who identify themselves as multiracial in one census identify themselves as white in another.
For instance, of those who reported a mixture of Asian and white parentage in either 2000 or 2010, 36 percent appeared as only white in the other census (and 22 percent as only Asian). Those who report mixed white and Hispanic family backgrounds to the census are counted as Hispanics of white race, a huge group that includes about half of all the nation’s Hispanics. Yet, of the individuals who appeared in this group in either 2000 or 2010, 12 percent said they were non-Hispanic and white in the other year. In other words, many Americans with mixed Asian or Hispanic family origins identify with the white majority some of the time.
AP Photo/Idaho Press-Tribune, Charlie Litchfield In this April 1, 2010 photo, a copy of a 2010 Census form is shown at a Census Day event at the Caldwell Housing Authority in Caldwell, Idaho.
The one exception to this pattern of “leaning” white involves individuals of mixed white and African American heritages, who are much more likely to indicate that they are only black than only white (33 percent versus 16 percent). This exception conforms to the consistent research finding that Americans with visible African ancestry confront more virulent everyday prejudice and discrimination than other minorities do. The one-drop rule appears not to have lost its power in their case.
Intermarriage: Finally, there are the marriage patterns associated with mixed backgrounds, which are indicative of the social milieus into which individuals have been integrated. For individuals who are partly white and partly minority, the likelihood of choosing a white spouse is much higher than it is for those with the same minority ancestry only.
A powerful demonstration of this pattern comes from a unique study of Mexican Americans, which followed families from 1965, when the original survey was conducted, to the late 1990s, when researchers tracked down the original participants who were still alive, as well as their children. In their book, Generations of Exclusion, based on these data, the sociologists Edward Telles and Vilma Ortiz report that the odds of intermarriage were five times higher for the children of intermarriages than for those from Mexican-only backgrounds. These intermarriages were overwhelmingly with non-Hispanic whites. Scholars of intermarriage have also found higher rates of marriage with whites among individuals who are mixed white and Asian compared with those who are Asian only. In sum, many partly white adults appear to have been integrated into largely white social worlds.
These data about family income, social identity, and intermarriage raise serious questions about the Census Bureau’s practice of counting children of mixed families as members of ethno-racial minorities. In collecting data, the Census relies on what parents say about their children’s ethno-racial backgrounds. Parents are very likely in doing so to try to honor both sides of their offspring’s family origins. When their children grow up, however, many of them may view themselves as whites. Future white counts are therefore likely to be substantially larger than one would predict from current census data.
Assimilation into the Mainstream
Children from mixed backgrounds are only one aspect of a broader social process under way that is mixing together different groups in American society. Multicultural critics of assimilation have rejected it as a goal, but the concept remains essential for sociological analysis if we are to understand important changes taking place. Some people from minority as well as mixed backgrounds are being attracted into a still heavily white mainstream, changing the mainstream even as it continues to be dominated by whites.
The mainstream, of course, is not the whole of American society. Rather, it is the part that mistakes itself for the whole. In a society where racial and ethnic origins historically have confined Americans to different social strata, the mainstream has been long associated with the social spaces and cultural practices of white Americans. That is now changing as the boundaries of the mainstream expand.
One momentous change involves the rapidly growing presence of Americans from recent waves of immigration at the top of the U.S. workforce, in domains that were previously monopolized by native whites. Guillermo Yrizar Barbosa and I have analyzed this change in an article that appears on the website of the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies. We focus especially on the upper quarter of all workers who hold top occupations as defined by annual earnings. Until recently, 85 percent to 90 percent of these workers were whites (and non-Hispanic). But among the young workers who have entered this tier since about 2000, the share represented by whites has dipped below 70 percent. The Great Recession did not reverse this trend. Since the socioeconomic ascent by minorities closely correlates with the declining white share of young adults, it is a safe prediction that it will continue as ethno-racial diversity rises among youth.
Ted Cruz Campaign A Minority Majority? The Census Bureau classifies children of mixed marriags as members of the "minority" population. Under those definitions, three of the four people in this picture—Senator Ted Cruz and the two children he has had with his wife Heidi Nelson Cruz—are part of the minority population that the Census projects to be a majority in 2044. In popular media, this projection is routinely equated with the end of a white majority and the emerging majority of "people of color." Cruz himself is the son of a mother of Irish and Italian extraction and a father born in Cuba.
The expanding groups in the upper ranks of the workforce are Asians, both immigrant and U.S.-born, and U.S.-born Latinos. Black Americans are also increasing their numbers, but not to the same extent as the others.
The growing diversity at or near the top of the occupational ladder does not mean that whites on these rungs have lost all their advantages, at least not yet. With educational level taken into account, we found that whites generally are better placed occupationally than minorities, and when compared with minorities in the same occupation, they earn more on average. White advantages could decline as the numbers of individuals from minority backgrounds increase in the top tiers, bringing more of them into positions of authority where they can make decisions about hiring and promotions. But it is premature to predict how the struggles of whites to hold onto their diminishing advantages will turn out.
Individuals from minority backgrounds who hold prestigious and visible posts in the workforce, or positions of civic leadership, are part of the mainstream, in any sensible definition of it. Their ascent echoes an earlier transformative moment in our history. In the quarter-century after World War II, the mainstream was joined en masse by the descendants of Irish and southern and eastern European immigrants, Jews, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians. Assimilation today is more selective, not as massive. But as in the earlier period, when hyphenated identities became acceptable, it does not require the obliteration of ethnic and racial identities, just their muting, to allow individuals to function in social worlds that, while increasingly diverse, are still home to many whites. The motive for assimilation is, as before, to gain for oneself and one’s children access to the greater opportunities that are available in mainstream settings.
This assimilation should disabuse us of the fantasy of the imminent demise of the white majority and its loss of power. Not all the newcomers to the mainstream will identify as whites, and its visibly growing diversity will be a key development of the early 21st century, as the election of the nation’s first black president unmistakably signals. “Whiteness,” however, has never been fixed; it is a malleable concept, and it is on its way to changing again, as it has before.
Yet it is critical not to lapse immediately into another fantasy, namely, the belief that assimilation will prove a panacea for still-glaring ethno-racial disparities. Contemporary assimilation is simply not on the same scale as that of the mid-20th century, when, for example, Italians caught up to other whites in education and socioeconomic attainment in just a 25-year period after World War II. Assimilation today is crimped by greatly heightened inequalities and is leaving many outside its reach, including many Hispanics, such as the undocumented and their children, even those who are U.S. citizens because they were born here. In one respect, however, the earlier and current patterns of assimilation are similar: African Americans are participating only to a limited extent. Indeed, one could even say they are being bypassed.
To think clearly about the American future, we need not only the right concepts but also accurate data. The Census Bureau, the public agency we all rely on for neutral representations of social realities, is failing us. Not only do its rigid and illogical classifications distort important new realities, the bureau is also not forthcoming about the errors and uncertainties involved. Instead, it continues to promulgate “firsts”—in June, it declared that for the first time minorities are the majority of children under the age of 5—as if the data were unimpeachable. Given the political resonance of its statistics, which reverberate on the right and left of the spectrum, there is not a moment to lose in demanding that, in its official projections and pronouncements, the Census present a more nuanced view of the nation’s demographic future and acknowledge the alternative ways in which Americans may come to think about themselves.The latest report from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency shows the impact of words and actions on illegals seeking access to free benefits available to them just by crossing the nation’s southwest border. The number of individuals caught crossing that border in March — 16,600 — was a 30 percent decrease from February and a 64 percent decrease from the same month a year ago.
President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to build the “big, beautiful wall” as one of many efforts to stem illegal immigration flooding into the country from Mexico turned into actions when he began signing executive orders to start the process.
His attorney general, Jeff Sessions, expanded on Trump’s determination to stem the flow on Tuesday during a speech he made at Nogales, Arizona. He issued a memorandum to federal attorneys to ramp up their efforts to prosecute illegals, including those who harbor or assist them, with special priority given to those with criminal records and those who were previously deported. Sessions also instructed the Justice Department to pursue charges even for relatively minor infractions such as identity fraud, document theft, or forgery as well as fraudulent marriages arranged to obtain legal immigration status.
Sessions stated:
For those [who] continue to seek improper and illegal entry into this country, be forewarned: This is a new era. This is the Trump era.
The lawlessness, the abdication of the duty [by the previous administration] to enforce our immigration laws, and the “catch-and-release” practices of old are over.
Sessions then spoke of the criminal cartels responsible for importing illegal drugs into the United States:
Depravity and violence are their calling cards, including brutal machete attacks and beheadings. It is here, on this sliver of land, where we first take our stand against this filth.
Later that night Sessions, being interviewed on Fox News’ “Hannity," expanded his remarks, directing them to those still considering taking the risk of entering the United States illegally:
The border is not open. Please don’t come.
You will be apprehended if you do come, and you will be deported promptly. If you’re a criminal, you will be prosecuted, and if you assault our officers, we’re going to come at you [like] a ton of bricks.
When he was informed of the latest numbers from the CBP, he expressed surprise at how much the flow of illegals had been staunched already:
I knew strong Presidential leadership — unlike the wishy-washy-ness we’ve seen in the past — would impact the flow, but not as much as we’ve seen already. The numbers are down 70 percent since President Obama left office. So it’s really a remarkable achievement.
It’s not only the words but the actions that are working to turn the tide. Sessions said that 25 immigration judges have already been sent to detention centers along the border to help expedite the deportations, with another 50 to be assigned before the end of the year. And there will be another 75 judges sent to the border next year as well, “reflecting,” said Sessions, “the dire need to reduce the backlogs in our immigration courts.”
And then there are the actions already taken by the administration: 200 construction companies have already responded to the administration’s requests for proposals to build the wall, while some funding to begin design and construction of it has already been committed. More funding requests for the wall are in Trump’s budget, along with funding requests for 5,000 more border patrol agents and 10,000 additional immigration enforcement officers.
The drop in illegal immigration could be temporary, with potential illegals waiting to see whether these words and actions actually turn out to be effective over time. Some are comparing the drop to the spike in the stock market which was driven by anticipation that many of Trump’s promises regarding regulations, tax reform, and infrastructure spending were actually going to come true. With the rejection of RyanCare as a replacement of ObamaCare, the stock market has taken a wait-and-see attitude. As Ronald Colburn, who retired in 2009 as deputy chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, put it:
There is this symbolic holding of one’s breath by the transnational criminal organizations and by the governments of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, because of the new administration in place.
They are watching and waiting to see if Congress and the American people and the administration have the will to follow through … if they do, then we may see this is a continuing downtrend.
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Related article:
Will Private Property Rights Stop the Trump Wall?My name is Zachary Smith aka Hoeken. I have been building 3D printers since 2007 as part of the RepRap project. I created a non-profit foundation (the RRRF) dedicated to pushing open source 3D printing forward. In 2009, I invited my friends Adam Mayer and Bre Pettis to go into business with me building 3D printers. Thus, MakerBot Industries was born. Fast forward to April, 2012 when I was forced out of the very same company. As a result, I have zero transparency into the internal workings of the company that I founded. See this article by Chris Thompson for more infomation.
I do not support any move that restricts the open nature of the MakerBot hardware, electronics, software, firmware, or other open projects. MakerBot was built on a foundation of open hardware projects such as RepRap and Arduino, as well as using many open software projects for development of our own software. I remain a staunch supporter of the open source movement, and I believe the ideals and goals of OSHW remain true. I have never wavered from this stance, and I hope that I never do. Future me, beware.
I have been withholding judgement until hearing official word regarding the open source nature of the latest MakerBot printer. I’m trying to contact people to find out what the real scoop is but so far nobody is talking, and my ex-partners are not returning phone calls or emails. It certainly doesn’t look good. The best information I have found is a load of corporate double-speak bullshit that has come to characterize my interactions with MakerBot in recent memory.
If these allegations do prove true, it would be a sad day indeed for the open hardware movement. Not only would it be a loss of a large Open Hardware manufacturer, but it would also be a loss of a poster child for the movement. Many people have pointed at MakerBot and said “Yes, OSHW is viable as a business model, look at how successful MakerBot is.” If they close those doors, then it would give people who would say OSHW is not sustainable ammunition for their arguments. It would also discourage new OSHW companies from forming. That is a sad thing indeed.
For me, personally, I look at a move to closed source as the ultimate betrayal. When I was forced out, it was a normal, if unfortunate, clash of wills where one person must stay and one person must go. I swallowed my ego and left, because I knew that the company I founded would carry my ideals further into the world. Regardless of our differences, I had assumed that Bre would continue to follow the principles that we founded the company on, and the same principles that played a major part in the success of our company. Moving from an open model to a closed model is contrary to everything that I stand for, and as a co-founder of MakerBot Industries, it makes me ashamed to have my name associated with it.
Bre Pettis, please prove me wrong by clarifying exactly what license MakerBot will be releasing the design files and software under. That is all we (the community) wants.
In closing, I would like to point out the Open Source Hardware Definition, which MakerBot has endorsed. This document spells out in very clear terms what it means to be an open hardware company. I’ll leave this here for you to ponder:Share. Even Ori's wall jump is adorable. Even Ori's wall jump is adorable.
One of the most refreshing surprises at the Microsoft E3 2014 press conference was the new IP Ori and The Blind Forest from developer Moon Studios. After four years in development, the vibrant atmospheric platformer is coming to Xbox One and PC later this year. While the reveal video showed several bright, colorful locales, the first hands-on I had with Ori was in a darker, yet beautiful, Sunken Glade, right at the start of the game.
Exit Theatre Mode
You play as Ori, an adorable white bunny forest spirit who can nimbly jump from one 2D painted area to the next with ease. The Sunken Glade, and all of Ori and the Blind Forest, has an amazing watercolor aesthetic, and uses parallax to create a wonderful sense of depth in the forest. Trees in the background and foreground make the world seem large, and leaves flutter down the screen as you play, adding yet another layer to the enchanting picture.
Aside from the incredible beauty of the game, which is admittedly hard to look past, Ori controls well and has some interesting Metroidvania ideas within. Taking a hint from Zelda, Ori only has three Life Shards, or hit points, at the start of the game. He’s quite fragile, but soon enough he finds another friendly spirit named Sein (pronounced Sign). Sein, who reminded me of Navi from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, is a little puff of light who guides Ori on his quest and aids him in battle.
Players use Sein to attack both the creatures in the world and the environmental hazards found within. Sein is ranged attacker and slashes enemies down from afar without the need to target them. As Ori and Sein defeat monsters, who light up when they’re in range of the two, Ori earns Spirit Lights, which are basically orbs of experience. When Ori levels up, players can choose new abilities from an ability tree for him and Sein. The one I chose enabled Sein to attack three times per swing instead of once.
One of the more unique aspects of Ori is the Soul Link mechanic, allowing players to create checkpoints and save their progress only if they have enough of a resource called Spirit Energy to do so. Spirit Energy is hidden amongst the levels and earned through killing enemies, but it’s not exactly common. It’s important to create Soul Links strategically, as Ori and the Blind Forest is surprisingly difficult and you only have so much Spirit Energy to spend to create checkpoints.
Exit Theatre Mode
The difficulty comes in the platforming sections and puzzles you’ll have to solve as the little critter. After exploring the Glade for a bit, Ori eventually unlocks the wall jump power-up, which comes complete with a sickeningly cute animation. Rather than zigzagging from wall to wall, Ori simply pounces up one side of a wall, similar to what you’d find in Mega Man X. I couldn’t help but smile watching him pad his way up cliffs and trees. Boop, boop, boop!
After unlocking the wall jump power, there’s an intense section where Ori has to dodge fireball-shooting plants while traversing up walls. This section reminded me of some of the brutal platforming in Super Meat Boy, but it was exhilarating, especially when I didn’t have enough energy to create a new Soul Link. More power-ups will be unlocked as you make your way through the adventure, and you’ll be able to revisit locations with new powers to uncover more secrets, collectables, and areas.
Ori and the Blind Forest was an incredibly pleasant surprise at this year’s E3, and as my demo drew to a close I was impressed to learn that Moon Studios is made up of developers who collaborate all over the world, rather than work in a single location. It seems to be working however, and I’m anxious to see more of this lovely gem.
Leah B. Jackson is both an Associate Editor at IGN and Corgi megafan, and not necessarily in that order. Follow her on Twitter and MyIGN!Radeon RX Vega 64 clocks
This is from my own source, but take it with a grain of salt till I’m able to confirm it.
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid: base 1406 MHz / boost 1677 MHz
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Limited: base 1247 MHz / boost 1546 MHz
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64: base 1247 MHz / boost 1546 MHz
Gigabyte confirms Radeon RX Vega 64 codename
Gigabyte already has a page up for RX Vega 64. If you change the title it will redirect you to another site, which means this subpage exists. AMD has not once confirmed that RX Vega is called RX Vega 64, so this might be the first official confirmation from AIBs.
Possible Radeon RX Vega 64 prices
This is allegedly from Newegg before it was removed. If those prices are correct, then we will be seeing a very competitive high-end segment.
AMD Radeon RX Vega: $499
AMD Radeon RX Vega Limited Edition Model: $549
AMD Radeon RX Vega Liquid Cooler Model: $599
AMD Radeon RX Vega Liquid Cooler Limited Edition Model: $649
Source: Guru3D Forums
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Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.The veteran broadcaster, who first rankled liberal media elites with his “Vince Foster” question to then First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1999, has been through an ordeal from which few people could both emerge victorious and vindicated.
For those who don’t know, a beleaguered Bauerle endured almost 3 years of Hell before and following a front-page Sunday article in the Warren Buffet-owned Buffalo News questioning his “behavior” and, infuriatingly to his enemies, emerged quietly a few months ago from the flames with a big smile on his face—and out of court settlements with those responsible.
But to the surprise of his stalkers, Bauerle and his team ended up cracking the most incredible of mysteries that enemies seized upon to portray him as “crazy”.
The kind of surveillance straight shooter WBEN Buffalo radio talk show host Tom Bauerle was under right in his own backyard would, in the telling, make anyone even the CIA sound crazy. Even Sherlock Holmes couldn’t have solved the puzzle given the complexity of clues.
“Graduate university students and people from certain entities, conducting supposedly ‘unauthorized’ research on state of the art cover and concealment technology, including invisibility techniques, such as non-linear optics, electronic cloaking and what is known in defense circles as ‘Phantom Bogey’ technology.”
“The nonsense around my home had nothing to do with Governor Andrew Cuomo, and I owe him an apology. I’m man enough to do that,” Bauerle told CFP. So what is the truth behind what Bauerle was seeing around his residence?
A headline-screaming front page article in January 2014 painted Bauerle as some kind of paranoid freak, who irrationally believed he was under surveillance. But as things turned out, Bauerle proved that he was in fact under surveillance as he had suspected. Not only did he prove it, but he has reached out of court agreements with those whose activities greatly damaged his reputation:
The only malady, ascribed to him by enemies has been an ongoing proclivity of kicking Lib-Left butt.
Bauerle, a perennial selection on Talker’s Magazines ‘Heavy Hundred’ list of the most important radio talk show hosts in the USA, has decided to speak with Canada Free Press (CFP) first to set the record straight once and for all: he is not “psychotic” and never has had “paranoia or schizophrenia or anything even close.”
“I got lucky. I was the first person in the world to work out a defeat for the technology. Why would I want ISIS to have that info? I love my country,” he told CFP.
Not only that, Bauerle should probably receive a medal as a true patriot and national security hero, because of his persistence in breaking some “well above Top Secret” technology being used around his home and his unwillingness to ‘go public’ with specifics, even to clear his own name for fear of putting American military or intelligence people at risk.
In late Spring 2016, Bauerle reached settlements with the people behind the long-term research operation around his home, and we have the legal documents that prove Bauerle deserves an apology from the Buffalo News, and bloggers who accused him of having a ‘psychotic episode’.
We publish the (dates redacted) affidavit from Schowengerdt here, but the important point is Schowengerdt’s confirmation that Bauerle had provided him with “definitive proof beyond any doubt that Mr. Bauerle’s assertions of a sophisticated surveillance operation around his home are quite correct.” (See affidavit below)
“Mr. Schowengerdt was very helpful to me,” Bauerle said. “I had spent thousands of hours gathering and reviewing pictures and videos of the weird movement and activity around my home, and I sent him several examples for his analysis. He confirmed that it was, in fact the invisibility cloaking technology he’d invented that was being used to violate my privacy and civil rights, and furnished an affidavit that I am allowed to release under the terms of my settlements.”
Schowengerdt was involved in many US military research projects involving state of the art fighter jets, and received an award for his work on the B-2 bomber. He was also instrumental in the technology for the presidential plane.
Bauerle was smart enough to submit photos and videos to the man who obtained the patent in 1994 for electronic cloaking technology (invisibility), 52-year-old, leading-edge scientist Richard Schowengerdt.
The Background
In Fall 2013, the observant Bauerle noticed a marked increase in vehicular and pedestrian traffic in his quiet neighborhood in Williamsville, NY.
“I purchased my home in 2003, and you get to know the patterns of neighborhood ebb and flow, and the faces of those who walk, exercise their dogs or jog regularly. But in October 2013, I started thinking ‘something is out of the ordinary’ here. My home was equipped with a basic security camera system, and I began to track and note the vehicles regularly circling the block or an adjacent side street, and what I noticed was somewhat disconcerting. The same vehicles would not just make frequent ‘passes’ by my home, they would slow down in front of it and people inside the vehicles would all be looking at my place. I’m a logical guy. So my first thought was that someone was trying to gather ‘dirt” on my personal life. I also saw pedestrians I did not recognize walking past my home at intervals, but changing clothes between “walk byes.” That is just classic surveillance 101 stuff.”
“In mid-October, I saw and recorded an event that really raised my eyebrows. As I entered my home in broad daylight with a lady friend, someone emerged from an across the street neighbor’s side entrance and walked down the driveway to take a photo of us entering my home. When we were leaving, a couple of guys darted behind a tree to photograph the two of us driving away. When I later showed my neighbor the video, he turned ashen and said ‘My wife would have been alone in the shower then.’ He immediately called Amherst Police and filed a trespass report.
“There was, of course, no mention of that trespass report in the Buffalo News article. When you think you have someone by the throat, why let conflicting facts interfere?”
Interesting to note that one month before the front page hit piece on Bauerle, one of the paper’s news reporters had called his WBEN employer “despicable” in a Facebook post.
As mid-October turned into November 2013, the increased activity around his residence continued.
“I have a lot of cop friends, and they encouraged me to keep the Amherst NY Police Department in the loop and to stay alert.,” he recalls.
Bauerle says the Amherst Police sent an unmarked law-enforcement vehicle out to look for out of neighborhood license plates, but the police came up empty. “It was not exactly a discreet vehicle, and any PI or operative would have seen it from a mile away.”
“I figured the surveillance would be short-term, and passing, but it continued and even intensified. On my video, I saw that when I left my home for work, there was a flurry of traffic in my ordinarily docile neighborhood. When I left my home to see friends, the same pattern. There’d be no traffic for an extended period, but when I drove off, suddenly 10 vehicles would be in motion. Repeatedly. Freaky.”
“Before leaving a friend’s place, we’d note and even video the dearth of any vehicles, but as I left a flurry of cars would emerge from nowhere. And we are talking midnight and 1 AM.”
Anyone who has hired private investigators knows it can be expensive, so Bauerle discarded the “jealous ex-husband” or run of the mill “dirt-gathering” operation and believed the extended and heavy surveillance might involve a Western New York resident involved in a high-profile animal cruelty case, of whom Bauerle had been critical. This person has a track-record of using private eyes to snoop on perceived enemies.
After a week-long trip to the Dominican Republic, Bauerle came back very ill with a food-borne illness that left him weakened and prevented him from sleeping.
“I wasn’t sleeping but 2 hours a night. I was in a very weak state and getting stressed out because I didn’t know what was taking place around me. Who would want to put heavy, almost lock-step surveillance on me? As the weeks rolled on, it didn’t make sense.
“I just didn’t know what was going on. All I could do was remain vigilant, keep my powder dry, and keep the cops, my friends and attorneys in the loop. After a while, I asked PI Douglas J. Hagmann to come investigate. Hagmann told Bauerle “It was a surveillance operation the likes of which he had never seen”.
‘Dude, something major, and we mean massive is going on around Bauerle’s house
Bauerle downloaded a free app called “Color Night Vision” and started using the app to take “night vision” photos and captured anomalies.
“By December 2013, I eventually had to discard the idea that the person of whom I’d been critical in an animal cruelty case might be a logical suspect, because of what I learned as the duration and intensity of activity increased around my home. What did I find out? Unbeknownst to me, a dear friend who knows a lot of Special Forces guys asked some of his buddies to come to my neighborhood prior to Christmas, 2013. These are the kinds of guys from the movie 13 Hours. Totally badass. So these hombres came to my neighborhood, saw what was happening and reported to my buddy: ‘Dude, something major, and we mean massive is going on around Bauerle’s house.
Someone has to be spending tens of thousands of dollars a day on this guy. We’ve never seen anything like it. We’re talking advanced technology like we’ve never seen, and we don’t want to go back.’”
Bauerle’s friend broke the news to him that he was under major and high-tech surveillance just before Christmas 2013.
In the early-morning hours in late December 2013 and early January 2014, Bauerle would have his eyes on his security cameras and use “Color Night Vision” to try to get definitive proof, and on several occasions was sure he was seeing people.
Try explaining a form of surveillance so sophisticated that it put private detectives on the run to the police and remaining in the sane zone.
After several calls to the Amherst Police, officers eventually wanted him to undergo a psychiatric evaluation in early January 2014. “It was bitterly cold then, and my cell phone would die after a few minutes outside, so it was very frustrating trying to explain what I was seeing. What I couldn’t understand was why there were no footprints where there should have been. But now I know why. What I was seeing were not real people. Projections. Like holograms, or as some say “Phantom Bogeys.”
When Amherst Police requested Bauerle undergo a psychiatric exam at Erie County Medical Center (ECMC), it was made clear that if he did not voluntarily consent, he would be compelled to do so.
A savvy, rational Bauerle was cooperative with police at all times, and the officers saw no reason to even handcuff him during transport to ECMC.
In fact, the allegedly off-his-rocker Bauerle was allowed to walk into the |
common in folklore, especially in British and Irish faerie lore) without really thinking through the implications. What I was really trying to do, I think, was to create a new race that, despite its uniqueness, still had a strong psychological resonance and feeling of being “right” because it was based on so many elements and archetypes from myth and folklore. ~ Graeme Davis, via email, 3/28/14
You know what? I get that. I know where he is coming from. That feeling of “rightness” does exist. This is why we have a lot of deeply established tropes, archetypes and story arcs. Because they feel deeper and more natural. Because they tap into our cultural heritage, and are built on familiar concepts. Unfortunately not all tropes are positive, or worth perpetuating. Using mythology as the source of inspiration does not excuse perpetuating rape culture in fantasy fiction. Davis acknowledges that he made a mistake, and ultimately the Fimir paid the price for it. It drove them to a virtual extinction.
I think that their rape monster nature was precisely what sabotaged their chances to become signature Warhammer mascots. It was not their suboptimal tabletop performance, but the fact they were a PR disaster waiting to happen. They were the exact opposite of the kind of monster you would want to use in branding a marketable product. TV Tropes suggests that perhaps this was by design, arguing that the Fimir lore is an example of Writer Revolt in response to Executive Meddling by Ansel. But that conjecture is not supported by statements made by Ackland and my conversations with Davis. They both frame it as a simple lapse of judgement that was not recognized as such until it was too late.
I have always loved Fimir for their primordial fey-folk mist-dinosaur look and feel, but was never comfortable with their lore. I never pitted them against my players because other Warhammer antagonists always seemed more fun, characterful and free of controversial baggage (though not perfect). You can throw Orks, Skaven or Chaos cultists against the players, and it is going to be all fun and mayhem. Fimir however have this air of uneasiness about them. Their reproductive lore is something you are best to ignore or rewrite yourself, especially if playing in a mixed company. But at that point it is just easier to use another monster.
That said, fantasy creature lore does not have to be set in stone. It can be rewritten and retconned to remove any and all unwanted baggage. It wouldn’t be the first time nor the last time. Fimir desperately need a figurative “facelift” and it seems that this is exactly what they are getting. Games Workshop has recently reintroduced them into the game lore by including a Dirach sorcerer as a bound monster with beefed up stats and powers in the Storm of Magic expansion for WFB. Around the same time the GW affiliated specialist-miniature-kit maker, Forge World, started selling Fimir Warrior kits. I do not have the expansion, but it appears that their revised lore emphasizes their fall from grace with the Chaos gods and wisely keeps details of their reproductive cycle completely on the down low.Some NHL teams are blessed – they have a legitimate No.1 goaltender. They have a star netminder between the pipes that they can consistently rely on, season after season, to perform at the elite level for 60-plus games each season. Teams such as the New York Rangers, Carolina Hurricanes, and the Montreal Canadiens don’t tend to put up, day after day, with media representatives asking which goalie will start that night’s game; it’s simply assumed that Henrik Lundqvist, Cam Ward, or Carey Price will be there to tend the mesh.
But, in general, the franchise goalie is disappearing. The pressure put on NHL goalies, specifically noticeable over the last few seasons, is immense: perform or ride the pine – no second chances. There is no stability for non-franchise goalies to feel when they know each game they play could be their last for a long, long time. For a majority of NHL clubs, the problems are the same each season: they lack goaltending.
But are the goalies to blame? Hardly. The coaching staffs and general managers are expecting too much and constant criticism isn’t easy on any athlete. Over the last few seasons, it seems that goalies are the least confident players on their respective teams. For example, how could Jonas Gustavsson of the Toronto Maple Leafs build any self-esteem when a loss, even if only a 1-0 loss, means he doesn’t get to play the next game? The same goes for Chicago’s Corey Crawford – a young goalie who had a great first-year. Instead of properly coaching and developing Crawford, the Blackhawks just threw him in as their starter at the beginning of the season. When things starting to go downhill, Ray Emery took his place as starter. But then Emery started failing.
Would failing be the right word, though? Goalies aren’t allowed to have a bad season anymore. They aren’t even allowed to have a bad game. They are put under the microscope constantly and never get the chance to relax. What’s hard to understand, using Chicago once again as an example, is why goaltenders receive most of the flak for a losing team. An opposing player has to get past three forwards and two defenseman before even getting a chance to score on a goalie. I’m not saying other players get no blame at all, but if opposing players are easily skating past five players and scoring, who is really more at fault?
NHL goaltenders need consistency to develop confidence and, in turn, improve their play. The mindset held here at the Hockey Dekely to improve these goaltending issues is the St. Louis Blues strategy (shared by the Minnesota Wild and, to an extent, the Boston Bruins) meaning, regardless of a win or loss, both goalies on the team will split the amount of games played right down the middle.
There is no starting goalie in St. Louis, and therefore no back-up (which is a term that can also affect the confidence of a goalie) and that alleviates a lot of pressure. Look what effect this strategy has had on the Blues. Brian Elliott has played 35 games so far this season and holds a winning record of 22-9-3. He leads the NHL with a 1.52 GAA and.941 save percentage. His counterpart, Jaroslav Halak, is second in the NHL with a 1.90 GAA. He also holds a winning record of 25-11-6 in 43 games. Combined, the goalies lead the league with 15 shutouts.
This strategy of equality appears to be working. Who’d have thought? The idea of a team having an official starting goalie and back-up goalie is stale. Several of this year’s successful teams have proven that. Teams can expect better play from their goalies when their goalies know what to expect.
@do_the_Ryan
AdvertisementsJoan Sebastian died in 2015, but his name has emerged after he was called out of sexually exploited girls. In a column from El Universal, underage girls recall their awful experience in a human trafficking ring where they say "El Rey Del Jaripeo" was one of the clients. According to their testimony they said: "Joan Sebastian told the girls that they were his princesses and that he would take care of them like their father." She also added that Joan would gift them shoes and jewelry in gold.
Another girl remembered that they were once taken to a ranch and they later found out it was Joan Sebastian's place. According to their testimony it was the singer that chose the girls that would attend the party with most of them being underage. According to the witness, Joan allegedly called the girls "the merchandise" and even saw drug lord known as "La Barbie" at the ranch.
Joan Sebastian died in July 2015 after battling cancer at the age of 64. It was in early 2014, when the singer revealed that he was battling cancer for the fourth time during his performances in Zacatecas. The "Secreto de Amor" hitmaker told morning show "Hoy" that he had undergone chemotherapy prior to his presentations and still went through with the show. "We booked these dates two months ago, I didn't know that I would need chemotherapy again," he said at the time. "I am very conscious that this is something I have to deal with and I have fortunately been able to pull through." The "King Of Jaripeo" had difficulties going up the stairs and remained seated during his number, which he acknowledged to reporters saying, "I felt weak on stage."
Despite falling ill, Sebastian was hopeful of returning to the stage. "The love and claps from the audience is what keeps me going, I will not be retiring," he said. "I am very aware of the chemotherapy experience." In 1999 Joan Sebastian was diagnosed with cancer in the bones and it came back in 2007 and 2012. In February 2014 the "Lobo Domesticado" singer said he was retiring from the "jaripeos" shows that has him singing in a rodeo atop a horse. "I am not retiring, I am saying goodbye to the rodeos only. I am 62 years old and I am satisfied with what I have accomplished, but I know I am not getting younger," he told reporters in his Las Palmas ranch. "I want to retire on a high, I'm retiring from horses because I cannot mount anymore. There are various indicators and some members of my family suffer too much, it's the moment." His voice can still be heard nightly on Univision during the opening credits of "Amores Con Trampa" with the song "Trampa."Chad Cornes played his last game for the Power in 2011
GREATER Western Sydney assistant coach Chad Cornes will return to Port Adelaide to replace Garry Hocking as coach of the club's SANFL side.
Hocking will assist Power midfield manager Michael Voss.
Cornes became a household name and won the 2004 premiership with the Power before playing the final 16 of his 255 career games at the Giants in 2012.
On retiring in 2013 he took on a full-time assistant coaching role, helping to develop the League's youngest list.
Senior coach Leon Cameron thanked Cornes for his service.
"Chad has played a crucial role in establishing a tough and ruthless culture at the Giants and we thank him for his efforts over the past four years," Cameron said.
"When he joined the Giants, Chad added much needed experience to our playing list and his leadership showed our young players what it takes to succeed at AFL level.
"As a coach, Chad has done a terrific job working with our young backline and developed a great rapport with our players and staff."
Cameron said the club wasn't going to stand in the way of Cornes' desire to coach his own team.
Cornes was delighted to be returning to Port, the club at which he enjoyed so much success as a player.
"Port Adelaide has such passion from the coaches to the players and their fantastic loyal supporters," he said.
"It's a big challenge coaching my own team and I look forward to driving this group to keep improving."
Hocking's return to the AFL coaching group is just one of a number of changes at Alberton.
Former Essendon assistant Nathan Bassett will take over from defence coach Matthew Nicks, who will take charge of the forward line next season.
Shaun Hart will remain the director of coaching.By Andrew Burnes
Our new GeForce Game Ready 368.22 WHQL drivers are optimized for the official Overwatch release, as well as forthcoming updates for War Thunder and World of Tanks. To download and install, simply fire up GeForce Experience and click the "Drivers" tab.
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If you want to play at high framerates in the biggest battles, or at 4K, you'll need a modern system capable of pumping out the necessary pixels at a blistering rate. Our testing shows the following NVIDIA GeForce GTX graphics card are ready for such a challenge, or you could grab a GeForce GTX 1080 in four days' time and get smooth framerates and low frametimes at the very highest detail levels and resolutions.
For specifics on Overwatch's release be sure to check out Blizzard's launch protocols.
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You can download the new GeForce Game Ready driver for Overwatch, and the forthcoming War Thunder and World of Tanks updates through GeForce Experience, our free, essential, game and system-enhancing application.
If you experience any technical issues with the new Game Ready drivers, please post a detailed report on the GeForce.com Driver Feedback Forum where our Customer Care team can better assist you.
With regards to Total War: Warhammer, NVIDIA is working closely with Creative Assembly to resolve issues discovered during testing. To ensure the best possible experience download the latest game updates, and continue to update to new drivers as they're released.Citing American officials, The New York Times had reported on Tuesday that Yemeni authorities, angry about the civilian casualties incurred last month in the first counterterrorism operation authorized by President Trump, had withdrawn permission for the United States to run Special Operations ground missions against suspected terrorist groups in the country.
But on Wednesday, Yemeni officials publicly backtracked somewhat from what they had told White House officials, caught between the public outrage at home over civilian deaths and fear of losing American counterterrorism assistance. When asked about The Times report on Wednesday, the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, did not deny that American commando missions had been suspended. Referring to the Yemenis, Mr. Spicer said that “we’re going to continue to work with them to strengthen our diplomatic relationship, to understand our fight against terrorism.”SARASOTA — Dear lord, this place is a palace. Really, it’s probably the nicest spring training park I’ve been to in either Arizona or Florida. But before I get to that, I need to tell you something important: rattlesnakes can swim 20 miles out to sea.
At least that’s what I was told this morning by two men in a McDonald’s somewhere off of I-75 on my way to Sarasota. The men were easily in their late 80s or older and were wearing WWII veteran caps. They were drinking coffee, newspapers in front of them and were engaged in deep conversation. I listened in:
Man 1: Those rattlesnakes or what you call ’em. Nasty, I tell ya what. They can swim real well, too.
Man 2: I heard they can swim.
Man 1: We saw one out on the boat one day. We were 20 miles out. He was just swimmin’ along.
Man 2: Hoo, boy.
Man 1: 20 miles.
I couldn’t decide if I should thank them for stopping Hitler or if I should yell at them for giving me swimming rattlesnake nightmares. Either way, it was an emotionally-affecting few moments.
Into Sarasota and to Ed Smith stadium which, as I said, is a palace:
It has the amenities of the newest Arizona complexes such as a separate building with offices, clubhouses and training facilities. The clubhouse itself has a ping pong table, cornhole setup and a bumper pool table for the players. Flat-screen TVs everywhere. Tons of room and nice plush carpeting. The larger complex provides close access to all of the back fields with well-marked directions and walkways for fans — but, like a lot of Florida places, is situated in a neighborhood and feels more human-scaled. And the actual stadium may be the nicest I’ve seen. A feeling of permanence and luxury and major league quality, but unlike Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, is still on the scale of a minor league or spring training park.
There are all kinds of nods to history here, such as this cool banner/bat thing hanging in the area behind the home plate seats.
Also, signs and posters detailing Orioles history. Blown-up copies of tickets from the 1979 World Series, programs from 1966. Stuff like that. And history lessons too, like this poster. Which is in the press box bathroom of all places:
One always thinks of the O’s just having the cartoon bird and the ornithologically-correct bird, but there are a ton of different cartoon birds. Like these two psycho birds:
A closeup of the top one — the “cuckoo bird” — above each of the players’ lockers in the clubhouse beside their name. I feel like we should see more of that one than the smiling bird. It’s pleasantly unsettling.
But not quite as unsettling as this:
That’s wonderful for the sake of conservation, but I really would like to meet the person who was going to drink out of the toilets and urinals but for this warning about reclaimed water. The person who says “well, if it was fresh toilet water, fine, I might’ve been in business. But I really don’t care for the reclaimed stuff.”
Oh well. Down to the field to watch the O’s work out and listen to Buck Showalter hold court in a little while.The verdict is in: Steve Yzerman is loved by all.
In 2015 Yzerman won the award for the league’s top general manager. He wasn’t among the top three this year, but pretty much everyone is predicting he’ll get all the votes after what he was able to accomplish this offseason.
ESPN’s Joe McDonald went so far as to declare the following:
We're months away from the start of the 2016-17 season, but Steve Yzerman has already won the General Manager of the Year Award for keeping his team intact and becoming the early favorites to win the Stanley Cup.
Not only that, but fans have confidence in him too. The Lightning topped the NHL in a recent Hockey News survey that asked how confident NHL fan bases are with their team’s front office. More than 200 people ranked their team on a scale of 1-10 on the following:
The categories in question are roster building, cap management, drafting and development, trading, free agency and vision. The overall ranking was then weighted by how important respondents deemed each skill to be relative to the others. Those surveyed viewed drafting and development as most important, followed by roster building and vision, then cap management, then trading, with free agency seen as the least important.
The Lightning came in first in roster building, cap management, draft and development and vision, was second in free agency and sixth in trades with an overall confidence rating of 8.37.
It’s almost hard to fathom that it had to be the right time and opportunity for Yzerman to be named the GM of the Lightning. He did it the “right way.” Yzerman, the lifelong Red Wing whose fans still refer to him only as “The Captain” spent close to four years in various positions in Detroit’s front office after hanging up his skates. He didn’t jump into a GM’s seat right away, which he could have, and which we’ve seen former players do to varying degrees of success.
After four years though, serving on positions like vice president and alternate governor, Yzerman left Detroit because the Wings weren’t willing to give him what he wanted — the title of general manager. Or rather, longtime Wings GM Ken Holland wasn’t willing to step aside for Yzerman, according to The Detroit News, even when Wings owner Mike Illitch wanted Holland to.
Yzerman waited for the right opportunity. The Lightning came calling. So did the Minnesota Wild. He turned down the Wild and accepted the Lightning job.
What we’ve learned in the years since is that Yzerman’s philosophy as a manager is to be patient and make his moves strategically, but at the same time isn’t afraid to make moves that are perceived to be difficult either. He let Guy Boucher go without waiting until the end of the season. He bought out Vincent Lecavalier. He demoted Jonathan Drouin to the minors.
Assembling a team is like a puzzle piece: You begin the job with all these pieces and try to figure out how they fit, getting rid of or trading pieces you think doesn’t work for the right ones. This offseason, Yzerman somewhat surprisingly re-signed the two pieces that came with the job: Steven Stamkos (because most expected him as good as gone and he re-signed to an extremely reasonable deal) and Victor Hedman (because he still had a year left).
There were several other moves in addition, but there’s still more work for Yzerman to do. The job of a general manager is never-ending. The immediate question mark (or two) remains on Nikita Kucherov (come on, any day now) and Ben Bishop (will he stay or will he go?)
But what Yzerman has been able to accomplish this offseason is more than fair to consider him as an early frontrunner as the top general manager of the league. On June 20, The Hockey News named Yzerman as the fourth-best GM in the league — it didn’t take into account any of the signings because it was published before any of it. The men ahead of Yzerman on THN’s list either have multiple Stanley Cups or have been in the front office a lot longer than Yzerman.
More recently, The Score named Yzerman the top general manager in the NHL and cited the assets he has gathered as a reason for that distinction.
With Tampa, Yzerman is trying to create a legacy just like he did during his playing days. But at the end of the day, there’s so much a general manager can do. Yzerman has done his part to gather all the right pieces. Now it’s a matter of all those pieces proving that the puzzle fits and is complete.The Ottawa Folk Festival has been charged with violating noise bylaws after callers overwhelmed the city’s 311 line on the first night of the rock and folk music festival.
Music from the festival, which takes place at Hog’s Back Park, could be heard as far away as the Glebe on Wednesday night, said Capital ward Coun. David Chernushenko, who estimated he received more than 30 complaints.
“It may not sound like a lot, but it’s huge,” he said.
“It was very bad last night,” said John Smart, who lives in the Glebe, which is about 4.5 kilometres away from the festival site. He said he returned home at 9:30 p.m. and heard loud music until just before 11 p.m.
“There’s no need for festival organizers to be polluting the city.”
Smart said he waited on hold Wednesday night for about 30 minutes, and said the operator on the end of the line told him the phones were “deluged” with complaints.
On Thursday, Ottawa’s By-law & Regulatory Services confirmed that a charge had been laid under Section 2 of the noise bylaws that prohibits “unusual” noise from disturbing inhabitants. The city also said two bylaw officers would attend Thursday night’s festivities to make sure the vocal stylings of Lorde and other folk-rock acts stayed within bounds.
Event organizer Mark Monahan said he would meet with bylaw officers Thursday evening to determine what went wrong and how he can fix it. He said he believes the music was within the 65-decibel level mandated by noise bylaws, and said he works with musicians to ensure that they are playing below the limit.
“My understanding is that this is not for a decibel-level violation, it’s for something else. I’m trying to figure out what that is,” Monahan said.
Chernushenko said, “It shouldn’t have to come to this. They should be taking the initiative. The onus should be on them to make those measurements and to guarantee themselves. You know someone who’s meeting the fire code doesn’t wait until there’s a fire.”
Chernushenko said that after a loud festival last year, he had spoken to organizers and had hoped they would keep it down.
Smart also said he recalled one loud night last year.
“My worry is they’re on for four more nights,” Smart said Thursday.
Chernushenko said keeping noise under control has nothing to do with stopping people from having fun. “It’s about respect.”
“I’ll be frank, I’m just tired of talking to festival organizers and having them argue with me, and tell me I’m wrong, and that my residents are just a bunch of no-fun party poopers, that, really, it wasn’t that bad.”
Ottawa Folk Festival: Complete coverage
rlevinson@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/robinlevinsonWith so many Hamptons Police cruisers going by with people riding behind bars in the back, observers could have been forgiven for thinking a crime wave was spreading across our area. But police revealed this week the majority of cruisers in question were likely part of a program called Hamptons Police Ride-Along.
The pilot program, which the department feels is a great success and which will be expanded dramatically over the next few weeks, allows registered users to schedule a Ride-Along in a Hamptons Police cruiser to travel anywhere within the department’s jurisdiction, much like a taxi.
First, members requests a Ride-Along using an app downloaded onto a mobile device. The Hamptons Police then tap into secret federal databases to pinpoint the precise location of the Ride-Along customer—there’s no need to agree upon a meeting place, the Hamptons Police locates customers via satellite.
Using a computerized dispatch system, Hamptons Police Ride-Along dispatches a cruiser with a planned route that best suits the specific customer’s needs.
“This is a win-win,” said police spokesman Larry Hirsch during a press conference. “Let’s face it, most of the time our officers are out driving their beats all by themselves, with the backseats empty. It’s lonely, and it’s a waste. This way, they have company, they earn the department cash money in fares—and, not for nothing, Ride-Along customers get where they want to go.”
After the Hamptons Police has recovered the startup costs for the new program—Hirsch says the department spent close to $800,000 for software development and upgrades to its communications equipment—they will negotiate a fare-sharing deal with their officers. Hirsch says that base fares run from $10 to get from Sag Harbor to Bridgehampton to $140 to go from Flanders to Montauk. By paying a surcharge, customers can get high-speed service complete with flashing lights and siren.
Read more from the Hamptons Police Blotter!The Supreme Court of Judicature reversed again, in an eloquent decision. Lord Justice Jacob, in an apparent swipe at the midlevel court, insisted the question was “not one calling for or justifying overelaborate, almost mind-numbing legal analysis.”
The VAT and Duties Tribunal took an eminently practical approach, he said. It considered Pringles’ appearance, taste, ingredients, process of manufacture, marketing and packaging, and concluded that “while in many respects” they “are different from potato crisps and so they are near the borderline, they are sufficiently similar to satisfy that test.”
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The tribunal was not obliged, he said, “to go on and spell out item by item how each was weighed as if it were using a real scientist’s balance.” It came down to “a matter of overall impression.”
The Supreme Court of Judicature had little patience with Procter & Gamble’s lawyerly attempts to break out of the potato chip category. The company argued that to be “made of potato” Pringles would have to be all potato, or nearly so. If so, Lord Justice Jacob noted, “a marmalade made using both oranges and grapefruit would be made of neither — a nonsense conclusion.”
He was even more dismissive of Procter & Gamble’s argument that to be taxable a product must contain enough potato to have the quality of “potatoness.” This “Aristotelian question” of whether a product has the “essence of potato,” he insisted, simply cannot be answered.
In the Pringles litigation, three levels of British courts engaged in a classic debate over line-drawing, a staple of first-year law school classes. At some point, a potato-chip-like item is so different from a potato chip that it can no longer be called one — but when? Lord Justice Jacob invoked the wisdom of Justice Holmes: “A tyro thinks to puzzle you by asking you where you are going to draw the line and an advocate of more experience will show the arbitrariness of the line proposed by putting cases very near it on one side or the other.”
In other words, sometimes you just have to call them as you see them.
Conservatives like to insist that their judges are strict constructionists, giving the Constitution and statutes their precise meaning and no more, while judges like Ms. Sotomayor are activists. But there is no magic right way to interpret terms like “free speech” or “due process” — or potato chip. Nor is either ideological camp wholly strict or wholly activist. Liberal judges tend to be expansive about things like equal protection, while conservatives read more into ones like “the right to bear arms.”
In the end, as Lord Justice Jacob noted, a judge can only look at the relevant factors and draw an overall impression. His common-sense approach was a rebuke not only to Procter & Gamble, but to everyone out there who insists that the only way to read laws correctly is to read them strictly.Every day Todd Strandberg wakes up and scans the news for omens of the apocalypse. First, he checks the stock market and the price of oil for unusual activity. Then he checks news sites for an uptick in reports of terrorism, drug legalization, nuclear arms proliferation, UFO sightings, exorcisms, false prophets and signs of the Antichrist. Based on these stories, he puts together a statistical chart, known as The Rapture Index, so that hundreds of thousands of his followers can see exactly how close we are to the “end times.” And he’s been doing this, daily, for the last 28 years.
Strandberg has no job, no significant other, and no hobbies aside from collecting chemical elements and the occasional game of Ms. Pac-Man. He spends the vast majority of his waking hours studying the connection between current events and the prophetic scriptures in the Bible—two circles in a Venn diagram that overlap more with each passing year. If his Rapture Index is correct, then the four horseman are saddling up.
The Rapture Index
Strandberg began compiling The Rapture Index shortly after he became a Christian. He owes his faith largely to Hal Lindsey’s book “The Late, Great Planet Earth,” the highest-selling non-fiction biblical prophesy book in history. The book was adapted into an Orson Welles-narrated film and followed by several sequels, including “Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth” and “The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon,” both of which Lindsey wrote alone.
For those uninitiated and, thus, destined to be left behind, these are the rough basics of Christian doomsday prophecy: The Tribulation (aka the apocalypse) is the period of mayhem and judgment that surrounds the Second Coming of Christ. The Rapture is a point in the Tribulation (possibly at the beginning) when all true Christians are beamed to Heaven, leaving the unfaithful to deal with the Antichrist and, if they fail to covert to Christianity, be thrown into a lake of fire. If you believe all this, you’re far from alone—a Gallup poll from 2010 showed that 41 percent of Americans think Jesus Christ will return from Heaven by 2050.
Lindsey’s teachings kickstarted the modern age of Tribulation prophetic interpretation, based on the idea that recent historic developments like the creation of Israel, growth of the second Roman Empire (the European Union) and the global threat of radical Islam are major precursors to the Tribulation as foretold in the Bible. Lindsey inspired thousands of Rapture prosthelytizers who study apocalyptic activity. But no evangelical on this doomed planet has followed our collective path to the end nearly as thoroughly or obsessively as Strandberg.
In 1987, shortly after he found God, Strandberg found a computer—specifically a Franklin Ace Apple II clone. One of Strandberg’s first projects on the machine was a list of 45 prophetic topics, including false Christs, financial unrest, arms proliferation, liberalism, the mark of the beast, volcanoes, plagues and floods. He then assigned scores of one through five to each category based on his own determination of how much activity there is based on news coverage. All the scores from each of the categories were then added together: The resulting number was The Rapture Index.
“The Rapture Index is a Dow Jones of end-time activity,” Strandberg told Vocativ. “Jesus said you will know the general time, but you won’t know the exact time of his return. But you’ll see these signs of the time as being an indicator of how close you are. So I thought, well the best way to do that would be a Dow Jones-kind of comparison, because as it gets higher and higher, [the Rapture] becomes more likely.”
The Rapture Index began as personal hobby, but once he discovered the internet around 1990, Strandberg started sharing his work on online bulletin boards, creating what is likely one of the world’s longest-running online ministries.
A score of 164 was a record high for the early days of the Rapture Index
In the early days of The Rapture Index, scores generally ranged between 90 and 160. There was a spike of 164, during the Gulf War, and a lull at the beginning of the Clinton Administration. The least Rapturous day in recent history was December 12, 1993, when the Index reached an all-time low of 58. Strandberg still marvels at that day, when all rapturous activity seemed to shut down. “I’m glad it hasn’t happened since and I think it won’t until the Rapture occurs,” Strandberg said. “Because if we’re this close to [the Rapture], it means the Index is going to stay very active.”
The most recent update of The Rapture Index
Aside from a brief drop following a 9/11-induced spike, we’ve been on a continuous crash course for Armageddon since 2009. Strandberg breaks the scores into four levels: slow prophetic activity (100 and below), moderate prophetic activity (100-130), heavy prophetic activity (130-160) and “fasten your seat belts” (160 and above). According to his calculations, the scores have remained fully within fasten-your-sea-belt territory for about seven years. We achieved peak Rapture on August 8, 2011, largely because of a major earthquake in Japan, an increase in UFO sightings, loosening marijuana laws and the European debt crisis. The Index has gone down since then, but only slightly. These days, the scores consistently hover around an alarming 180.
Strandberg doesn’t keep a record of each day’s Index, aside from the highs and lows. “I decided not to save it because I didn’t want it to become a thing unto itself,” Strandberg says. “The most important thing is the here and now.”
But Vocativ was interested in more than just the here and now, so we found past scores by searching The Rapture Index on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine—an investigation that Strandberg welcomed.
Strandberg’s Index is just the centerpiece of a larger ministry enterprise, RaptureReady.com. The site includes about 30 thousand articles and receives monthly contributions from around one hundred writers. Thanks to an abundance of content and Strandberg’s unique quantification of prophecy fulfillment, the site gets about about 300 thousand visitors and 24 million page views each month, according to Strandberg. “I remember at one time Hal Lindsey’s site was ahead of us, but we’ve been the number-one site in prophecy for the better part of eight years,” Strandberg says.
Partners In End Times
Strandberg doesn’t work on the site alone. His best friend and neighbor Terry James handles the editorial side of the operation. The two met in the late ’90s at a Tribulation conference in Dallas organized by Tim LaHaye, co-author of the “Left Behind” book series. They kept in touch and James started writing for Rapture Ready around 1998. James began his writing career in 1993 after going blind and leaving his job in public relations. He has since written 27 books with the aid of a computer program for the visually impaired, which reads back everything he writes. He is most excited about a book set to publish this summer, “Rapture Ready… Or Not: 15 Reasons Why This Is The Generation That Will Be Left Behind.” But nothing comes close to his pride for Strandberg, whom he views like a son.
The first time Todd Strandberg (left) visited Terry James in Benton, Arkansas
“Todd is a genius, a cyberspace genius, in my opinion,” James told Vocativ. “I tell him all the time. I say, ‘You’re really odd, Todd.’ He has a unique mind. He’s like a robot … Don’t ever think he’s not a brilliant guy, because he has an astronomical IQ, but sometimes he has a problem expressing himself without stammering a lot, so you’ll have to read between the lines.”
Conversing with Strandberg does prove difficult. When he gets excited discussing a topic he’s interested in—like computers, God or finances—he abandons syntax altogether. A conversation about his early days on the internet is about as difficult to follow as the family trees of Genesis. But it’s also one of the most exciting and robust sides of his existence. Strandberg’s digital legacy is a sprawling testament of a one-track devotion to God that would put many monks to shame.
Strandberg at Offutt Air Force Base
The story of his offline life, on the other hand, could fit into a psalm. As a young man, he worked at a slaughterhouse in his hometown in Storm Lake, Iowa. That miserable experience made him realize he didn’t want to be stuck in a small |
sports, but numbers often don't tell the entire story.
For instance, take this punt from a recent high school football game in Chicago. The box score credits the punter with a monstrous 87-yard boot that travels from his own 6-yard line to the opponent's 7-yard line. While that stat is technically accurate, it doesn't account for the absolutely absurd roll that carries a relatively unimpressive kick about 50 extra yards downfield.
What kind of sorcery is this 🤹♂️ pic.twitter.com/maQT8C4jiF — MaxPreps (@MaxPreps) November 20, 2017
Despite the game being played in the Windy City, it doesn't look wind is behind this sorcery. That means we can either chalk it up to the turf, an uneven playing field, or just an incredible anomaly. Maybe the punter's teammates trailing the football and ushering it further down the field somehow effectively willed the ball to keep going. Either way, this punter was gifted with some heavy stat-padding here.
What I can't figure out is why the team in white didn't jump on the ball and down it once they realized the roll was costing them valuable field position. Instead, they just watched on in disbelief as they were pinned back within their own 10-yard line. Not a great strategy!Last week, the prime minister, Mr. Putin, sat down for a meeting with Russia’s finance minister, Aleksei L. Kudrin, which was nationally televised on state news channels for the public’s enlightenment as the two discussed, just short of gloating, the benefits to Russia of a global oil panic.
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“Mr. Kudrin, budget revenues have become considerable,” Mr. Putin said matter-of-factly.
Mr. Kudrin agreed, noting that if prices hold Russia will be able to resume contributions to its sovereign wealth funds for the first time since the summer of 2008, when the global recession began.
One of those sovereign investment vehicles, the Reserve Fund, could reach $50 billion by the end of the year, Mr. Kudrin reported. Just a few months ago Russian officials planning the 2011 budget had anticipated the fund would be depleted. “Good,” Mr. Putin responded to Mr. Kudrin’s account, nodding with satisfaction.
Russia, of course, does not have to look back farther than 2008 to see that a spike in the price of oil can be just that — followed by a dizzying drop.
But for now, Russian energy is in favor.
Russia’s perceived stability was a reason the French energy giant Total cited last week in agreeing to buy about 12 percent of an independent natural gas producer in Russia, Novatek, and join a liquefied natural gas project in the Russian Arctic.
“The upheavals taking place in a number of the oil- and gas-producing countries now send a signal to investors to come to Russia,” Total’s chief executive, Christophe de Margerie, said in a meeting with President Dmitri A. Medvedev announcing the deal.
Mr. Margerie said his company was committing about $4 billion to the venture. “Russia offers a much safer environment for investment,” he said.
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Oil experts say that because global production capacity for oil is still far larger than world demand, the run-up in prices is being fueled by fear more than by reality. The concern is that the violence in Libya could spread to other member states of the Organization for the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which are primarily Arab nations.
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Russia is not only outside OPEC, and thus free from the cartel’s production restraints, but also, with its formidable secret police apparatus and a population bulge among the elderly rather than the young, is seen as less vulnerable to an outbreak of social unrest.
Russia has long jockeyed against Saudi Arabia, a member of OPEC, to be the world’s top oil-producing nation. Although the Saudis have more production capacity and vastly more reserves, Russia is pumping more oil. And if oil and natural gas are considered together, Russia is the largest energy-exporting nation.
Which country is in first place for oil at any given moment depends on how the Saudis wield their swing production capacity, the cushion of unused wells and pipelines the Saudis can turn on to tamp down global prices. As the biggest OPEC member, Saudi Arabia is the cartel’s enforcer and enabler, with the power to influence global prices or to moderate global disruptions by how much of its production capacity it chooses to put to work.
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If the Saudis open the valves during periods of instability, Russia falls into second place as a producer — but still makes a healthy profit off higher prices.
Russia has little incentive to invest in spare capacity — in part because being outside the OPEC cartel gives it less direct ability to influence prices through the ebb and flow of production. If anything, a large idle capacity by Russia would work against its financial interests — by acting as market insurance, and thus holding prices down — during periods of instability in the Middle East.
Russian officials also say that spare capacity is too hard to maintain in their far northern country. Most of its current production comes from wells in Siberia that would freeze solid in the permafrost if not kept running. And the Russians will probably argue the new fields they plan to open in Arctic waters will be so expensive to drill that it would be unwise to later shut them down.
“They are producing flat-out on a permanent basis,” Didier Houssin, the director of energy markets and security at the International Energy Agency in Paris, said via telephone.
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In the longer term for Russia, policies that encourage or discourage oil field investment are the bigger determinant of how much oil the country can provide to global markets. The energy agency forecasts that Russian energy output will remain about stable for five years, but will require increasing investments as the main oil provinces in western Siberia, having peaked years ago, continue to decline.
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In this respect, Middle East instability could bring longer-term benefits to Moscow than the current oil price spike, if it redirects even more of the Western oil industry’s investment to Siberia and the Russian Arctic shelf.
The British oil giant BP cited Russia’s relative stability compared with OPEC regions, when BP in January announced a $7.8 billion deal to invest in the state-owned Russian oil company Rosneft and jointly search for oil in the Arctic. Later that month, Exxon Mobil, the biggest American oil company, signed a deal with Rosneft to explore offshore in the Black Sea.
Unrest in North Africa is also strengthening Russia’s bargaining position with Europe on natural gas exports and pipeline politics — although Russian officials have used delicate phrasing to make this point.
Aleksei B. Miller, the chief executive of Gazprom, in a visit to European capitals late last month, suggested that Europeans reconsider their opposition to new Russian pipeline proposals, in light of the “external situation” in North Africa, a region that competes with Russia to export pipeline gas to Europe.
Russia is building a pipeline under the Baltic Sea directly to Germany, called Nord Stream, and has proposed another similar pipeline under the Black Sea to Bulgaria. It says these pipes will reduce the risk of traveling overland through central European countries that are unfriendly to Russia, but some European governments have balked at the high cost and political subtexts of these projects.
When Mr. Putin visited Brussels last month, he had a new argument for these pipes, which he has championed for years. “I am confident that the real long-term interests of the European economy lie with our resources,” he said at a news conference. “Nothing matters more than stability.”Who will win?
Bacon: Jordan Spieth
I initially was going to put Jon Rahm here, considering his insane length and ability to overpower even the roughest of golf courses with his driver. But after walking the course and seeing the conditions, I’m going Spieth. The 2015 champion is first on the PGA Tour in strokes gained approaching greens (which means he will have a lot better chance of making par when he inevitably misses these fairways) and he’s seventh amongst everyone in strokes gained total. If he finds fairways, he wins. Simple as that.
Chase: Francesco Molinari
A big name has won the Open in five of the last six years (Webb Simpson was the exception), a change from the not-so-distant days of Lucas Glover, Geoff Ogilvy and Michael Campbell. At Erin Hills, we'll go back to the future with a surprise, mostly unknown name holding the trophy aloft on Sunday night. Molinari, the 34-year-old Italian, has played on two Ryder Cup teams and has six wins worldwide. So he isn't exactly anonymous — but he's no DJ either. Nor is he the most accomplished Molinari. His younger brother, Eduardo, has 10 worldwide victories. So why Francesco? At Erin Hills, if you're not in the fairway, you're dead. The good thing is that the fairways are perhaps as wide as the Open has ever seen. Still, all it takes is one or two trips to put up some huge numbers that take you out of contention. So a look at the driving distance, driving accuracy and greens in regulation stats (which always matter, obviously) take on added importance this week, and Molinari does well in each. (Of the big names, I'd take Spieth above DJ, Rory, Rickie and Rahm.)
Schwartz: Sergio Garcia
Dustin Johnson is the clear favorite to win at Erin Hills, as he should be, but this is hardly a Tiger Woods-against-the-field situation.
Sergio Garcia is one of the best overall drivers of the ball in the field, and sits in the top 40 on tour in both average distance and accuracy. He’s always been an elite ball striker, and he’s in decent form. Since winning the Masters and wrangling the "best player never to win a major" monkey off his back, Garcia was in contention at the Players until a final-round 78 spoiled his tournament, and he’s posted two other top 20s.
Scott: Rickie Fowler
Why not this be the one where Rickie breaks through? The stat that jumps out at me right now is Fowler’s hit fairway percentage: He’s hitting fairways just shy of 70 percent of the time off the tee, which is top five on tour. With the way this course is set up, there’s no margin for error — you either hit the fairways or you’re done. If Rickie is accurate off the tee, and the putter gets going, I think this is his time.OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sought to ease tumultuous Canadian markets Friday, saying the country is well positioned to weather global uncertainty in the wake of the United Kingdom's dramatic decision to leave the European Union.
The British vote to exit the EU had an immediate impact in the financial world, with the British pound plunging to its lowest level in three decades and world stock prices falling.
Trudeau said Canada shares deep historical ties and common values with the U.K. and the EU and will continue to build relationships with both as they forge a new relationship of their own.
"Canada's connections to our partners around the world are among its greatest assets, and these relationships contribute greatly to the prosperity of all Canadians,'' Trudeau said in a statement.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau steps up to the podium to deliver a speech at Canada House in London, England, Wednesday, Nov.25, 2015. (Photo: Adrian Wyld/CP)
"Canada has tremendous economic fundamentals that we are strengthening with key investments in infrastructure and measures to grow our middle class. We are well positioned to weather global market uncertainty as we have done in the past.''
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who led the campaign to keep Britain in the EU, also said he would resign by October.
"We are well positioned to weather global market uncertainty as we have done in the past.''
Trudeau thanked Cameron for being a close ally and good friend to Canada and wished him well.
The prime minister, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion, Finance Minister Bill Morneau and former Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney had all spoken out in favour of Britain remaining in the EU prior to Thursday's referendum.
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron speaks after Britain voted to leave the European Union, outside Number 10 Downing Street in London on Friday. (Photo: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters)
Conservative MP Jason Kenney took to Twitter to chide Trudeau for wading into the referendum, calling it a "terrible, short-sighted gaffe.''
"Canada should immediately demonstrate respect for the choice made by the British people, & prioritize negotiation of Canada-UK free trade,'' Kenney wrote.
International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland spoke earlier Friday with the EU trade commissioner about the free trade deal the two sides are working on finalizing. In a statement, Freeland said Canada remains committed to growing global trade.
Please read my statement on the results of the Brexit referendum:https://t.co/EDKgeHLOfJ — Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) June 24, 2016
She didn't say what the vote would mean for the future of the trade pact with the EU, or Canada's trading relationship with the U.K.
"Millions of Canadians have strong, personal connections with the United Kingdom and it is one of Canada's top trading partners globally. We want Britain to succeed and prosper, and — as we have said all along — we will continue to be a friend, partner, and ally,'' she said.
The 'demise of the EU' and the 'rise of the far right'
Other Canadian politicians struck a more pessimistic tone.
Liberal MP Hedy Fry tweeted that the vote — along with calls in other European nations like France, Italy and the Netherlands to hold their own EU exit referendums — "signals the demise of EU & of security and stability regionally and globally.''
NDP MP Niki Ashton commented that the referendum calls were a sign of "the disturbing rise of the far right.''
Green party Leader Elizabeth May tweeted that she was proud of the Greens in the U.K. who campaigned for the remain side, calling the results "shattering.''
Conservative MP Michelle Rempel wrote that Canada "will have many roles to play'' in maintaining political stability in Europe.
Political instability in Europe has never been a positive thing for the world...Canada will have many roles to play. https://t.co/S2vPLM48xh — Michelle Rempel, MP (@MichelleRempel) June 24, 2016
"I think related Canadian policy will have to be nimble and smart to navigate these uncharted waters.''
NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau tweeted her reaction in the form of an animation of a music video by the band Weezer along with the song's four-word title: "Say it ain't so.''
Also on HuffPostAs has happened to other holdovers from the Obama administration, reps of Team Trump asked U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy to resign Friday.
Murthy was replaced by his deputy, Rear Adm. Sylvia Trent-Adams, one of the first nurses to serve as surgeon general.
According to the New York Times, Trent-Adams will be in an acting role for now. The administration moved quickly and had updated the U.S. surgeon general page by Friday evening.
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Interestingly, Trent-Adams may be the first surgeon general who is not a doctor, but there has been a nurse before. Dr. Richard Carmona, who served under President George W. Bush, was a nurse and a doctor.
Trent-Adams is also not the first African-American woman to act as surgeon general. That distinction goes to Dr. Joycelyn Elders, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in his first term. The first female surgeon general was Dr. Antonia Novello, appointed by President George H.W. Bush.
The New York Daily News reports that Murthy, an Obama appointee, was pushed out because of his stance on gun control. He has repeatedly gone on record saying that gun violence a public health threat.
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According to the Times, Trent-Adams received a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. She was a nurse officer in the Army and also served as a research nurse at the University of Maryland. She joined the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service in 1992 and served as the deputy associate administrator for the HIV/AIDS Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration before joining the surgeon general’s office.
Read more at the New York Times and New York Daily News.Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics contract manufacturer to many U.S. tech giants, will spend $30 million on a new factory in the Harrisburg, Pa., area that will employ up to 500 people, according to state officials.
The company, which a year ago said it was looking at expanding its U.S. operations, will also give $10 million to Carnegie Mellon University as part of a strategic research and development partnership with the Pennsylvania college. The money will go towards research and education in the fields of robotics and advanced manufacturing.
The company made the announcement Thursday evening, only one day after Terry Gou, the founder and chairman, first met with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett.
"This is somewhat of a rarity for us that a project moved along as quickly as it has," said Steve Kratz, spokesman for the state's department of Community and Economic Development.
A location for the plant has yet to be selected.
Related: Apple faces new Chinese labor allegations
Foxconn said last December that it wanted to increase its U.S. operations beyond plants it operated in Texas and Indiana. The company has 30 employees in Harrisburg already, although state officials could not say what the facility there did now.
The statement about its U.S. expansion plans came on the heels of an announcement by Apple (AAPL), a major Foxconn customer, that it planned to start building some Apple products in the United States.
Foxconn's plants in Asia are massive, employing as many as 190,000 workers at a single factory by some estimates, many of whom live at the plants as well as work there. The company has been criticized for work conditions and for the large number of workers at some plants who have committed suicide.Remember walking through the halls of high school? Maybe you loved it. Maybe the thought of it even now fills you with a sense of fear and trepidation. Regardless, we all scraped and clawed at the walls, trying to find our place. And that didn't usually happen in the classroom. It's the after-school clubs, groups and sports teams that offer up a chance to be a part of something bigger.
But those programs are disappearing, depriving kids of a well-rounded education--unless parents can afford extra fees. Public education and equal opportunity are shifting plates in this high school world. They need more. We need more.
With this in mind, I started watching videos that were part of a web series called "Back in the Game." I was intrigued. Nissan created the program, along with the CFL, sponsoring 21 struggling high school football teams across Canada to revitalize the hopes and dreams of over 1,000 teens in 18 cities and, of course, align themselves as a socially responsible brand that cared about future generations. The teams were given new equipment, apparel and locker rooms, as well as mentoring by CFL alumni.
Two of the 21 teams were featured: Edmonton's Eastglen and Hamilton's Sir John A. MacDonald. New gear, funds and interest fostered a team spirit that was already present and growing.
"It is so important for young people to be part of a team and feel that they belong," said Christian Meunier, President of Nissan Canada. "Nissan's global culture is one of acceptance and diversity."
Bullied teens found solace in a football family. Students new to Canada were accepted and embraced. Notorious skippers started attending class. The rose-tinted camera lens showed it all: unity through diversity.
I'm not saying this isn't inspirational. It is. Big bucks are made on blockbusters with similar plotlines. There is something primal about belonging to a group that's pushing past adversity, working toward a common goal. The story always hits home.
But it's not new.
The reason I was originally intrigued was because of one particular character who kept appearing on the screen. Taylor Casey: a girl in Grade 12, seemingly quiet and soft-spoken with dark-rimmed glasses and straight brown hair. And, a member of the Sir John A. MacDonald Chiefs.
I tried to imagine what the reaction would have been if a girl had tried out for the football team at my high school. If I had tried out. The hypothetical scenes in my head were less than pretty. And yet, she was a part of the football family. The team was her band of brothers. I was amazed. This is what I found inspiring.
When the opportunity arose to travel with both teams to the Grey Cup in Vancouver, I immediately packed my bags.
Over the weekend, while the teams full of first-time plane-riders shrieked as the CFL jet took off, the players spirited across the field during workshops taught by the league's players at BC Place, and they collectively cheered non-stop during the Grey Cup game, it was hard to pick Taylor out from the crowd. She was a part of it all. As she should have been.
When we got the chance to sit down, during the plane ride home, I had to ask her: Why football?
Taylor explained that her older brother had played and she had done tag football in previous years. Then she saw the team practicing in Grade 9 and decided to try out, along with a friend. Not only was it fun, but it also gave her a life-long group of friends.
"Going to school isn't always the easiest thing, if you just go to do school work," she said. "Sponsoring a football team that doesn't have a lot of players in the first place, brings people out on the field, gets them involved in school, makes them want to come to school."
She's obviously now an accepted member of the team, but that wasn't always the case. "When we started, there were 3 girls on the team. We were perfectly fine with it," she said. "It was the guys who took a look of adjusting, because they were like, 'We don't want hurt you. You're girls, you're weak, you can't do it.' They didn't want to hit us during practice."
That attitude is something I never saw over the weekend. So, at some point, there was a shift. Taylor remembers the moment, during that first season, a few games in. They hadn't won in awhile, but things were looking up. "Then, in the last ten minutes, they beat us. It was the most heartbreaking thing ever," she said. "I think that's really the time when we all became really close. We felt the defeat together."
We strive so hard for success, yet it's often in defeat that we find ourselves, our place in the family of things.
Taylor has gone on to play with the team every year, facing unpleasant reactions from some players on opposing teams. "At the games, it was a lot different," she said. "They got really angry that we were on the team and they roughed us up more than they have to. We've had some plays where there was some unnecessary roughness, in that first year."
Unnecessary roughness brought out the protective side of her newly bonded football family. "They had my back during those times," she said, referencing getting "trucked from behind" for no reason.
The teamwork during adversity, striving for a unified goal, it all funnels into a greater education--especially for girls. In a global online survey of 400 women executives, conducted by Longitude Research across Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific, 94 per cent of respondents had been involved in sports when they were younger; 74 per cent noted that a sports background helped drive a woman's leadership and career potential; and 67 per cent said that such a background would positively influence their decision to hire. It's a competitive world out there. When girls have access to the same level of sports as their male counterparts, they get the tools and education to increase their likelihood of success.
Nissan's "Back in the Game" offered teams like Taylor's the chance to excel, as well as bask in the spotlight. One step further, that spotlight also offered young (female) viewers affirmation of what is possible. If she can't see, she can't be it, right? "I have two daughters of my own," said Steve Rhind, Director of Marketing at Nissan Canada. "They can see that and go, 'hey, we can do that too.'"
Although for Taylor, football seems to be about fun, fitness and friends, she is building potential inside herself, as well as creating an example for other girls about what is possible when you go after what you want. Perhaps she doesn't see that just yet. But I think she will.
One of the Eastglen players said it best in the tenth webisode: "It's more important to start the flame somewhere, rather than carrying on the torch."
Here's to all the girls who are starting flames somewhere. You're setting the stage for the world to be a brighter place.Beth leaves her small town and much to her parents' chagrin, she marries Jake "The Muss" (named for his big muscles) Heke. After 18 years, they live in an unkempt state house in South Auckland, New Zealand, and have five children. Their interpretations of life and being Māori are tested.
Jake is fired from his job, but remains satisfied with receiving unemployment benefit and spending most days getting drunk at a nearby pub with his friends. He has a violent streak that he displays by savagely beating a muscular patron who dares disrupt a female singer's (Mere Boynton) performance. He often invites crowds of friends from the bar to his home for drunken parties. When his wife "gets lippy," he brutally beats her in front of their friends, who are too intimidated to interfere. Beth turns to booze when things go wrong, and has angry outbursts and occasional violence of her own on a much smaller scale. Her children fend for themselves, resignedly cleaning the blood-streaked house after their father beats their mother.
Nig, the Hekes' eldest son, moves out to join a gang whose rituals include getting facial tattoos (in Māori culture called tā moko). He undergoes an initiation beating by gang members, passes and is then embraced as a new brother. Nig later sports the gang's tattoos. He cares about his siblings but despises his father. He is angered when his mother is beaten but does not intercede.
Jake's middle son, Mark aka "Boogie," has a history of petty criminal offences. He is placed in a foster home as a ward of the state due to his parents' home life. Jake is unconcerned with Boogie's incarceration and hopes it will toughen him up. Despite his initial anger, Boogie finds a new niche for himself after the foster home's manager, Mr. Bennett, helps him embrace his Māori heritage.
Grace, the Hekes' 13-year-old daughter, keeps a journal in which she chronicles events, as well as stories she tells her younger siblings. Her best friend is a homeless boy named Toot, who lives in a wrecked car. She dreads a future she believes is inevitable and is constantly reminded of getting married and playing the role of a wife, which she believes comprises catering to a husband's demands and enduring beatings. She dreams of leaving and living an independent and single life.
Grace is raped in her bed by Uncle Bully, a friend of her father's who tells her it's her fault for "turning him on" by wearing her "skimpy little nighty." She falls into a deep depression and seeks support from Toot, with whom she smokes marijuana for the first time. Toot kisses her but she reacts violently and storms out, believing he is "just like the rest of them." Confused, Grace eventually goes home to an angry Jake with his friends. Bully asks for a goodnight kiss to test his power over her. She refuses and Jake sees it as a sign of disrespect and rips her journal in two and nearly beats her up. Beth returns home from searching for Grace, and then screams hysterically after finding her daughter has hanged herself from a tree branch in the backyard.
Jake deals with the tragedy in his usual selfish way, going to the pub with his mates while the rest of his family takes Grace's body to a tangihanga. Beth stands up to him for the first time when he refuses to let her be taken to the marae. The film cross-cuts between the mourning, Jake drinking with his friends at the pub and the family on the marae. Boogie impresses Beth with his Māori singing at the funeral, and Toot says his goodbyes, telling Grace the gentle kiss was all his gesture meant. Boogie reassures Toot that Grace loved him, and Beth invites him to live with them.
Reading Grace's diary later that day, Beth finds out about the rape and confronts Bully at the pub. Jake initially threatens Beth for accusing his friend, but Nig steps between them, protecting his mother. Nig hands his father Grace's diary, and after glancing at it, Jake explodes in a rage, nearly beating Bully to death and castrating him with a broken bottle. Beth blames Jake just as much as Bully because of his violent lifestyle, and decides to leave him.
Beth tells Jake of her intention to take their children back to her Māori village and traditions, defiantly telling him that her Māori heritage gives her the strength to resist his control over her. Jake cusses and yells at her on a curb outside the pub as the family leaves, with police sirens wailing in the background.Allawi was arrested when he was crossing the border between Jordan and the occupied West Bank
Samer Allawi, Al Jazeera Arabic's Kabul bureau chief, has been brought before an Israeli military court, almost a week after he was arrested by Israeli officials when he tried to cross the border between Jordan and the occupied West Bank.
Israeli authorities extended his detention by seven days and charged him with being a member of Hamas on Tuesday.
Allawi was arrested on August 10 at the end of a three-week holiday in his home town of Sabastia near Nablus.
The Israeli authorities originally informed Allawi's family that he would be held for four days for questioning, saying that it was a "security-related arrest".
Last Thursday, the authorities told Al Jazeera that Allawi's detention would be extended.
He is currently in Israeli state custody in a prison camp at Petah Tikva detention centre.
Salim Waqim, Allawi's lawyer, told Al Jazeera that his client was interrogated about his work and management of Al Jazeera's Kabul bureau, his personal financial information, and his relationships with colleagues, friends, family and relatives.
Israeli authorities took his computer login information and during his interrogation Allawi was accused of being a member of Hamas and having contact with its military leadership, Waqim said.
Majed Khadr, output manager at Al Jazeera said that Allawi told his lawyer that he would be charged with transferring money and orders from Afghanistan to the occupied West Bank if he refused to act as an informant.
However, Allawi continued to refuse to cooporate with the authorities interrogating him.
Local human rights and press freedom groups have released statements condemning Allawi's arrest.
Mohamed Abdel Dayam, the Middle East and North Africa programme co-ordinator at the New York-based CPJ said: "Israel must clarify why it continues to hold Samer Allawi.
"Our concern for Allawi's well-being and his legal rights is amplified with every passing day he is held without due process."E-mail the Office of the Attorney General I'm sorry but your internet browser has JavaScript disabled. You must have JavaScript-enabled to be able to submit this form mail. You can enable browser scripting by accessing your browser's internet preferences. If you prefer not to enable JavaScript in your browser, you can still contact our office by using alternate methods listed on our contacts page. If you continue to experience technical difficulties in contacting us please email the webmaster for assistance. Thank you! Submit Questions to the Office of the Illinois Attorney General PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION FIRST! Completing the form below will allow you to contact the Office of the Attorney General. Certain information is required to process your message, such as your name and mailing address. E-mail messages are forwarded to the appropriate staff person and will be responded to by regular mail via U.S. Postal Service in the order they are received. Because of the large volume of e-mails received daily, there may be a delay in our responding to your message. State law does not authorize the Attorney General to give individual citizens legal advice or opinions on statutory interpretation, or to act as their private attorney. The Attorney General serves as the state's chief legal officer responsible for providing legal representation to the State of Illinois and protecting the public interest. Before sending a message, please check to see if your question has already been addressed with the information posted throughout our website or by using the forms posted. (* Required Field) (*) Email Address: Title (Optional): (Mr., Ms., Dr., etc.) (*) First Name: (*) Last Name: (*) Street Address: (*) City: (*) State: - Select - Foreign Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Illinois Idaho Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming (*) Zip Code: (*) Phone Number: (*) Description of Issue: (*) Your Message to the Office of the Attorney General
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Return to Home PageThis article is about the state flag. For a list of Chilean flags, see List of Chilean flags
The flag of Chile consists of two equal horizontal bands of white and red, with a blue square the same height as the white band in the canton, which bears a white five-pointed star in the center. It was adopted on 18 October 1817. The Chilean flag is also known in Spanish as La Estrella Solitaria[1] (The Lone Star).
It has a 3:2 ratio between length and width, it is divided horizontally into two bands of equal size (being the lower red). The upper area is divided once: in a square (blue), with a single centered white star; and rectangle (white), whose lengths are in proportion 1:2.
The star may represent a guide to progress and honor while other interpretations refer to its reference to an independent state; blue symbolizes the sky and the Pacific Ocean, white is for the snow-covered Andes, and red stands for the blood spilled to achieve independence.[2]
According to the epic poem La Araucana, the colors were derived from those from the flag flown by the Mapuche during the Arauco War. "Flag Day" is held each year on the ninth of July to commemorate the 77 soldiers who died in the 1882 Battle of La Concepción.
History of Chile [ edit ]
Pre-Independence flags [ edit ]
Flag possibly used by Mapuche troops during the early 18th century Arauco War
The first records on the possible use of flags by indigenous peoples date back to the War of Arauco, the most famous being the use described in the late 16th century epic poem La Araucana. In Canto XXI, Alonso de Ercilla described Talcahuano, warrior and chief of the Mapuche who work the lands near the present-day city that bears his name, bearing emblems of blue, white and red. Another important piece of information is that the colors of the flag were chosen from the ancient chile that they made which was treasured worldwide.
Two flags have been documented as used by Mapuche troops. However, these descriptions were made late in the eighteenth century without certainty about the age of them. One consisted of a five-pointed white star on a blue background similar to the canton of the current Chilean flag, while the second had a white eight-pointed star centered on a blue diamond with border zigzagged over a black background. The latter flag appears to be waved by the chief Lautaro in the best-known artistic representation of it, created by painter Pedro Subercaseaux.[3]
The main symbol of this flag is the star of Arauco, called guñelve, representing the flower of the canelo and the bright star of Venus. In the independence of Chile, Bernardo O'Higgins said that guñelve was direct inspiration for create the Chilean flag with the Lone Star.[4]
In the case of the colonizing troops, they used several Spanish flags. Each battalion had its own flag, which could incorporate different elements including the heraldic coat of arms of the King of Spain. One of the symbols most commonly used was the Cross of Burgundy, a jagged, red saltire crossed on a white cloth. The Cross of Burgundy was one of the main symbols of the Spanish Empire overseas, so it flew over the warships and was carried by the militia in the colonial territory during the Spanish colonization of the Americas.[citation needed]
In 1785, Carlos III established a uniform flag for all ships of the Spanish Armada, similar to the current flag of Spain. The use of this red-and-yellow flag would be extended in 1793 to "maritime towns, castles and coastal defenses." Despite the establishment of this new flag, the cross of Burgundy would still often used by colonial entities.[citation needed]
Flag of the Patria Vieja (1812–1814) [ edit ]
Patria Vieja (1812–1814). First Chilean national flag. Simple version without Flag of the(1812–1814). First Chilean national flag. Simple version without shield, used by merchant ships.
At the onset of the Chilean War of Independence, the First Government Junta was proclaimed on 18 September 1810, marking Chile's first step toward independence. It would be during the government of Jose Miguel Carrera in which the desire for emancipation would gain more strength. Nevertheless, the junta was established (at least nominally) as a way of controlling the government during the absence of King Fernando VII, so that the symbols of government remained Hispanic. Therefore, |
So the idea that we should personally elect our US Senators made sense. But it should never have NEEDED to make sense. If I cared enough to vote for my STATE Senator, then I would be able to trust that my STATE Legislature would appoint the FEDERAL Senator that best served the interests of my STATE (which is the Senators job).
We’ve gotten away from thinking of ourselves as citizens of our state, and instead we are just citizens of “the nation.” This is totally counter to the Constitutional Convention’s intention.
And despite popular thinking, every voter’s vote does count. To the same extent (but in a different way) that it would in a popular election for President. The reason a person in Arkansas says “My vote didn’t matter in 2016” is because the majority of people in Arkansas supported Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. But that’s…A POPULAR MAJORITY! Now if enough of those voters were undecided (as was the case in a state like North Carolina or New Hampshire), then those voters would have gotten a deluge of advertising, campaign rallies and other events intending to sway their undecided vote.
So absolutely every vote counts, it’s just that some live in a state where the majority of citizens usually make up their mind early on. If a liberal in Arkansas disagrees with the majority opinion in his state, then what is he doing wishing for a popular majority election! At least with the Electoral College you could move to a state that is more in line with your culture. Where you gonna move if your preferred candidate loses a popular majority national election? This time Hillary won it, but next time it might be a republican that wins it and loses the electoral college vote. The tables always end up turning in American Politics.
As for the conspiracy theories about the electors, portrayed as mysterious people who flutter into smoke filled rooms and decide who the President is going to be…that’s ludicrous, and totally misconstrues the reality of what an “elector” is.
Put simply, these are the most trustworthy (bigwig) people of the political parties who represent the state in the formal electing of that state’s desired candidate for President. So if Arkansas’ citizens cast a popular majority vote in favor of Donald Trump being “the CEO over Arkansas’ union with the other 49 states,” then the GOP-appointed electors will convene to make Arkansas’ vote for Donald Trump formal.
It is basically a formality. Occasionally there will be a “faithless elector” who casts a different ballot than the wishes of the state (and there have been a few to threaten that this year), but most states have laws against this, and most often it is an inconsequential mistake, as in 2004, when a Democrat Minnesota elector cast a vote for John Edwards for President, instead of John Kerry. The state still went for Kerry because one electoral vote was not enough to sway the election. Should enough electors become faithless (as many Democrats hope this year), the electoral process would simply move to the House of Representatives and they would cast the ballot. In the end, the system has enough fail-safes that it will do its job.
Many Hillary Clinton supporters feel disenfranchised because more individual people voted for their candidate than Donald Trump, and yet Trump will be the next President. I understand the frustration but we have to respect the system that was put in place and the reasons it was put there. We are not a 300 million-people democracy, we are a republican union of 50 states who individually (as individual states) elect the one who will preside over that union.
As the founders intended.Michael Emenalo is far from the most popular figure with the Chelsea fanbase at the moment, but it looks as if he might actually survive the worst season since Roman Abramovich took over. The London Evening Standard is reporting that Emenalo will remain with the club when new manager Antonio Conte takes over this summer, and will support his push to bring back a player that he never wanted to let go in the first place.
Conte is reportedly interested in bringing back former Chelsea player Romelu Lukaku, who clashed with Jose Mourinho over minutes before eventually requesting a move away. Lukaku is already pushing for a move away from Everton this summer, and it sounds as if his current club will allow that move to happen, though they'll certainly be holding out for a very significant transfer fee. It wouldn't shock me to see Lukaku's price tag approach £60 million, which would make this the second time in recent memory that the Blues had to pay a huge fee to bring back a player that was at the club as a youngster.
Without knowing too much about the inner workings of the club, it's hard to know exactly how to feel about keeping Emenalo around. There's no doubting that the transfer dealings of the last several seasons have been largely disastrous, but prior to the appointment of Mourinho, most of Chelsea's transfer activity was excellent. With any luck, Emenalo and the rest of Chelsea's decision makers will be on the same page as Conte, and we'll see a return to the transfer successes of the pre-Mourinho era. Bringing back Lukaku would be a great start, as far as I'm concerned.T H E F I R E A P E S
49 it s ac hi ev em en ts wi ll ne ve r be po ss ib le of du pl ic at io n in nat ur e, th at, in the wor ds of o n e n a t u r a l i s t, " p r o g r e s s h a n gs o n b u t a s i n g l e t h re a d. T h a t t h r e a d i s th e h u m a n ge rm pla sm." A Fr en ch sc ho la r mu rm ur s a li tt le un ea si ly "m an al on e in the un iv er se is no t fi ni sh e d. " Ju li a n Hu xl e y de fe nd s t he un iq ue ne ss of the hu ma n sp ec ie s w it h an im - passioned vigor. "Among the actual inhabi- tan ts of the ear th, " he says, "p ast and pre sen t, no oth er li ne s co ul d ha ve bee n ta ke n wh ic h wou ld hav e pro duc ed spe ech and con cep tua l th ou gh t... It c ou ld not hav e b ee n ev ol ve d on ear th ex ce pt in man." Th at re ma rk is bo th wi se, in a se ns e, a nd foo li sh. It is th e st at em en t of a m an wh o ha s lo ok e d fa r i nt o th e de p th s of th e p a st an d se en no th in g so wo nd er fu l as ma n. Ye t it be - tra ys al so the relu cta nce of the hum an ima gi- na ti on as it tu rn s to wa rd th e fu tu re -i ts co n- ce rn wi th it se lf, it s un wi ll in gn es s to re li n- qu is h th e st ag e. Th is ge nu in el y pr of ou nd mi nd is su re ly no t una wa re th at an in te ll ec - tu al di no sa ur of the dy in g Cr et ac eo us mi gh t we ll ha ve mu rm ur ed : "T he sa ur ia ns al on e ar e no t fi ni sh ed. Wh at po ss ib le th in gs co ul d im pr ov e up on us?" Th e Cr et ac eo us da te li ne w ou l d h a v e m a d e i t a w i s e a n d H u x l i a n st at em en t. It wo ul d ha ve ta ke n te n mi ll io n ye ar s to fo rc e it s s er i ou s a lt er a t io n. Mr. Hu xl ey is e qu al ly sa fe f ro m re fu ta ti on, so sa fe in fa ct th at he sn if fs co nt em pt uou sl y at th e po te nt ia l th re at of fe re d by o ur ro wd y re - ma in in g co us in s up in the fa mi ly tr ee. "T he mo nk ey s, " he sa ys, "h av e qu it e le ft be hi nd the m tha t mor e gen era liz ed sta ge fro m whi ch a c ons cio us thi nki ng cre atu re cou ld dev el op. " I am afr ai d th at we a re al to ge th er to o im - pressed by the fact;that we live on the ground and that our remai nin g rel ati ves, poo r fel low s, sh ow a de ci de d pr ef er en ce fo r tr ee s. It ne ve r see ms t o occur to us tha t. i f they didn 't sta y up th er e we wo ul d jo ll y we ll sh ow th em wh at fo r. As fo r th a t "m or e ge ne ra li ze d st a ge " wh ic h Mr. Hu xl ey de ma nd s fo r th e ap pe ar - an ce of a thi nk in g cr ea tu re, I am qu it e su re tha t he ca nnot def ine it in a wa y w hic h wou ld se ri ous ly th re at en th e re pu ta ti on of se ve ra l exist ing prim ates. Th e on ly wa y to be co me a "g en er al iz ed st ag e" is t o pr od uc e, in th e co ur se of ti me, se ve ra l di ve rg en t sm ar t de sc en da nt s. No on e can sa y t hat tha t fac ult y has b ee n los t, bu t the wh ol e mo nk ey gr ou p wi ll sta y ups ta ir s no w t i l l w e a r e g o ne. A n d i f t he y d o n' t c o m e dow n, the re is st ill my squir rel, who se act ion s at ti me s re mi nd me of a cer ta in an ci en t hu - ma n fo re ru nn e r in th e E oc e ne. T ha t c ha p wa sn 't re co gn iz ed as "g en er al iz ed " ei th er, un ti l so me wh er e al on g th e wa y he be ga n to w a l k on h i s h i n d f e e t. I n t h e b e g i n n i n g, I'm n ot a t a l l s u r e h e w a s a s sm a r t a s my squirrel. Now I have said that Mr. Huxley is safe fr om re fu ta ti on, ge ol og ic al ti me be in g wh at it is. If it is i mp os si bl e to re fu te hi m un ti l th e pa ss ag e of an ot he r si xt y mi ll io n ye ar s, it mi gh t be mor e co mf or ta bl e to ass um e he has sp ok en th e tr ut h. It mig ht ha ve b ee n, th at is, up un ti l la st ye ar. It was th en th at sc ie nt is ts began to scratch actively in the African bone la nd s. It wa s th en th at ar ch eo lo gi st s be ga n to Whis pe r be hi nd th ei r ha nd s an d ex ch an ge gl an ce s. It co nc er ne d, of cou rs e, a ce rt ai n sku ll. Tha t in it sel f was ba d enough, but what ens ued was wors e.
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an ape, th ey ha d sa id in th e be - gi nn in g: "A cr ea tu re la ck in g th e di s- ti nc ti ve te mp or al ex pa ns io ns wh ic h ap pe ar to be conc om it an t wi th an d ne ce ss ar y t o a r t i c u l a t e m a n i s no t r u e m a n." T h e n the re had com e tha t fri ght eni ng ins ist enc e on the part of hi s disc ove rer tha t he had use d fire and too ls. The lit tle fel low was pr omp tl y red esc rib ed. His typ e was cit ed in glowi ng ter ms as "i nte l- li ge nt, en er ge ti c, er ec t, an d de li ca te ly pr o- portioned little people." He was credited wi th sp ee ch, an d sp ok en of re sp ec tf ul ly as a potential human ancestor. It was more com- fo rt ab le th at wa y. Ot he rw is e yo u we re con - fr on te d wi th a sp ec ta cl e li ke Du ns an y's my s- ter iou s Abu La hee b, tha t str ang e be ing squ at- ti ng ove r it s lo ne ly fi re in th e ma rs he s- th e on ly be as t in th e wo rl d th at ma de fi re lik e man. The myt hic al Abu Lah eeb sur viv ed by hid - in g in th e pa py ru s sw am ps of th e up pe r Ni le.
Australopithecu s prometheus,WHAT IS THIS? This is your data. Observations of variable stars are commonly plotted on a graph called a light curve, as the apparent brightness (magnitude) versus time, usually in Julian Date (JD). The magnitude scale is plotted so that brightness increases as you go from bottom to top on the Y-axis and the JD increases as you go from left to right on the X- axis. The Light Curve Generator is an online tool for performing just this function. Since its creation in May of 1999 the AAVSO Light Curve Generator has been one of the most popular tools on the AAVSO web site. As of 08/01/2010, over a half a million individual light curves have been plotted. WHAT CAN I DO? First, you must choose the star and time period for which you would like a light curve. The star can be in either Harvard Designation, AUID or based on a name accepted by VSX. The date can be either in JD or mm/dd/yyyy. Next, you need to decide what data you want to display. You can choose to ignore fainter thans and other bandpasses to give a cleaner plot. To some people, presentation is equally as important as what data you analyze. For them we have the ability to customize how you would like your plots to look. By far the most popular feature of the program is the ability to highlight your own observations. HOW CAN I GET HELP? aavso@aavso.org We have a couple of good help guides available for the Light Curve Generator. First, a description of what a light curve is. The Variable Star Astronomy curriculum also has a chapter on light curve analysis. If you need further assistance, send us an E-mail at:
WHAT IS THE NAME, DESIGNATION, OR AUID OF THE OBJECT? DO YOU WANT TO LIMIT THE NUMBER OF DAYS PLOTTED?
If so, enter the number of days to look back from today Days OR, DO YOU WANT TO PLOT A SPECIFIC DATE RANGE?
If so, enter start and end dates here (JD or MM/DD/YYYY) START DATE END DATE ( Click For Current Date WOULD YOU LIKE TO HIGHLIGHT A PARTICULAR OBSERVER?
If so, enter an observer code here WHAT TYPE OF MARK SHOULD BE USED FOR HIGHLIGHTING? Crosshair Box WHICH TYPES DATA WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE PLOTTED? Visual R Differential and Step U I Fainter than B J Discrepant V H Tri-R Tri-G Tri-B Unknown Unfiltered w/V zero pt Unfiltered w/R zero pt WHAT DATE FORMAT WOULD YOU LIKE? Calendar JD SHOULD THE PLOT INCLUDE A LIST OF OBSERVERS? Yes No SHOULD A BACKGROUND GRID BE DISPLAYED? Yes No PLOT X-AXIS TICS
Number of days between each X-axis tic WHAT SHOULD THE SIZE OF THE PLOTTED POINTS BE?
Enter a pixel width WHAT SHOULD THE DIMENSIONS OF THE CHART BE?
Enter dimensions in pixels WIDTH HEIGHT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ENFORCE A MAGNITUDE RANGE?
Force the vertical axis to this magnitude range MINIMUM MAXIMUM WOULD YOU LIKE ANY MEAN CURVES PLOTTED?
Enter number of day bins for either/both bands (only works w/JD dates) Days VISUAL BAND Days V-BANDBy
The Feel, Felt, Found technique is an age-tested, proven strategy of moving your customers gently to a new way of thinking. There are three separate parts to Feel, Felt, Found: “I understand how you feel.” This wording lets a customer know that you heard him or her and can relate. “Initially, other (top purchasing agents
The Feel, Felt, Found technique is an age-tested, proven strategy of moving your customers gently to a new way of thinking. There are three separate parts to Feel, Felt, Found:
“I understand how you feel.” This wording lets a customer know that you heard him or her and can relate.
“Initially, other (top purchasing agents, CEOs, mothers…) felt that way.” You are letting him or her know that this initial thought is common, meaning that the situation can change.
“What they found, however, was that after doing ‘X’ was that ‘Y” happened. ‘X’ is what you want your customer to do (purchase your product or put a deposit down now…).
‘Y’ is something positive your customer will receive that he or she cares a great deal about.
This other group of people changed their minds, did what you recommended they do, and were very pleased with the outcome.
Phraseology: “So, Steve… tell me something you would like right now.”
Steve responds, “I want to be as successful as you, Tom.”
“Steve, I understand how you feel. Initially, other ambitious salespeople felt the same way. What they discovered by staying positive and working hard at their craft each day was that they were very pleased with their own success.”
, CEOs, mothers…) felt that way.” You are letting him or her know that this initial thought is common, meaning that the situation can change. “What they found, however, was that after doing ‘X’ was that ‘Y” happened. ‘X’ is what you want your customer to do (purchase your product or put a deposit down now…). ‘Y’ is something positive your customer will receive that he or she cares a great deal about. This other group of people changed their minds, did what you recommended they do, and were very pleased with the outcome. Phraseology: “So, Steve… tell me something you would like right now.” Steve responds, “I want to be as successful as you, Tom.” “Steve, I understand how you feel. Initially, other ambitious salespeople felt the same way. What they discovered by staying positive and working hard at their craft each day was that they were very pleased with their own success.”
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commentsPokémon Snap (ポケモンスナップ, Pokemon Sunappu) is a first-person rail shooter and simulation video game co-developed by HAL Laboratory and Pax Softnica and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was first released in Japan in March 1999, and was later released in June 1999 in North America and in September 2000 for PAL regions. It is a spin-off game in the Pokémon series, being one of the first console-based games for it, and featuring many Pokémon rendered for the first time in real-time 3D. The game was re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console in December 2007 as well as Wii U's Virtual Console in 2016.
Originally announced as a Nintendo 64DD title, development of Pokémon Snap was moved to the Nintendo 64 due to the 64DD's delays. The gameplay is similar to other first-person games, viewing from the perspective of protagonist Todd Snap as he moves automatically on a rail. The objective of the game is to take pictures of Pokémon, using items such as apples and "pester balls" to achieve better shots. After each round, players are judged based on the quality of their photos. The Virtual Console version features the ability to send pictures taken in the game to the Wii Message Board and send them to friends, whereas the Nintendo 64 cartridge could be taken to either Blockbuster or Lawson stores in North America and Japan to have pictures from the game printed on stickers.
Its release was promoted heavily by Nintendo, including being featured in more than 86,000 hotels, and a contest to send the winner to Australia. By the end of 1999, Pokémon Snap sold 1.5 million copies, and was a strong rental title in 1999 after its release. It was met with a mostly positive reception by critics, described as "addictive" by IGN and Boys' Life, and "innovative" by Electric Playground. It has also been compared to other video games with photography, such as Afrika, Dead Rising, and Beyond Good & Evil. It has also been used as a notable example of video games with photography.
Synopsis and gameplay [ edit ]
Taking a picture of a Pikachu and Diglett in the "Tunnel" level
Todd Snap (トオル, Tooru), a Pokémon photographer, is summoned by Professor Oak to Pokémon Island, a place with a variety of climatic and geographic regions where Pokémon live relatively undisturbed by humans. Oak needs quality pictures to accompany his scientific findings, and knows from past experience that Todd is the right person for the job. Using a motorized, amphibious buggy named the Zero-One, Todd explores the island and takes photographs of the wide variety of Pokémon that inhabit its environments.
From Professor Oak's research hub, the player can select between the game's levels and features using a menu system. The path through the levels is linear, similar to a rail shooter. Up to 60 pictures can be taken per visit to a course. After completing a course, the player selects their best picture of each Pokémon to be rated by Professor Oak and added to the Pokémon Report. Scoring takes into account various aspects of the pictures, such as the Pokémon's size, its pose, and keeping the Pokémon in frame. Extra points are awarded for capturing a "special" pose or Pokémon, such as a surfing Pikachu, and if there are multiples of the same Pokémon within the frame. Scoring well in the Pokémon Report and photographing a wide variety of Pokémon is required to make progress in the game. Players can also use an "Album Mark" to mark their favorite pictures; this adds the pictures to a personal in-game album to view at a later date or show to friends.
Players start out with only a camera, but as they progress, Professor Oak will provide them with a number of special items used to obtain better photographs. The game features seven levels: Beach, Tunnel, Volcano, River, Cave, Valley, and the special course "Rainbow Cloud." However, the staggered acquisition of items ensures that the player must re-explore the courses to discover new material. Levels must be replayed after acquiring new items in order to locate hidden Pokémon, alternate routes, or photographic opportunities that yield the best scores. The first item, apple-shaped Pokémon food, can be thrown to either stun or attract Pokémon. Another, "Pester Balls", are able to knock out Pokémon or flush them out of hiding. The Poké-Flute item is used in a variety of ways, such as awakening, irritating, or hatching Pokémon. It can cause Pokémon to dance, and it can play three different songs, resulting in different dances from certain Pokémon. Additionally, players can obtain a Dash Engine for the Zero One, allowing the vehicle to accelerate and move faster than normal.
The game features 63 of the original generation of 151 Pokémon.
Development [ edit ]
Jack and the Beanstalk [ edit ]
Pokémon Snap originally started out as a non-Pokémon game called Jack and the Beanstalk. Named after the English fairy tale of the same name, the game was intended for the 64DD, a peripheral for the Nintendo 64. The game was developed at HAL's office on the second floor of the Nintendo Kanda building in Sudachō, Tokyo, by a development team called "Jack and Beans".[1] This name can be seen in the intro video of Pokémon Snap,[2] as well as in the credits.[3][4] Jack and the Beanstalk was first advertised in February 1995, a year before the Japanese release of the N64, but the game was not heard from again. No screenshots or videos are known to exist of it, and little is known about what the game looked or played like. However, it is speculated[1] that some gameplay elements ended up in EarthBound 64, which started development in 1994 but was cancelled in 2000.[5] In an interview, Benimaru Itoh, one of the art designers of EarthBound 64, said that the game was to feature seeds. When planted, these seeds would grow in real time, utilising the 64DD's internal clock.[6]
On 27 February 1996, Nintendo affiliate Game Freak released Pocket Monsters Red and Green (released in the west as Pokémon Red and Blue). The games became a sleeper hit and were followed the same year by manga and a trading card game. On 1 April 1997, an anime TV series debuted, turning the franchise into a national phenomenon that was later successfully exported to the rest of the world.[7] After it became clear that development of Jack and the Beanstalk wasn't going anywhere, the idea arose to turn it into a Pokémon spin-off. Satoru Iwata, one of the producers of the game, explained in a 2010 interview: "Originally, Pokémon Snap for the Nintendo 64 system wasn't a Pokémon game, but rather a normal game in which you took photos, but the motivation for playing the game wasn't clear. We wondered what players would enjoy taking pictures of, and later on we made a somewhat forced switch to taking pictures of Pokémon." Masanobu Yamamoto, one of the character designers, initially had a negative reaction to the switch, since it meant that a lot of work he had put into the project had to be scrapped. He eventually realised the change was for the better though: "That time, adopting the Pokémon world clarified what we should do and the direction we should head, and I came to like Pokémon, so I felt like that had saved us."[8][9]
In 1999, Mother/EarthBound creator Shigesato Itoi posted a five-part article series about Jack and the Beanstalk on his site, 1101.com. The series includes interviews with various people involved with the game, including Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto.[10]
It is perhaps interesting that the Super Mario series also features beanstalks, which can be climbed to reach higher sections of levels. Game designer Takashi Tezuka, who came up with this idea, confirmed in an interview that the vines were inspired by the Jack and the Beanstalk tale.[11]
Support for 64DD dropped [ edit ]
After turning the project into a Pokémon game, the title initially continued to be developed with support for the 64DD, an accessory for the Nintendo 64 that used magnetic disk-cartridges with a bigger storage capacity, and which featured an internet modem and an internal clock. The device made its first public appearance at Shoshinkai 1996,[12] but after numerous delays, it eventually received a limited, Japan-only release on 1 December 1999, with only a handful of software. Almost all of the games that would have a 64DD version, including The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Donkey Kong 64, were given a N64-only release. In January 1999, the magazine Dengeki Nintendo 64 announced Pokémon Snap was also no longer appearing on the 64DD, being published only as a N64 cartridge.[13] Two months later, the game saw its release in Japan.
Release and promotion [ edit ]
External video YouTube video of a collector demonstrating a Pokémon Snap Station from Blockbuster.
Pokémon Snap was released on March 21, 1999 in Japan, July 26, 1999 in North America, and September 15, 2000 in PAL regions.
The game has had several promotions made by both Nintendo and Blockbuster among others. Nintendo and Japanese convenience store Lawson formed a deal where people could bring their copies of Pokémon Snap and have pictures from the game printed in Japan.[14] Nintendo and Blockbuster formed a similar deal where Blockbuster would exclusively print stickers from players' copies of Pokémon Snap in the United States.[15] They hosted a contest called "Take Your Best Shot", where the player who produces the best picture from Pokémon Snap to Nintendo would win a trip to Australia.[16] Nintendo, partnering with LodgeNet, included Nintendo 64s with Pokémon Snap for more than 86,000 hotels with the intent of capitalizing on the Pokémon franchise for the holiday travel season.[17] Nintendo displayed Pokémon Snap at a Pokémon event called "Pokémon League Summer Training Tour".[18]
In December 2007, Pokémon Snap was re-released for the Wii as a Virtual Console title. While the original release supported the ability to take the cartridge into Blockbuster or Lawson stores in the United States to have taken pictures printed as stickers, the re-release replaced this with the ability to save photos to the Wii message board and share them with friends.[19][20]
On April 4, 2016, Pokémon Snap was re-released in Japan for Wii U as a Virtual Console title.[21][22] This version was released in Europe and Australia on August 18, 2016, and North America on January 5, 2017.[23]
Reception [ edit ]
Sales [ edit ]
Pokémon Snap was fourth on the chart for top selling games in Japan for the week of its release, March 18 to March 24.[24] For the week ending May 21, 1999 in Japan, it ranked fifth.[25] In the United States, Pokémon Snap sold in excess of 151,000 copies in the first three days of its release.[26] Since its release, it was the most rented game, up to October 22, 1999.[27] For the month of November, it was featured in the United States' top 10 list of best-selling video games.[28] For the week ending November 27, it ranked as the 10th best-selling video game, while it remained the most-rented video game for the same week.[29] By the end of 1999, Pokémon Snap was the sixth best-selling video game in the United States, having sold in excess of 1.5 million copies.[30] IGN attributed this success with "well targeted promotions" and the tie in with Blockbuster.[30]
Critical reception [ edit ]
Pokémon Snap received above average reviews from the media, scoring 77/100 on Metacritic.[31] Pokémon Snap was included among a test of video games that are fun, safe, easy to play, and of value for children.[39] Ars Technica editor Frank Caron commented that Pokémon Snap had become a "fan favorite", while author Marina D'Amato called it "famous".[19][40] Author Amit Dhir called it one of the most popular video games of 1999, alongside Gran Turismo and Final Fantasy VIII.[41] Kotaku described it as a "cash-in branded title".[42] Before its US release, IGN praised it as "strange", yet "fun".[43] Matt Casamassina of IGN called it an "addictive, surprisingly fun" game, noting however that "Pokemaniacs are bound to be disappointed with the selection of Pocket Monsters in the game -- roughly 62 out of a possible 151 in all."[37]
GameSpot praised it as a "refreshingly unique game".[36] IGN editors Mark Bozon and Casamassina commented on Pokémon Snap's likelihood of becoming a Virtual Console title; the former called it a "cult classic" as well as a "fresh and entertaining little package". While Casamassina again criticized the lack of Pokémon and length, he noted that a Virtual Console re-release would be appropriate, due to it being "simple and quick".[44] IGN also called it a "wonderful game for kids of all ages", though again bemoaning its lack of length.[45] Official Nintendo Magazine gave the game an 85%.[38] Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the game an 83/100.[32] GamePro commented that while "for Pokemon fans, this is a wonderful game", others will not find it as fun.[34]
Game Revolution called it "an absolute must-have for Pokemon fans and kids in general" but "for the rest of us, it's actually a decent diversion".[35] Electric Playground editor Victor Lucas called it "innovative" and "worth taking a look at".[46] Japanese gaming magazine, Famitsu, praised it for its "sense of peace", as well as its reproduction of "the feel of a safari or a theme park."[47] The Detroit Free Press editor Mike Floyd commented that while it has a "lot of initial flash", it "lacks depth to make it a great title".[48] Wired editor Susan Arendt commented that while Pokémon Snap was considered the "bastard child of the Pokémon franchise" by some, the people in her office loved it.[49] The Denver Post editor David Thomas commented that the concept of Pokémon Snap should have "never worked", but it turned out to be "one of the most creative and entertaining games on the market".[50]
The Los Angeles Times editor Aaron Curtiss commented that while he strongly disliked the Pokémon franchise, Pokémon Snap was a great game.[51] In the book Pikachu's global adventure: the rise and fall of Pokémon, author Joseph Jay Tobin called it "innovative" in how it incorporated elements from the Pokémon franchise.[52] The magazine Boys' Life called it addictive, praising the reactions of the Pokémon as "unique and always entertaining".[53] Allgame editor Scott Alan Marriott commented that while the number of Pokémon was lacking and there were a small number of courses, the game has a "substantial amount of replay value".[54] Game Informer commented that Pokémon Snap was "just as much fun as the main entries" in the series.[55] Blockbuster nominated it for best Nintendo 64 game in its "Blockbuster Awards".[56]
Pokémon Snap has been used to describe several other video games, as well as used as an example of photography and aiming in video games; the Washington Post editor John Gaudiosi called the adult video game Panty Raider a "Victoria's Secret meets Pokemon Snap".[57] Game Infowire called Beyond Good & Evil an "odd mixture" of Ratchet & Clank, Jak II, Metroid Prime, and Pokémon Snap.[58] Wired compared Sea Life Safari's premise to Pokémon Snap's.[59] They also compared Pokémon Snap to African Safari.[60] An application called Virtual Stakeout was compared by Kotaku to Pokémon Snap.[61] The book Patterns in game design used Pokémon Snap as an example of "aim & shoot" gameplay.[62] Author Raph Koster similarly used Pokémon Snap in order to describe video games with photography.[63] Author Shanna Compton used Pokémon Snap as an example of a video game that required players to produce photographs for judges to determine their quality.[64] Developer Wade Tinney attributed the inspiration for the game design of Snapshot Adventures: Secret of Bird Island to both Pokémon Snap and the video game Spore.[65] The PlayStation 3 video game Afrika was said by both UGO Networks and Shack News to be Pokémon Snap-like.[66][67] Dead Rising's photography mechanic was also likened to Pokémon Snap's by Kotaku.[68]
The Virtual Console re-release was met with generally mixed reception. Nintendo Life editor Marcel Van Duyn praised it as a "fun and a relaxing break from the other Pokémon titles", but criticized it as "super short".[69] RPGamer editor Anna Marie Neufeld criticized it for having "zero replayability" and "if nothing else, a good way to waste an afternoon or evening with the Wii."[70] IGN editor Lucas M. Thomas called the photo sharing feature a positive of its release, while criticizing its limited selection of Pokémon, similar to the review of the Nintendo 64 version from IGN. He added that a sequel updated to include Wii controls and Pokémon from recent generations would be welcome.[71] IGN included Pokémon Snap in its wish list of Nintendo 3DS remakes, commenting that it could take advantage of the 3DS' ability to produce stereoscopic 3D photos would be an enjoyable feature for Pokémon Snap.[72] IGN also included Pokémon Snap in their retrospective of the Pokémon video game series, praising it as "fun and innovative".[73] IGN praised it for its visual prowess, citing how it allows players in the United States to see Pokémon in three dimensions.[74] In their Pokémon Snap retrospective, Game, Set, Watch editor Danny Cowan commented that it was a "turnoff for fans", calling how overlooked it was "tragic".[75] Retronauts speculated that the popularity of Pokémon Snap was due to being released at the height of Pokémon fandom. However, one of the commentators on the podcast, Justin Haywald, found this odd, calling it “horrible.” The podcast discussed briefly the prospects of a Pokémon Snap sequel, feeling that the Nintendo 3DS' gyroscope and augmented reality cards could be used, citing Steel Diver for its use of the former feature. Retronauts member Jeremy Parish commented that if they didn't make such a sequel, it's because they are “stupid and don't like money.”[76] IGN commented that a Pokémon game better than Black and White was Pokémon Snap, stating that "It hasn't become stale", "It has better Pokémon", and "It made the Pokémon world feel real". They commented that none of the past Pokémon games "have managed to make the |
the significantly less-restrictive "imminent lawless action" test. In Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1988), the Supreme Court upheld the right of a school principal to review (and suppress) controversial articles in a school newspaper funded by the school and published in its name. In United States v. Manning (2013), Chelsea Manning was found guilty of six counts of espionage for furnishing classified information to WikiLeaks.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]Illustration by Joe Burger
Welcome to The Weed Eater, a new column exploring the intersection of cannabis and cuisine from former High Times editor, Dave Bienenstock.
"It would be wryly interesting if in human history the cultivation of marijuana led generally to the invention of agriculture, and thereby to civilization." — Carl Sagan
Brace yourself, because together we're about to embark on a cannabis-fueled culinary journey in search of a lovely little oasis of sensual pleasure known as the haute box. Like adventurers following the spice roads of old, we'll traverse an ancient, storied, and sometimes perilous route rife with exotic ingredients, bold flavors, and colorful characters—quite naturally stopping to sample the goods all along the way—wherever high-end cuisine intersects with getting high.
Because The Weed Eater wants you to smell, see, hear, touch, and taste it all: Cooking stoned, eating stoned, gardening/fishing/foraging stoned, hosting a pot-infused dinner party of the highest order stoned, and inventing and refining recipes while blazed. Even doing the dishes can be enhanced by this most useful botanical—but that's at the end of the meal, and we must start at the beginning.
It was a time before the sowing of seeds and animal husbandry, back when our ancestors still hunted and gathered their meals, enjoying a nomad's freedom, while dedicating just a few hours each day to acquiring food. Unfortunately, no cookbooks or restaurant menus have survived from that era, so we can only speculate about the technical sophistication of their prehistoric preparations, but we do know that in exchange for a rather minimal investment of daily labor, they enjoyed a steady diet of fresh, seasonal, organic whole foods—all sourced locally, fully free-range, and 100 percent GMO-free.
So why give all that up for the scarred hands and aching back of a farmer?
Even doing the dishes can be enhanced by this most useful botanical—but that's at the end of the meal, and we must start at the beginning.
If you believe noted marijuana enthusiast Carl Sagan, Mary Jane inspired earth's first potheads to trade the freedom of hunting and foraging for the drudgery of cultivation—more than 10,000 years ago. It was a staggering development in human history that led not only to agriculture and agronomy, but to pretty much our entire way of life on the planet. For better and for worse. And yes, it is rather wryly ironic to consider that the very civilization cannabis thus enabled would one day turn around and target the herb for eradication.
Fortunately, we're approaching the end of society's collective case of reefer madness at a rapid pace. In fact, as a longtime marijuana journalist, The Weed Eater must admit to feeling downright dizzy these last few months, whilst reporting on everything from opening day for legal pot sales in Colorado to the federal government's new plan to supply cannabis extracts to epileptic kids. So while no doubt there's still a long way to go in ending the ridiculous war on weed, it's also high time for some celebrating.
And since this April 20th will be the first iteration of the irie holiday known as 4/20 since Colorado's recreational marijuana stores opened for business, The Weed Eater has naturally made a pot pilgrimage to Denver to celebrate herbal liberty, check out the best edibles entered into this year's Cannabis Cup, and sample the Mile High City's tastiest dishes in a properly elevated state.
For starters, chef Tom Coohill kindly extended an invitation to visit his eponymous French restaurant, promising a special tasting menu of complex flavor combinations specially designed to appeal to those under the influence of Denver's most celebrated produce. This search for esoteric pleasure makes perfect sense, given that he and The Weed Eater first bonded via email over a shared affection for pairing Rush's multi-layered prog-rock with some expertly-grown ganja.
A James Beard Foundation "great regional chef," Coohill has worked in many kitchens since training at the three-star Michelin L'Oustau de Baumaniere in France—including a few of his own.
According to the chef, "A lot of the chefs, cooks, and apprentices I've worked with have smoked marijuana. It's a high-pressure job and pot helps them relax after hours," He explained. "The only problem, for me, would be if they bring it into work and it negatively affects their job performance. But I have to say, while I've had people come in drunk and had to let them go, I've never had someone come in stoned and had that same experience. So the adverse effects of being drunk must be worse. Because I'm sure there have been cooks and waiters who've come in a little stoned; I just didn't notice."
How about the customers? I asked.
"People obviously must visit the restaurant high all the time, but if they're experienced pot smokers, you'd never know."
And so, The Weed Eater arrived at Coohill's one toke under the line—but just barely—having quite recently legally inhaled a lovely gram of store-bought Sour Diesel along with dining companions Mason Tvert (who co-directed the campaign to legalize marijuana in Colorado), Samantha Walsh (a prominent local pot activist with deep roots in the hemp movement), and Mrs.Weed Eater (a.k.a. Elise McDonough, author of The Official High Times Cannabis Cookbook).
A highly distinguished tasting panel, indeed, with no herbal lightweights among the bunch, and yet despite the celebratory nature of the evening, a kind of stoned uncertainty overcame our party as we approached Coohill's prominent chef's counter—a long, elegant table at the very entrance of the restaurant, with all the chairs on one side to afford each guest a clear view of the kitchen.
All photos by David Bienenstock
Chef Coohill quickly appeared, however, and put us at ease by first breaking the ice with a few Rush stories, then moving on to describing his approach to cooking for a stoned palate.
"I think the sensory enhancement effects of marijuana go way beyond those of alcohol," he began. "Wine can taste amazing, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily enhancing your appreciation of the rest of the meal. So for this menu, I wanted to serve complex flavors and pairings that are much more easy to identify and understand when you're high. The same way you can sometimes better appreciate a complex piece of music while in a heightened state of awareness."
The chef's wine and weed comparison struck our group as particularly apt, given that the entire legalization campaign in Colorado was based on the theme that "marijuana is safer than alcohol," and therefore should be treated the same in the eyes of the law. A messaging strategy mostly focused on public safety and taking money out of the black market, so perhaps not surprisingly, Mason Tvert and his campaign team never got around to touting how much better getting baked makes food taste.
"Adults use marijuana for many of the same reasons they use alcohol," Mason did note, long after both the meal and our green aperitif had run their course. "Some enjoy wine or pre-dinner cocktails, whereas others prefer to limit their caloric intake to the cuisine. Both can potentially enhance a meal, but the fact that marijuana doesn't produce hangovers gives it a big edge."
First Course: Blue Crab Cake, paired with Champagne Taittinger Brut La Francaise
Second Course: Spring Mushrooms and Asparagus, paired with Jean Vincent Sancerre 2009 Sauvignon Blanc, France, Loire Valley, Sancerre
Made in the style of Leone, France, chef Coohill's blue crab cake arrived without breading, mayonnaise, or anything else that might turn to mush in a slightly dry mouth, or unduly overload highly sensitive, freshly stoned taste buds. Instead, paired with the delicate, steadily effervescent champagne, this opening dish offered meaty chunks of perfectly cooked crab, buttressed by layers of flavor and texture that awakened The Weed Eater's palate delightfully without coming on too strong.
All topped in a very light sauce made with champagne, white fish bones, tarragon, a white mirepoix, and fennel—plus Dijon mustard and chive to give it bite.
Trace the history of the original "back to the land movement," the one that sprouted our current renaissance of local, organic, seasonal eating, and you'll find that most of those first-generation hippie homesteaders grew at least a few cannabis plants to go with their veggies—for personal use and perhaps to help make ends meet. Whether for dealing or healing, those illicit ganja grows provided clear benefits to those trying to live naturally off the earth's bounty, and so ever since, the history of sustainable food and homegrown herb have been irrevocably intertwined.
Happily, this symbiotic relationship was strongly reflected in chef Coohill's seasonal take on spring in Colorado, a mix of asparagus and mushrooms (mitaki and oyster) served with tomatillo purée, small dollops of fresh, local, artisanal goat cheese from Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy, and a special "chili powder" made via the wonders of molecular gastronomy. Paired with an earthy French sauvignon blanc, the dish explored inviting depths of umami with the cool appeal of a smoky cave.
"It all flows together like a vocal harmony," Mrs. Weed Eater declared, keeping with the food as music metaphor. "And that last note of chili just gets you primed for the next number."
Third Course: Cape Cod Scallop, paired with Joseph Drouhin "Rully", 2011 Chardonnay, France, Burgundy, Cote Chalonnaise, Rully
Fourth Course: Colorado Lamb Sirloin, paired with Simi "Landslide Vineyard", 2010, Cabernet Sauvignon, California, North Coast, Alexander Valley
"All of these different components—when you taste them together—will detonate a flavor bomb," Chef Coohill promised as a preface to one of his signature dishes. "The previous courses have been a little subtle, but this one is going to be like a really mind-blowing guitar riff."
Moments later, our Cape Cod scallops arrived, well seared with a fresh, slightly sweet flavor, and a cloud-like mouth feel. As instructed, we each assembled the perfect bite by balancing some of the scallop, grapefruit, cucumber, prosciutto, and watercress on our forks, before dragging all of these elements purposefully through the strawberry. While Sour Diesel still worked its magic on our neurons, playing with our food actually came natural. For the second bite, I added a small dollop of the puree of black garlic, which offered a strong reverberation back to the previous dish's persistent umami flavors.
After an intermission of house-made sorbet, we moved into the "greatest hits" portion of our culinary concerto with local Colorado lamb sirloin, sous-vide at 63 degrees Celsius for an hour, then seared off to keep it incredibly moist and tender, before plating alongside house-made lamb sausage, artichoke, and a puree of fennel. All topped with a white wine, thyme, garlic lamb that—in the immortal words of Jeffrey Lebowski—"really tied the room together."
Chef Coohill reveres Colorado lamb because it's "not gamy, and very mild, with beautiful fat content and texture." He finds it especially delicious when paired with a particular cabernet sauvignon from California's North Coast that he enjoys so thoroughly, he actually made a chandelier out of the stems and roots of one of the vineyard's retired grape plants.
In fact, the very wine we imbibed as we admired the chandelier contained "an infinitesimal amount of juice from the grapes of that plant.
Trippy!
Dessert: Marjolaine, paired with Chateau La Riviere "Sauternes", 2010- Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscadelle, France, Bordeaux, Sauternes
What better way to end our flavor explorations than with a classic dessert blending chocolate and hazelnut? How about if it comes with a saucy backstory, told to us tableside by the chef himself, in his own words:
"Marjolaine is a very famous dessert created by Fernand Point, the most famous chef in the world until he died in 1955. A gigantic man, who weighed about 380 pounds, he's still considered the godfather of modern French cooking.
Chef Point named this particular dessert, which took years to perfect, after his favorite mistress. And while you may find Marjolaine on the menu at other restaurants, it's almost always not the original recipe, because you must have worked for somebody who's worked directly for Fernand Point in order to have it.
At Mobile Le Francais in Chicago, I worked under a chef who actually did a 17-year apprenticeship with Fernand Point, so I have the real recipe, which doesn't even appear in Fernand Point's book."
Comprised of layers of chocolate and whipped cream, roasted hazelnuts, and whipped cream, and praline and whipped cream—buffered from each other by a bisque of egg whites and roasted hazelnut—the dessert satisfied deep cravings for sweetness without relying on a sugar rush. Instead, an almost savory sensual depth pervaded the Marjolaine, which one can only assume was true of the preparation's namesake as well.
When the last morsel was devoured, we paused at the table a moment, preparing ourselves mentally and spiritually to climb out of the lovely haute box chef Coohill had so kindly provided, and re-enter the wider world. On the way out, Samantha casually asked our endearingly unflappable head waiter if he's noticed an uptick of "visibly recreated" customers coming in to the restaurant since the pot stores opened in Colorado. And with a knowing smile that immediately set off The Weed Eater's jaydar, he did indeed confirm that this is most certainly the case.
"I've never had a problem serving any of our stoned customers," he quickly added, "and I think they do probably experience their meals in an enhanced way. I would certainly enjoying eating food like this, like that."
Spoon in next month for The Weed Eater's further adventures, plus a cannabis-infused ice-cream recipe that will leave your friends speechless (perhaps literally, though that will eventually wear off.) In the meantime, send all potential scoops to: @pot_handbook on Twitter.Errors are one of the more frustrating things you encounter while programming. Those little messages in the console can ruin your entire afternoon, day, or week. When “undefined is not a function” appears yet again, it’s often time to get another coffee.
Even if you use the one true JavaScript exception handler, and have a lightning fast “copy and paste into $search_engine” reflex, the process of tracking down helpful information about an error can be annoying.
It doesn’t necessarily need to be that way! Some programming languages (hi Rust) take their error reporting to the next level by providing more information than just the fact that something went wrong.
We are not introducing JavaScript Clippy today. However, with the help of the MDN community, we are going to add links to documentation from error messages that appear within the Firefox Developer Tools console.
This is to help you debug faster and learn more about JavaScript’s edge cases and lesser known functionality. Especially if you are new to JavaScript, we hope that you’ll appreciate this additional debugging help, or for those times when you’ve had too much coffee and you still can’t find the solution.
Documenting all the JavaScript, DOM, and other varieties of error messages that are thrown at you is a lot of work. We are focusing on the most commonly thrown errors for now. If you feel like helping here, get in touch with the MDN community and we promise you’ll learn a lot about JavaScript’s interesting quirks!
Try a recent Nightly build of Firefox to test this feature, or have a look at the MDN JavaScript error documentation directly.Will the Clinton Foundation ever be questioned by the IRS? Republicans have requested it, but it seems pretty unlikely that the IRS would touch this issue. In fact, perhaps it is even more unlikely because of those requests! In that sense, asking whether the Foundation could stand up to scrutiny may be pointless.
Besides, it is difficult to tease out the facts, with undisclosed donations, speeches, amended tax returns, and administrative expenses. Mostly, there is hyperbole about how lofty the goals, how altruistic the founders, and how successful the fundraising. Still, it is hard to avoid some of the press, including the recent report that the Foundation gathered $100 million from a variety of Gulf sheikhs and billionaires in mysterious ways. And for what promises?
On a smaller scale, it was recently revealed that the Clinton Foundation arranged a $2 million pledge to a firm owned by Bill’s ‘friend.’ Perhaps it should be no surprise that the Clinton Foundation helped Hillary and Bill's friends. Yet the law is very clear that charitable organizations with public charity tax exemptions must benefit the public interest. In fact, the law requires the charity to operate exclusively for charitable purposes.
Even without knowing how the Clintons got from point A to point B, they were “dead broke” on leaving the White House. Their finances since exploded, with well over $100 million in earnings since that time and a vast net worth. Yes, part of it comes from those speeches that no one is talking about.
Not too long ago, Lois Lerner of the IRS headed the tax exempt organizations unit of the IRS. She was a key figure in the still unresolved IRS targeting scandal. Of course, Lois Lerner took the Fifth and retired from the IRS. In that climate, it seems hard to imagine the IRS would audit. But if the IRS did ask, how would mere mortals be treated by the IRS? Consider these examples.
In Wendy L. Parker Rehabilitation Foundation, Inc. v. Commissioner, the Tax Court upheld the IRS's position that a foundation formed to aid coma victims, including a family member of the founders, was not entitled to tax exemption. Approximately 30% of the organization's net income was expected to be distributed to aid the family coma victim. The court found that the family coma victim was a substantial beneficiary of the foundation's funds. It also noted that such distributions relieved the family of the economic burden of providing medical and rehabilitation care for their family member and, therefore, constituted inurement to the benefit of private individuals.
The IRS also says this:
any transaction between an organization and a private individual in which the individual appears to receive a disproportionate share of the benefits of the exchange relative to the charity served presents an inurement issue. Such transactions may include assignments of income, compensation arrangements, sales or exchanges of property, commissions, rental arrangements, gifts with retained interests, and contracts to provide goods or services to the organization.”
The IRS adds that "a common factual thread running through the cases where inurement has been found is that the individual stands in a relationship with the organization which offers him the opportunity to make use of the organization's income or assets for personal gain."
The IRS says that even a small amount of private inurement is fatal to exemption. In Spokane Motorcycle Club v. U.S., net profits were found to inure to private individuals where refreshments, goods and services amounting to $825 (representing some 8% of gross revenues) were furnished to members. The IRS says that "if inurement can result from an insider receiving a little benefit, it follows that inurement must result when the insider receives virtually all of the benefits of the organization's operations."
If you want to read more from the IRS about private inurement, check out this IRS link, and this one too. Section 1.501(c)(3)-1(d)(1)(ii) of the tax regulations states that the burden of proof is on the organization to establish that it is not organized or operated for the benefit of private interests. Peter Schweizer’s book “Clinton Cash” argues that the many public and private deals the Clintons brokered put staggering sums in their pockets, through lucrative speaking arrangements or by donations to the Clinton Foundation.
So how would the Clintons do on proving no private inurement? Well, at least there would probably be no emails.
For alerts to future tax articles, email me at Wood@WoodLLP.com. This discussion is not legal advice.Story highlights House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi attacked Donald Trump on Sunday
Pelosi said Trump is "projecting" his political problems onto Hillary Clinton
Washington (CNN) House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi attacked Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump Sunday saying "he's always projecting" his own political problems onto Hillary Clinton.
"When he knows his temperament is not going over very well, he says, 'I have the temperament for the job.' When he knows that his stamina, is lagging, he says, 'I have the stamina for the job,' " Pelosi told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."
"When he knows that he has exposure in terms of women, he projects onto Bill Clinton. When he knows that -- I don't know what this drug thing is, but I'm very suspicious that he's saying she should take a drug test; what's he talking about there?" she said. "And when he says she's engaged in an international conspiracy, whatever he's describing it as, his own people describe his advisers admitting to having back-channel conversations with the Russians."
"So I think that every time he says something, you have to look to his vulnerability on those scores," she said.
Read MoreKayla Kandzorra / Flickr There's more to marital bliss than finding someone who texts back quickly.
We also want our partners to be loving, financially secure, and maybe have a college education (or two).
It wasn't always this way.
Before we had modern medicine and casual attitudes toward sex, people held far different opinions about what constituted a worthy spouse. According to a 2013 study, people in 1939 focused more on maturity, good health, and chastity compared to people in 2008.
The results of that study, which compared data across both time periods for 18 different traits, recently made its way to University of Oxford data visualization expert Max Roser, who runs the research website Our World In Data.
Here's the full breakdown, which Roser shared on Twitter:
OurWorldInData.org
Factors like emotional stability and religious background have held mostly steady. But certain traits stand out as stark reminders of the time each group lived in.
The 1939 respondents cared very little about their partner's political affiliation, education level, or financial status. More important was the quality of the person's character, whether they were dependable, neat, and well-suited for starting a family.
By 2008, those preferences were more or less turned on their head. People said they cared less about whether someone was a kind and reliable person and more about whether they matched their spouse's education level, political bent, and intelligence.
That kind of change squares well with all the data that finds younger generations are working longer hours than their parents and are more often sharing household duties in marriage.
Romance is becoming less about how people act, and more about how they think.It`s a story that has had football`s historians speculating and researching for generations, it has provided claims and counter claims. It`s a story of dusty old boardrooms, political glad-handing and whispers behind palms. It is also a tale that has fiercely divided the Northern point of England`s capital city for close to a century and cemented one of professional football`s most keenly felt rivalries. It is not by virtue of geography alone that one Kent based and one Middlesex based football club came to despise one another. This is the story of how Arsenal were promoted to England`s top flight in 1919- a position they have never relinquished.
Following the conclusion of the Great War in 1918, the Football League decided to expand the First and Second Divisions (there was no Third Division until 1958) from 20 clubs a piece to 22. The proposal was unanimously supported by clubs who wanted more fixtures as more fixtures created greater revenue. Always a desirable outcome (see friendlies, international for modern day proof), but particularly as football clubs had been deprived any sort of income whilst competitive matches were suspended between 1915-18. However, the Football League and its participating members realised this would be an arduous process. New clubs always had to be voted in by secret ballot of all league members and the last time the league had been expanded in 1905, there broke out heated negotiations. The Football League had originally been the sole preserve of Northern and Midlands sides until Woolwich Arsenal belligerently broke in in 1894.
But traditionally, the more Northern sides had block voted to keep London and Southern sides out of the division. To illustrate this point, Tottenham won the Southern League and the F.A. Cup in 1901, but still could not surmount the democratic process and become elected as a professional league club. So an uneasy kind of “hot peace” had co existed either side of the Midlands divide in the early part of the century. League expansion would inevitably lead to more political bun fighting and a reigniting of old grudges. Football League expansion had always been a matter of secret ballot vote in football`s early years, though league position was seen as a big part in that process. A club`s potential to be an attractive enterprise for the league obviously was largely contingent on how good they were. But other factors came into play- something Arsenal Chairman Henry Norris knew all too well.
In the last season of League Football prior to the First World War, Tottenham Hotspur had finished bottom of the First Division, whilst Chelsea finished second bottom- putting them both in the relegation spots. Meanwhile, Derby County and Preston North End had occupied the top two slots in the Second Division. On the face of it, with their greater presence for a blocking vote, one would have expected the Northern majority to have simply voted Derby and Preston into the Division and would have been happy for Spurs and Chelsea to disappear. Tottenham and Chelsea however, argued fiercely for their interests. For instance, Tottenham insisted that the ballot should be an open one, an unprecedented step for the Football League at the time. (Of course nobody else agreed to this, so it didn`t happen).
However, Chelsea alleged that Manchester United and Liverpool had been involved in match fixing. United finished one point ahead of Chelsea in the relegation places and a scandal was uncovered that United had bribed Liverpool to lose a crucial end of season encounter to them to ensure their safety from relegation. The practise of match fixing was widespread in these times and the Football League were well aware of it. But they fretted that if such allegations were to be made public, it would hurt the commercial viability of the sport. Chelsea ventured that both Liverpool and Manchester United be thrown out of the league. Arsenal chairman Norris- whose side had finished 6th in the Second Division, chimed in with his concurrence. Clearly, this was not a proposal that Liverpool, Manchester United or the Football League would entertain for their own reasons. It looked as though Civil War was on the cards, with the Southern and Midlands sides breaking away from the Football League. This proposal was much more dangerous to the Football League than it was when Arsenal first floated the idea in 1893, as the Southern League had become much more prosperous.
To hush the various warring factions, the League offered a compromise by rearranging promotion for two clubs for Division 1 and three for Division 2. (Glossop North End had opted out of the league, hence the extra spot). Chelsea were quietly re-elected to Division 1 as an acknowledgment that they had suffered from bribery and corruption. Tottenham were not re elected as the fixed match had no bearing on their survival. Derby County and Preston North End were elected unanimously. However, Norris was not satisfied with this arrangement, offering, not unreasonably, that the league was condoning bribery and corruption by refusing to punish Liverpool and Manchester United. As a Member of Parliament, a Freemason and a Knight of the realm, Norris threatened to use his significant political power to force action against the Football League and expose their shenanigans. Norris motioned that Tottenham, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United all be kicked out of the First Division. Though the facade was noble on Norris` part, self interest was at heart. He had ploughed £175,000 of his own money into building Highbury and he knew Arsenal needed to be in the top flight lest that investment become folly.
The exact details of the lobbying and negotiations are in the grave with the perpetrators, but a fair amount of circumstantial evidence suggests that Liverpool Chairman and Football League board member John McKenna- naturally a good friend of the well connected Norris- looked to do a deal to get Arsenal voted into the Football League so long as they dropped their threat to make the match fixing public. Though it`s fair to say Norris wouldn`t have looked a gift horse in the mouth, the truth is, his skills of persuasion were legion anyway. In the arena of lobbying for votes, Norris wiped the floor with Tottenham- who were rather unpopular with the other member clubs anyway. (When Arsenal had proposed a breakaway Southern League in 1893, Tottenham only gained one vote to enter the division. Their own).
Whilst Spurs complained about the voting process, Norris got to work, pointing out the huge potential fan base Arsenal had due to their location close to the West End. This would have had League Chairmen`s ears glowing in an age where gate receipts for all league fixtures were split 50-50. Norris also whispered honeyed words to other club`s directors about the favourable option of a weekend in Central London as opposed to the outposts of Birmingham and Wolverhampton. He also mentioned Arsenal`s length of service and loyalty to the league at every opportunity (even though Wolverhampton Wanderers had been in the Football League longer than Arsenal). Norris also convinced Chelsea Chairman Claude Kirby that their place in the league would be safeguarded anyway, thereby securing Chelsea`s vote. In his autobiography, Arsenal manager at the time Leslie Knighton opined, “Norris corresponded with a few financiers here and there.”
With his hands doubtless red roar from handshakes and back slapping, Norris saw the vote emanate massively in his favour- with Arsenal securing 18 votes to Tottenham`s 8. Barnsley received 5 votes, Wolves 4, Nottingham Forest 3, Birmingham City 2 and Hull City 1. Arsenal were elected to the Football League having finished 6th in Division 2 (the position was revised to 5th some years later after an error in the goal average calculation had been uncovered). Tottenham were relegated to Division 2. Tottenham have never forgiven Norris or Arsenal, firstly for muscling in on their patch in North London, then for taking what they felt was rightfully their place in the top flight of English football. That Arsenal have never since been relegated from that position both ferments Tottenham`s anger further and proves that Norris was correct to place so much gravitas on promotion to maximise the club`s potential. Spurs have cried foul ever since, but the reality is that this is how all promotions were decided at this time, by electioneering. Tottenham themselves were elected to the Football League for the first time in 1908 having finished 8th in the Southern League the previous season. But 1919 has left a sourness in Tottenham`s disposition towards us that has lasted close to a century and shows little sign of ever abating. Allegations of bribery persist, but the only corruption that has ever been uncovered lays at the door of Liverpool and Manchester United.LD.
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With thanks to Tony Attwood and Brian Belton.By Justice B. Hill
BUENOS AIRES -- On an expanse of dirt and scruffs of grass, Pedro Augustin Figueras and other boys run around on a Saturday afternoon and practice a sport that boys thousands of miles north play from early spring through the dog days of summer: baseball.
Like those around him, Pedro is trying to make a travel team that one day might take him beyond the Argentine borders and to the Pan American Games.
"I know that by training and working myself to the fullest, I believe I can make it," he says through a translator. "Higher the dream, the higher you'll go."
But dreams about baseball and making a career of it aren't what boys like Pedro talk about here, usually. Soccer reigns in South America as boys like Pedro idolize Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona or Carlos Tevez.
Wearing a light blue uniform, Pedro stands in the shade of the dugout, his back to the ball fields. He looks the part of a boy who dreams.
Sergio Martin Martin -- president of Federación Argentina Béisbol -- dreams big about baseball, too.
"To do these things, you have to dream," Martin says through a translator.
Inside the headquarters of the Argentina Olympic Committee, Martin sits at a large wooden desk with a wall of Argentine flags lined up behind him. He can speak English, but he prefers to share his thoughts about baseball in Spanish in order to get the words right.
"We know positively that we have to fight hard against soccer, other sports, because Argentina is not only soccer," he says. "It's also rugby, [field] hockey and basketball."
When Martin took over the Metropolitan Leagues, the central baseball league for youth, he counted 10 teams. After bringing in the Little League system, he has seen baseball grow.
Martin, a hulk of a man with grayish hair and stern tenor, points to a tournament the following week. Thirty-eight teams of boys, ages 9 to 16, were going to take the field, a jump from 10 teams six years earlier. For the older boys, the number of teams in the tournament grew from 12 to 22. Even more boys will come one day because they see baseball as a pastime worth exploring.
Around the country, boys have a national team stadium and 30 fields for their games, and Martin is at a ball field near the airport on this Saturday. As he watches Pedro and other boys practice, Martin can picture the future of a sport he's been tasked to grow. He's trying to find among the Argentine youth a ballplayer who can break through to the big leagues.
It hasn't happened yet, but the search isn't over.
Soccer is the dominant sport in South America, but the number of kids interested in baseball is rising. (Steven Hernandez)
Little League in Buenos Aires
Dan Velte, senior director of regional operations and program development for Little League Baseball, has seen how youth baseball has developed in South America. In the past decade, more and more boys are putting down soccer balls and picking up baseballs.
Velte knows Little League officials are pouring more resources into youth baseball in Brazil and Argentina, neighboring countries whose passion for soccer trumps other sports there. Coaches, volunteers and trainers from both countries have been brought to Pennsylvania for seminars and clinics, Velte says.
Part of growing the sport in Argentina has included supplying bats, baseballs and bases, and Little League has also needed dedicated ball fields, Velte says. Boys shouldn't have to play baseball on black asphalt or inside gymnasiums.
What has sped up the development of Buenos Aires baseball has been the ability of Little League Baseball to get resources into the hands of Argentine officials and players more quickly. Velte credits a stronger, centralized organizational structure the past 10 years for the latter, which has cleared the bottleneck that once slowed the distribution of equipment and manpower across Latin and South America.
"We have been able to jump in and establish programs that show we're incredibly successful," he says.
Argentine baseball is in its fledgling years. No star is on the horizon -- not even on the Little League level. But that fact doesn't bother Velte. In his mind, the goal remains unchanged, a goal Little League Baseball shares with its big brother, Major League Baseball: grow the game one ballplayer at a time.
"That's the way we've always looked at it," Velte says. "Let us develop them, and then when, at some point, they become teenagers, we can hand them off to Major League Baseball, and they'll have a better chance of signing and being in the system."
Yes, that's the plan at the Little League level, which Velte and federación officials have put into place.
"We'll let baseball have its development," says Eduardo Moyano, the director of communications for the Argentine Olympic committee. "This is the work that is left to every federation of a sport to achieve: that the young people go getting closer slowly.
"But it's work that will take time."
Baseball officials in Argentina are hoping to develop a Major League player. (Steven Hernandez)
Growing the love
When asked about baseball in Argentina, Mariano Espotorno, a trainer for the country's national team, who's spending one of his Saturdays with baseball-playing youth, answers with a single word: "passion."
"In this country, to be a baseball player you need that feeling, due to all the adversities we have to overcome," Espotorno says through a translator. "It's a small sport in our country; it has not reached a presence in our people and youth."
Few people can argue that the passion here isn't growing, he says. Passion finds its roots in the number of Argentine boys who are playing baseball here and from being around coaches and trainers like Espotorno, whose love of the sport comes from his father.
Since boyhood, he says he felt baseball was his sport. He did play rugby and baseball back then, but when he was told to choose between the two, he chose baseball. Espotorno can't say why, though.
As he walks the grass and dirt on this Buenos Aires ball field, he notices himself in the boys he coaches. They carry his boyhood aspirations with them. While he hadn't spent much time with them yet -- one week, he says -- what time he has spent with them has shown Espotorno a trait uncommon in boys their age.
"Instead of taking the easy route, they look to overcome the adversities in our baseball in order to be the best they can be," he says. "These kids have a desire to play well."
Should one boy play well enough, if he displays the tools needed to get to the big leagues, baseball will have a foothold here.
Just one boy in the bigs -- just one -- and baseball explodes here, Espotorno says. But when will that be? Well, Espotorno wastes no energy fretting about it.
"Baseball requires a lot of day-to-day energy," he |
Investment Corporation and is now an adjunct professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Interestingly they crossed intellectual swords earlier this week.
As an economics undergraduate in the London School of Economics, Tharman also sent his verse to the University of Singapore Students Union publication “Singapore Undergraduate”. A then-editor of the magazine told me that he was so impressed by a poem of the future Deputy PM that he placed it on the back cover of one issue.
“He was a very good poet. Not sure how much poetry he’s written recently,” Chew said. The book is unfortunately out of print, though available at the National Library and the NUS library.
To have a poet (or at least a former poet) in the Cabinet is unexpected. Tharman does not speak publicly about his literary past (perhaps it is just that no one thought to ask).
His artistic bent might have an effect on policy. An academic told me: “It was during his time as Minister of Education that Drama became an official subject at O-levels and the gates were opened further for Drama in schools.”
Lee Kuan Yew declared that poetry was a luxury Singapore could not afford admittedly more than forty years ago.
On another topic, I wonder whether it would be fair to say that in this election Tharman has emerged to be many people’s (even the Opposition’s) — but not the PAP’s — choice to be the next prime minister.
For that, I have written this rough Haiku combining several ideas:
Poet in closet
Crouching in the Cabinet
Biding time with rhyme
The writer is a cultural and media policy researcher at the Institute of Policy Studies, where he is writing a book about Flourishing Life, and a playwright. He also blogs at https://tantarnhow.wordpress.com/
Top photo: Friends (from left) Tharman, Yeoh and Chew having an editorial meeting for the book, June 1978, in Chew’s bedroom at Highland Road.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to KC Chew for the pictures. Also thanks to Natalie Chia for your help.
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While many in the Bitcoin community dread the thought of regulation and taxes, the fact is that if Bitcoin is ever going to become mainstream, both might become a necessary evil in some countries. But of outmost importance is the question of how those regulations and taxes are or will be applied.
Countries around the world have been struggling with exactly how to address virtual currencies and the nations of the European Union are no exception. But now the Scandinavian nation of Finland ruled that Bitcoin services will be considered Value Added Tax exempt.
Ruling 034/2014 by the Finnish Central Board of Taxes seems to mimic Belgium's decision back in September, when Belgium’s Federal Public Service Finance (FPS) indicated that the country’s digital currency transactions would also be exempt from VAT. It should be noted, however, that these ruling could be supplanted if an EU-wide directive is issued in the future.
Value Added Taxes (VAT) are most commonly used in Europe and are defined in Investopedia as
“A type of consumption tax that is placed on a product whenever value is added at a stage of production and at final sale. Value-added tax (VAT) is most often used in the European Union. The amount of value-added tax that the user pays is the cost of the product, less any of the costs of materials used in the product that have already been taxed.”
The recent ruling was made by Finland’s Central Board of Taxes and it seems to be at odds with the EU statements on virtual currency classification. The EU statement says that Bitcoin and other virtual currencies were to be considered financial/banking services, which were subject to VAT.
In a conversation with one of Cointelegraph’s sources, Richard Asquith, VP of Global Tax Compliance at Avalara, and a frequent contributor to media discussions on tax, having discussed global tax issues on air for the likes of the BBC, CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg TV, commented on the Finnish ruling:
“By making bitcoins a recognized payment instrument, Finland has pushed it towards being regarded as a formal currency. This would not be welcomed by European Central Banks as it would trigger wider financial regulation issues.”
Asquith could very well have a point. We have seen at least two situations in Europe where the banking industry seems to be attacking Bitcoin directly. On the Isle of Man, a tiny nation that was once considering becoming a haven for Bitcoin, the firm that was processing Bitcoin transactions on the island was warned by several large banks if they did not stop servicing Bitcoin businesses. Recently in Sweden, several other major banks began following the same path.
The European countries that have tackled, at least on a limited scale, the issue of virtual currencies with respect to taxes have essentially ruled that they are an unregulated method for exchanging goods.
For example, in the UK, the tax office ruled in March of 2014 that Bitcoin would be treated the same way that gold sovereigns are treated, meaning that gains are treated as Capital Gains for individuals and Corporation taxes for businesses. Sweden and Poland, on the other hand, have made them subject to VAT, which essentially adds more than 20% to the cost of each trade. This, in turn, could stifle the growth of the Bitcoin economy in those countries forcing businesses to pack up and move to greener pastures.
But despite the regulatory haze and the imposed VAT, Bitcoin communities have sprung up and are growing across the European continent. The struggle for both recognition and acceptance will likely be a long drawn-out battle for years to come, but hopefully, the progressive stance of countries such as Finland and Belgium will serve as a positive example for decision makers in other European nations.
Did you enjoy this article? You may also be interested in reading these ones:Dr. Yoni Freedhoff is an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa, the medical director of Ottawa’s Bariatric Medical Institute, an expert advisor with EvidenceNetwork.ca, and an outspoken public health advocate.
There’s no denying that the food environment influences the diets of Canadian families, and that food industry marketing is part of that environment. Canadian children are now developing chronic diseases that were almost exclusively seen in adults when I went to medical school a few decades back.
There has been a big shift in our diets, and new research just released in December revealed our children are getting more than half of their calories from ultra-processed foods; kids aged 9-to-13 are closing in on 60 per cent. According to the study’s author, ultra-processed foods are being promoted to displace all other food groups: “They are usually branded assertively, packaged attractively, and marketed intensively, especially to our children.”
Sugary drinks are the biggest contributor of sugar in our diets and young people consume the most sugary drinks: the average youth drinks 578 ml of sugary drinks each day, which adds up to a bathtub of sugary drinks a year.
Not surprisingly this shift in our diets has been accompanied with a shift in advertising way beyond Saturday morning cartoons. Marketing is big business, it is sophisticated, it is everywhere, and it works. Which is why food industry spends literally billions of dollars per year targeting children with advertisements—something their shareholders would object to if those advertisements didn’t work.
The time has come to ask ourselves: should we continue to allow food marketers the ability to influence our children’s choices and palates?
At the end of September, the Senate passed Bill S-228, the Child Health Protection Act, introduced by Conservative Senator Nancy Greene Raine, which seeks to ban the marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to children. On Dec. 12, the bill went to the House of Commons, where it was amended and debated for the first time to ban that marketing for Canadian children under the age of 13. Given that the food industry will likely push back against the bill, it may be helpful to explore the spin that the food industry may use and have wielded in the past to oppose this industry-unfriendly legislation.
Claim: Obesity levels are decreasing, so there’s no need for legislation.
Reality: While it’s true that the Canadian Community Health Survey data show a slight decrease in rates of childhood obesity, that 30.9 per cent of children between the ages of 5 and 17 had excess weight in 2015—compared with 34.3 per cent in 2004—isn’t exactly something worthy of cheer. And weight is not the only concern: Many diseases other than obesity can arise from diet issues, from diabetes to cardiovascular disease and cancer, and kids of every weight benefit from healthier diets.
Claim: The proposed legislation will kill many sports programs for kids across the country, and families who least can afford it will be hit the hardest.
Reality: Although there are means beyond junk food sponsorship and fundraising to support youth sports in Canada, the Health Minister has been clear that kids’ sports sponsorships would be exempt from the regulations.
Claim: The bigger issue is that kids aren’t getting enough activity.
Reality: While activity is crucial to health, when objectively measured in children, studies report that even a tenfold difference doesn’t protect them against the development of obesity. An adolescent would have to run for 50 minutes or walk eight kilometres to burn off the calories found in just one 20-ounce bottle of pop, sports drink or fruit juice.
Claim: Restricting marketing to kids will not solve the obesity crisis.
Reality: No one is suggesting that it will. Complex problems don’t have single, simple solutions, but require a multi-pronged strategy, just as was required to reduce Canada’s smoking rates. Banning the marketing of junk food to children is just one prong of a required many.
Claim: There is no evidence that food marketing is associated with childhood obesity.
Reality: Multiple systematic reviews have shown that food and beverage marketing has been associated with childhood obesity, children’s food intake, food preferences and food requests—and the World Health Organization agrees.
Claim: Legislation prohibiting marketing to kids has not worked, even in Quebec.
Reality: Though causality is unknown, and difficult to measure, Quebec’s 5-to-17 year olds, who have been protected by a law prohibiting marketing to them since 1980, have the lowest obesity rates of kids in Canada. Quebec also has the highest rate of fruit and vegetable intake.
Claim: There is no need for legislation because industry self-regulation is working and advertising to kids has declined.
Reality: On average, Canadian children watch two hours of television per day, and see four to five food-and-beverage advertisements per hour. But it’s the internet where the real marketing happens these days. One recent study found that the 10 most popular websites for children and adolescents collectively served up a staggering 27.5-million food and beverage advertisements to kids between the ages of 2 and 17, with the most frequently advertised products being Pop Tarts, Frosted Flakes, Happy Meals, Lunchables and Red Bull energy drinks.
What our policymakers need to remember is that the food industry is neither friend, nor foe, nor partner—they are simply (and non-maliciously) invested in protecting their profits, not in protecting public health. Let’s hope our government begins to recognize that basic fact.On the 12th of August AD 117, Trajan’s freedman and personal servant, the twenty-eight-year-old Marcus Ulpius Phaedimus, died in Selinus in Cilicia just a few days after his master and within a day of Hadrian receiving the news of Trajan’s death. This coincidence only deepened the mystery surrounding the circumstances of Hadrian’s adoption.
Phaedimus, who had presumably travelled with Trajan throughout the East, was at Selinus with the imperial’s entourage when they were put ashore at the harbour of Selinus due to the worsening health condition of the emperor (see here). A funerary epitaph discovered in modern times in Rome (CIL VI 1884) and now in the Lapidary Gallery of the Vatican Museums, records Phaedimus’ offices as the emperor’s table and wine cabinet chief as well as personal attendant and secretary.
Latin transcript: M(arco) Ulpio Aug(usti) lib(erto) Phaedimo / divi Traiani Aug(usti) a potione / item a laguna et tricliniarch(a) / lictori proximo et a comment(ariis) beneficiorum vixit ann(os) XXVIII / abscessit Selinunte pri(die) Idus Augus(tas) / Nigro et Aproniano co(n)s(ulibus) / reliquiae treiectae eius III Nonas Febr(uarias) ex permissu / collegii pontific(um) piaculo facto / Catullino et Apro co(n)s(ulibus) / dulcissimae memoriae eius / Valens Aug(usti) lib(ertus) Phaedimianus / a veste ben(e) mer(enti) fecit
Translation: To [the memory of] Marcus Ulpius Phaedimus, imperial freedman, sommelier and head butler of the deified Trajan; chief lictor [official attendant of senior Roman officeholders] and secretary for grants and promotions. He lived for twenty-eight years and died at Selinus on August 12 in the consulships of Niger and Apronianus [AD 117]. His remains were removed [to Rome, where the epitaph was found] by permission of the College of Pontiffs after an atonement sacrifice had been made in the consulships of Catullinus and Aper [AD 130].
The epitaph provides us with important information regarding the exact date of Phaedimus’ death which occurred on August 12 in the consulships of Niger and Apronianus, that is to say in the year 117 (see the list of consuls known to have held office in the 2nd century AD here). The inscription also tells us that his remains were brought to Rome twelve years later on 3rd February in the consulships of Catullinus and Aper, in AD 130. His remains were transferred to Rome and buried by his fellow freedman (collibertus) Valens Phaedimianus whose name shows that he had been a slave of Phaedimus before passing into the ownership of the emperor as wardrobe-keeper (veste).
Many questions arise from what we learn on this epitaph. Why did it take twelve years before his body was taken back to Rome? Was it a coincidence that Phaedimus died one day after Hadrian received the announcement of Trajan’s death? Did Phaedimus die of the same infection that killed his master, Trajan? Were they both poisoned? Did he commit suicide out of grief, or was he silenced by Hadrian’s entourage?
These details have encouraged sceptical scholars to support the doubts raised by several ancient writers regarding the authenticity of Hadrian’s adoption by Trajan. Some scholars argued that Phaedimus had learned somehow that Trajan had died without adopting Hadrian or even that he had been assassinated and that the inconvenient witness had therefore been murdered by Plotina and Attianus in case he would say too much.
A more rational explanation suggested that Phaedimus was not killed but, rather, died of the same disease that Trajan contracted in the East. However, it does not explain why his remains were not taken back to Rome until AD 130.
According to the Vatican website, there are two other known exemplars of the epigraph.
Sources & references:
Epitaph of a lictor – Vatican Museums Cat. 6961 (link)
E. Mary Smallwood, Documents Illustrating the Principates of Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian, 176.
Birley, Anthony R. (1997). Hadrian. The restless emperor (p. 80)
Everitt, Anthony (2009). Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome (p. 166-7)Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, has won an appeal against his deportation from Britain, according to the group that invited him to the country.
Mark Ockelton, the vice-president of the UK's Upper Immigration Tribunal, ruled that the government's decision to deport Salah "appears to have been entirely unnecesary", and upheld his deportation appeal, a statement from the Middle East Monitor (MEMO) said on Saturday.
An earlier judgment awarded Salah "damages for wrongful detention" when the Palestinian activist, a citizen of Israel, was arrested outside his London hotel on June 28 last year.
Salah had been in the country on a speaking tour, and stayed on to fight legal cases and appeals against his detention and deportation orders.
Theresa May, the British home secretary, had ordered the arrest and Salah's deportation.
According to MEMO, Salah now plans on returning to Israel.
Previous detentions
The Islamist leader was arrested in London on a ten-day trip to Britain, during which he intended to speak at several events, including a meeting at the House of Commons, the lower house of the parliament of the UK.
He was finally granted bail on July 18 under strict conditions, including that he wear an electronic tag, observe a night-time curfew, report daily to immigration officials and refrain from any public speaking.
The Islamic Movement in Israel is often subjected to surveillance and harassment.
Salah has been detained by Israel on multiple occasions, including most recently at the border with Jordan after allegedly fighting with a soldier during an interrogation. Civilians are often interrogated by Israeli border soldiers.
In 2010, he spent five months behind bars for allegedly spitting at an Israeli policeman.
The father of eight was also held after taking part in the Gaza-bound aid flotilla that Israeli naval commandos stormed on May 31, 2010, killing nine activists in a deadly assault.After a year off the job, the Orlando Police Department has stopped paying one of its officers who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in the aftermath of removing bodies from Pulse nightclub.
The order came to Officer Gerry Realin in a letter dated June 22, 2017, after he used up the allowed amount of interim disability leave, sick and vacation time. Based on advice from his doctor, he did not start a different job at City Hall that had been arranged for him by the department.
“We only have a few hundred dollars to our name,” said Realin’s wife, Jessica. “ … I don’t understand how anyone could do this to a person. Where is ‘Orlando United’ now?”
Gerry Realin, 37, has been out of work since shortly after the June 2016 massacre, which left 49 people dead and dozens more injured.
Last month, the Orlando Police Pension Board asked him to get another medical exam before they decided whether he would receive a disability retirement pension.
Jessica Realin said her husband had the test done, which she says concluded he was permanently disabled.
She said the next pension board meeting is scheduled for mid-July. But ahead of that meeting, the city of Orlando sent her husband a letter, detailing that they would no longer be paying him.
The Orlando Police Department said in a statement to the Orlando Sentinel that it has gone to great lengths to try and help Realin and his family by offering medical treatment and other jobs where he could continue to recover.
“The City of Orlando has supported Officer Realin by insuring that he received full pay through the interim disability committee, whose ability to reimburse officers is limited by policies and procedures, and in Officer Realin’s case, those limits have been met,” the statement reads.
Jessica Realin said their family is in an odd predicament because he wasn’t fired and the board hasn’t given him disability.
She said they were forced to sell some of their belongings to help make ends meet, including their children’s old toys, a television and an old boat.
“We don’t live an extravagant life or need much, but now we’re worried about how we’re gonna put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads,” Jessica Realin said. “It’s just wrong to do this to someone who served this city.”
She said before the shooting, her husband was working off-duty security to help bring in extra money for their family because both of their children, ages 3 and 5, were born prematurely and have lung conditions that require special medications and lead to frequent emergency room visits.
Three bills were introduced in the House and Senate earlier this year that would have helped first responders suffering from PTSD to receive more worker’s comp benefits, but all three died before making it to the floor.
“This is not just about my husband. It’s a shame that anyone should have to go through these lengths to get help after serving and protecting,” she said. “I’m not going to stop pushing and fighting until there is some in legislation to help those with PTSD.”
chayes@orlandosentinel.com, 407-420-5493 or Twitter: @journo_christal
CAPTION The report said OPD policy and procedures were followed, but the protective plan “was not written with an attack of this magnitude in mind.” The report said OPD policy and procedures were followed, but the protective plan “was not written with an attack of this magnitude in mind.” CAPTION The report said OPD policy and procedures were followed, but the protective plan “was not written with an attack of this magnitude in mind.” The report said OPD policy and procedures were followed, but the protective plan “was not written with an attack of this magnitude in mind.” CAPTION The owner of Pulse nightclub, Barbara Poma spoke at a ceremony honoring the 49 people lost in Pulse massacre. The owner of Pulse nightclub, Barbara Poma spoke at a ceremony honoring the 49 people lost in Pulse massacre. CAPTION Barbara Poma, founder of the onePULSE Foundation and former owner of the Pulse nightclub, reflects on the second anniversary of the Pulse massacre, Monday, June 11, 2018. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Barbara Poma, founder of the onePULSE Foundation and former owner of the Pulse nightclub, reflects on the second anniversary of the Pulse massacre, Monday, June 11, 2018. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) CAPTION Pulse related events around Orlando are scheduled Monday and Tuesday to honor the victims of the mass shooting on June 12, 2016. Pulse related events around Orlando are scheduled Monday and Tuesday to honor the victims of the mass shooting on June 12, 2016. CAPTION Two years after a gunman killed 49 people at Orlando's Pulse nightclub, the city has more metal detectors, panic buttons, active-shooter drills, trauma counseling and grief-stricken parents and partners than it did in 2016. But for some, it also has more compassion and progress and purpose. Two years after a gunman killed 49 people at Orlando's Pulse nightclub, the city has more metal detectors, panic buttons, active-shooter drills, trauma counseling and grief-stricken parents and partners than it did in 2016. But for some, it also has more compassion and progress and purpose.GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States, Saudi Arabia, Britain, France and other nations are demanding the U.N. Security Council takes action to ensure aid convoys reach millions of needy Syrians, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
A boy sits near rubble of damaged buildings in Arbin, a town in the Damascus countryside, Syria. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh
In a rebuke to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies Russia and Iran, the letter signed by 14 heads of mission in Geneva raised “serious concerns” about the implementation of seven Security Council resolutions on humanitarian access.
“We remain extremely concerned that the United Nations is being excluded from sending humanitarian convoys to besieged and hard-to-reach areas inside Syria,” said the letter, dated July 24 and addressed to the Security Council President, Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi.
“The trend has worsened significantly in recent months,” the signatories said, adding that since April only two U.N.-supported convoys had been able to access territory besieged by forces loyal to Assad.
Nobody at the Syrian mission in Geneva responded to phone calls and an emailed request for comment on the letter, an apparent expression of frustration at the U.N. process of trying to get aid into Syria.
But a Russian diplomat said the letter was uncalled for and unexpected, and that the issue should have been raised discreetly via the office of the U.N. envoy to Syria.
“We consider this as a provocative move that will not help the humanitarian situation in Syria,” the diplomat said. “The situation is not a happy one but it’s not as dire as some countries want to portray it.”
U.N. humanitarian spokesman Jens Laerke said the U.N. was aware of the letter but had not officially received it.
Although the violence in Syria has fallen off since Russia, Iran and Turkey launched a plan for de-escalation zones in May, the lessening in fighting has not translated into more aid deliveries.
The United Nations says 540,000 people in 11 locations are still besieged, mostly by Assad’s forces, while 4 million Syrians are hard to reach with aid. Only six “hard-to-reach” areas had received aid since April.
“Although these represent important deliveries for the hundreds of thousands who received critical aid, it falls far short of what the U.N. has requested and is capable of and ready to deliver,” Laerke said.
Forces loyal to Assad have taken over several besieged zones this year after cutting off their food supplies for months.
Many people trapped in such sieges have been evicted, often going to the northwestern province of Idlib, which this week fell under the control of Hayat Tahrir al Sham, a jihadist alliance led by al Qaeda’s former Syrian branch.
The United Nations has frequently called on “all parties” to respect humanitarian law and to allow aid access, but its pleas tend to focus on the suffering of civilians, without naming and shaming any specific warring side.
The letter quoted Council resolution 2139, from February 2014, which urged the Syrian authorities in particular to allow “rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access” for aid convoys, and promised the Council would “take further steps in the case of non-compliance”.
It is likely to come up for discussion on Thursday when the Security Council holds a scheduled meeting on Syrian aid, and when countries with influence in the six-year Syrian conflict meet in Geneva to discuss the humanitarian situation.
The letter’s signatories also include Turkey, Qatar, Japan, Australia, the European Union, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Canada and Italy.
They do not include Russia or China, veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council which have frequently blocked resolutions that sought to condemn Assad.
The signatories asked Liu “to raise urgently this vital issue” at the next U.N. Security Council meeting, recalling the Council’s 2014 resolution which said it would “take further steps in the case of non-compliance”.While online shopping is taking its toll on department stores, Army & Navy isn’t planning to throw in the white towel anytime soon.
Army and Navy’s New Westminster location is set to reopen on Friday, Oct. 20, after being closed for nearly three months after a small fire in its upstairs office.
“The sprinklers went off and the water ran everywhere through the walls and through the floors, so it has been completely restored and renovated. It’s very exciting, I’m very excited,” said Jacqui Cohen, CEO and president of Army & Navy Department Stores. “Nobody goes out to say ‘I’d love to have a fire happen so I can renovate my store’, but when something happens that’s out of your control, you try and make grape juice out of lemons. That’s what we did.”
Sam Cohen opened his first Army & Navy store in Vancouver in 1919, with a store in New Westminster opening in 1939. A year after Eaton’s closed its store at 502 Columbia St. in 1977, Army & Navy relocated to the space and has remained there ever since.
“There’s lot of beautiful things about it but it needed some renovations,” Cohen said about the 1948/49 building. “We didn’t renovate the structure. We restored the structure, but hopefully when you come you’ll go, ‘Wow, it looks amazing.’ It’s got a fresh, new look.”
Through the decades, New Westminster has been home to many department stores including Eaton’s, Woodward’s and Zellers, all of which have closed their doors. Last week, Sears Canada became the latest casualty in Canadian retail when an Ontario court approved its request to liquidate and close all of its remaining stores in Canada.
“I have such pride in the business that my grandfather Sam created nearly 100 years ago, and in re-opening our New West location, I am continuing our family legacy,” Cohen said. “Despite the challenging retail and online environment, we are determined to retain ‘bricks and mortar’ in a community we have proudly served and that has been good to us for so many years.”
Cohen hopes the community will welcome Army & Navy back to New West with open arms when it reopens this week.
“How many people are going online to Amazon for their Christmas shopping? But you know what? I am committed to the Army & Navy,” she told the Record about the company that has five locations in Western Canada. “I love my family history. I love the fact that I am reopening on Friday. I think that the most interesting thing, if I may say, is I am still investing in retail when everybody else isn’t. Sears and all these companies are just throwing in the white flag, saying ‘I can’t do it, I can’t compete.' I am very proud of our niche.”
Sam Cohen started Army & Navy back in 1919 by selling liquidated stock and surplus goods from the First World War, including 3,178 army boots. His granddaughter was recently reading a document dating back to the opening of the New Westminster location – a document that’s inspired some of the deals shoppers will find when the store reopens on Friday.
“I want to duplicate those prices from those bygone days,” she said. “Obviously, those quantities aren’t there forever, but they are there long enough to hopefully get people to go, ‘Holy smokes.’”
Along with bargains like kids socks and ladies underwear for 10 cents and pillows for 99 cents, the store will have contests and free giveaways all weekend long.
Kendra Johnston, executive director of the Downtown New Westminster Business Improvement Association, is pleased to see the store reopen.
“Army & Navy is a valued and integral part of downtown New West’s history, and its recent temporary closure only reminded us of how important they are to our business community,” she said. “Army & Navy goes beyond being a retail store, but rather a brand that has been a fixture for almost three-quarters of a century within the hub of Western Canada’s oldest city. Downtown New Westminster has seen quite the evolution, and having entered a new era of revitalization in recent years, we look forward to continuing to work with Army & Navy as a valued community partner in that revitalization.”
And just how does Army & Navy fit into the changes taking place in downtown New West?
“Today, we are still the Army & Navy department store. I don’t know what the future holds, to be honest with you. As of today and for the next few years, we are running our department store in that location,” Cohen said. “I am well aware of the prime real estate that my stores occupy, not just in New Westminster but certainly in the Downtown Eastside, as well as Edmonton on Whyte Avenue and in Calgary. I am very lucky that my grandfather had such vision. In the meantime, I’m in retail. It’s business as usual.”
article continues belowIn This Episode
How they each ended up living abroad
How they met and started traveling together years later
Buying their van
Taking their work online
Doing trades while they travel
Getting sponsors for their travels/blog
Learning to live together 24/7
And much more
Most Memorable Location-Independent Experiences
So many. We stayed with an Italian circus for a week. We visited the ‘Grand Canyon’ of Europe in Sicily. We’ve been adopted by: a Lithuanian couple, a Portuguese couple, and a Moroccan dog. Grin. Meteora, Greece, was an especially spiritual experience. Morocco for three months was a mix of beautiful countryside and difficult culture. Romania was amazing, pretty much all of it. It’s really hard to say just one.
Biggest Surprise along the Way
How people react to us living in a van full-time, saying either: “Where do you really live/are you homeless?” or “Wow, you’re living the dream. I wish I could do the same.” We weren’t prepared for any reactions about our method of travel.
Resources We Talked About
CELTA English language teaching qualification
PeoplePerHour.com
Upwork.com
swarmcontent
Mel and Armando’s Links
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Ella, my 13-year-old daughter, is sleeping in the bed next to me like only a teenager could sleep, so deep only an earthquake could break it, and she deserves it; last night she was sleeping on El Cap, having climbed Tangerine Trip over four hard days and nights. If there’s any teenager on the planet who deserves to sleep in today, it’s Ella.
I’m sure for everyone who thinks it’s amazing that someone so young could find the strength to climb El Cap, there will be those that will be appalled that a father would risk his child’s life in such a way. To be honest, I find myself seeing it from both sides, and this adventure has been one of considerable soul searching and stress, as well as laughter and moments that made me want to cry with joy.
I guess I should start at the beginning.
For many years I’ve brought my kids Ella and Ewen along to my slideshows, as well as events like the Kendal Mountain Film festival. They’ve sat through dozens of talks, sometimes even laying on the stage at my feet, chuckling away. At first, I felt a bit uneasy, after all, do I want my kids listening to all these tales of daring do? But climbing and the rewards and risks of that life make me who I am, and the lessons it has taught me are lessons I’ve tried to pass on to my kids. Adventure is in my DNA, and so it’s in theirs also, and so they should see what I get up to when I’m away, and understand both the risks and rewards of striving for impossible things.
I’ve never been a pushy climbing parent and always wanted to leave it up to them to decide how to explore the boundaries of themselves, exposing them to wilderness and danger the way my dad did, giving the impression of both while keeping them on a short leash.
One question that kept coming up at talks was “When are you going to climb El Cap with your kids?” to which I’d reply “Oh not until Ella’s 13”, thinking the youngest girl to climb El Cap was that age (turns out she was 14!). This always got a laugh, mainly because it was obviously a crazy idea. Then Ella turned 13, and she asked the question “so dad, when are we going to climb El Cap?”.
My first reaction was “Why not?” Having climbed it nearly twenty times (soloed it three times, climbed it in 18 hours, spent 11 days doing its hardest route, and almost two months hanging from it), I thought I knew enough to keep her safe. Also having climbed it with two people with disabilities (Karen Darke and Phil Packer) I also understood just what was possible. When you’ve seen a woman do four thousand pull ups, and use only her arms (and nerve) to climb El Cap, you know it would be easier for a 13-year-old - well physically at least.
And so I said “maybe we’ll go in the spring holidays next year” having no real plans to plan on doing so.
But Ella is persistent, and now when we went climbing she would want to learn how to jumar, how to abseil, ask me how she would go to the toilet ‘when we’ (not ‘if we’) climbed El Cap.
Very soon her mum (my long suffering ex-wife) said “What’s this about Ella climbing El Cap?”, to which I replied, “oh it’s just a phase - she’ll soon forget about it”, thinking at 13 she’d soon be thinking more about boys than big walls.
But like most adults, I underestimated my child.
She had made it her goal to climb El Cap, and I realised to let her down was something I couldn’t do. I had to make it happen, no matter what it took.
The first person to be convinced was Mandy, Ella’s mum. I left this up to Ella to negotiate, knowing full well the persistence of a child is the greatest force in nature to change adult minds! The answer was a yes - but only on the conditions she would be safe, and that my mate Paul Tattersall was there - the only climber Mandy trusted. Paul agreed to come if I could cover the cost of the trip and so with much reluctance Mandy gave Ella her blessing.
In life, if you set out with the purpose of doing something amazing you invariably find that circumstance will lend a hand (I’ve always lived by that motto “Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid”). The first thing was a talented film maker called Ian Burton got in touch with an idea for a TV program about climbing El Cap with an ex Royal Marine sniper named Aldo Kane, seeing how someone like that (a trained killer!) would get on on a wall. “How about we took Ella along as well?” |
following among members of later bands like R.E.M. and the Replacements who expressed esteem for the group's work. Many bands who were primarily influenced by Big Star blended power pop with the ethos and sounds of alternative rock. AllMusic cited Teenage Fanclub, Material Issue, and the Posies as "critical and cult favorites".[2]
In 1991, The Los Angeles Times' Chris Willman identified Jellyfish, the Posies, and Redd Kross as the leaders of a "new wave of rambunctious Power Pop bands that recall the days when moptops were geniuses, songs were around three minutes long and a great hook--a catchy melodic phrase that "hooks" the listener—was godhead."[41] Members of Jellyfish and Posies said that they were drawn to 1960s artists because of the 1980s music they influenced. At the time, it was uncertain whether the movement could have mainstream success. Karen Glauber, editor of Hits magazine, said that "The popular conception is that these bands are'retro,' or not post-modern enough because they're not grunge and because the Posies are from Seattle and don't sound like Mudhoney."[41]
Velvet Crush's Ric Menck credited Nirvana with ultimately making it "possible for people like Matthew [Sweet] and the Posies and Material Issue and, to some extent, us to get college radio play."[15] As power pop "gained the attention of hip circles", many older bands reformed to record new material that was released on independent labels. Chicago label Numeru Uno issued a series of albums called Yellow Pills that compiled new tracks by these groups as well as contemporary bands. For the rest of decade, AllMusic writes, "this group of independent, grass-roots power-pop bands gained a small but dedicated cult following in the United States."[2]
1990s–present: Festival bills Edit
In 1997, International Pop Overthrow (IPO)—named after the song of the same name by Material Issue—began holding a yearly festival for power pop bands. Originally taking place in Los Angeles, the festival expanded to several locations over the years, including Canada and Liverpool, England (the latter event included performances at the re-created Cavern Club). In 2002, Ric Menck of the band Velvet Crush criticized the festival's bands as "so bad. There's no vision, no passion, no nothing. That, to me, is offensive. I resent the International Pop Overthrow. It's the same 1,000 people who get together every year to celebrate each other. It's like a Dr. Who convention."[15] Dennis Davison of the Jigsaw Seen referenced the festival as proof that "there are more power-pop bands around now than ever... But they've been watered down like dishwater. These are midlife-crisis, bedroom bands by 40-year-old guys who just fantasized about being in a band before technology allowed them to record at home."[15]
Paul Collins of the Beat and the Nerves hosted the Power Pop-A-Licious music festival in 2011 and 2013, featuring a mixture of classic and rising bands with an emphasis on power pop, punk rock, garage and roots rock. The concerts were held at Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, New Jersey and the Cake Shop in New York City. Paul Collins and his group the Beat headlined the two-day events.[43]As Donald Trump’s health secretary fended off questions about whether the president is too distracted by Twitter to focus on healthcare reform, the White House’s top legislative liaison official said the Senate was “getting close” to agreement on a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement.
Trump wrestling body-slam tweet 'encourages violence against reporters', CNN says Read more
Marc Short, the White House legislative affairs director, told Fox News Sunday Trump was spending the weekend making calls to lawmakers to “get the Senate package across the finish line”.
As Short spoke, Trump sparked a war of words in the media by tweeting a video, apparently taken from Reddit, of himself body-slamming a man with a CNN logo for a head, with the message: “#FraudNewsCNN #FNN”.
On NBC’s Meet the Press, the health and human services secretary, Tom Price, was asked if the president’s tweeting was getting in the way of the legislative effort.
“The fact of the matter is that he can do more than one thing at a time,” Price said, in a tense interview in which he also refused to comment on the president’s tweeted abuse of MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski.
“The president’s held multiple meetings within the White House itself,” Price added, “with physicians, with small-business groups, with other folks who have been harmed by Obamacare, with patients, individual stakeholders from across this land who tell him and have told us repeatedly that the current system is collapsing. And that’s what the president talks about.”
The Senate healthcare bill did not reach a vote this week, after conservative and moderate senators signalled their opposition, in the face of intense pressure from constituents and after a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score that said 22m Americans would be without health insurance by 2026 if the bill was passed.
In May, the CBO said the House version of healthcare reform, which was squeezed through the lower chamber and celebrated in the White House rose garden, would leave 23 million people without insurance in the same timeframe.
Short told Fox News Sunday the CBO now has two versions of the bill to score. The Texas senator Ted Cruz is pushing a conservative version that aims to aggressively reduce costs while the other version of the bill could bolster healthcare subsidies for lower-income people.
America's broken healthcare system – in one simple chart Read more
He also said: “CBO credibility should be certainly … be questioned at this point.” Senate Republicans have also been increasing political pressure on the CBO, a tack also followed by Price.
Short said the White House hoped to pass a repeal-and-replace bill. But he reiterated that Trump believes Republicans should consider an option of immediately repealing the ACA and replacing it later, if senators cannot reach agreement.
Trump suggested repeal without an immediate replacement in a tweet on Friday – an action that would break a key campaign promise. He also insisted this week that he is engaged with healthcare policy and knows and understands the details of the Senate bill.
“Some of the Fake News Media likes to say that I am not totally engaged in healthcare,” the president tweeted on Wednesday. “Wrong, I know the subject well & want victory for US.”A writer who worked for Richard Dreyfuss on a TV comedy special in the 1980s said he sexually harassed her for years and exposed himself to her in a studio lot trailer.
Jessica Teich told the New York magazine blog Vulture.com that the actor made continual, overt and lewd comments and invitations after they met at a theatre where she worked and Dreyfuss appeared.
READ MORE: Richard Dreyfuss’ son says Kevin Spacey groped him in 2008
Dreyfuss agent Barry McPherson on Saturday denied the actor ever exposed himself to Teich but that he acknowledged to Vulture other encounters Dreyfuss now realizes were inappropriate.
The revelations were among fresh developments in the sexual harassment scandal that has rolled through Hollywood and other industries.
WATCH: Former TV anchor says Kevin Spacey sexually assaulted her son
In 1987, when Teich was working for Dreyfuss on development of an ABC show script, she said she was summoned to his trailer on the set of one of his films and he exposed his genitals to her.
Dreyfuss said he thought the two were involved in a playful “consensual seduction ritual.” He told Vulture that he flirted with Teich but is now “horrified and bewildered to discover that it wasn’t consensual.”
READ MORE: Ellen Page accuses Brett Ratner of sexual harassment on ‘X-Men’ set
Teich said she decided to speak out after Dreyfuss tweeted support for his son, Harry, after the younger Dreyfuss went public with accusations that Kevin Spacey groped his crotch when he was 18.Profiling of killers has no real-world value, wastes police time and risks bringing the profession into disrepute, experts say
Murder inquiries may be misled or delayed by psychologists who see themselves as real-life Crackers, researchers claim.
Police forces routinely ask behavioural scientists to draw up profiles of killers who are still at large, based on a knowledge of the victim and details recorded at the crime scene.
But according to a team of psychologists at Birmingham City University, the practice of offender profiling is deeply unscientific and risks bringing the field into disrepute.
In many cases, offender profiles are so vague as to be meaningless, according to psychologist Craig Jackson. At best, they have little impact on murder investigations; at worst they risk misleading investigators and waste police time, he said.
The Home Office holds a register of psychologists and other professionals who are qualified to give offender profiles to police forces after reviewing details of a crime.
"Behavioural profiling has never led to the direct apprehension of a serial killer, a murderer, or a spree killer, so it seems to have no real-world value," Jackson said.
"It is given too much credibility as a scientific discipline. This is a serious issue that psychologists and behavioural scientists need to address," he said. "People believe psychologists like 'Cracker' can exist." In the 1990s television series, police apprehended criminals with help from an overweight, chain-smoking alcoholic psychologist.
A report criticising offender profiling by Jackson and two colleagues will be published in the legal journal, Amicus, next month. He will describe his research at the British Science Festival in Birmingham this week.
Behavioural profiling became popular in the US in the 1970s when psychologists working with the FBI used questionnaires to interview 36 imprisoned serial killers. Their responses were used as a basis for drawing up profiles of future murderers.
Research since then has found that serial killers are unreliable interviewees, a realisation that undermines the foundations behavioural profiling was built on, Jackson claims.
The questionable nature of killers' testimonies was raised by John Bennett, senior investigating officer on the Fred West case in the mid-1990s. He noted that his interviews with West were "worthless, except to confirm that nothing he said could be relied upon as anything near the truth". In one exchange, West claimed he was a roadie with Lulu in the 1960s.
Behavioural scientists rarely have a major influence on the direction of murder inquiries, but Jackson said investigators can come under pressure to consult them to appease the media and victims' families.
Jackson quoted one behavioural scientist as saying he "climbs inside the minds of monsters" and "takes the expression frozen on the face of a murder victim and works backwards".
"They bring themselves forward as if they are shamans who are cursed by nightmares and picturing dead people," Jackson said.
Carol Ireland, vice chair of forensic psychology at the British Psychological Society, said offender profiling is not widely practised by forensic psychologists.
"Whatever we are doing as forensic psychologists, it should be based in science and theory. If it's not then we need to explore what we are doing. Ultimately we are scientist-practitioners," she said.
Offender profiling was first used in the UK in 1986, when psychologist David Canter drew up a description of the "Railway Rapist" and serial killer John Duffy. Canter, whose research centres on ways to make profiling more scientific, has contributed to more than 150 investigations.Muslim Rebels Murder 6 Christians in Door-To-Door Raid in Central African Republic
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Muslim rebels in the Central African Republic raided a predominantly Christian village and killed six people in a door-to-door attack last Friday.
According to a source who spoke with the nonprofit organization Morning Star News, militants from Séléka alliance of rebel militias stormed the village of Ndomete, which lies about 220 miles north of the CAR capital of Bangui, around 8 p.m. last Friday.
The source, speaking anonymously from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, explained that the militants went house-to-house to massacre Christians.
Morning Star News, a donor-funded organization dedicated to exclusively reporting on the persecution of Christians, reports that the massacre in Ndomete comes as fighting between the Séléka and Christian militias has increased in the past year.
However, all those killed in Ndomete on Friday were civilians.
While it was originally reported by Reuters and other news organizations including The Christian Post that 26 people were killed last Friday in what was believed to be the deadliest attack that the CAR has witnessed in months, the total number of victims killed was six, according to Herve Verhoosel, the Director of Public Information and Communications at MINUSCA.
Armed conflict between Muslim Séléka militants and anti-Balaka Christian militias also started up on Friday in Ndomete and eventually spread to the nearby town of Kaga-Bandoro.
The U.N.'s peacekeeping mission MINUSCA, which is mandated to protect civilians and support the transition process in CAR, sent troops to the area to separate the two rival militia groups.
"[We call] on Kaga Bandoro's communities to remain calm and affirm [our] right to take appropriate measures to prevent destabilization of the situation, protect civilians in line with [our] mandate, and ensure the country's territorial integrity," MINUSCA stated in a statement on Saturday.
According to MINUSCA, about six civilians were killed as a result of the sectarian clashes between the two rival rebel groups, but added that it has stepped up patrols in the area in order to protect civilians.
"MINUSCA regrets the loss of human life and the wounded that were recorded and also denounces attacks against the humanitarian community and United Nations personnel," the MINUSCA statement reads.
According to Open Doors USA's World Watch List, CAR ranks as the 26th worst nation in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians.
Since Christians comprise about 3.1 million of the countries 4.92 million, Christianity is the predominant religion in the country. Even though the Séléka groups have largely been driven out of the country since they overthrew the government and seized power, Open Doors reports that there are still challenges that remain.
"In Bangui, a growing group of radical Muslims continues to keep a stronghold in the PK5 enclave, where they reign by terror," an Open Doors fact sheet on CAR states. "In the northeast, which is mainly populated by Muslims, Christians are forced to flee from their villages and are denied access to farming fields. Large groups of Christians live in extremely poor conditions in refugee camps."
Correction: An earlier version of this story reported that 26 people were killed last Friday in what was believed to be the deadliest attack that the CAR has witnessed in months. The total number of victims killed was six, according to Herve Verhoosel, the Director of Public Information and Communications at MINUSCA.Opposition leader Ayman Nour has attacked the ruling regime after he was barred from traveling to the United States, where he was invited to speak about Egypt's political climate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
Nour and a number of Egyptian politicians, including Gamal Mubarak -- a top official in the ruling National Democratic Party and the son of President Hosni Mubarak -- were invited to the Carnegie event. Nour said he is convinced that his travel ban was intended to prevent anti-government figures from spoiling Gamal Mubarak's trip.
"Mubarak's son wants the lion's share of the Egyptian political sphere, whether that is inside or outside the country," Nour said. "But I will not give him such pleasure, and I will take part in the Carnegie seminar through video conferences."
The founder and former head of El Ghad opposition party, who was also planning to take part in a number of conferences organized by the Egyptian community in the U.S., previously said that the Egyptian public prosecutor had issued an administrative decision preventing him from going to the U.S. and other nations in the Middle East and Europe.
Gamal Mubarak is being groomed to succeed his father, a scenario resented by many Egyptians who have suffered under the government's economic programs and repressive human-rights policies and don’t want a Mubarak dynasty. Nour and fellow opposition activists and parties recently formed a coalition under the slogan Mayehkomsh ("You don't have the right to rule"), rejecting any succession plan.
After losing to Hosni Mubarak in Egypt's first contested elections in 2005, Nour was sentenced to five years in prison on what are widely regarded as trumped-up charges of forging signatures in order to establish El Ghad party. He was released on health grounds in February and since then has only been allowed to leave the country to receive healthcare abroad.
Nour, who has been touring Egyptian cities to interact with citizens and demonstrate his political vision over the last few months, can't run in the 2011 presidential elections because of his earlier conviction.
-- Amro Hassan in Cairo
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A beach walker threw a stone for his dog to fetch - only to discover that it was a live wartime GRENADE.
The man picked up the barnacle-encrusted "stone" for his pet to chase along the sands without realising it was deadly World War 2 explosive.
In an incredible stroke of luck, an off-duty military explosive expert also on the seafront at Dovercourt, near Harwich, Essex recognised the dog's new "toy" and immediately raised the alarm.
A 100-foot cordon was hastily put up by police around the grenade as a bomb disposal team rushed to the scene.
It is the fifth World War 2 hand grenade that has been washed up on the same beach over the last five weeks.
Yesterday, another similar grenade was discovered less than a quarter of a mile away.
Inspector Paul Butcher of Essex Police said: "Anyone who finds a grenade should on no account touch it but call the police immediately.
"We think the grenades may have been in a crate that ended up in the sea during World War Two and that it might now be breaking up or has been disturbed by dredging work in the area.
"The result is that these five devices have all been washed ashore on the same stretch of the bay so we are asking people to be vigilant if they go onto the beach and dial 999 if they find any of these devices.
"Some have been covered in barnacles but the one found on Saturday looked almost like new despite the fact it had been in the sea for many years."
All the grenades have been taken away by the Army's Explosive Ordnance team and destroyed in controlled explosions on the beach.Photo
Yesterday I mentioned the phenomenon of austerity airbrushing — the way people who made pro-austerity arguments that have been refuted by events now claim that they said something quite different from what they did, in fact, say. There’s a comparable development when it comes to health reform — except that this is even more amazing, because it depends on observers forgetting what the debate looked like in the very recent past.
Thus, Jonathan Chait has some fun with the very thin-skinned Cliff Asness, who claims that it was “never in dispute” that Obamacare would increase the number of Americans with health insurance. Hmmm:
Photo
As Brad DeLong likes to say, I’ll stop calling these people Orwellian when they stop using 1984 as an operations manual. Although in these cases I suspect that we’re really talking about a pathetic level of self-delusion.Historians have pored over the remains and mystery of King Tut since the discovery of the long-deceased Egyptian Pharaoh in 1922, and a fresh theory sheds new light on why the ancient ruler was laid to rest in an unusual manner. In unscientific terms, Tut — short for Tutankhamun — was mummified with an erection, something American University in Cairo Egyptologist Salima Ikram now suggests was to let the dead ruler continue a religious campaign against his father.
Playing a god after death
The two men had separate ideologies about the worship of gods, notes Live Science. Tut's father tried to do away with the worship of any gods, instead choosing Aten, the so-called disk of the sun. A new possibility, says Ikram, was to bury Tutankhamun as Osiris (Egypt's god of the underworld), so that he could continue the effort in the afterlife. Other oddities of Tut's mummification included the dark oils that were put on the body, along with the removal of the heart.
The physical peculiarity continues to be notable given that no other mummies have been found with a similar burial procedure, Ikram says. For Tut though, it's just the latest attention on the unlikely area. His penis was discovered missing in the late 1960s, then rediscovered nearby the burial site. There was also separate research in 2010 suggesting Tut suffered a physical ailment that gave sufferers abnormally longer skulls, and smaller-than-usual you-know-whats.Bill Kreutzmann recently wrote a memoir along with co-author Benjy Eisen documenting his long, strange trip with the Grateful Dead. In it, he discusses today’s jam band scene and the many Dead offshoots that keep the spirit of the band alive like Phish and the Disco Biscuits. Read more in this quote from Deal: My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams, and Drugs with the Grateful Dead.
Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart Join The Disco Biscuits At Red Rocks
“The Disco Biscuits were early pioneers of music known as live-tronica (or jamtronica). Whatever you want to call it, it evolved out of the jam band scene. And that brings up a really good point: People often say that the Grateful Dead started the whole jam band movement and that our music remains influential, even today. No other band has managed to sound exactly like us, although plenty have tried… to sound EXACTLY like us, I mean. There have been a plethora of tribute bands – perhaps too many – and then, too, a lion’s den of copy cat bands.
“That’s a huge compliment and I’m respectful of that aspect, but it doesn’t make me especially feel proud, because those bands don’t really honor the true spirit of the Grateful Dead. The true spirit has more to do with innovation, experimentation, risk – and whole-band improvisation – than it does with a particular guitar sound, or having two drummers and a bassist that doesn’t play a repeating pattern. It’s bands like Phish and the Disco Biscuits that really make me proud of what the Grateful Dead did, because they keep our spirit alive by taking what we created and doing their own thing with it. If people insist that we were the forefathers, well then the kids have all grown up and moved out and given birth to babies of their own. Music should never be stagnant.”
Purchase the book here!A New York City gossip reporter revealed herself today to be the woman behind 300 Sandwiches, a food blog she started because her boyfriend once told her that if she made him 300 sandwiches, he'd buy her an engagement ring. So why isn't this already a terrible straight-to-Blockbuster movie starring overgrown Disney Channel stars? Probably because a movie about Stephanie Smith's arrangement with her boyfriend sounds — how do I put this gently — like a bit of a shit sandwich.
Stephanie Smith's attempts to pass her boyfriends demands as somehow cute, like a big-eyed puppy in a vest scratching the door to go outside, only serve to make her situation sound worse. Here's Smith explaining, in her own words, the adorawful way the 300 Sandwiches Sammiches project came about.
Each morning, he would ask, “Honey, how long you have been awake?” “About 15 minutes,” I’d reply. “You’ve been up for 15 minutes and you haven’t made me a sandwich?” To him, sandwiches are like kisses or hugs. Or sex. “Sandwiches are love,” he says. “Especially when you make them. You can’t get a sandwich with love from the deli.”
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"You've been up for 15 minutes and you haven't made me a sandwich?" is bound to go down in history as one of the great lines of romantic prose. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? I don't know, can the summer's day make me a fucking sandwich?
But maybe I'm rushing to judgment. Maybe things get better as the article progresses (spoiler alert: things will not). Take it away, Ms. Smith:
Eric devoured the sandwich as if it were a five-star meal, diving in with large, eager bites. “Babes, this is delicious!” he exclaimed. As he finished that last bite, he made an unexpected declaration of how much he loved me and that sandwich: “Honey, you’re 300 sandwiches away from an engagement ring!” I paused. Was our happily ever after as simple as making him a few sandwiches?
This is the exact plot of that controversial unaired episode of Sex and the City when Samantha talks the gals into getting that hot new designer lobotomy and Charlotte somehow ends up with a MacArthur Genius Grant and Carrie becomes a Scientologist before they convince Big to get their brain parts back.
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So, to fast forward through more of Stephanie Smith trying to pass off a guy who sounds like a less funny MegaDick version of Daniel Tosh as her Prince Charming, we get to the whole reason Smith wanted an engagement ring in the first place: Because It's Time. Because if you don't get married, even if you're happily partnered with a sandwich-obsessed douchebag, when you turn 40 you collapse in on your own barren womb and form a pulsating spinster star from which not even light can escape.
Ten sandwiches or so in, I did the math. Three sandwiches a week, times four weeks a month, times 12 months a year, meant I wouldn’t be done until I was deep into my 30s. How would I finish 300 sandwiches in time for us to get engaged, married and have babies before I exited my childbearing years? My mother was the voice of reason. “Relationships are a marathon, not a sprint,” she said. “Take it one sandwich at a time.” I made sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. I made sandwiches to get myself out of the doghouse — like No. 67, a scrambled egg, smoked salmon and chive creation that combined some of Eric’s favorite things to make up for my being 45 minutes late for dinner the night before.
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Hurry, hurry, hurry! Must rush to be impregnated with the seed of a man who uses the word "Babes" as a pet name! Must pop out babies that are half you half him! The world needs more of that guy! Make copies of yourselves! Make so many copies!
Despite her embarrassing efforts, Smith isn't quite there yet; her piece is called "I'm 124 sandwiches away from an engagement ring!" and the whole thing reads like it's written in the voice of a realtor headshot. Everything's great! Everything's so great!
Today, I’ve made and blogged about 176 sandwiches. Over the months, my creations have grown more complex — lobster rolls, bánh mìs, pulled pork. No matter what’s on the menu, Eric smiles and says thank you. He’s just happy I cook for him at all. “You women read all these magazines to get advice on how to keep a man, and it’s so easy,” he says. “We’re not complex. Just do something nice for us. Like make a sandwich.”
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That settles it. Eric, spokesperson for men everywhere, has declared it: all women have needed to do this whole time is make sandwiches. Every magazine that you gals like to read can go ahead and close up shop; MEN HAVE BEEN SOLVED BY ERIC THE SANDWICH WHORE.
Even though we now know, collectively as a Lady Monolith, how to please men, collectively as a Man Monolith, a few loose ends were left untied in Smith's piece. Namely: how complicated a sandwich are we talking here? Would Eric still light up Stephanie's ring finger if she just half assed the last 124 sandwiches by making him a pile of peanut butter on folded bread monstrosities? What is the minimum number of ingredients required for Eric to count it as 1/300th an engagement ring? Are there any substitutions for sandwichmaking? What's the sandwich-to-blowjob conversion rate (my boss suggested that 1 BJ is worth 2 4-or-more-ingredient sandwiches; I'm inclined to agree)?
But I'm optimistic that these two crazy kids can make it work. After all, if a relationship between two thirtysomethings can't thrive on a combination of desperation and entitlement, then what hope do any of the rest of us have?
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(Final sandwich suggestion: 2 slices of sourdough bread with a positive pregnancy test in the middle.)
[NYPost]by Judith Curry
When did the EPA become our Nation’s energy regulator? When did the EPA acquire both the statutory mandate from Congress and the required subject-matter expertise to do FERC’s and the States’ jobs? When did the EPA gain the expertise to determine the optimal and most reliable mix of coal and natural gas power plants? When did the EPA acquire the expertise to determine how much power can (or should) be reliably generated using wind farms and solar arrays? – Forbes
A good overview article on the issue of EPA overreach is this recent article in Forbes: EPA’s Dangerous Desire to Become America’s Energy Regulator.
Richard Epstein on the Clean Power Plan
The focus of this post is the legal authority of the EPA to promulgate the Clean Power Plan. Specifically, the perspectives of libertarian legal scholar Richard Epstein. For the reader’s digest version, Epstein has written two recent short articles on the topic:
Excerpts:
The issues are complex and their resolution depends in large measure on understanding the ways in which the EPA’s CPP (Clean Coal Plan) exercises its power.
The nub of the difficulty here is this: traditionally, the Clean Air Act pays homage to federalism by having the EPA set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQs), leaving it to the states to figure out how best to meet the national target in pollution control while knowing that the federal government can override them with its own FIP (Federal Implementation Plan) if the plan is not regarded as sufficient.
The big difference with the CPP plan is that it takes these BSERs (‘best system of emissions reduction’) the next level by announcing that plans should address four discrete “blocks” of issues that include modification of facilities but go beyond that to cover substitution of both natural gas and renewable energy for coal, and to taking measures to reduce the demand for energy within the state.
It is one thing to let the EPA specify the best technology for controlling pollution from a given source. It is quite another to allow it to venture into regulating the transmission and consumption of electrical power, especially since the first of these tasks is governed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, which normally leaves these issues to state control. This peculiar jurisdictional line up means that the FIP may not be able to incorporate any of the last three approaches that the EPA wants to be included in SIPs (State Implementation Plans), at which point slashing carbon dioxide output from coal plants could require wholesale plant closings under the as-yet-stated FIP which may only be able to attack facility emissions directly.
The question is just how much discretion should the EPA have in making decisions that could cost individual states and firms billions, especially since it appears that its direct regulatory authority to implement on its own only direct regulation of emissions from designated facilities. It looks therefore that the threat of very heavy direct cuts in output could be used to lever states to make alterations in local policy that the EPA is powerless to impose under its own authority. At this point, the crafty game of extending powers through threats does give rise to a serious constitutional challenge, as the EPA seeks to implement indirectly measures that it could not impose directly.
Even if the end of pollution control is manifestly legitimate, the choice of means should be subject to higher levels of review than are often applied today. More concretely, the ability to set wildly different targets for different states opens up the real possibility that the EPA could help its political friends and hurt its political enemies. They should ratchet up their scrutiny of individual EPA determinations on carbon dioxide to see if they bear any relationship to sensible pollution control strategies, which on balance they do not.
At this point, the legal survival of the EPA’s CPP is anyone’s guess. Much will depend on the EPA’s own guidance documents about FIPs, which should come down this summer. But it is dangerous business to let the EPA take the coal industry hostage by this set of aggressive maneuvers. The Supreme Court’s initial wrong was Massachusetts v. EPA, which wrongly held that carbon dioxide counted as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.
The simple point is that carbon dioxide raises unique issues that cannot be sensibly addressed within the basic Clean Air Act framework, which is why Congress should now legislate to take this confused matter out of the EPA’s hands. A key element is to develop a constructive national scheme that first updates the EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding on carbon dioxide, and then looks for a more even-handed regulatory scheme that does not hold an enormous dagger over the entire coal industry.
Epstein has penned an earlier article The EPA Gets High on Greenhouse Gases, which provides additional perspective on this issue.
Richard Epstein on climate change
Epstein makes a superb 5 minute statement about climate change [here], although the production and video isn’t great. For a longer version, via podcast, link [here].
Epstein has published a lengthy article (2010) Carbon Dioxide: Our Newest Pollutant. My excerpts from this paper focus on Epstein’s take on solutions to the climate change issue:
The question now is whether any climate control legislation will pass Congress. Temperatures have been cooling, but tempers have been rising. At present, my view is that Congress will not pass any such legislation. The high costs will not sit well in bad economic times. It is just too much of a shot in the dark to go full steam ahead on the strength of imperfect science in the face of a persistent economic downturn. And even if it is passed, the prediction is that all the administrative targets for enforcement will be relaxed either by administrative decree or by special Congressional action. The fragile political consensus on global warming makes it highly unlikely that the decision can be made in a consistent coherent fashion once and for all. Domestically, the gulf between the two political parties is too great, and there is no question that the energy-intensive industries tend to be in Republican states, which gives rise to a differential impact that will add another element of long-term instability.
On the one hand, I think that there is good reason to believe that the threat from global warming is overstated, which would be welcome news if true. On the other hand, if it is not overstated, I have sought to explain what I believe to be the major shortfalls of all current and proposed solutions. So what then should be done about this problem, given that no one is sure about what the future will bring? My preferred program has six key components.
First, either cap and trade or a system of pollution taxes works far better than any effort to make collective judgments about the “best available” technology as a precondition for launching new facilities or vehicles. The “best available” technology is the worst possible approach because it hangs regulators up on small differences between alternative technologies when it makes far more sense to let the parties pick their own technology so long as we are able to monitor their output and force them to live with the costs (and benefits) of their own decisions.
Second, go after the low-hanging fruit, by stopping those forms of pollution that are easiest to control. Methane is one obvious place to secure substantial benefits. In the short run, the gas contributes more to global warming than carbon dioxide. In addition, it has other dangerous properties, which are worth curbing. Nor is it too difficult to secure major advantages without disrupting the overall economy. The hope here is to buy some more time so that the technology will evolve in ways that make us less dependent on fossil fuels.
Third, remove subsidies that lead to the destruction of forests. Whether one lives in Iowa or Massachusetts, there is simply no justification for doling out substantial ethanol subsidies to induce people to substitute it for gasoline. Any sensible set of reforms has to force the farm states to back off from these dangerous programs, and the sooner they do, the better. The ethanol situation is driven by the usual suspects: government mandates on fuel and heavy subsidies for domestic production.
Fourth, simplify the regulation on nuclear power. That task can only be done by rebuilding, from the ground up, a regulatory structure that has prevented the construction of a single new plant since 1977. Someone has to change it, and perhaps climate change could be the impetus for some urgency on this score.
Fifth, shun industrial policy, especially one that uses the government to pick preferred pollution control technology. By the same token, we should not indulge in any form of public subsidy for other clean forms of energy production, which may or may not pan out. What is needed is not government experts picking winners (who fail), but a sensible scheme of taxation that allows any entrepreneur a decent return on investment, and a system of intellectual property law that is geared toward the imperatives of innovation. One hidden advantage of this approach is to generate technology that other nations will be prepared to purchase because it will be in their own local interest to do so.
Sixth, ensure that investments in global warming are accurately timed. There is, in all discussions of temporal issues, the question of whether it is better to accumulate your wealth today and spend it tomorrow in order to achieve some long-term end.
We are not even sure of the direction of temperature changes, let alone their magnitude, so we do not have the wealth of empirical evidence that is available in the education context. At this point, the cautious method looks far more attractive. Getting this message across is hard, to be sure, because of the endless technical disputes. But at least for the moment, the EPA’s endangerment finding seems to be both an environmental and institutional mistake. Watchful waiting looks to be the far better policy.
JC reflections
Epstein raises a host of issues about the EPA’s greenhouse gas policies. I think that his bottom line conclusion is important:
The simple point is that carbon dioxide raises unique issues that cannot be sensibly addressed within the basic Clean Air Act framework, which is why Congress should now legislate to take this confused matter out of the EPA’s hands.
The Clean Air Act appears to be ‘wrong trousers’ for the climate change/carbon dioxide problem. Unless a better legal |
pulsating in one harmony." Stenger is currently working to transfer her works to the Oculus Rift and then plans to test those creations on other VR headsets.
Imagine a retelling of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes with you as the central character. Now imagine that you can do anything you want in this computer-driven virtual reality experience. It puts you at the center of the story and turns your room into locations pulled from the pages of the book. You can smell the awaiting evil of that midwestern traveling show, feel the pricking of your thumbs. The walls around you shift to show first the view from your upstairs bedroom, then, after you jump out of the bedroom window, the blur of motion and then the view from your yard below. Anything is possible here, even not visiting that fateful dark carnival. Unfortunately, Atari Lab’s Interactive Fantasy System was never quite realized. Instead it remains a series of "fanciful scenarios" as described by Brenda Laurel in the fall of 1983. The concept was one of many virtual reality ideas that were driven by an exploration of the use of narrative by Laurel, one of the pioneering developers of the medium in the ’80s and ’90s. In 1992, Laurel began work on a two-person, three-world VR project funded by The Banff Centre for the Performing Arts. "It was wildly ambitious for the day," Laurel says. The team got the very first reality engine off the assembly line from SGI to help power the concept. Ultimately, Placeholder ran on 13 computers, the reality engine, a MacBook and "lots of duct tape," Laurel says. Read more about Laurel
Carolina Cruz-Neira
1995 // CAVE
After graduating from the Universidad Metropolitana in Venezuela and earning a master’s from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Carolina Cruz-Neira began work on her PhD dissertation at Chicago under computer graphics pioneer Thomas DeFanti. Cruz-Neira worked with a team of graduate students to design the first Cave Automatic Virtual Environment in 1995. The CAVE is a virtual reality room that projects interactive images onto its walls. It gets its name from Plato’s Republic and the Allegory of the Cave, which ponders the question of whether most of humanity is viewing reality as merely shadows cast on a wall and not the real objects.
This approach to VR differs from the sort gaining popularity today in that it doesn’t require the user to wear a headset. Instead, the room is built with an array of sensors, projectors and other devices. Cruz-Neira also designed the software used in CAVE. While a different approach to virtual reality than the head-mounted display units currently sold for home use, the room-sized systems remain popular and important for research and as testbeds for a variety of simulations.
Michitaka Hirose
1998 // COSMOS
Michitaka Hirose, a professor of human interface and systems engineering at the University of Tokyo, got his start in virtual reality while he was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. Over time he began to focus his work on large-scale virtual reality projects. His works include the Scalable Virtual Reality Contents, which focused on using VR in education, and two five-screen immersive environments called CABIN and COSMOS. CABIN and COSMOS were later connected via a gigabit network and used for research in telepresence, haptics and cohabiting virtual reality worlds.
Hirose now works at a cyber interface lab with Tomohiro Tanikawa and Takuji Narumi at the University of Tokyo, focusing on developing user interfaces that combine humans and computers using virtual reality.
In the ’90s, Richard Marks went to work for PlayStation Research and Development, where his group worked on two big ideas. One was exploring what could be done with a traditional webcam plugged into a PlayStation 2. The second was seeing what the team could do if it plugged Sony’s Aibo robotic dog into the console. "The Aibo didn’t do a lot in the real world, but if you plugged him into the PS2 and used that to teach him tricks in a virtual environment, you could then load that back into him," Marks says. "But we ended up not pursuing that." Instead, Marks started digging into what a camera connected with a PS2 could do. The result was 2003’s EyeToy. "I was very involved with that," he says. "I did a lot of early research stuff." Once the project took off and the team at PlayStation knew it was going to be commercially released, Marks moved to Europe for several months to work with Phil Harrison — once the head of R&D, but then the head of Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe — and his studios on games that would support the device. "I spent three months there prototyping games," he says. "I learned a lot about game development." The little accessory went on to sell more than 10.5 million units. Read more about Marks
Skip Rizzo
2005 // Bravemind
As the director for medical virtual reality at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, Albert "Skip" Rizzo researches the use of VR for rehabilitation and psychological resilience. Rizzo’s work on using virtual reality for treatment dates back to the early ’90s, though, and it weathered the "nuclear winter" of VR that saw the technology almost die out. His best-known work is Bravemind, which started in 2003 but wasn’t funded until 2005. The program uses virtual reality vignettes to help treat disorders, as well as software that allows patients to relive traumatic events in virtual reality as a way of opening the door to treatment. Rizzo received the American Psychological Association’s 2010 award for outstanding contributions to the treatment of trauma.
He also spent time working on VR game systems and hardware to help patients with autistic spectrum disorder, post-stroke rehabilitation, traumatic brain injuries and prosthetic use training. He’s currently working to expand Bravemind’s use to other forms of trauma and to help with nonmilitary victims of traumatic events, like last year’s terrorist attack in Paris.
Mel Slater
2008 // EVENT Lab
Mel Slater founded his first VR lab in London in 1991. He has been Professor of Virtual Environments at UCL since 1997, and founded the University of Barcelona's Experimental Virtual Environments for Neuroscience and Technology (EVENT) Lab 10 years ago. His focus is on understanding presence in virtual reality with applications in social situations, and has reproduced classic social psychological results such as the Stanley Milgram Obedience experiments in VR. He also studied the bystander effect - how people respond to violent incidents. For the past few years he has been studying body representation, using VR to substitute people's bodies by life-sized virtual ones that move synchronously with real movements. A 2013 study, for instance, looked at how this can be used to reduce implicit racial bias and racism.
VR journalism creator Nonny de la Peña cites the lab and Slater’s work as one of the reasons she got involved in virtual reality and immersive news coverage.
Mark Bolas
2009 // MxR
Mark Bolas’ early work in virtual reality started in the late ’80s as he worked on his master’s thesis at NASA under the guidance of Scott Fisher. Bolas went on to co-found Fakespace to provide hardware for labs researching virtual reality. But his greatest impact on VR came just after Scott Fisher, who had taken a job at USC, hired Bolas as an association professor at the university’s School of Cinematic Arts in 2004.
Fisher calls Bolas "brilliant" and says it wasn’t long before he was splitting his time at the media division and working at the Institute for Creative Technologies, which was basically trying to build a functioning holodeck.
In 2009, Bolas founded the Mixed Reality (MxR) Lab and Studio with an initial goal of making head-mounted displays cheaper to build and disrupting the current state of HMDs, says Todd Richmond, the current director of the Mixed Reality Lab and Studio. And over the course of the next seven or so years, that’s exactly what the lab managed to do, churning out creations like the fold-up viewer in 2012, open-sourcing designs for those viewers and helping out folks like Palmer Luckey and Nonny de le Peña.
Richmond says the lab "kind of declared victory" in the pursuit of affordable HMDs about a year ago, but continues to examine other things like haptics, audio in VR and light fields.
De la Peña tells Polygon that Bolas’ willingness to open up the lab to so many people was a big part of the success of VR during this generation. Richmond echoes that sentiment, adding that Bolas’ push to rapidly prototype ideas also led to a steady flow of new VR hardware.
Bolas left USC this summer to work as partner director of program management at Microsoft. He told Polygon in a recent interview that a design groove drives the rhythm of research in virtual reality, and commented on how his new job would impact VR.
"In my mind, virtual reality is simply one genre of how we can use algorithmic power to enable people to fluently connect with what drives them," he said. "I view my work at Microsoft as an evolution of that connection."
Alex Kipman
2010 // Kinect
While Alex Kipman has been at Microsoft for more than 15 years, he made the most noise in 2008 when he moved from the Windows division to Xbox. It was there that Kipman began his work on Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral. He saw the device as a "more natural way for people to interact with technology," he told Kotaku in 2010. "The Kinect is the start of that journey."
The device, an array of microphones and cameras that turned movement and the spoken word into action inside games and also controlled the Xbox, went on to sell more than 24 million units. In 2013, Microsoft rolled out an upgraded Kinect for the Xbox One, which, at the time, required the Kinect unit.
In January 2015, Microsoft unveiled HoloLens, a self-contained mixed reality headset that could offer a wearer a glimpse at their world turned into a video game, a how-to video, or a tour of the real Mars. Kipman both introduced the new gear on stage during a press event and led the project during its creation at Microsoft. The development edition of the device shipped in March for $3,000.
John Carmack
2012 // Oculus Rift’s big day
While Palmer Luckey was working away on lighter, less expensive, consumer-friendly head-mounted displays at his home and USC’s MxR Lab, id Software’s John Carmack was also tinkering with the tech. Taken by Luckey’s approach to several design and tech problems, Carmack embraced his HMD. Shortly thereafter, id Software announced that an updated version of Doom 3 BFG Edition would be compatible with the device. But the biggest moment for the tech was when Carmack brought the prototype to 2012’s E3 running his software and showed it off to developers and press, giving the concept a massive media push.
The following summer, Carmack joined Oculus VR as the company’s chief technology officer. Months later, Carmack resigned from id Software to focus entirely on Oculus Rift.
A man drops to the ground in a diabetic coma as he waits in a Los Angeles food line. Another is forced to sit hunched over in a stress position as his muscles scream in pain and eventually fail. Two sisters struggle to protect their younger sister from a violent husband. A peaceful corner in Syria, children at play, erupts into chaos when a rocket hits nearby. Journalists strive to convey the facts, the scene, in their stories; to become witnesses to the events that shape the world and report back to the reader. Nonny de la Peña has figured out how to do one better, removing the reporter from the mix and pushing society directly into the fray. With the help of virtual reality, de la Peña’s immersive journalism has managed to tear away the thin gray line of newsprint that separates harrowing, tragic, befuddling facts and trends from the mendacity of a newspaper column inch. Her work breathes life into a data-rich Freedom of Information Act request about torture methodology, places a face on the statistics of homelessness and hunger, makes real the everyday plight and terror of domestic violence, and reminds everyone of the child victims of war. It all started, she says, with Second Life. Read more about de la Peña
Michael Abrash
2014 // Chief scientist at Oculus
Michael Abrash started his career in the early ’80s, programming games for IBM PC before moving to Windows to work on graphics and assembly code. But it wasn't until 2012 that Abrash really began his work on researching augmented and virtual realities, along with what he termed wearable computing.
In a blog post on Valve’s website in 2012, Abrash explained how he first got interested in the pursuit: Neal Stephenson's science fiction book Snow Crash.
"I picked it up and started reading, decided to buy it, and wound up devouring it overnight," he wrote. "I also started thinking to myself that I had a pretty good idea how about 80 percent of it could work right then, and wanted to implement it as badly as I had ever wanted to do anything with a computer — I had read [science fiction] all my life, and this was a full-on chance to make [science fiction] real."
That was 1994, but it wasn't until 2012, after a stint at id, another at Microsoft and one at RAD Game Tools, that Abrash landed a job at Valve and began looking into wearable computing.
"By 'wearable computing' I mean mobile computing where both computer-generated graphics and the real world are seamlessly overlaid in your view; there is no separate display that you hold in your hands (think Terminator vision)," he wrote. "I’m pretty confident that platform shift will happen a lot sooner than 20 years — almost certainly within 10, but quite likely as little as 3-5, because the key areas — input, processing/power/size, and output — that need to evolve to enable wearable computing are shaping up nicely, although there’s a lot still to be figured out."
Abrash spent nearly three years at Valve researching AR and VR and writing about the work on his Valve blog. In 2014, Abrash left Valve to join Oculus as chief scientist.
Palmer Luckey
2014 // Facebook deal
An avid collector of virtual reality head-mounted displays and the technology that drives them, Palmer Luckey got his big break after tracking down Mark Bolas at USC’s MxR Lab to talk to him about an HMD he picked up at an auction. Bolas ended up offering Luckey a part-time job, affording him a chance to use the technology in the center and spend time with other innovators in virtual reality.
During his time there, Luckey helped Nonny de la Peña's VR project by jury-rigging an HMD for her immersive journalism piece, which was being shown at a film festival.
Luckey regularly posted updates on his work and prototypes to a website forum dedicated to VR enthusiasts, including John Carmack. Carmack asked to see the early device in 2011 and was so impressed by it, he took it to E3 in 2012 to show it off.
Later that year, Luckey started a Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of Oculus Rift development units. The first development kit hit in early 2013, and the company began shipping a second version of the dev kit in the summer of 2014.
In March 2014, Facebook purchased Oculus for $2 billion. Many VR innovators and developers say that injection of cash into a VR company almost single-handedly powered the sudden growth and business interest in virtual reality software and hardware.
In March 2016, the first consumer units of the Oculus Rift began shipping. The Rift's Touch controllers go on sale in December.
While Luckey has become the sort of de facto face of virtual reality, he has recently dropped from the limelight following a Daily Beast story in which he said that he donated money to Nimble America, an anti-Clinton/pro-Trump group that seeks to influence the presidential election through "shitposting" and billboard-sized memes.
Illustrator: Chris KindredMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Rana Jawad: "The protest began peacefully"
At least 31 people have been killed and 235 injured in clashes in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, officials say, after militiamen opened fire on protesters.
The demonstrators had marched to the headquarters of the Misrata militia to demand that it leave Tripoli.
Hours after the incident, armed men returned to storm the compound, where militiamen are still holed up.
The Libyan government has been struggling to contain numerous militias who control many parts of the country.
Analysis This is a serious development in the capital that is reminiscent of events in Libya's second city, Benghazi, earlier this year. when anti-militia protesters attacked bases and more than a dozen people were killed. One of the key issues, according to many in Tripoli, is that large numbers of militias in the city are from brigades from other cities, like Misrata - at the centre of today's confrontation - and Zintan for example. Unlike last week, where the fighting was between two rival militias, the implications of any armed group facing off with civilians are potentially dangerous here because the majority of civilians still have weapons at home. If officials again react passively to the latest incident, it may fuel a cycle of revenge attacks which could spiral out of control. Guide to Libya's militias Q&A: Lawless Libya
Prime Minister Ali Zeidan gave a televised address in which he said all militias had to leave Tripoli without exception.
However, it is unclear how the authorities plan to dislodge them, the BBC's Rana Jawad reports from Tripoli.
There have been increasing demands from civilians that the militias - which emerged during the 2011 revolution - disband or join the army, in line with an end-of-year deadline set by the interim government in Tripoli.
Mr Zeidan also blamed TV stations for inflaming the situation and advised them to exercise control over who was speaking on TV, since Libya did not have "a stable democratic situation" which would allow for freedom of expression.
Government roadblocks
"The demonstration was peaceful and had been permitted by the interior ministry, and then the protesters were fired on when they entered the Gharghur district," where the headquarters of the militia are located, Mr Zeidan told Reuters.
Saddat al-Badri, the leader of Tripoli's local council, who was at the initial protest, also said the demonstration was peaceful, but that the militiamen "fired their weapons as soon as we arrived, there was a 106mm used, and even an RPG".
"The protesters were not armed and they were all there chanting 'Libya'," he said, adding that the city risked descending into armed warfare.
The scene of the confrontation remained volatile and tense on Friday evening, our correspondent reports.
Military jets could be seen and heard flying low over the Airport Road area earlier in the day, and heavy gunfire was ringing out.
Witnesses said that armed men had stormed the militia HQ hours after the protesters were shot at, with some buildings set on fire.
Army vehicles have reportedly arrived to seal off roads and try to separate the combatants.
The militia was involved in clashes in the capital last week which left two people dead.
Last month, Mr Zeidan was briefly seized by a militia group in Tripoli.
Two years after the overthrow of Col Muammar Gaddafi, Libya still has no constitution and divisions between secular and Islamist forces have paralysed parliament.Nationals recall RHP A.J. Cole, place RHP Doug Fister on DL
Nationals Communications Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 15, 2015
The Washington Nationals recalled right-handed pitcher A.J. Cole from Triple-A Syracuse and placed right-handed pitcher Doug Fister on the 15-day Disabled List with right forearm tightness on Friday. President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement.
Cole, 23, entered the 2015 season ranked as the Nationals’ №6 prospect, and the №91 prospect in all of baseball, according to Baseball America. The hard-throwing right-hander, who was added to the team’s 40-man roster this past winter, joins the Nationals for the second time this season. He made his Major League debut April 28 at Atlanta (2.0 IP, 9 H, 9 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 1 K).
Coming off a tremendous 2014 season, in which he posted a 13–3 record with a 3.16 ERA in 25 starts between Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Syracuse, Cole is 0–1 with a 2.67 ERA in five starts for Triple-A Syracuse this season.
Cole, who owns a Minor League career strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4.30/1, has struck out 8.9 batters per nine innings over the course of his Minor League career.
A fourth-round selection of the Nationals’ in the 2010 MLB First-Year Player Draft, Cole was traded to the Oakland Athletics in the six-player deal that brought left-hander Gio Gonzalez to Washington in advance of the 2012 season. The right-hander was then re-acquired by Rizzo in January of 2013, along with right-hander Blake Treinen and left-hander Ian Krol, in the three-team transaction that sent Michael Morse to Seattle.
Fister, 31, is 2–2 this season with a 4.31 ERA. Since being acquired from the Detroit Tigers in Dec. 2013, Fister is 18–8 with a 2.78 ERA in a Nationals uniform.CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Despite government regulations, ground-level ozone -- an odorless gas that forms as polluting nitrogen oxides drift in sunlight across the countryside -- continues to threaten crop quality and yield. In a new study, researchers quantify this loss from historical yield data for the first time. They show that over the last 30 years, ozone emissions have reduced soybean and corn yields by 5 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
The findings are reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Justin McGrath led the study as a postdoctoral fellow with the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois with plant biology and crop sciences professor Stephen Long and USDA Agricultural Research Service scientist Elizabeth Ainsworth.
A 10 percent decline in corn yield over three decades surprised researchers studying the effects of ground-level ozone on crops. Credit: Don Hamerman
Emissions regulations have had a positive effect on reducing ozone-related damage to crop plants, the researchers found, but may need to be upgraded to reduce crop damage and ease the resulting financial burden on growers, Long said.
"We had suspected for some time that surface ozone pollution, which can be surprisingly high in rural areas, was affecting crop yields, but until now there had not been a means to quantify this from actual yield data," Long said.
Ozone damage occurs when the gas enters a plant's leaves and dissolves in water within the leaves, producing toxic byproducts. Water availability increases a plant's vulnerability to ozone damage. The higher the concentration of ground-level ozone, the greater the likelihood of damage.
The researchers analyzed historical crop yields and climate and ozone data from 1980 to 2011 across the continental United States, focusing on corn and soybean. They found that past and current levels of ground-level ozone were reducing yields of both crops.
"Laboratory studies had suggested that soybean was vulnerable to ozone, but the 10 percent yield loss in corn is a surprise and very significant," Ainsworth said. Even when water was not readily available during a period of drought, ozone damage was still extensive, she said.
The researchers calculated an annual loss of just over $9 billion nationwide between the two crops due to ozone damage. One way to ease this financial burden is to increase air-quality control regulations, McGrath said. Such regulations already appear to have reduced the amount of ozone-related crop damage, he said.
There is, however, some better news. Ainsworth is LINK: leading projects to identify genes in corn and soybean that decrease the crops' vulnerability to ozone. These may provide another means to decrease these losses, the researchers said.
source: University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignComing Soon
Followers
After an aspiring actress hits it big thanks to a candid Instagram, her life intersects with many other Tokyo women as they follow their dreams.
Jimmy Carr: The Best of Ultimate Gold Greatest Hits
Nothing is off limits as Jimmy Carr serves up the most outrageous jokes from his stand-up career in a special that's not for the faint of heart.
Nate Bargatze: The Tennessee Kid
Comedian Nate Bargatze takes aim at the absurdity of everyday life in an approachable and deadpan stand-up set shot in Duluth, Georgia.
Wizards: Tales of Arcadia
The trolls, aliens and wizards living in Arcadia face off in an apocalyptic battle for control of their magical world. Created by Guillermo del Toro.
The Fast and the Furious Animated Show
Adventures abound as a group of teenagers infiltrates an elite racing league controlled by a nefarious organization bent on world domination.
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance
In this prequel to the fantasy classic, three young Gelfling inspire a rebellion against the cruel Emperor when they discover a horrifying secret.
AJ and the Queen
RuPaul stars in this outrageous series as a down-on-her-luck drag queen traveling across America in a van with a tough-talking 11-year-old stowaway.
Selling Sunset
The elite real estate brokers at The Oppenheim Group sell the luxe life to affluent buyers in LA. The drama ramps up when a new agent joins the team.The old music industry is dead. We’re standing in the ruins of a business built on private jets, Cristal, $18 CDs and million-dollar recording budgets.
We’re in the midst of the greatest music industry disruption of the past 100 years. A fundamental shift has occurred — a shift that Millennials are driving.
For the first time, record sales aren’t enough to make an artist’s career, and they certainly aren’t enough to ensure success. The old music industry clung desperately to sales to survive, but that model is long gone.
Even superstars have it tough. Pitbull -- despite having 50 million Facebook fans and nearly 170 million YouTube plays -- has sold less than 10 million albums in his entire career. This is the reality of the new music industry, which is built off of liquid attention, not record sales.
Why? Well, the answer lies with us, the Millennials. We’ve taken over the music industry by controlling the two things that matter most:
1. The Demand
The music industry is just like any other big business: It follows cash. Over the past two decades, music has suffered through the CD bubble, torrents, Napster, iTunes (with Apple taking a 30 percent cut of everything) and now, the ubiquity of streaming services, which reduces sales below the already rock-bottom level.
The music industry has been rocked by new trends and over the past few years, has succumbed to a state of near free-fall. It’s clutching whatever few straws are left in an attempt to salvage profit from the remains of its broken business models.
As music becomes more and more entrenched in the digital realm, Millennials have emerged as the dominant consumers. More importantly, we dominate the most promising emerging market for music: mobile devices. We use music, media and entertainment apps more than 75 percent more and social sharing apps about 20 percent more frequently than any other age group.
In a nutshell, Millennials consume the most music and tell the greatest number of people about it. While it’s obvious that consumption is important, why is it so important that we share what we listen to?
The old music industry had a banner metric of artist success: album sales. For years, album sales have been declining and the growth of singles and streaming services have accelerated the trend.
As we’ve transitioned into a digital music economy, new measures of success have emerged. A new generation of artists has hit the scene and they thrive on attention rather than units of music they sell.
The attention has become just as valuable as our likelihood to purchase, as it leads to festival and performance attendance, merchandising sales and other sources of revenue. However, we still won’t buy your music.
Brands know this, too. Companies like GUESS, Red Bull and Steve Madden will pour more than $1.34 billion into sponsoring music venues, festivals and tours this year.
Over a billion dollars will be spent for the opportunity to build customer relationships and brand equity with digital natives. In contrast, the top 10 highest-earning electronic artists last year cumulatively made just over $240 million — less than 20 percent of what brands will spend in 2014 to capture Millennials’ attention.
What brands understand is that music is an important part of Millennials’ identity. It’s more than entertainment for us. The music we listen to can be as important as how we dress and influences who our friends are.
Going to festivals and shows is an expression of identity. Brands know that if they can identify with a DJ like Skrillex and his dedicated fan base, they’ll have more than just the consumer's brief attention. The brand will become part of the fans’ lifestyle.
That’s why Steve Madden is teaming up with up-and-coming female DJs to attract Millennials.
The end result is that the music industry and the big brands are both chasing the new generation of artists; artists who can capture, retain and monetize attention -- instead of album sales -- and who can keep Millennials interested.
2. The Supply
All that’s required to make a modern record is a computer and a piece of affordable recording software. One of the most powerful professional DAWs (a digital audio workstation, used to produce music) is Logic Pro from Apple, which costs only $200.
Inside the DAW are virtual instruments like pianos, synthesizers and drums, as well as all the necessary tools to edit and produce audio.
Most of the equipment required to create music has been absorbed into the DAW, while the software continues to get easier and easier to use. The end result is that artists can create music more quickly, more efficiently and less expensively than at any other time in history.
Gotye created his song “Somebody That I Used to Know” in his parents' house near Melbourne, Australia. The self-produced track reached number one on more than 23 national charts and charted inside the top 10 in more than 30 countries around the world. By the end of 2012, the song became the best-selling song of that year with 11.8 million copies sold, ranking it among the best-selling digital singles of all time.
A young Dutch producer named Martin Garrix reached the top of the charts in more than 10 countries with his smash hit, “Animals,” which he produced and released at 17 years old. The song hit number one on Beatport, making Garrix the youngest person ever to receive the honor.
Millennials, who can simply record after class or work, are mostly familiar with this technology, but our open-source attitude toward learning is much more important.
Search “How to use Logic Pro” in YouTube and you’ll find thousands of free tutorials. Sites like Reddit have entire communities with tens of thousands of members who are dedicated to learning about music production.
Technology is cheap and high-quality learning resources are free. As the result, artists have massively successful records without having set foot in a recording studio.
3. Music Discovery Is At An All-time High
It goes without saying that music discovery and music production go hand in hand. However, just as technology has enabled easy music production for young, emerging artists, it has also provided them with a way to reach fans all over the world.
There are the classic success stories like Justin Bieber and Lana Del Rey, of course, but below the YouTube empire rests an entire culture of Millennials who are discovering music online.
Platforms like SoundCloud have more than 250 million active users each month and Millennials discover their music predominately through these digital platforms. Incidentally, when digital natives produce new music, they release it first on the digital platforms.
This is how Millennials are playing both sides of the field: They’re creating more music than ever and releasing it onto platforms where their peers go to discover music.
The music industry middleman has been cut out and a back-and-forth conversation replaced it. Of course, huge stars like Katy Perry still dominate sales, but Millennials are eroding that model with a new, grassroots discovery model.
4. Millennials Are Forming Dominant Musical Teams
Powerhouse songwriting and production teams back dominant artists like Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry. These production teams are one of the main drivers that keep the superstar artists on top. Working in teams allows these writers to churn out tons of highly listenable pop tracks.
Now, Millennials are breaking down this final barrier, too.
Services like FindMySong are connecting independent musicians so they can form their own dominant songwriting and production teams. The FindMySong model takes advantage of the fact that there are more independent musicians than ever before who want a piece of the major artist success without the major label strings.
With cheap recording technology and an effective way to distribute the music, these independents team up online to rival major labels.
You have the power now. What are you going to do with it? For the first time in its long history, the American music business is firmly in the hands of the artists and the consumers. You have the ability to lead the industry wherever you want it to go.Our solar system is a rough, wild place filled with endless silences, unimaginable darkness, and strange glimpses of lights from the Milky Way. But smelly? Not so much. However, recent evidence shows that the solar system can reek of rotten eggs — especially if you’re traveling around the surface of Jupiter’s moon, Io. Space.com reports on an interesting new report about this tiny moon that holds some of the strangest, rankest landscapes in the solar system.
Jupiter’s Io is the fourth-largest moon in the solar system. Named after a lover of Zeus, the moon was first discovered by Galileo in 1610. It is characterized by extreme volcanic activity, mostly caused by the gravitational pull of Jupiter and three other moons, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. This super volcanic activity has shaped the surface of lo into giant mountains, some of which are larger than Mount Everest.
It is Io’s volcanic activity that has impressed scientists. Io holds onto volcanic gases in its atmosphere, which is surprising for a moon. Arielle Moullet is a researcher at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who studied lo using giant telescopes. As she told Space.com, "What is special about Io is, it's pretty small so it's surprising it can retain an atmosphere. It's as big as our moon, so that's why people are looking for what is the main source of this gas."
Io may have this atmosphere because of its close proximity to Jupiter. Io is only 260,000 miles from the largest planet in our solar system. The intense gravitational pull of the large planet causes the layers below Io’s surface to heat up and explode into volcanic eruptions. The lava spews out into the atmosphere, freezes, and then eventually transitions into gas. Lo and behold, the moon gets an atmosphere.
And apparently, this atmosphere stinks. Since it is filled with sulfur gases from the volcanic eruptions, the moon generally smells like a mass of rotten eggs. Still, it remains a hot destination possibility for future NASA missions. As Moullet concludes, "It's an exciting place … It’s the most volcanic place in the solar system and as far as we know in the universe. It is unique."
For further reading:
Jupiter's moon smells like giant rotten eggs
The moon Io has one of the most bizarre – and smelly – landscapes in our solar system.I remembered those rub on tattoos we all had as kids, and this idea came to mind. It was completely innocent until I started drawing it and the thought hit me; Would this be the pony equivalent of fake IDs? Hmm...
I cheated with the background on this, yeah. Used a screenshot, that I just tweaked a bit.
Also this was my first try drawing fillies. Well I did a warmup drawing Applebloom from a screenshot first and it turned out catastrophic. All in all, I'm farily pleased with this one! I think I managed to get pretty close to the actual style, so that's good.
Now I have the confidence to draw more ponies!
PS. I kept avoiding drawing the cutie marks until the very last! It was hard to think of something. I didn't particularly want them to have cutie marks they might get for real, but more like "Yeah, this looks cool! I'll pick this one!" But it was just impossible to think of something! Well, Scootaloo was fairly easy, she'd go for something cool, and a motorcycle is a cool upgrade from a scooter. Applebloom was killing me though. In the end I just did something. Guh.It was never going to be easy for Clinton to woo younger voters. Her status as a government insider clashes with millennial distrust of government. She has a track record, including her more than a decade of opposition to gay marriage and support for the Iraq War, that puts her at odds with socially liberal and war weary younger voters. She’s also played the role of opponent to Democratic candidates who have proven particularly popular with younger voters—Sanders and Obama.
Millennial voters are acutely aware of her flaws, but as the race drags on many sympathize with Clinton as they see her in a different light than when the race started. “She’s not a perfect candidate,” said Amelia Yousey, a 21-year-old from Upstate New York, who was a fan of Sanders, but plans to vote for Clinton. “She’s been guarded in a way that hasn’t helped her, but I think that’s partly a reaction to how much criticism she’s faced.”
Jonathan Rezach, a 27-year-old from California, once worried that Clinton was too cozy with corporations, but says he has since become more of a realist. “Wall street and big banks finance a lot of our world and are necessary institutions,” he said. When Clinton came under attack for her Wall Street speeches, Rezach looked into the paid speaking industry and concluded there’s nothing particularly sinister about it. “She did a job, and she got paid for it,” he said, “I don’t think doing a job necessarily makes you corrupt.”
Millennial voters aren’t only voting for Clinton because of Trump. She may not be as thrilling a candidate as they might have wanted, but Clinton converts have found things to like about her all the same. “I’d characterize her as the smartest girl in the class,” said Cameron Strickland, a 26-year-old from North Carolina who supported Sanders during the primary. |
about polygamy?
Polygamy says one woman isn't enough for a man. (Polyandry, which involves one wife and multiple husbands, is rare.) That's also what our sexually liberated society says. Has the serial "hookup" culture liberated women? Would legalized polygamy be any better?
As the U.S. Supreme Court underscored in a famous 1878 ruling, "(P)olygamy leads to the patriarchal principle, and which, when applied to large communities, fetters the people in stationary despotism, while that principle cannot long exist in connection with monogamy."
In other words, polygamy was - and remains - wrong because it undermines the essential equality between one husband and one wife.
It somehow seems fitting that the federal judge in Utah ruled on a case brought by the patriarch of a reality TV show. Those nice people on TV seem to make it work, right? And if the effect is to further undermine an institution essential for maintaining a free society - well, that would make for a fine show, too.
Ben Boychuk is associate editor of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal. Joel Mathis is a contributing editor to Philadelphia Magazine.The Blazers returned home to the Moda Center on Thursday night after a convincing win over the Utah Jazz and on the second night of a back-to-back to take on the Memphis Grizzles. Marc Gasol was a late edition to the Grizzles, while Meyers Leonard suited up for the Blazers despite spraining his ankle the night before.
The Blazers were led by Damian Lillard (27) and CJ McCollum (20) who combined for 47 points and did most of their damage from deep. Meyer Leonard (14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists), Al-Faroug Aminu (11 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists), Moe Harkless (10 points, 4 assists), and Allen Crabbe (11 points, 3 assits) were big contributors as well. The Blazers burned the Grizzles from deep sinking 50% of their shots from behind the three-point line.
Recap
Both teams came out firing early in the first, but the shots weren't falling. Mason Plumlee hit the offensive boards hard and gave the Blazers enough second chance opportunities to keep it close. Memphis clearly decided before the game to go after the Blazers young bigs, but ran into a wall of long, active arms in Plumlee and Leonard. The answer to Grizzles inside woes was a healthy dose of mid-range and long-range jumpers, which they hit with impunity. The middle of the first quarter was a flurry of Blazer drives and offensive put backs, while Memphis tried to overcome a few costly turnovers by continuing to fire away from deep and make their way to the line. Speaking of foul shooting, the Blazers came back from Salt Lake City with a nasty case of broad-side-of-a-barnitis and missed all four of their early foul shots. As the teams broke for a commercial break the score was close with the Blazers outscoring the Grizzles 12-2 in the paint. After the break the second unit came out and lit the nets on fire. But the Grizzles stayed hot from the outside and the quarter ended with Memphis up 5 on the Blazers.
End of First: Portland 18, Memphis 23
The Grizzles started the second with a 24 second violation, and continued to hoist away from outside, but with less success than they'd found in the first quarter. For their part the Blazers second unit remained active on the glass and efficient on the offensive end, particularly Allen Crabbe who hit Ed Davis on nice cut inside and then found his range a few possessions later to bring the Blazers to within one. But the Grizzles remained patient, and Beno Udrih was his usual pesky self raining down shots and finding open cutters. Jeff Green caught fire as well, confounding the Blazer wings. The Grizzles' shooting was matched by the Blazers aggressiveness along with CJ finding his shot, and back and forth they went. The middle of the second was capped off with a monster Moe Harkless and one dunk in traffic sending the crowd to their feet. Stotts put the starters back in after a timeout over half way through the second quarter and Blazers youthful athleticism along with Dame's soft touch helped the Blazers pull away as the two teams approached the half. But, you can never count the Grizzles out. After Mike Conley sunk two foul shots with a second left in the quarter Stotts called a timeout to set up a Pat Connaughton heavy from the baseline. Put in his best impression of 2015 Peyton Manning Connaughton threw it straight into the arms of Jeff Green who launched a high floating circus shot from mid court that hit nothing, but net as it appeared time expired. Thankfully for the home team, after further review it was clear that the shot had left Green's hands as after the clock hit double 0s and the two teams headed to the locker room with the Blazers up four at the half.
Halftime: Portland 50, Memphis 46
Meyers Leonard, who has struggled early in the season, came out of the half looking to match his strong showing in the first and drew a foul from behind the ark in the Blazers first offensive possession. Leonard calmly hit all three of his free throws, but the camera caught a frustrated Leonard conversing with a chuckling Randolph as Gasol hit a pair of free throws. Memphis finally found some footing inside as Gasol and Randolph used their size and post moves to get a couple easy buckets. Even as they struggled to contain the Grizzles inside, sharp interior passing led to easy layups and threes as the Blazers pushed their lead. Coming out of a quick second Memphis timeout the Blazers quick hands and hot shooting pushed the lead to double digits. Lillard went absolutely bonkers from the three point line and the Blazers closed the quarter with crowd on their feet, the Grizzles on their heels, and up 19.
End of Third: Portland 90, Memphis 71
The Blazers started the fourth quarter like they ended the third, with Lillard firing daggers from deep. Whistles started blowing on the defensive end as Grizzles players slashed to the rim and were awarded free throws. But it was too little too late for Memphis as the Blazers energy and sharp shooting looked to sap the Grizzles of all hope and the Blazers cruised to an easy victory.
Box Score
What's Next
The Blazers finally get a few days of rest at home after a busy first week. They play the Detroit Pistons at the Moda Center Sunday night at 6pm. Stay tuned later tonight, for a unique analysis of this game from Blazer's Edge.The Principality of Sealand is a unique little micronation with a colorful history. Located six miles off the eastern shores of Britain, it is one of four Maunsell Naval Sea Forts deployed by Britain during World War 2. It was originally called Roughs Tower, and was was used to monitor and report German minelaying in the waters off England. During the war, it was home to 150-300 personnel, radar equipment, two 6-inch guns, and two 40mm anti-aircraft autocannons. But after being abandoned by the Royal Navy in 1956, this artificial island on the high seas has been the site of a pirate radio landing pad, a takeover, a controversial declaration of independence, a coup, and it’s own miniature war.
The structure Sealand is built upon is technically a very large sunken ship, due to the way it was deployed. It was built in 1942 on a pontoon barge at Red Lion Wharf as a superstructure of two hollow concrete towers topped with a deck, upon which other structures could be added. The twin towers were divided into seven floors each, which provided dining and sleeping accommodations, and storage areas for generators and munitions. When it was completed, three tugboats towed it out of to the Rough Sands sandbar six miles off the coast, where it’s pontoon base was deliberately flooded to allow the structure to settle onto the sea floor.
Once Roughs Tower’s wartime duties were done, and the Royal Navy had cleaned it out, it sat unoccupied for a number of years. Its first new tenants appeared sometime in 1967, when a group of pirate radio broadcasters— operating out of nearby anchored ships— wanted a place to land their resupply helicopters. But in September of that year, a competing pirate broadcaster named Roy Bates physically evicted Roughs Tower’s illegal tenants, and became a squatter himself.
Roy Bates had previously operated a low-power station called Radio Essex from another sea barge, but it had been within the 3-mile area of British legal control, and he had been caught and fined. So he and his 15-year-old son Michael gathered up the equipment, hauled it out to the Roughs Tower, and after a prolonged fight, took over control. But the tower never did become home to pirate radio, as English laws changed soon thereafter to make seaborne pirate transmissions illegal even outside of the 3-mile radius.
Nonetheless, Roy Bates maintained his control of Roughs Tower, and declared it the Principality of Sealand; a sovereign, independent state. This was after consulting with an attorney who found a loophole allowing Roy to claim the fort due to fact that it was in international waters, and that it was up for grabs due to “dereliction of sovereignty.” Since it was outside of England’s legally controlled area there was nothing the Royal Navy could do about this, but they did demolish another fort that stood beyond the 3-mile boundary, to prevent a similar takeover there.
The following year, the legitimacy of this self-declared state would be put to the test when Michael Bates fired a warning shot at a British Trinity House vessel which approached the tower. This led to Roy Bates’ arrest when he next arrived on the mainland. The case against Roy and Michael Bates was brought to court, where the judge ruled that Sealand was outside of British jurisdiction, therefore no ruling could be made against the Bates boys for their actions. The authorities decided not to appeal this ruling, as it may have led to an undesirable precedent.
Things were relatively calm for a time after that. Roy was approached by a few shady groups seeking to use his platform for their own ends, including smugglers, but he turned them all away, insisting that he would do nothing to harm the UK. Sealand proclaimed the Constitution of the Principality in 1975, and developed a flag, a national anthem, postage stamps, currency, and passports in the following years. The national seal was designed to incorporate Sealand’s national motto of “E Mare Libertas,” meaning, “From the Sea, Freedom.”
In August of 1978, about ten years after independence was declared, Roy was approached by a consortium of German and Dutch diamond merchants who wanted him to fly to Austria to entertain a business proposition. Upon their arrival, he and his wife Joan were met by five men who arranged for a meeting later that day, but the meeting time came and went without any word from the men. Concerned, Roy and his wife tried to make contact with their son Michael at Sealand, but since there was no phone or radio on the artificial island, they had to call local fishermen and the coast guard. “I saw a big helicopter hovering over Sealand,” one of them reported. Things were beginning to look very suspicious.
Their worries were confirmed when they finally heard from Michael, many days later. A helicopter had arrived at Sealand, claiming to have a Telex from Roy. But upon landing, they took the platform by force with the assistance of the “Prime Minister” Roy had appointed, a man named Alexander G. Achenbach. The invaders locked Michael in a cell for three days without food or water, then put him aboard a Dutch vessel which dropped him off in Holland with no money and no passport.
The Bates family enlisted armed assistance, including a helicopter pilot who had done some work on James Bond movies, and headed back to Sealand to storm the fortress and take back their country. When they arrived, Michael slid down the rope onto the deck armed with a shotgun, and fired a shot. The intruders quickly surrendered, and were held as prisoners of war until their home countries petitioned for their release.
Not much exciting has happened there since the miniature war of ’78, though Roy was approached by a group of Argentineans during the Falklands War in 1982; they wanted to buy Sealand and set up camp “right on Britain’s doorstep.” He sent them away.
Today, Sealand’s sovereignty and legitimacy are not recognized by any traditional States, however it is perhaps the best-known micronation in the world even though its inhabitable area is only 550 square meters. It is quietly tolerated by the UK, which still claims ownership and control of the sandbar upon which Sealand sits. Recently declassified documents show that the UK drafted plans to take the tower by force over 30 years ago, but such plans were not implemented due to the potential for loss of life, and the public relations disaster that would have followed.
Sealand’s electrical generators are now tasked with powering the servers for HavenCo, a data hosting services company which was started on Sealand in the year 2000. The Bates are leasing the country exclusively to HavenCo Limited, which offers “unparalleled security and independence to users who wish to take advantage of its Internet colocation services.”
No smoking or drinking are allowed in the Principality, and no one is allowed more than three five-minute showers per week in the interest of conserving freshwater; much of which is collected from rain. Its population rarely exceeds five people, and in the sake of security, visitors are unwelcome. Until 2001, HavenCo was run by a man named Ryan Lackey who said, “It’s been good for us because a lot of people are afraid of the very draconian laws being passed in the US, and they want to get out in advance of those.” HavenCo claims it will destroy a customer’s server if it’s ever forced to hand over a customer’s data to the authorities.
Sealand’s original royalty are no longer residents at Sealand, instead living on the British mainland due to their declining health. But there may be some big changes in store for the micronation, including the possibility of increasing the size of the island to allow for a hotel/casino resort.It’s hard growing carrots in a hydro system, at least for someone as impatient as I am. Unlike Lettuce or Peppers I can’t see them to know what is really going on, it’s enough to drive me a bit nuts. All those weeks spent using up space under the grow lights, all that nutrient solution and I still have no idea if it is working out..
Well today I caved, even though I’m still about three weeks from the theoretical harvest date I pulled one to take a look … I’m inordinately pleased with this. (The variety is Cosmic Purple.)
Okay so soon the paranoia will creep back and I’ll start to worry that this was a one off but for now I’m going to remain pleased.
AdvertisementsCome and explore the commercial work of The Olde World Puppet Theatre, with films, articles, and pictures of such projects as the children's video Wee Sing Under the Sea, the Barq's Root Beer Dog, and the creation of characters for Orlando Disneyworld's live stage production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
D o you want to know more about the incredible fascinating world of puppets? You can explore the history of the different kinds of puppets and visit a studio workshop area that shows how we build them.
If you want to build some puppets of your own, visit our Stuff For Kids Area for some great downloads to work on at home. You can even build puppets from our movie, Witch Key.
Thanks for visiting. We hope you enjoyed your visit here at the museum. Our website is always changing, so come back and visit us soon.
Steve & Marty
C an you really make an exciting new fantasy film using old fashioned marionettes as the actors? Of course you can, if you're the Olde World Puppet Theatre Studios, and you happen to be filming the Tales of Belvuria. Four years in the making, come see Witch Key, a Prince's Adventure, our exciting first film on DVD. You can also find out more about our first book, The Enchanted Ring, a Princess's Adventur e, a girl-power story with Pixies, Faeries and a Unicorn.
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W ho hasn't wanted to journey down the yellow brick road of theWizard of OZ. In 2003 the Olde World Puppet Theatre did just that, with lifesize body puppets set to Meco's disco rock opera score. And we have plans to visit OZ once again. There are new plans afoot to revisit this unique story for the stage, setting the entire production way down in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. New music, new puppets and an entirely new approach are being planned.
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Now you can visit Portland Puppet Museum in Portland, Oregon.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Four “drunken” passengers have been arrested after they forced an EasyJet plane to divert to Bristol.
The Barcelona to Liverpool flight was diverted at about 11.30pm on Thursday due to an “incident involving passengers”, police said.
Four people – two 29-year-old men, a 26-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man – were arrested on suspicion of offences linked to being drunk on board an aircraft.
A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said: "We're appealing for anyone who was on easyJet flight EZY7208 from Barcelona to Liverpool, who may have filmed the incident on their mobile phones or any other devices, to get in touch.”
A spokeswoman for easyJet said: "EasyJet can confirm that flight EZY7208 from Barcelona to Liverpool on 21 September diverted to Bristol due to four passengers behaving disruptively.
"The aircraft was met by the police upon arrival in Bristol and continued to Liverpool once the passengers were arrested.
"EasyJet's cabin crew are trained to assess and evaluate all situations and to act quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers is not compromised at any time.”Turkish officials continue to arrest judges and military officers in connection with the coup attempt, detaining more soldiers Sunday.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said around 6,000 people have been detained and "the number will increase." Those in custody include the commander of the Third Army Corps, General Erdal Ozturk, who could face charges of treason.
Other high-ranking military officials flew to neighboring Greece by helicopter and requested political asylum. Turkish media reports say some of those who fled are believed to be among the architects of the coup.
Thousands of Turkish citizens packed Ankara's Kizilat Square, downtown Istanbul and the coastal city of Izmir Saturday night to shout their support of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government after a failed coup attempt by some of the country's military.
Crowds waved flags at the late-night rallies and chanted their determination not to let anything or anyone divide the country.
Reports about how many people were killed in clashes during the coup attempt varied, but the latest number available Saturday night was 265 dead, including many civilians. Conditions remained tense in Istanbul, Ankara and some other provincial cities, and there were reports of sporadic continuing violence. Turkish media reported intense clashes at a large military barracks outside Ankara that was believed to be a stronghold of the coup plotters.
Erdogan has accused an exiled Muslim cleric who once was one of his close allies of organizing the plot, and on Saturday demanded his extradition from the United States. The 75-year-old imam, Fethullah Gulen, who has been living in the United States since long before Erdogan came to power, condemned the coup and denied he had anything to do with the military revolt.
WATCH: Fethullah Gulen discusses Turkey attempted coup in impromptu news conference
US, Russian reactions
Russian President Vladimir Putin called Turkish President Erdogan on Sunday. In a statement issued by the Kremlin, Putin expressed "wishes for a speedy restoration of strong constitutional order and stability" in Turkey. The Kremlin said the two leaders also confirmed plans to meet "in the nearest future." Turkish state media said they will meet in the first week of August.
Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu late Saturday, a U.S. spokesman said in Washington. Kerry stressed the need for Turkey to respect the rule of law and citizens' rights as it investigates who was involved in the coup plot.
Kerry reiterated Washington's support for the democratically elected government in Turkey, but his spokesman said the top American diplomat also told his Turkish counterpart "that public insinuations or claims about any role by the United States in the failed coup attempt are utterly false and harmful to... bilateral relations."
The U.S. State Department has also issued a statement warning Americans against travel to Turkey.by |
Joe Mande is up to something. From the looks of the comedian’s recently redesigned website, he’s refashioning himself as a makeshift L. Ron Hubbard. JoeMande.com features a brief teaser for something called ‘Achieve Omega’ that includes symbols akin to Scientology (the symbol appears to be Joe’s initials attached to an omega: Ω).
Mande is best known for his work as a writer on Parks and Recreation (he also played a character named Morris on the show). In 2014, he released the hilarious and inventive standup album Bitchface, which employed a pastiche of hip hop mixtape conventions. Joe is the funniest person on Twitter.
I emailed Mande and asked him some absurd questions about film and music for a new feature I’m calling ‘Culture Questions.’ Thanks Joe! I don’t know what Omega is yet but I look forward to achieving it.
CULTURE CREATURE: In 2014, you launched a Kickstarter project intending to raise $1M for a podcast. What entrepreneurial projects are you working on in 2016?
JOE MANDE: Oh yeah, I got big plans for 2016. I’m currently overhauling my website to make myself a legit cult leader/con man. Hopefully I can quickly make about 300-400 million dollars so I can buy the Minnesota Timberwolves.
If you could go back in time to 1905 and play one song on a boombox to people on the street, what song would you pick and why?
If I had to choose a song, I’d do David Banner’s ‘Play,’ because it’s filthy. But, ideally, I’d also be able to show all the 1905 people a DVD of Avatar. I’d tell them it’s a documentary.
What single piece of art (movie, standup, music, etc) made you laugh the hardest laughter of your life?
No film has affected me more than the first time I saw Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. I remember the cold open (where he’s dressed up like a UPS guy kicking a fragile package all over the place) almost making me throw up from laughing. Obviously, at this point I know the transphobic elements of that movie are now super #problematic, but 11 year-old me did not give a fuuuuuuck.During my Xmas-break I had all kinds of dreams at night related to possible designs of the Copenhagen Suborbitals DIY space capsule Tycho Deep Space II.
The last couple of months I have presented a variety of ideas and solutions but I haven’t really nailed it yet. It’s a huge puzzle and getting it all to work is hard. There seems to be too much mass in the top of the capsule to get the uprighting to work, forcing me to change the interior design and so much else that doesn’t really add up, so far.
Since I am still working basic design ideas, there is still time to sketch even the craziest ideas and I just had such one, a couple of days ago.
What if the capsule doesn’t hold any systems in the top but in the bottom instead, changing the center of mass leading to a correct attitude in water, post splashdown?
What if the capsule doesn’t hold any parachutes at all, but only a drogue for maintaining a correct descent attitude and the bottom is equipped with a solid propellant retro-burner for a final change in velocity?
What if the bottom geometry, holding the retro-burner and RCS, was shaped for enhancing capsule water-carving making even a high speed landing feel like landing in candy-floss?
It may seem far fetched. But nevertheless it does solve a lot of the issues I have encountered so far and I don’t really know if I trust three homemade main-parachutes more than a homemade solid rocket retro-booster.
Tycho Deep Space II end-burner configuration and possible flight path. Image: Kristian von Bengtson Tycho Deep Space II end-burner configuration and possible flight path. Image: Kristian von Bengtson
Right now calculations are being made to estimate terminal velocity, engine power, burn-time and engine-ignition altitude. A rocket too powerful will pose dangers for the astronaut and must be ignited just above the water line unless you want to capsule to gain speed once again, due to gravity. A low-powered engine will be wasting fuel against the will of gravity. So, there is a fine balance somewhere in between.
So far, it’s just a crazy idea I like very much and it may die soon. But so far there seems to be support inside Copenhagen Suborbitals and we might take this many steps further, even with scaled testing at sea.
Needless to say, this idea was inspired by SpaceX who intend to land a capsule with no parachutes at all (not even a drogue). This is beyond our skills. But a combination with of both worlds might be the answer…
Ad Astra
Kristian von BengtsonIn a landmark lawsuit in New Jersey, the fight is over whether a person with same-gender attractions can seek professional help.
On trial is Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing, or Jonah, a group that helps people leave the homosexual lifestyle.
The lawsuit was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the same far-left group that considers the American Family Association a "hate group."
Maggie Gallagher of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund says the SPLC is using its war chest, originally meant to combat racism, "to declare war on Christianity." Tweet to @JONAHweb
Gallagher tells OneNewsNow: "And they have taken this small case in New Jersey as the beachhead for their next move, which is to litigate into submission and bankruptcy any group, particularly any counselor, that tries to help people with same-sex attractions, or even people who identify as gay adults who want to live a Christian life."
The lawsuit was filed by four homosexuals and two lesbians who are represented by a small army of 15 lawyers.
Chuck Limandri of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund is representing Jonah.Went too far! Ashton Kutcher's 'racist' commercial pulled after backlash from horrified viewers
A commercial starring Aston Kutcher has been pulled from the Internet following backlash from viewers over its 'racist' content.
The 34-year-old appeared in the commercial for Popchips as an Indian man 'looking for love' in a dating ad-style spoof.
One viewer tweeted in response: 'Did I just see Ashton Kutcher in Brownface, for some popchips? Seriously, Advertisers…What the *expletive* were you thinking??'
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO...
And cut! An online ad featuring Ashton Kutcher in a parody role as n Indian man has been pulled following complaints from viewers
Browned off: Ashton was accused of racism after donning makeup to play a 'Bollywood producer' in a crisps commercial
It seems likely that the video was intended to poke fun at Ashton's love life woes.
A spokeswoman for Popchips explained that the dating parody was 'created to provoke a few laughs and was never intended to stereotype or offend anyone.'
She added that the company 'hopes people can enjoy this in the spirit it was intended.'
Don't you want me? One offended Twitter user wrote 'Did I just see Ashton Kutcher in Brownface, for some popchips? Seriously, Advertisers¿What the *expletive* were you thinking??'
Interesting outfit: The makers of the advert were criticised for the stereotypical appearance adopted by the actor
Ashton also appeared as a pale Karl Lagerfeld-eqsue fashionista, a'stoner'-type, and a tattoed Southerner. Videos featuring these characters remain online.
Originally Ashton also appeared as Raj, a '39-year-old Bollywood producer looking for love' in the advert for PopChips.
In the dating themed film he said he was looking for 'the most delicious thing on the planet,' as well as indulging in appropriately cheesy Bollywood parodying dancing.
Guess who? Ashton also appeared as a scarily convincing Karl Lagerfeld type named 'Darl' Selling himself: 'Darl' boasts 'Money creates taste and I have lots of both'
Of course he soon finds it in the form of the low-fat potato snack, but the fact the Hollywood star saw fit to dress up in stereotypical garb and put on an Indian accent has drew the wrath of many on the internet, including Indian-descended rap group Das Racist
On their Twitter account they asked him: 'What's with the racist brownface video you talentless, pretending to care about sex trafficking piece of s***.'
They never received a response from the actor, who chose not to address the subject on his own page, where he had previously promoted the advert.
Behind the scenes: Ashton's transformation was eerily convincing
Blogger and entrepreneur Anil Dash also wrote a lengthy entry on his website about his disgust at the advert.
He said: 'It's a hackneyed, unfunny advertisement featuring Kutcher in brownface talking about his romantic options, with the entire punchline being that he's doing it in a fake-Indian outfit and voice. That's it, there's seriously no other gag.
What a catch: Another character- Swordfish, 29- is looking for 'Something hot and spicy', and adds 'I love poetry' 'I'm funny, right?': Ashton clearly didn't anticipate the negative feedback to the ad
'Naturally, a bunch of us (initially mostly Indian diaspora members whom I follow on Twitter) started complaining about it, and a number of like-minded allies also registered their offense as well.
'I can't imagine I have to explain this to anyone in 2012, but if you find yourself putting brown makeup on a white person in 2012 so they can do a bad "funny" accent in order to sell potato chips, you are on the wrong course.'
Would you go for this guy? Ashton also plays Nigel, 24, who claims 'I'm an extraordinary lover. I can also without even looking tell you if you have an innie or an outie'
Quick stretch: Ashton looked as though he was squeezing in some calisthentics between shots
And of course the Twitter website had a slew of traffic, with Ashton taking a caning at the hands of users.
As spokesman at the company explained the ad was not meant to be offensive, though stopped short of offering an apology.
Appears as himself: Ashton comes in without a costume at the end of the ad and says 'Your waiting room's like a freak show. Are we all in the same category?'
He said 'The new Popchips worldwide dating video and ad campaign featuring four characters was created to provoke a few laughs and was never intended to stereotype or offend anyone.
'At Popchips we embrace all types of shapes, flavors and colors, and appreciate all snackers, no matter their race or ethnicity.'
'We hope people can enjoy this in the spirit it was intended.'
Not very pleased: Rap group Das Racist attacked the actor directly using their Twitter account
Also disappointed: Internet entrepreneur and blogger Anil Dash wrote a lengthy commentary on the ad
Aston also appears as Nigel, 24, who describes himself as 'an extraordinary lover.'
Nigel later boasts: 'I can also without even looking tell you if you have an innie or an outie belly button.'For the Filipino rock band, see Autotelic (band)
Something (or someone) that is autotelic[1] has a purpose in and not apart from itself.
Origins [ edit ]
The word comes from the Greek αὐτοτελής autotelēs from αὐτός autos, "self" and τέλος telos, "goal".
The Oxford English Dictionary cites its earliest use as 1901 (Baldwin, Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology I 96/1), and also cites a 1932 use by T. S. Eliot (Essays I. ii. 24).
Perhaps see the criticism of Yvor Winters In Defense of Reason.
Use [ edit ]
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes people who are internally driven, and who as such may exhibit a sense of purpose and curiosity, as autotelic.[2] This is different from being externally driven, in which case things such as comfort, money, power, or fame are the motivating force. Csikszentmihalyi writes:
An autotelic person needs few material possessions and little entertainment, comfort, power, or fame because so much of what he or she does is already rewarding. Because such persons experience flow in work, in family life, when interacting with people, when eating, even when alone with nothing to do, they depend less on external rewards that keep others motivated to go on with a life of routines. They are more autonomous and independent because they cannot be as easily manipulated with threats or rewards from the outside. At the same time, they are more involved with everything around them because they are fully immersed in the current of life.[3]
A. Bartlett Giamatti characterizes sports, such as baseball, as autotelic activities: "that is, their goal is the full exercise of themselves, for their own sake".[4]
Yvor Winters quotes from Eliot's aesthetic theory including autotelic, and criticizes:
"Art, then, is about itself, but this information does not help me to answer my questions, for I do not understand it. What, for example, would Pope or Dante have understood if this statement had been made to them regarding the poems which I have just mentioned? Or what can we understand with regard to these poems? About all we can deduce from such a passage is that the artist does not really know what he is doing; a doctrine which we shall find suggested and elucidated elsewhere, and which leads directly to the plainest kind of determinism." [5]
See also [ edit ]
Ophelimity, another term for whether a thing has useful contingency (purpose through specific utility) or is an end with purpose unto itself.
Egregore
End in itself
Intrinsic motivation
References [ edit ]
^ Merriam-Webster Dictionary ^ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life; Robert E Quinn, Change the World, p 210, 272 ; Robert E Quinn,, p 210, 272 ^ Csikszentmihalyi, 1997, p.l17, ^ Take Time for Paradise: Americans and their Games (1989), p. 16 and throughout ^ Yvor Winters, In Defense of Reason, p460 and thereafter.6PM: Woman flees UHP troopers, saying they had 'no authority to stop her'
10PM: Woman flees UHP troopers, saying they had 'no authority to stop her'
SALT LAKE CITY — A woman was arrested Wednesday after leading Utah Highway Patrol troopers on a chase.
The chase started about 12:50 p.m. on I-15 near 12300 South when a trooper traveling in the HOV lane was passed on the left in the emergency lane by a woman, according to a statement from the Utah Highway Patrol.
The driver, Lisa Anne Bluth, 44, was arrested for investigation of fleeing and a series of traffic violations in a bizarre incident. She identified herself to police as Lisa Sovereen.
Bluth refused to pull over as speeds reached about 80 mph. As she was fleeing from the trooper, she called 911 and asked emergency dispatchers "that the trooper get off her back, and then hung up," said UHP Cpl. Todd Johnson.
Dispatchers made several attempts to call Bluth back, he said.
Lisa Anne Bluth (Photo: Salt Lake County Jail)
In her original 911 call, Bluth told dispatchers she believed the trooper was going to ram her car. When a UHP representative called back, she insisted she wasn't required to pull over and accused police of stealing a previous vehicle from her and taking her blood.
Bluth told the UHP representative several times "you're all dead" and "the troopers are dead," but she hung up when asked if she had any weapons.
Troopers set up tire spikes near 8000 South, but Bluth was able to avoid them. Spikes also were set up near 7200 South, and they punctured one of her tires, according to the UHP.
The chase ended about 20 minutes later when Bluth got off at the 600 North off-ramp and was boxed in by troopers. While being taken into custody, she stated that "she did not stop because she was a sovereign citizen and (police) had no authority to stop her," according to the UHP.
Bluth already has a pending case in 3rd District Court for aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury, according to court records. She allegedly put her arm around another woman's neck and pushed her down a flight of stairs, breaking the woman's pelvis, charging documents state.
Bluth has a lengthy criminal, history including several arrests in |
Gauntlets got buffed in Patch 4.15 and returned to being the premier power item for Hunters. Devourer’s Gauntlets provide a lot of power and life steal. The item is cheap and requires stacking, so it is always built early. Devourer’s Gauntlets was built on every carry Hunter and majority of mid lane Hunters because of the early power spike and sustain.
At Super Regionals, players varied between getting boots first and purchasing Devourer’s Gauntlets before boots. Starting boots is the safer option, as the movement speed helps to run away from unfavorable situations and to get to lane quicker. Building Devourer’s Gauntlets first is the greedy path but because doing so means you start stacking first and at two items, you are stronger than the other path because you have a partially stacked Gauntlet with boots compared to a Hunter with boots who just finished the stacking item. The decision for build order comes down to if the player thinks they need to be safe or greedy in that matchup and game.
The Executioner is a great Hunter item. In addition to the power and attack speed it gives the owner, it causes their basic attacks to reduce the protections of enemies by up to 36%. Because of natural and base protections, this equates to more penetration than provided by flat penetration items, even on targets who have not bought protections. The reduced protections mean even more against tanky targets, allowing the Hunter to shred them easily. In addition, The Executioner's passive means that other physical gods, such as Assassins and Warriors, benefit from the debuff and do more damage to that target. The Executioner was present in almost every Hunter build at Super Regionals, most often being bought third, after boots and life steal.
Devourer's Gauntlets, The Executioner and Qin's Sais are staple Hunter items
Qin’s Sais are another staple Hunter item. It provides additional attack speed and a passive that takes a chunk of percent health from the target. This effect is physical damage and is thus mitigated by protections. Qin's Sais were picked up in almost every build and most often fourth, but could be picked up later in the build if the player prioritized other items more at that moment.
Titan’s Bane is the second penetration item on this list. At the time, it provided 33% penetration to the user, which gives a similar effect to The Executioner. When both items are built, the protection reduction from Executioner happens first, and then Titan’s Bane ignores 33% of remaining protections, which can still be an enormous amount of penetration on tanks and is very respectable against squishy targets. The penetration from Titan’s Bane also works against objectives, like Towers. Titan’s Bane was one of most common items, built in nearly every instance. Titan’s Bane also had a lot of flexibility in terms of when it was built. Most often picked up in the last two lots, Titan’s Bane was sometimes seen as early as third item due to its great passive. However, it was outclassed early by Executioner even on more ability-based gods who use its passive to great effect.
The sixth item in the build was generally either Asi or Odysseys’ Bow. These items never appeared in the build together. Both items give a good amount of attack speed and increase damage in different ways. Asi comes with some flat penetration and life steal, with a passive that grants even more life steal at low health. Asi is good for Hunters that are attacking squishy targets or who may be the focus of the enemy team.
Odysseys’ Bow causes every fourth basic attack to send out a chain lightning that deals damage equal to 30 +50% of basic attack damage. This damage scales very well with the passives of Titan’s Bane and The Executioner. Odysseys’ Bow is great for team fight DPS and on well protected Hunters that can free cast in fights.
Asi and Odysseys' Bow were both options to cap off Hunter builds
Crit was tried a couple times at Super Regionals, but did not see any success. Poisoned Star and another crit item were built after the standard core of boots, Devourer’s Gauntlets, The Executioner and either Qin’s Sais or Titan’s Bane. Crit is great at taking out squishy targets, but the attack speed and penetration build explained here still outclasses it and is cheaper. There are situations where a critical strike build is good, but the current meta build is a better catch-all.
Ah Muzen Cab is a Hunter that has very high damage at the cost of being relatively unsafe. He slightly breaks the build we have talked about so far. He was often built with one defensive item that varied from Winged Blade to Reinforced Greives to Magi’s Blessing. Devourer Gauntlets, The Executioner, and Titan’s Bane were safe, but boots, Qin’s Sais, and a final attack speed item all had a chance of being replaced with a safer option.
Patch 4.22 saw a couple sizable nerfs to Titan’s Bane and its tier 2 version, Warrior’s Bane. Warrior’s Bane saw a nerf from 22% to 15% penetration and Titan’s Bane received a 150 gold increase coupled with a reduction in penetration from 33% to 30%. The final item is only slightly nerfed while the tier 2 took a large hit. These nerfs are likely to push Titan’s Bane almost exclusively to later in builds and definitely not built third, as The Executioner has an even greater advantage and now only costs 50 more gold. The flat penetration values Titan’s Bane grants are still very high, so it should continue to see play.
Titan's Bane received a couple of nerfs in Patch 4.22, but it is still a strong item
Super Regionals taught us the current Hunter itemization meta. Penetration and attack speed-focused builds reigned supreme with a shallow item pool of boots, Devourer’s Gauntlets, The Executioner, Qin’s Sai, Titan’s Bane, and either Asi or Odysseus’ Bow. Crit was tried but was ultimately unsuccessful and Ah Muzen Cab sometimes sneaked in a defensive item. Titan’s Bane saw a slight nerf in Patch 4.22, but its tier 2 received a heavy hit. Only time will see if we will have this itemization be meta at the Smite World Championship or if patches and meta shifts will change how Hunters are built.
Like our content? Support us by getting our merchandise in our shopSerena Williams celebrates after recording match point against Flavia Pennetta. (Photo11: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY Sports)
NEW YORK — Serena Williams can name every player who beat her.
"Oh, yeah," says Williams, who will play 17th seed Ekaterina Makarova in the U.S. Open semifinals today.
She smiled but not because she didn't mean it. Williams, who is 32 and world No. 1, started playing professional tennis nearly 20 years ago. Since then she has played 793 singles matches, losing 118 to 60 different players. All of whom she can name … Really?
Williams paused. "Probably," she continued. "If I sat down and thought about it, probably."
One of them is Makarova, a 26-year-old Russian with forceful groundstrokes and a calm disposition. In fact if Makarova defeats Williams today, she'll become just the second player to beat her in both singles and doubles at the same tournament. Makarova and Elena Vesnina beat Williams and her sister, Venus, in the doubles quarterfinals. Makarova and Vesnina went on to make the final, where they'll face Flavia Pennetta and Martina Hingis.
Hingis, a Hall of Famer who retired from singles years ago but started playing some doubles last year, is currently the only player to accomplish the aforementioned feat. She did it in 2001 in Sydney, where she and partner Monica Seles beat the Williams sisters in the doubles first round and Hingis beat Williams in the quarterfinals.
Hingis didn't realize this. Asked to guess the double winner Friday, Hingis came up with Kim Clijsters. Once informed she was the one, Hingis said, "It was with Monica (Seles), right? We beat them in Sydney. This I know, but I wouldn't know if I beat Serena in singles as well."
Now if it were a singles loss, Hingis might remember. That's going by Williams' words and also those of three-time Slam winner Lindsay Davenport. Asked if she too can name the players who beat her, Davenport said, "I'd get a very high percentage correct. I'd probably miss a few, but not many."
The Numbers
As expected Davenport is on Williams' list; her head-to-head is 4-10. The only players to beat Williams more than four times are Venus Williams (11-14), Jennifer Capriati (7-10), Hingis (6-7), Justine Henin (6-8) and Elena Dementieva (5-7). None have winning head-to-head records against Serena.
But there are some who do. Most played Williams just once: There's Annie Miller, Williams' first opponent (1995 Quebec City qualifying); Alexia Dechaume-Balleret (1997 Indian Wells qualifying); Mary Joe Fernandez (1999 French Open); Paola Suárez (2000 Amelia Island); Tiantian Sun (2005 Beijing); Virginie Razzano (2012 French Open, Williams' sole first-round Slam loss) and Jana Cepelova (2014 Charleston).
Among players who played Williams multiple times, only two have a winning head-to-head against her. That's right – two. Both are retired. One is left-handed Sybille Bammer (2-0). The other is Hall of Famer Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (4-3).
Which may explain what Williams said when asked to list a few losses she's learned the most from in her career. "In 1998 I played Sanchez in the French Open, and I really believe I should have won that match. I was up, and, you know, I didn't take a chance." It was a fourth-round match, and Williams lost 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Sanchez-Vicario was No. 5 and Williams No. 27.
A more recent loss has also stayed with Williams: "Definitely I learned a lot from one this year. I'm not ready to talk about it yet, but definitely learned a lot from that."
She could be talking about a three-set loss to Alize Cornet in the third round of Wimbledon. Because it was Wimbledon, where Williams often plays her best, and it was her second loss to Cornet this year. Another possibility is a shocking 6-2, 6-2 loss to Garbiñe Muguruza in the second round of the French Open. (Serena lost to three other players this year – Cepelova, Venus Williams and Ana Ivanovic. Walkovers aren't counted toward losses listed on player bios provided by the WTA.)
In all Serena has 675 career singles victories, more than any active player, but her 118 losses may be more impressive.
Thirty-three players in the women's draw have fewer losses. They are all at a different stage in their careers than Williams. Their average age is 20. The most matches won among them is 199 (Maryna Zanevska).
Surprisingly but maybe not so much – since players, seeded ones especially, have to get far enough in a tournament to lose to Williams – many players Williams lost to the most are the same ones she beat the most. Her sister is a good example. Venus beat Serena 11 times, more than any other player. And she lost to Serena 14 times, more than any player but one.
(The one is Maria Sharapova, who's an unhappy 2-16 against Serena. It may comfort Sharapova to know that the players Serena beat most are a who's who of tennis – at least the first 20 have won Slams or held top 10 rankings.)
Williams' career singles losses break out by surface like this – 67 on hard courts, 32 on clay courts, 12 on grass courts and seven on carpet.
The Players
If Serena can list all the players who beat her, many of them won't forget that they did.
Retired player Alina Jidkova is among the elite 60. She lost to Serena once and beat her once. It was at 2004 in Linz, and Jidkova won 7-6 (5), 6-2. Williams was ranked ninth, Jidkova 73rd.
"It was the biggest win of my career," says Jidkova. "When I tell people they don't believe me, I think. They always ask, 'Really?'And the next thing is, 'But you are so small and skinny.'"
Jidkova recounts it all. Being intimidated during the coin toss, making a concerted effort not to look at Williams, being in the zone to the point where she didn't notice "some random guy" kiss her after the match until someone told her.
"I think when she came out she didn't take me seriously," Jidkova says, "and I found myself up 4-1. Then she caught up fast. After that it was a battle. In first set tiebreaker I had a set point, and she gave me a short ball. I hit approach shot and went to the net praying to God she will miss the passing shot. And she did. I won 7-6. After that she called a trainer, but I stayed focused and won 6-2."
Makarova, who is 1-3 against Serena Williams, won her sole match 6-2, 6-3 in the fourth round of the 2012 Australian Open. Where does the win rank? "I think it ranks high definitely – in top 3," says Makarova. "I leave maybe Fed Cup at the beginning."
Beating Serena
The day before Pennetta's quarterfinal against Williams, an Italian journalist asked Hingis what advice she might give her doubles partner. "[Serena's] a great champion, but I think Flavia played her many times herself," Hingis said.
When the journalist noted Pennetta lost every time, it seemed to be news to Hingis. She considered this before continuing. "Well, she just has to go out there, nothing to lose, play her game. Try to guess the serve obviously. Try to make her play as much as possible. I know it's difficult to dictate… but you have to try to impose your game."
Jidkova says the main reason Williams is hard to beat is "because she has so much power and she is feisty" and that when she's on it's hard for anyone to come close.
And that list of players Williams says she can fill out completely doesn't surprise Jidkova in the least. "No, because she didn't lose much when she really played," Jidkova said.
***
Players who have defeated Serena, and their records against her:
Venus Williams (11-14)
Jennifer Capriati (7-10)
Martina Hingis (6-7)
Justine Henin (6-8)
Elena Dementieva (5-7)
Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (4-3)
Patty Schnyder (4-8)
Jelena Jankovic (4-10)
Lindsay Davenport (4-10)
Sandrine Testud (3-5)
Nadia Petrova (3-7)
Samantha Stosur (3-8)
Victoria Azarenka (3-14)
Sybille Bammer (2-0)
Alizé Cornet (2-3)
Francesca Schiavone (2-7)
Kim Clijsters (2-7)
Svetlana Kuznetsova (2-7)
Vera Zvonareva (2-7)
Amélie Mauresmo (2-10)
Maria Sharapova (2-16)
Alexia Dechaume-Balleret (1-0)
Annie Miller (1-0)
Jana Cepelova (1-0)
Mary Joe Fernandez (1-0)
Paola Suárez (1-0)
Tiantian Sun (1-0)
Virginie Razzano (1-0)
Aleksandra Wozniak (1-1)
Alina Jidkova (1-1)
Anna Chakvetadze (1-1)
Chanda Rubin (1-1)
Dominique Monami (1-1)
Garbiñe Muguruza (1-1)
Joannette Kruger (1-1)
Kimberly Po-Messerli (1-1)
Silvia Farina Elia (1-1)
Steffi Graf (1-1)
Virginia Ruano Pascual (1-1)
Yung-Jan Chan (1-1)
Jill Craybas (1-2)
Meghann Shaughnessy (1-2)
Nathalie Tauziat (1-2)
Sabine Lisicki (1-2)
Sloane Stephens (1-2)
Ekaterina Makarova (1-3)
Irina Spirlea (1-3)
Katarina Srebotnik (1-3)
Marion Bartoli (1-3)
Elena Likhovtseva (1-4)
Klara Koukalova (1-4)
Magui Serna (1-4)
Monica Seles (1-4)
Angelique Kerber (1-5)
Mary Pierce (1-5)
Dinara Safina (1-6)
Ana Ivanovic (1-7)
Caroline Wozniacki (1-8)
Daniela Hantuchova (1-9)
Li Na (1-11)
PHOTOS: Serena Williams' style on the court“How’d Choi beat Daigo?”
That was the question on everyone’s lips at Evo 2014, as word spread that John “ChoiBoy” Choi’s legendary Ryu had taken out Daigo “The Beast” Umehara of Team Mad Catz in four straight rounds, ending Umehara’s run at an Ultra Street Fighter IV championship.
To gather their thoughts on the match, I spoke with a panel of excellent minds in the fighting game community: Long “ShadyK” Tran, Eric “Juicebox” Albino, Team Spooky’s Arturo “Sabin” Sanchez, Anthony “Crackfiend” Nguyen, Jay “Viscant” Snyder of Brokentier, and, of course, John Choi himself. Here’s what they had to say.
I’m surprised how many people thought this was an upset. Choi probably has the best shoto versus shoto game in the world, even in Street Fighter IV. In fact, he doesn’t lose many old school type matchups. When you see him go down in a tournament, it’s usually to a mix-up heavy character like Makoto or Yun. A few years ago, Choi and Daigo played a Ryu mirror match in Super Street FIghter IV (I think at NorCal or SoCal Regionals — I can’t seem to find the video), and it came down to pixels of the last round of the set, with Daigo taking it. This was when Choi wasn’t all that practiced and Daigo was dominating, so it shows how valuable Choi’s raw matchup knowledge is from past games.
He’s just a monster when it comes to any classic zoning matchup, even in unfavorable ones like Ryu versus Dhalsim. He doesn’t even have the best Ryu tech; it’s just that his opponent-reading skills are unmatched. Plus, you have to factor in that Ryu probably has a slight edge over Evil Ryu with a better crouching MK (since the entire mid-range game in this matchup is based on crouching MK and Hadoken). So yeah, it really wasn’t a huge shocker to see Choi beat the Beast.
Match 1, Game 1: John Choi plays defensively, Daigo unable to really get much started. John uses occasional aggressive cr.MKs and EX fireballs to keep Daigo guessing on the approach. Also read one fireball with a jump for big damage.
1-2: Starts the same, but Daigo is able to corner John and lands two EX axe kicks. Daigo lands two cr.MKs this round, but does not convert off of them with FADCs. John continues to play well defensively, baits Daigo’s DP to bring the life totals closer, and takes back the lead with hadoukens. He successfully gets a timeout.
2-1: John gets an early focus crumple for the lead, and Daigo soon answers with his own but fails the conversion. Daigo is able to get his mixup game going this round but John makes a good read on Daigo’s movement and evens it out with a F+HP combo and steals the round.
2-2: This round starts out evenly. When Daigo dashes forward after a LV1 focus hit, he does an uppercut FADC to another uppercut for the weak hit. This may have been another error, unless he was playing ahead of himself (he may have expected the DP to be blocked so he wanted to do another one after the FADC). Daigo chooses to play more defensively this round, possibly trying to bait a jump from John. After landing a sweep he is able to get a BnB combo but -again- fails the conversion. John is able to close it out with another great read with F+HP and a final jump over a fireball.
John Choi was playing very good defense with occasional offensive movements for this entire set. He made great reads for big damage and the win in almost every round. Although both players made execution mistakes, Daigo’s were much more costly and cost him two separate rounds. John’s defense was simply excellent and prevented Daigo from getting much of anything going. It’s possible that Daigo was not in “top form” due to hunger/sleep/nervousness/etc., but I think at the end of the day he simply underestimated Choi’s ability to play the matchup.
After reviewing the match several times, John defeating Daigo at Evo came down to a few simple things. Lets get the obvious out of the way first: the combo drops. Simply put, John played better and made fewer mistakes. It was strange to see both of them missing simple FADC combos (especially Daigo), but the human element is a factor. Regardless of who is “better” on paper, the player that wins is the one that makes fewer mistakes during the set.
To go into it further and examine the more subtle stuff: John had better control during the mid-range game, which allowed him to control the pace of the match. Although Evil Ryu has superior walk speed and superior damage (not to mention that his cr.MK -> fireball is a true blockstring from farther ranges) Ryu still has a superior cr.MK frame data-wise. The frame data on both their regular fireballs are exactly the same, but Ryu’s EX fireball has faster startup and a better advantage on block, allowing John to score some knockdowns and keep the pace of the match in his favor.
[column size=”one-half”]
Evil Ryu
Crouching MK – 7f startup, -3 on block
Fireball – 13f startup, -6 on block
EX Fireball – 12f startup, 0 on block
[/column] [column size=”one-half” last=”true”]
Ryu
Crouching MK – 5f startup, -2 on block
Fireball – 13f startup, -6 on block
EX Fireball – 11f startup, +1 on block
[/column]
Source: Bradygames Official Ultra Street Fighter IV frame data app (hopefully in the future, frame data apps will measure fireball speeds so that I can know for sure. 🙂 )
In addition to this, John also played very conservatively during the match as a shoto — his style is more reserved than Alex Valle’s for sure, considering Valle is famously known for rushing down. In one match, Choi won by timer scam!
I’d like to propose an additional question: How did Daigo lose to John Choi this year? At a glance, the questions may seem synonymous — but if you take a closer look, I’m merely making both players accountable for the outcome of the match, which I believe is more fair. Let’s take a look at the first question:
How did John Choi beat Daigo?
John Choi is one of the most fundamentally sound players to ever play Street Fighter. His investment in fireballs and ability to land them usually yields a lot of returns, and that is exactly what happened against Daigo. I’ll elaborate more on this a bit later, but let’s take a look at Daigo.
How did Daigo lose to John Choi?
Daigo’s greatest strength ended up becoming his biggest weakness: fireball game/footsies. He is not weak in these categories — but, his decision to use footsies/fireball games as the primary strategy for Evil Ryu became his biggest flaw. Ryu’s damage output opportunities don’t compare to Evil Ryu’s, that’s a given. However, Daigo chose to try and match John’s pace — slow and meticulous. To support this theory, let us look at some basic numbers for the fireball war.
Fireball Output: John Choi vs Daigo
Just looking at the numbers alone, John outperformed Daigo in every category for the fireball war during their Evo match. Daigo tried matching the pace and paid the price. Even if the numbers were roughly the same, it’s still in favor of Ryu simply because he has more health and does more damage from his fireballs. Daigo relied on what he knew best, but John’s conversion and damage output with his fireballs were too much to handle.
To tell you the truth, I didn’t see this match live so I had to look it up on YouTube just now and watch it. I say this because since I already know what happened before I processed the match, I might be a little biased and try to look for reasons that aren’t there.
The first thing I see is that this isn’t the cleanest game. John dropped a few combos and Daigo dropped a few as well. Given the nature of the characters, a sloppy game obviously benefits Ryu over Evil Ryu. That’s Evil Ryu’s whole game, turning a low forward into huge damage, and that never happened. Daigo never got a full Evil Ryu combo off. In the second game he had a couple opportunities and dropped them both, one a drop off close fierce which is just a massive drop given the context of the match. If Daigo plays clean in the second game both rounds go completely differently and are probably wins for Daigo.
But what definitively won the match for John was the fireball game. The story of the whole match is Daigo trying to be the bully here and taking advantage of his low forward into fireball and John throwing fireballs slightly outside of that range to keep Daigo at bay. John knows that this strategy is going to cost him screen space; part of finding this range involves moving backwards. But he’s trying to give as little ground as possible and he manages to hold his ground relatively well. Also, even though the strategy called for John to throw more unprotected fireballs, Daigo doesn’t jump his fireballs EVER during the set whereas John lands a successful jump in during round one that basically wins him the round and a successful jump-in in the final seconds to seal the set.
Daigo couldn’t take advantage of Ryu’s weaknesses in this match either. There are plenty of times that John does a max range low forward into fireball that isn’t a true block string. Even though this is one of the reasons Daigo is dropping Ryu, he couldn’t make John pay here. I found that ironic, at least in an Alanis Morissette way.
It’s important not to read too much into this short set. As I said, drops play a huge factor through the second game and in the first game, Daigo inexplicably lets John out of the corner in the second round which swings the whole round, a round that John would win very narrowly. This clearly wasn’t the best Daigo has to offer but I give John a lot of credit. He held his ground when he needed to and got a lot of mileage out of Ryu’s “weaker” low forward and won the match on old-school Street Fighter fundamentals.
I attribute it to a little bit of scouting, a little bit of practice, and a lot to luck. =)
For scouting, I saw Daigo play against Alex Valle and Ryan “RG|Filipino Champ” Ramirez earlier in the day. I used the knowledge I gained from observing those matches to prepare my game plan. I saw Valle’s Ryu try to fight Evil Ryu head-on, and that did not pan out too well due to the damage differential. I saw Champ successfully minimize Evil Ryu’s high damage output by choosing lower damage defense options. I’ll elaborate on these points a bit later.
For practice, my sole knowledge of fighting against Evil Ryu comes from the practice session I had with Eduardo “EG|PR Balrog” Perez. I got a chance to play against Ed’s Evil Ryu with my Ryu a few days before Evo, and I initially approached the match as I normally do for a shoto mirror, which is to constantly get to close range to maximize the use of Ryu’s fast normal attacks. I knew his medium kick was slower than mine so I figured I would just get close and beat him out with speed
But that plan did not work out well, as Ed started destroying me whenever I tried to approach. I ran into his foot while jockeying for position and ended up losing a ton of life. Whenever we were at close range, he would fake throws and land counter hits with fierce or hop kick that would result in massive damage. Although I felt that we were both getting a similar number of openings, I just could not keep up with the damage differential. I learned that it was not wise to take Evil Ryu head-on with Ryu.
Since I could not fight up close, I then thought about what other strategy I could focus on. In a matchup, you always want to maximize on your strengths and minimize your weakness. I felt Ryu was weak in the close-up game against Evil Ryu due to the damage options. Once Ryu gets inside footsie range, he has an advantage with his faster medium kick. Just outside of footsie range, Evil Ryu has advantage with the damage potential that results from walking into his kick. From far range, Ryu has the clear advantage with a better fireball game. So my game plan was to play to the best advantage and stick to the classic fireball game and stay away as much as possible. If Evil Ryu got within striking distance, I would make sure to block low and get out to fireball range or to inside footsie range and harass with my faster kicks. I wanted to avoid running into his foot while jockeying for position so I used EX fireballs often to make him weary about sticking it out. And finally, I mixed in rushing fierce punches to annoy even further outside of footsie range.
If Evil Ryu ever got near me, I chose to take the throw damage rather than the counter hit damage. This tactic was something I used back in the Capcom vs. SNK 2 days whenever A-Bison got near me with meter. I chose the lesser of two evils by taking a low damaging throw than eating a custom combo for 80% life. I observed Champ successfully utilizing this tactic against Daigo earlier in the day; he chose to take three throws in a row rather than being hit by a combo which would do even more damage.
As soon as I saw the bracket and knew I would face Daigo next, I sat down and started playing out the scenarios in my head using the experience I gained by sparring with Ed and observing Valle and Champ. My happy place was far away throwing fireballs, and my death came whenever I got near. I would need to use all of my meter to stay in my happy zones. I drilled this into my head, and went into the match with that game plan. Fortunately, this all paid off, and I was victorious this time.
Oh, and the luck factor comes from Daigo dropping some combos. I believe this version was just too new for him to completely master Evil Ryu. I later watched Daigo’s matches against a Honda and Claw player and saw dropped combos as well. But I have no doubt in my mind that Daigo will be back stronger than ever next time. I have the utmost respect for Daigo and I was honored to face him. I hope I’m fortunate enough to face him again in the future.Blues and All Blacks second-row Patrick Tuipulotu has been suspended following a positive drugs test, New Zealand Rugby has revealed.
New Zealand Rugby and the New Zealand Rugby Players Association confirmed via a press statement that they were notified of a positive test result on the 24-year-old in November.
“NZR and NZRPA can confirm that Patrick was shocked by the test result and is working hard to identify the source of the Specified Substance,” the statement read.
“In accordance with World Rugby Anti-Doping Regulations, Patrick remains provisionally suspended pending resolution of this matter.
“Further to these regulations, NZR and NZPRA are bound by strict confidentiality obligations.”
The rugby star and Blues player has not been seen on the pitch since November, after returning home early from a Northern Hemisphere tour, amid what has been described as an “ongoing personal matter”.Art has always been, covering the entire spectrum of relationships, close to Power. Sculptures of heroes(or patriots?), hyperbolic buildings for God’s worship, kings portraits, historical novels… But also criticism against the war or dictatorships, exposure of society’s weaknesses, fight against racism, sexism, slavery… artists have always been IN or AGAINST the system (or both at the same time). But, as we know, the greatest artists, even if they where paid by royalty or religion, they always continued exploring the universe in many ways other than just painting hunting portraits or sculpting perfect greek muscles. In a personal and unique way, every artist make questions. The difficult ones. Where are we? Who are they? What are they hiding? What do they want? Who are we as a society? And as individuals? What does Power mean? Who owns it? The difference between journalists and artists is basically that journalist are not an active player in the conflict. They just try to show it to the world as hard as they can. But artists take and active part in the conflict. They create things, and those things have their own entity in the real world. It´s not the same to do mass produced portraits of Marilyn Monroe, than writing an article about Andy Warhol. That’s, to me, the main difference between both. But don’t get me wrong, they both are equally important when it comes to evolution and society’s health. We need real artists to explore the limits of reality, and we need real journalists to tell us what should be trusted.
That being said, nowadays, the ones that are making the right questions to the right people are, clearly, the hackers. They leak, they break, they create. Even if we are not aware about the complexity of their pieces of art, they are using a language (actually many languages) to communicate their message to the world. If we take a look back at one of the most famous paintings of all the time, La Gioconda, Da Vinci, for example, was an engineer! And I’m sure that he wasn’t actively delimitating the different fields he worked on. “This is art, this is not, this is art, na na na”. He was just an artist giving his life a purpose. Same for Antoni Gaudí. Is there any doubt that Sagrada Família is one of the biggest pieces of art ever? And he was an architect. A mathematician brain. He was just trying to get closer to God in every way he could; he wasn’t thinking about “what branch of arts should I take this 1920 to be trendy on instagram?”, or to be at The MOMA. Let’s be honest here. It’s been a long time since the most common forms of art are corrupted by capitalism and their whims. THIS is better than ‘this’ just because a small elite of speculators need to clean their money. And they are moving everything around the arts scene at their will. I’m not saying that all artists are corrupted and all old forms of art are rubbish, but I’m sure you got the idea.
Some of these new artists are actually working for the establishment, like facebook or google. Others are prosecuted by the law, like Snowden and Assange. But the vast majority of them remain Anonymous. They are exploring the dogmas, lies and truths that no one wants to listen. That no one wants to see. Capitalism may not be as bad as other ideologies we already had before. But it still far from ideal, the opposite of what the status quo wants us to believe. Any other option means communism. (I read a nice quote yesterday about it: “Capitalism is: you will never have two cows, but you should fear communism because it will steal you one”). And hackers are trying to break down this Disney’s tale. Capitalism is not about freedom of individuals and economic free trade. Is about Control and Wealth to the 1%, through military power and outlaw/inequitable connections. That’s the reason why we need hackers. That’s why we need the Dark Net. That’s why we need, probably in a more advanced and complex state than never before, our true and real Artists.PASADENA, CA, Aug 28, 2013 (Marketwired via COMTEX) -- Blaze Fast-Fire'd Pizza, the leader in the fast casual built-to order pizza category, today announced that it will soon be opening a new location near the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). Scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2013, the new 50-seat restaurant, which features an outdoor patio for afternoon and evening dining, will be located at 6546 Pardall Road Isla Vista, CA (UCSB) immediately next to Freebirds World Burrito and near The Habit Burger Grill.
Blaze Pizza uses an assembly line format (similar to Chipotle Mexican Grill(R)), that lets guests customize one of the menu's signature pizzas or create one of their own, choosing from a wide selection of fresh, artisanal toppings -- all for about $7. The generously sized personal pizzas are then sent to a blazing hot open-hearth oven -- the centerpiece of the restaurant -- where dedicated pizzasmiths ensure that the thin-crust pies are " |
.
May believes the NDP leader is spending so much time in the province because he fears her Green party.
"That's why Thomas Mulcair was on Vancouver Island,” she says. “There is a visible, palpable momentum for the Green party, particularly in British Columbia, so some of the old-line parties notice it.”
Mulcair is hoping to solidify the NDP gains in B.C. where they won 12 seats — up from nine in 2008 — with 32.5 per cent support in 2011. The Conservatives, with 44 per cent of support, won 21 seats. The Liberals, with 18 per cent of support, held two metro Vancouver seats. May won her Saanich–Gulf Island seat.
But she, like all three other parties with a stake in the province, has her eye on many more.
“Ground Zero for the ‘Green Coast’ is Southern Vancouver Island, and basically as you go up Vancouver Island, the Green strength is growing,” she says.
So does that mean possibly two extra seats for the Greens later this year?
“No, no, no, no, no. Way, way, way more than that,” May says, listing off other seats she thinks are in play such as Burnaby North–Seymour and West Vancouver–Sunshine Coast–Sea to Sky Country.
If she’s worried about vote splitting, she doesn’t let on. Though she does say she wants to be “careful” about not helping to elect more Conservative MPs.
“I'm going to keep my eye on that,” she tells HuffPost. That’s why, she says, the Greens “are concentrating where we know we can win.”
“The Green strategy rejects the whole notion that we have to be very frightened and very limited in our thinking and panicked about vote splitting. Canada’s problem is not vote splitting, it is vote abandoning,” she adds.
“Where Greens do well, it is by driving up voter turnout.”
May says, often, that she won her riding by increasing the voter turnout. In 2011, her riding had almost 74 per cent, the second-highest voter turnout in Canada. That’s true. But the voter turnout in Saanich–Gulf Island has been higher than 70 per cent in several past elections, with a strong Green showing. She won in 2011 because the Liberal vote collapsed to six per cent from 39 per cent.
May insists that she isn’t worried at all “about this phantom vote-splitting thing” and says voters are becoming immune to that line.
Power Over Politics
She says the NDP ran a desperation campaign during a 2012 byelection, telling Victoria voters they would end up electing a Conservative if they voted Green. In the end, the Green candidate narrowly lost to the NDP, and the Tory candidate received just 14.5 per cent of the vote.
May says the results showed how the NDP exaggerated the threat of the Tories, and Victoria voters didn’t listen to that message again during the 2013 provincial election — they elected a Green member to the provincial legislature.
“If you cry wolf too often, people don’t believe you anymore,” she says.
Her candidate in Victoria, however, says strategic voting is a real concern.
“I think that people are very afraid of another Stephen Harper majority, so, yes, it is a factor. I think I would be unrealistic if I said it wasn’t a factor,” Jo-Ann Roberts says in a phone interview.
“I think it is terribly ironic that it is the NDP who are using this argument – for years, this was the argument used against them.”
Roberts is a well-known journalist and former host of CBC Radio’s “All Points West.” She told HuffPost she was approached by the Liberals to run in Victoria but chose to join the Greens instead because May was showing how politics could be done differently.
“I think if I was going for power over principles, it might have been a better choice,” she jokes, noting that when she joined the Greens she didn’t know the polls were looking so favourable.
Victoria has been held by the NDP since 2006 but was a Liberal seat from 1993 to 2006 and a Conservative seat from 1972 to 1988. This year, it may be one of the ridings with a real four-way split.
The Greens’ biggest challenge could be people like Alex Gosselin. The 25-year-old engineering student is a Green party member and was among the hundreds who attended a Q&A session with Justin Trudeau at UBC a day after Mulcair’s Nanaimo town hall.
“I wanted to hear what Justin Trudeau has to say,” he says. “I’m most likely going to vote Green again unless Justin Trudeau can convince me that I should strategically vote in favour of the Liberals. I don’t think that’s likely, but I’m willing to give him a chance.”
He believes a lot of Greens across the country are having the same internal debate.
“It’s a question of whether we are more interested in supporting the Green party … so they can be given more respect by the establishment of this country [or in] getting rid of Stephen Harper,” he says. “Those two goals, in some ridings, are in conflict.”
A senior Liberal source close to the B.C. campaign says May could play the role of spoiler.
“It’s almost too early to say how it is going to break out,” he said.
If May recruits high-profile candidates with lots of volunteers who can raise $50,00-$75,000 to run Cadillac campaigns, he says, the Greens can have a big influence on a local races.
“That candidate is still not going to win but [could] get 15, 16 per cent, up from seven or eight per cent, and all of a sudden another candidate that should have won that riding doesn’t because they are pulling disproportionately from one candidate.”
A Good Offence
With only two out of the current 36 seats in B.C., the Liberals have lots of room to grow, but the region has never been too friendly to them. Their best showing recently was in 2006, when they won nine seats with close to 28 per cent of the vote in the province.
This time, the Grits see five almost certain wins, sources say, including the two seats they currently hold in Vancouver Centre and Vancouver Quadra. The party won’t identify the three other ridings they expect to win, but they most likely include Vancouver Granville and Vancouver South.
The Conservatives are worried about Vancouver South. They have held the riding since 2011 and for months have run ads aimed at the Chinese community attacking Trudeau’s stand on legalizing marijuana.
The Liberals’ internal numbers also show strong support in three ridings along the north shore of Vancouver, as well as in the Surrey and Burnaby ridings where Mulcair is travelling this week.
Trudeau speaks at the University of British Columbia. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck
A senior NDP source said New Democrats want to leave the Liberals as little breathing room as possible and want to present a good offence rather than retreat to a defensive position.
The party held a rally on Wednesday in Liberal MP Hedy Fry’s Vancouver Centre riding.
“I’ve been travelling a lot throughout B.C. lately. And whether it is in Campbell River or Port Coquitlam, Surrey or Victoria, Nanaimo or North Vancouver, one thing has emerged loud and clear, that after nine long years of Stephen Harper and the Conservatives, British Columbians are ready for change in Ottawa,” Mulcair told the crowd.
Earlier that day, Mulcair visited a bakery in Burnaby, a riding currently held by his MP, Kennedy Stewart. Stewart won’t be running for this seat this fall – he’s moving to the new riding of Burnaby South, a safer seat for the NDP. The Liberals think they could win this riding, now known as Burnaby North–Seymour, which straddles the Burrard Inlet and includes a large part of North Vancouver.
“Our internal polls place us ahead of the Conservatives as of January,” says Terry Beech, the Liberal candidate in that riding, “but we’re not taking anything for granted.”
If the party doesn’t gain on its two current Vancouver seats, Beech acknowledges, that would be a disaster.
“I think that 2011 was a good call to reality for the party. Now that we have gone back to our grassroots, everyone is committed to getting on the ground, door knocking … and actually hearing what our constituents have to say.”
On Thursday, Mulcair will be in B.C. with NDP MP Jinny Sims, who is running in Surrey–Newton, another battleground riding between the New Democrats and the Grits. Sims faces a tough battle against former Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal, whom she defeated in 2011 by 903 votes.
While the Liberals think as many as 15 to 20 seats could be in play in the province, one source acknowledges that they can’t win anything beyond the south on Vancouver Island. “We just can’t.”
Local radio reporter, Hilary Eastmure from 91.7 Coast FM News, says Trudeau’s lack of interest in making any sort of appeal to Nanaimo voters is “disheartening.” He hasn’t been to the area since 2013.
“People feel isolated from that party and ignored,” she says. “Nothing will ever change for [the federal Liberals] if they keep up that attitude and see sort of, the whole Island as a lost cause. It would be nice to see them put some sort of an effort.”
UBC political scientist Allan Tupper says it doesn’t make much sense for party leaders to tour areas they have no hope of winning. And he believes the results of the upcoming federal vote in B.C. will largely mirror the last election.
“You have to switch a lot of votes around to get a different result,” he says.
Is Change Unlikely?
Pollster Dimitri Pantazopoulos, a partner at Maple Leaf Strategies who has worked with the Tories and provincial Liberals, agrees that no party is going to gain a lot of ground in the next election.
“I don’t believe there is going to be a whole lot of movement in B.C. It may be a game of inches depending on what is happening elsewhere.”
Pantazopoulos believes that, with the six new seats, the Liberals can win two more ridings and the Conservatives another four because of the way the boundaries are being redistributed.
“People tend to vote for the major parties and don’t ‘waste’ a vote on a minor party, because they want to elect a government,” he says. He notes that the 2011 federal NDP surge was based mostly on people who left their natural home, either in the Bloc Québécois or in the Liberal party.
In B.C., however, he says the NDP has an added advantage because the federal party can piggy-back on the provincial party’s strength: its trained volunteers, its lists of supporters, its well-developed ground game.
Riding redistribution, the lack of incumbents (at least 12 ridings out of 42 won’t have sitting MPs competing for re-election), money, the strength of the candidates and hard work could make a difference in the few seats that are not solid NDP, or solid Liberal or solid Conservative, he adds.
A Liberal source predicts “more three-way races in B.C. then anywhere else in the country, at least on a per capita basis.”
That’s something Conservative strategist and former cabinet minister Stockwell Day is counting on.
“I think [the Tories] are going to run hard on the economic message and let the two other parties fight,” he tells HuffPost.
Several Conservatives, including Day, believe it’s possible the Tories will lose votes but actually win more seats if the Liberals take support from the NDP, letting Conservative candidates slip past.
“I don’t see any particular area that has radically opened up for the Liberals … [but] I always like to see dreamers.”
ALSO ON HUFFPOST:
Photo gallery The Life Of Elizabeth May See Gallery Leaders Target B.C. To Gain Seats In 2015 Federal Election 1 / 26
The Life Of Elizabeth May 1 / 26
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Ruins of a house in Grubori burned during the war; photo taken in 2014. Photo courtesy of Marko Sjekavica.
Zagreb-based NGO Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past filed a criminal complaint to the Croatian state attorney’s office on Friday over war crimes committed during and after the victorious military Operation Storm in August 1995.
Documenta filed the complaint against unknown direct perpetrators who shot and killed ten mostly elderly Serb civilians in the village of Uzdolje and the surrounding hamlets, near the Croatian town of Knin.
While researching human losses during Croatia’s 1990s war, Documenta’s researchers talked to witnesses who told them about the killings there on August 6, 1995. On August 5 and 8, soldiers also burned houses in these villages, Documenta was told.
According to witnesses who gave statements to Documenta, one Croatian soldier opened fire in Uzdolje, killing Milica Sare, Stevo Beric, Janja Beric, Djudjija Beric, Krsto Sare, Milos Cosic and Jandrija Sara, who were all between 62 and 79 years of age.
Soldiers also killed 73-year-old Sava Sare on her porch afterwards.
In the nearby hamlet of Vrbnik, unknown Croatian soldiers also killed 61- or 62-year-old Lazo Damjanic and 28-year-old Predrag Zaric.
Croatia takes back control During Operation Storm, Croatian forces regained territory controlled since late 1991 by rebel Croatian Serbs, who had been helped by the Yugoslav People’s Army and Serbian paramilitaries. As well as committing large-scale crimes against Croats, the rebel Serb authorities expelled between 200,000 and 250,000 non-Serbs from their unrecognised wartime statelet, the Republic of Serbian Krajina. After peace talks failed, Croatian special police units and army troops crushed the rebel Serb fighters between August 4 and 7, 1995, and retook all of their territories except ones in eastern Croatia. The operation led to a humanitarian crisis, as up to 200,000 Serb civilians left Croatia during and after the operation. The UN refugee agency estimates that in 1995, a total of around 250,000 Serbs left Croatia. Croatian forces and unknown perpetrators also killed a number of Serb civilians during and after the operation.
Before this, Zaric was allegedly imprisoned by rebel Serbs in Knin for a while after he refused to serve in their armed forces. He is said to have had a certificate proving he that refused to fight for the rebel Serb authorities, but he was killed anyway.
“We’re filing this against unknown perpetrators, although witnesses detected some things in their statements. Three [perpetrators] have been identified who were wearing uniforms and were in direct contact with their superiors from certain units of the Croatian Army,” Eugen Jakovcic from Documenta told BIRN.
Jakovcic explained that Documenta’s aim was to show that “facts [about crimes] exist” that only need to be processed by the legal authorities.
Responding to questions from media about Documenta’s criminal complaint, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Friday: “Croatia is a democratic state, a state in which freedom of speech for all NGOs exists.”
The prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia included seven Serb civilians who were shot in Uzdolje in its case against Croatian generals Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak. The trial chamber acquitted Cermak in April 2011 and the appeals chamber acquitted Gotovina and Markac in November 2012.
The Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights has accounted for 677 victims of Operation Storm.
But the state attorney’s office said in 2012 that there were 27 war crimes committed against 167 people. Of this number, unknown perpetrators committed 24 of the crimes, involving 155 victims.
Responding to BIRN’s inquiry about the possibility that those numbers could now be higher, the state attorney’s office said that due to the “ongoing development of the informatics system” used for its war crimes data, it “cannot give precise information on the number of war crimes committed by unknown perpetrators”.
Regarding crimes committed by known perpetrators, it stated that a total of five investigations against 11 perpetrators have been launched, along with four indictments against seven persons.
UN footage of Grubori after the crime was committed.
In the Gotovina case, the Hague Tribunal concluded that Operation Storm caused the deaths of 44 civilian victims.
Meanwhile the Croatian judiciary has prosecuted only a fraction of war crimes committed during and after Storm.
In May 2014, the Supreme Court in Zagreb issued the only conviction for war crimes committed by Croatian forces during the operation.
Bozo Bacelic, a former platoon commander in the reconnaissance company of the 113th brigade of Croatian Army, was sentenced to seven years for killing a couple, Nikola and Milica Damjanic, aged 76 and 74, on August 11, 1995, in front of their house on Lake Prokljan.
The Supreme Court also found him guilty of killing a captured Serb soldier, Vuk Mandic, in the hamlet of Mandici, some 40 kilometres from Prokljan, on August 9 or 10.
Bacelic initially ordered his subordinates – Ante Mamic, Luka Vuko and Jurica Ravlic – to shoot the Damjanics, but they did not, so he shot them himself.
After two retrials, the Supreme Court acquitted Mamic, Vuko and Ravlic in March 2016, while earlier courts established that the fact that they helped the killer had fallen under the statute of limitations.
Inside of a burned house in Grubori; photo taken in 2014. Photo courtesy of Marko Sjekavica.
There are still two ongoing cases for Storm crimes before Croatian courts.
Rajko Krickovic, a former member of the 118th home guard regiment of the Croatian Army, is being tried for shooting a brother and sister, 43-year-old Radomir Sovilj and 45-year-old Mira Sovilj, and setting their house on fire with their 73-year-old mother Mara Sovilj inside.
The crime was committed between August 15 and 28 in the village of Kijani, near Gracac in the central Lika region, which was also where Krickovic was born.
Allegedly Krickovic committed the crimes to revenge several of his comrades who died in Operation Storm.
The trial started at Rijeka county court in January this year, and Krickovic pleaded not guilty.
The other ongoing Storm trial, for crimes committed in the village of Grubori in the Knin area, is a long-running process which started in 2011.
Three former members of the ‘Lucko’ anti-terrorist unit from Zagreb – Frano Drljo, Bozo Krajina and Igor Beneta – were indicted back in December 2010. Beneta went into hiding, and the media reported his alleged suicide in November 2011, while the court continued the trial of Drljo and Krajina.
The killings happened amid an ‘anti-terrorist’ operation in the area involving 560 special policemen, just after Storm, aiming to secure the passage of a ‘Freedom Train’ carrying President Franjo Tudjman from Zagreb to Split via Knin.
The men are accused of killing six mostly elderly Serb civilians – Milica Grubor, Marija Grubor, Jovo Grubor, Jovan Grubor, Milos Grubor and Djuro Karanovic – in their beds in Grubori on August 25, and then torching the hamlet afterwards.
Zagreb county court acquitted Drljo and Krajina in June 2014, although judge Zdravko Majerovic concluded that “it is indisputable that six elderly people were killed and that these killings were committed by members of the ‘Lucko’ anti-terrorist unit”.
Frano Drljo and Bozo Krajina on trial at Zagreb county court. Photo: Beta.
However, the Supreme Court quashed the first-instance verdict in December 2015, claiming that some Drlja’s statements were “contradictory”, and insisting that former unit members – most of who claimed that they did not recall the operation – must testify again. The Supreme Court also insisted that another judge at Zagreb county court takes the case.
Zagreb county court judge Ivan Turudic acquitted Drljo and Krajina again in February 2016, saying that “the only fact is that a terrible crime was committed… a bestial crime committed against civilians”.
The state attorney’s office filed an appeal, but the Supreme Court has not yet scheduled any hearings in the case.
In a case connected to the Grubori violence, Zeljko Sacic, the deputy commander of the Croatian special police headquarters at the time, was indicted in January 2015 for not monitoring, sanctioning and reporting on the war crimes committed by the ‘Lucko’ unit.
The state attorney’s office also accused him of banning police from searching for evidence in the area, and thus interfering with the criminal investigation.
According to the indictment, he filed a false report to his senior commander, which said that the unit had encountered an armed group of around eight to ten enemy soldiers, with the consequence that one of them was killed and four civilians died as ‘collateral damage’.
Along with Sacic, Drljo was accused, as a group commander within the Lucko unit, of participating in the burning of a number of houses in the village the Ramljani, on the road from Knin to the town of Drnis.
But in February 2015, the state attorney’s office withdrew its indictment, saying that it had “significant shortcomings”, and later dropped the case.
However, some have claimed that Croatia’s lack of war crimes verdicts is somewhat compensated by that fact that the country’s courts have convicted people of committing murder and other crimes during the conflict.
The state attorney’s office told BIRN that it had initiated several thousand criminal cases after Operation Storm.
It said that it launched criminal procedures against 3,728 people for murder, violence, sexual crimes, theft and destruction of property.
Of these, 2,380 people were convicted.
A total of 14 people – ten of them soldiers – were convicted of murder, although not of committing a war crime.
Gotovina’s lawyer Luka Misetic has argued however that the murder defendants received prison sentences similar in length to the ones they would have got for war crimes.SINGAPORE/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM.N) has become the latest global agricultural trader to undergo senior management changes as the sector grapples with a grain glut that is depressing prices.
The world's largest corn mill of global grain company Archer Daniels Midland is pictured in Decatur, Illinois March 16, 2015. REUTERS/Karl Plume
The chief executive at the U.S.-based firm’s trading arm in Asia, Frederik Groth, has left the company, two traders and a company source said on Friday.
In November, Patrick Heijbroek became the company’s global head of grain trade, a change from his experience trading vegetable oils earlier in his career, according to his LinkedIn profile.
ADM spokeswoman Jackie Anderson said on Friday the company does not comment on personnel matters.
The changes come after a volatile year for global commodity traders, with bumper crops in major growing nations like the United States and production shortfalls in South America jarring markets for corn Cc1 and soybeans Sc1 and intensifying competition among merchants.
Losses stemming from ADM’s global trading desk contributed to a 53 drop in first quarter profit last year.
Groth came to ADM via German-based commodity trader Toepfer International, where he served as CEO of its Asia unit from 2012 to 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile.
In June 2014, ADM took full ownership of Toepfer after amassing an 80 percent stake and renamed the nearly century-old company as ADM Germany.
Heijbroek formerly worked as a senior trader for COFCO Agri, according to his LinkedIn page.
Last week, COFCO Agri, the international grains business of China’s state run COFCO Corp [CNCOF.UL], said that Matt Jansen had resigned as CEO after 18 months.
Kevin Brassington, COFCO Agri’s global head of grains and oilseeds, also left, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Jansen and Brassington formerly worked for ADM.Satirical forecast (Empire News)
The same satire Web site that announced Betty White dyed (her hair) last week, now proclaims epic snows will bury the U.S. this winter.
“Pretty much everyone will see snow like they never have in their lives,” says Edward F. Blankenbaker, Senior Administrator of Meteorologists, according to spoof-source Empire News. “Most younger people don’t even know what an actual blizzard looks like, but by the end of March, they will be seasoned survivalists.”
Just like many people on the internet didn’t “get” the Betty White hoax and shared it with all of their friends, the fake snow forecast has also gone viral.
“As of 9:00AM, the Empire News hoax has nearly 400,000 shares on Facebook despite the fact that the social media site added a giant “SATIRE” label to the article,” writes Dennis Mersereau at Gawker’s weather blog, The Vane.
For falling for this snow joke, Mersereau concludes “the stupidity of people is endless.”
I’m tempted to draw a gentler conclusion: People aren’t stupid, but simply prone to be misled when they are bombarded by information, read hastily (often only reading headlines or scanning stories), and don’t “check out” the validity of sources. (Also, some of the shares likely came from people who “got” the joke, and thought it was funny.)
In this “wild, wild, west” of weather information, read carefully and think twice about sharing forecasts unless they’re coming from a credible source which you have relied upon in the past. Be especially skeptical of out of the ordinary forecasts for extreme temperatures, precipitation amounts, or storms more than a few days into the future.
Practically every week, different internet sources disseminate weather information which is unreliable, simply made-up, or both. The only way to battle this is to keep coming back to trusted sources and get your network of family and friends to do the same.
Related:
Should you believe winter forecasts issued in August? Probably not.
Hurricane hype is here to stay; Forecasters must adaptLike the nose of a camel under the tent, archaeological research has raised new questions about the Bible's version of ancient history.
Two researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) studied the bones of camels found in an area of ancient copper mines in the Aravah Valley, south of the Dead Sea. Using radiocarbon dating and other techniques, they determined that camels were first used in the mining operations near the end of the 10th century BC.
They state that this is the first evidence of domesticated camels in ancient Israel.
This would be almost 1,000 years later than the time of the patriarchs, when camels first appear in the Bible. The most memorable account is the story of Abraham's servant, Eliezer, in Genesis 24, who is sent by Abraham to find a wife for his son Isaac. He finds Rebecca, who not only draws water from a well to quench Eliezer's thirst, but also waters his 10 camels.
Their study was quickly used to claim that the Bible was written or edited long after the events it describes. Headlines included:
The Mystery of the Bible's Phantom Camels
Camels Had No Business in Genesis
Will camel discovery break the Bible's back?
Study of camel bones suggests Bible may be wrong
Camel archaeology contradicts the Bible
But evangelical scholars say the claims are overblown.
The use of camels for copper mining is an important discovery. "But to extrapolate from that and say they never had domesticated camels anywhere else in Israel in the 1,000 years before that is an overreach," said Todd Bolen, professor of Biblical Studies at The Master's College in Santa Clarita, California. "The conclusions are overstated."
While it has been difficult for archaeologists...
1Join Take Two each weekday at 9 AM where we’ll translate the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that people are talking about. Find us on 89.3 KPCC, hosted by A Martinez.
You might finally get to own your cell phone, but there are still plenty of rules about how you can use it. For people in California, those rules just got more strict.
A California court has extended the ban on using cell phones while driving. It's not just texting and talking that are off limits, now you're barred from using your GPS apps, too. Specifically, the ruling says you cannot have your hands on a cell phone while driving:
“The distraction would be present whether the wireless telephone was being used as a telephone, a GPS navigator a clock or a device for sending and receiving text messages and emails.”
"I think the state of California would really just like us all to put our cell phones down while driving," said Zac Estrada, writer for the auto website Jalopnik. "The cell phone ban was in 2008 and the texting ban was in 2010. Since then there are so many more things you can do with a smart phone, so the law I don't think was refined enough to stipulate, you can't send an email, you can't check the stocks, you can't check the weather, and you can't check for directions."
Estrada points out that many newer cars come with GPS mapping devices, but that these, too can pose a distracted driving threat.
"The problem is some of these systems are just incredibly frustrating to use. You can be driving and trying to tell the car where you want to go, and while you're having an argument with the voice commands you could run a stop sign, you could run into a car," said Estrada. "I don't think that some of these systems that are intended to keep both hands on the wheel are actually that much safer to use when driving than a smartphone app."
Estrada recommends punching in the directions to your phone before getting on the road. If you need to get directions while en route somewhere, pull over to take care of the directions, then exercise caution if you need to glance at them while driving.James Gandolfini's punishing role as Tony Soprano required him to delve into the violent psyche of the character, an experience that began to take its toll on the late actor as the show wore on, a recently released book excerpt reveals.
In January 2002, during filming of HBO's The Sopranos, Gandolfini failed to show up for work for several days, leading many to fear the worst, according to the excerpt, published in GQ's July 2013 issue.
PHOTOS: James Gandolfini: 15 Iconic Movie and TV Roles
By that time, Gandolfini had become prone to fits and absences on the Sopranos set, according to Brett Martin's Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution. He often would refuse to work. The next day, he would feel so bad about his behavior that he'd treat the cast and crew to luxury gifts such as massages or a sushi chef at lunch.
So when he didn't show up one Friday night for the filming of Furio Giunta's final appearance, few people panicked, Martin claims.
STORY: Tim Goodman on James Gandolfini: 'You Couldn't Look Away From Him'
But, his absence ended up lasting three days. The production team had shot the scenes that could be done without him, but people affiliated with the show and HBO began to expect the worst, possibly that Gandolfini was dead, and began to prepare a response.
However, on the fourth day of his absence, Gandolfini called the main number of the show's production office from a Brooklyn beauty salon, where he'd wandered into off the street. He called the only number he could remember and asked for a car to take him home.This is a box of Game Boy themed wiener wrappers designed by artist/illustrator Ben Marsh. Each paper Game Boy comes filled with six cartridge-condoms to help prevent the spread of disease and crying babies.
The handheld-themed packaging contains six pleasurable varieties of "playable" prophylactics, each with its own punny name:
* Ribbed - The Long End of Zelda
* Heat - Dong
* Tingle - Bone Zone 2
* Thin - Super Mario Land of Love
* X Safe - Sextris
* Large - Donkey Shlong
Clever. Of course, I've been rocking video game condoms forever (read: putting my wiener through the hole in PS3 discs). Don't tell the guys at GameStop!
Hit the jump for several more shots of the safety first.
Nerdy Knob Covers Of The Day [thedailywh.at]
Thanks to treekisser, who takes going green to a whole, much more erotic level.Neil Young & Crazy Horse
“Well-Known Secret”
November 22, 1976
Boston Music Hall
Boston, MA
Download: FLAC/MP3
I previously posted the early show via a different source which you can find here.
Source: Hunger City post by “japrainbow” – thanks!!
(TomP) Remaster
Ex Stereo Audience Recording
Lineage: Screamer Bootleg CD > WAV > FLAC
Changes Made (Nero 7):
Phase correction of -0.12 msec
– Corrects balance offset of voices
– Clearer sound
Cross-mixed channels (96:4)
– More bass and body to the sound
– Individual harmonising voices now clearly / separately audible
– Neil’s guitar and voice clearer and more to the foreground
Fixed 200+ volume fluctuations in all the acoustic tracks
Reduced the applause volume by -2dB on all acoustic tracks
Increased music volume on all acoustic tracks by +2dB
Reduced left channel by 10% on electric disks to centre stereo image
Evened the different volume levels on different tracks
Quality: Got to be A++
IMHO this is possibly the best NY / CH ever!! The original boot wasn’t well edited, but
with the changes above, it is now truly great. Neil’s guitar is better recorded and more
to the foreground than most so if you like that…
…Don’t miss it!!
Neil Young: Guitar, Keyboards, Banjo, Harmonica, Vocals
Frank Sampedro: Guitar, Keyboadrs, Vocals
Billy Talbot: Bass, Vocals
Ralph Molina: Drums, Vocals
Disk1 Early Show (solo)
05.37 The Old Laughing Lady
03.51 Human Highway
03.36 Journey Through The Past
03.44 Pocahontas
02.40 The Needle And The Damage Done
03.52 Give Me Strength
05.19 A Man Needs A Maid
05.36 Sugar Mountain
Disk2 Early Show (electric)
06.20 Country Home
02.38 Don’t Cry No Tears
09.38 Down By The River
03.15 Lotta Love
10.58 Like A Hurricane
04.35 After The Goldrush
08.34 Cortez The Killer
08.28 Cinnamon Girl
05.08 Are You Ready For The Country?
Disk3 Late Show (solo)
04.04 Tell Me Why
02.51 Roll Another Number
03.38 Journey Through The Past
02.21 The Needle And The Damage Done
02.59 Harvest
03.47 Campaigner
03.37 Pocahontas
04.29 A Man Needs A Maid
06.52 Sugar Mountain
Disk4 Late Show (electric)
05.21 Country Home
03.06 Don’t Cry No Tears
04.02 Drive Back
09.42 Cowgirl In The Sand
04.36 Bite The Bullet
03.17 Lotta Love
10.25 Like A Hurricane
04.14 After The Goldrush
04.13 Are You Ready For The Country?
06.38 Cortez The Killer
05.20 Cinnamon Girl
02.53 Homegrown
06.23 Southern ManGet the biggest football 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
David Sullivan admits he is daring to dream.
The West Ham supremo has already struck gold with summer signings Diafra Sakho, Enner Valencia, Cheikhou Kouyate and Alex Song – who have helped to lift the club into the top four.
Now Sullivan is moving into mainstream cinema and has targeted a double reason to celebrate even further in May.
Not only is he hopeful that West Ham will cause a shock by finishing in the Champions League places, he is also excited about the release of the film he is part-financing – The Rise of the Krays – also due to be released that month.
“I think we are all daring to dream,” he said. “Sam Allardyce has got the team playing superbly.
“We know – as the song goes – that dreams fade and die. But we hope that will not be the case for us.
(Image: Reuters)
“After 19 games you’ve completed half the season, so we have two tough matches – against Chelsea on Boxing Day and Arsenal two days later – to finish those 19 games.
“We will maybe have a clearer idea of our chances of finishing in the top four after that. As for the film? Well, all my life I’ve loved gangster movies.
“I can go back to The Long Good Friday, Gangster No.1 and my favourite, Get Carter. Well this movie is in that mould and I hope every bit as good.
“Ronnie and Reggie are East End legends, but we wanted to tell the real story. Not just the myths. It’s a challenge, but it’s an exciting challenge.
“It’s a full-length feature film. Eight-week shoot, £3million budget and comes out in May. It is a lot of money, but we haven’t spent a fortune on artists.
“We’ve got two young guys, Simon Cotton and Kevin Leslie, to play Ronnie and Reggie, and they are just sensational.
“My Dad, every lunchtime, used to drink with the Krays’ mum. I’ve got my own experience as well.
West Ham record (14/15 PL season) 9 Won 4 Drawn 5 Lost Statistics accurate as of 27 December 2014. Games played: |
processes on icy worlds before, but those were all on tiny moons locked to massive gas giants. The accepted theory was that the constant pull of those behemoths were yanking on the planets in a form of gravitational massage, tidally heating them as a constant external energy driver. But Pluto is all alone in space, and while Charon is big for a moon, it’s nowhere near massive enough to create the kind of heat necessary to make Pluto into an active world.
We really don’t know what’s happening. The only plausible options we have so far is that Pluto has more of an internal heat source than we thought it did, that it uses heat more efficiently, or it’s somehow trapping remnant heat from earlier in its life longer than we think it should.
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Every celestial body in our Solar System has a certain percentage of radioactive material. Bigger worlds have more raw radioactive material than smaller ones, so they stay heated by the radioactive decay of those materials for longer. We know that radioactivity is a major heat source for the Earth’s interior (something that actually broke early attempts to estimate our home’s age based on thermodynamics!), while it’s commonly accepted that Mars is small enough to have already run out of internal heat.
We expect that Pluto and Charon have the normal proportions of radioactive material. But maybe they had more heat in the first place, a higher proportion of radioactive materials for some unknown reason that we’ll be scratching our heads to figure out.
Or, maybe Pluto has the normal amount of radioactive material, but it’s just more efficient at using that heat. Maybe there’s something weird going on with small, icy bodies that react differently than larger rocky worlds. It could be that only a tiny bit of heat is needed to drive surface processes when you have 3,300 meter (11,000 foot) tall mountains of ice. If so, thermodynamic activity is far, far more efficient, and we’re going to have a whole new batch of theories to test out about how landforms are created on icy worlds.
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Finally, Pluto might be clinging on to its heat for a disproportionately long time. One idea for this is that the ice might act as a thermal blanket from the chill of space, and the interior melted liquid acting as a heat storage device slowly freezing over time. Again, if that’s what’s going on, we’re going to have a really fun time figuring out all the consequences for Pluto and for every other little icy world in our solar system.
Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF
Compared to the revelation that Pluto is an active world, learning that it has epic mountains that would look comfortable next to terrestrial ranges seems like a letdown. And yet, that is itself completely surprising. This is our first look at the bedrock — or, rather, the “bed ice” — of Pluto as it spikes up 3,300 meter (11,000 foot) high into a mountain range that’s on the same scale as our own Rocky Mountains. We confirmed a polar ice cap of methane and nitrogen earlier this week, but those ices are too soft to form topography. While we haven’t found any evidence to support water ice on the surface of Pluto yet (although we’ve certainly been trying!), that’s the natural guess for an ice hard enough to do this. (Inset image: Observations of Pluto over the years via NASA)
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The discovery of these beautiful mountains and the smooth plains makes tomorrow’s data downlink from the New Horizons probe even more exciting. We’re getting a stereopair to this high resolution image, a second image at the same scale from a slightly different angle that will allow us to view this segment of the surface in three dimensional relief.
This really is completely crazy, and we don’t know what to think about it yet. But the most amazing part of all? We’ve got 16 more months of data on the Pluto flyby coming from New Horizons, and no idea what other surprises are in store.
Our visit to Pluto, as it’s turning out, is turning out to be quite remarkable.
Additional reporting by Mika McKinnon and Maddie Stone.
AdvertisementReal Madrid star Toni Kroos admits his side will miss Luka Modric who injured himself playing for Croatia.
Real Madrid have confirmed that Luka Modric tore a muscle in his left thigh during Croatia's Euro 2016 qualifier against Italy on Sunday, with the midfielder set to miss up to four months of action.
An official statement on the European champions' website confirmed that "a tear of the left proximal rectus femoris tendon has been found" following a scan after Modric was substituted early on during the 1-1 draw in Milan.
According to AS.com, Modric landed at Madrid-Barajas airport in mid-afternoon on Monday and headed straight to Real's medical clinic to be examined by the club doctors and undergo an MRI scan on his left thigh.
The scans revealed a small tear -- something that will keep the 29-year-old out of action for anywhere between 12 to 16 weeks.
Modric was a key part of Real Madrid's Champions League-winning side last season.
"I felt a very strong pain in the upper part of my thigh," Modric said. "It still hurts. It is a shame, but football is like that."
Modric's Real teammate Toni Kroos said on Monday, before the results of the scan were revealed: "For us it is a tough blow, because he has played near all the games and was in top form. I do not know very well what he has, and how long he will be out, but for us it is definitely bad news."
The former Tottenham man will miss several key matches including December's Club World Cup in Morocco, the Madrid derby at Atletico on Feb. 8 and Real's first tie of the knockout phase in the Champions League.
However, he could be back in time for the clasico at Barcelona on March 22.The run-up to Wimbledon just took a surprising turn when Daniel Evans, the world #50, confirmed that he failed a drugs test by testing positive for cocaine in April.
The 27-year old from Birmingham revealed this at a press conference today, where he said that the failed test was the result of an event “completely unrelated to tennis.” Evans also said that he had “let a lot of people down,” and that he would need to learn a very hard lesson. The Tennis Anti-Doping Agency (TADP) confirmed in a statement that the initial incriminating sample came on the 24th April in the wake of the Barcelona ATP 500 Tournament. Evans will almost certainly not play at SW19, which will be a huge disappointment to British tennis fans, further diminishing the chances of British success.
If past cases of recreational drug abuse are anything to go by, Evans looks set to endure a lengthy spell away from the game, with punishments ranging from a one to two-year ban. Martina Hingis tested positive for cocaine back in 2007, sparking a two-year ban. Richard Gasquet also tested positive for cocaine in 2009, having said that he kissed a lady who had consumed the substance in a nightclub.
Sadly for the British #3, this is not the first time he has tested the tennis authorities in a disciplinary sense. Throughout his career, he has been no stranger to controversy. He was twice stripped of his Lawn Tennis Association funding at an early stage in his career due to off-court controversies, and has struggled to find form since he reached a career-high ranking of #41 in March.
Evans seemed to have turned a page in his career at the Australian Open this year, where he reached the 4th round, but his most recent scandal seems to have lost him the trust of players and fans alike. The timing of the revelation has also left critics surprised, especially with Wimbledon, Evans’ “home” Grand Slam, a mere week away. It seems as though Evans cannot quite shake off the “nearly man” tag that has accompanied him throughout his career, and if he is to get back to the sport in a meaningful sense, the road to recovery will be a long one. He is clearly talented, but has lacked the sufficient guidance and coaching that could effectively take him to the next step in his development.
Main Photo:[/caption]
Yes, it’s coming. Yes, it’s big. Yes, it will be even closer than the Moon. And yes… we’re completely safe.
The 400-meter-wide asteroid 2005 YU55 is currently zipping through the inner Solar System at over 13 km (8 miles) a second. On Tuesday, November 8, at 6:28 p.m. EST, it will pass Earth, coming within 325,000 km (202,000 miles). This is indeed within the Moon’s orbit (although YU55’s trajectory puts it a bit above the exact plane of the Earth-Moon alignment.) Still, it is the closest pass by such a large object since 1976… yet, NASA scientists aren’t concerned. Why?
Because its orbit has been well studied, there’s nothing in its way, and frankly there’s simply nothing it will do to affect Earth.
Period.
2005 YU55’s miniscule gravity will not cause earthquakes. It has no magnetic field. It will not strike another object, or the Moon, or the Earth. It will not come into contact with cometary debris, Elenin, a black dwarf, Planet X, or Nibiru. (Not that those last three even exist.) No, YU55 will do exactly what it’s doing right now: passing through the Solar System. It will come, it will go, and hopefully NASA scientists – as well as many amateur astronomers worldwide – will have a chance to get a good look at it as it passes.
Scientists with NASA’s Near-Earth Objects Observation Program will begin tracking YU55 on Friday, November 4 using the 70-meter radar telescope at the Deep Space Network in Goldstone, California, as well as with the Arecibo Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico beginning November 8. These facilities will continue to track it until the 10th.
This close pass will offer a great opportunity to get detailed radar imaging of YU55, an ancient C-type asteroid literally darker than coal. Since these objects can be difficult to observe using visible light, radar mapping can better reveal details about their surface and composition.
To help inform the public about YU55 NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena recently hosted a live Q&A session on Ustream featuring specialists Marina Brozovic, a Goldstone Radar Team scientist, and Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program. They fielded questions sent in via chat and Twitter… a recording of the event in its entirety can be seen below:
Video streaming by Ustream
Undoubtedly there will still be those who continue to spread misinformation about 2005 YU55. After all, they did the same with the now-disintegrated comet Elenin. But the truth is out there… and the truth is that there’s no danger, no cover-ups, no “plots”, and simply no cause for concern.
“It’s completely safe… no chance of an impact.” – Don Yeomans, JPL
Read more about YU55 on our previous post or on NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program site.
UPDATE: JPL has released a brief video about YU55 featuring research scientist Lance Benner, who specializes in radar imaging of near-Earth objects:
Although classified as a potentially hazardous object, 2005 YU55 poses no threat of an Earth collision over at least the next 100 years. However, this will be the closest approach to date by an object this large that we know about in advance and an event of this type will not happen again until 2028 when asteroid (153814) 2001 WN5 will pass to within 0.6 lunar distances. – Near-Earth Object Program, JPLIssa Rae has seen through to the heart of me yet again.
The creator of the web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl recently premiered her new HBO sitcom, Insecure, and it’s literally everything I needed.
When I first encountered the ABG series several years ago, I felt in my heart Issa and I were one and the same. As a young woman of color deemed “weird” by the people in her life, ABG captured the eccentricities of being an introverted black girl trying to make friends, date, and ultimately stand out.
Naturally, when I heard Issa was getting her own show on a cable network, I was beyond ecstatic and now that it’s here, I’m glad to see Insecure aims to continue the narrative of its predecessor and even take it to another level.
Growing up in the 90s, I wasn’t completely old enough to appreciate shows relaying the plight of the twentysomething living in the city. While I was exposed to shows like Living Single or Girlfriends, it would be years before I could truly understand the circumstances and situational problems they went through. And as I got older, it seemed shows of that genre featuring people who looked like me dwindled. Furthermore, the replays of said shows were far and few between while new shows like Girls and Two Broke Girls rose to prominence.
Of course, I could relate to the women of these new shows. Like me, they were broke, college grads trying to maneuver rent, relationships, and everything in between. But there were things I’d experience these ladies would never go through.
In the Insecure premiere we meet Issa: a 28-year-old woman in an unfulfilling job and an equally dull relationship. In addition to having no real support at home, her “blackness” is called into question both by her colleagues as well as the young kids she works with at the non-profit, We Got Y’all.
When the inner-city children she’s helping aren’t making fun of the “white” way in which she speaks, she’s either a pariah at the office for being the only black person at her company or thought of as the harbinger of all things black culture—from slang words to new dance crazes. This was something I could definitely understand.
I couldn’t tell you the amount of times I’d been asked about a rap song, the difference between a lace-front wig and a weave, or was expected to know the ins and outs of Love & Hip Hop at my previous job because as a black woman I was inherently supposed to know these things. Sure, I did know some things and didn’t mind helping to bridge the gap occasionally, but I didn’t care to be tokenized for it.
But that’s not to say the show is entirely about Issa’s experience as a black millennial woman in the workforce. We also meet Issa’s friend, Molly, who is an ambitious woman in corporate America and the perfect chameleon. Whether it’s in the boardroom or the family barbeque, Molly seems to fit right in and her life is seemingly perfect, which in turns makes Issa—and those like her—feel a little subpar about their station in life and, dare I say it, awkward. But even as a social butterfly and corporate climber, Molly’s got her own set of issues.
It’s seeing everyone’s insecurities in the different points of their lives that makes this show relatable, and so important to me. For the first time in years, we’re getting a narrative of POC that doesn’t include the typical tropes we’ve seen over and over with facelifts. I’m actually seeing my lifelong friends, my exes, my husband, my sisters as I see them—and this is representation I can get behind.
Black women are not monolithic and need shows that depict us as we see ourselves. Not everyone is a Nene Leakes, Cookie Lyons or an Olivia Pope. Some of us are Mollys and Issas. I know I’m an Issa—and I’m thankful she’s finally made it to the small screen.
Insecure airs Sunday nights at 10:30 PM ET on HBO.
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Afiya Augustine-Cox is a perpetual dreamer, freelance writer, editor, crafter, and jewelry designer from Brooklyn, NY. When she’s not working on her online store, Pretty Poet Ink, you can find her on BlackGirlNerds.com or her blog, Alja The Writer. Check out her out on Twitter at @LaJoliePoeta.
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google+.In The Arena Child Laborers. In America. In 2014. Kids as young as 12 report illness from working in tobacco fields. Why isn’t the government doing anything about it?
Jo Becker is the children’s rights advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. Follow her @jobeckerhrw.
The Obama administration has made curbing nicotine use by kids a public health priority, with efforts including mass media campaigns to reduce teen smoking and a proposed ban on selling e-cigarettes to minors. But when it comes to the serious health risks run by thousands of children who work each summer on tobacco farms in the United States, the administration has been conspicuously silent.
Lax federal labor laws allow kids as young as 12 to work in tobacco fields, despite mounting evidence that they can contract acute nicotine poisoning from handling tobacco leaves. Even some tobacco growers and companies take the position that U.S. laws and regulations aren’t strong enough. But the Obama administration has said little and done even less. That needs to change.
Story Continued Below
A Human Rights Watch report released in May documented the dangers to children working on American tobacco farms based on a year’s research and interviews with 141 child tobacco workers, ages 7 to 17, in the country’s four largest tobacco-producing states: North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. Tobacco grown in these fields is used to produce popular cigarette brands, including Marlboro, Pall Mall and Newport. Nearly three-quarters of children interviewed reported feeling sick—with nausea, vomiting, headaches, dizziness, difficulty breathing, or other serious symptoms while working in tobacco fields. Many of these symptoms are consistent with acute nicotine poisoning, also known as Green Tobacco Sickness. A 2007 Journal of Public Health review of public health studies found that non-smoking tobacco workers have as much nicotine in their bodies as active smokers.
Most of the children we spoke to labored for 50 to 60 hours a week in sweltering heat, often without shade or adequate drinking water. They plant seedlings, weed tobacco fields and work among tall tobacco plants, breaking flowers off the top of the plants and removing leaves called “suckers” that reduce the yield and quality of the tobacco. In Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, children often hand-harvest tobacco plants by cutting them with small axes and spearing the stalks onto long sticks with pointed ends. Some climb high into the rafters of curing barns to hang heavy sticks of tobacco to dry. Many children described how pesticides—known neurotoxins that can cause long-term and chronic health problems—drifted over them as tractors sprayed in the fields where they worked, causing their eyes and skin to itch and burn.Before this year’s NBA season started, I had a conversation with a Golden State Warriors fan. He was excited about his team and was keen to explain its success: It was perfectly balanced, with perfect chemistry, role players, coaching and management. That Stephen Curry is pretty amazing also helped.
His point that the Warriors are some kind of Zen basketball masterpiece is hardly controversial. Yet a few minutes into our conversation I found myself arguing strenuously that this diehard Curry fan didn’t really understand how great — and how important — Curry is.
Other than Daryl Morey, Curry is perhaps the figurehead in the NBA’s Three-Point Revolution™. It’s easy to get swept up in the narrative that 3-point shooting has been long-undervalued and that smart sharpshooters are finally taking over the NBA. Teams that shot the most and the best from beyond the arc last year dominated like never before. The correlation between a team’s rate of attempting threes and its winning percentage was the highest it has ever been (.47). In the playoffs, the top 3-point-shooting teams made up the entirety of the conference finals:
Despite this, I’ve been a tiny bit skeptical of the notion that the 3-point shot is inherently superior. I’m not anti-three the way Byron Scott is, but I’ve suggested that the midrange game — which has historically been a strong indicator of success in the NBA — might still be important once defenses adjust to the new offensive math and a new equilibrium is reached.
But Curry kills all that. Curry isn’t a product of the math; he’s so good that he has his own math. Indeed, the math is so far in Curry’s favor that the Warriors — and even basketball in general — may not fully understand what they have yet.
While arguing with that Warriors fan, I may have said some things I shouldn’t have. Like that Curry has an outside shot at breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s season record of 50 points per game. Even as MVP, Curry scored only 24 points per game last year, so obviously I was exaggerating for effect … right?
Through November, Curry is scoring nearly 32 points per game this season (despite having the luxury of sitting out several fourth quarters as the Warriors roll). As ESPN’s Director of Analytics Ben Alamar wrote, Curry “seems to have figured out that he truly cannot take too many 3-point shots.”
And that’s the heart of the matter. The deeper you dive into the data, the more you realize that Curry isn’t just a deadly efficient shooter, but he’s also virtually immune to burden. As he has been asked to produce more and more, he hasn’t gotten any less efficient. (Economists would say Curry has nearly constant returns to scale.) The question is: How much additional shooting volume could Curry handle while still remaining the Warriors’ best option?
I could rattle off a couple of stats and make a guess, but as my sanity depends on this, I didn’t want to take it casually. So I’ve examined the issue from a number of angles, including a foray into the NBA’s latest tracking data.
There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that the results really don’t give us a clear indication of how much burden Curry may be able to handle. The good news is the data doesn’t show even the tiniest hint that Curry is anywhere near his limits yet.
So how good is Curry’s shooting?
Although Curry does a lot of things well, his main skill is chucking the ball into the basket, so let’s start with that. To look at Curry’s shooting, I used NBA shot-tracking data from the start of the 2014-15 season through Saturday’s games (courtesy of Nylon Calculus). The data set contains not only shot distance, but also the distance of the nearest defender and the time left on the shot clock (usually). From this, I created a quick regression to find an expected value of each shot taken, which I then compared to the results. This plot shows how much value each player has added since the start of last season versus how many shots he took (with the size of each bubble corresponding to the number of shots taken per game):
Among players with more than 200 shots, Curry was only the fourth-most-efficient shooter on a shot-by-shot basis (behind Kyle Korver, DeAndre Jordan and Kevin Durant). Yet Curry has more than 1,600 shots in that span, while none of the other three players has even half that. He has 371 total points added from shooting efficiency alone, with Korver in second place with 247. Note that this doesn’t include additional value from free throws earned — which would probably make Curry’s advantage even greater (Curry has 416 made free throws in the period, compared to Kyle Korver’s 118).
This year, Curry is making his 2014-15 MVP season seem practically pedestrian. Curry is playing better in a number of ways — among other things, he is on pace to set career highs in stealing and rebounding, and he has his best defensive rating to date. He is also hitting a career high in shot attempts per 100 possessions (29.0 this year vs. 25.1 last year) and 3-point attempts per 100 possessions (15.5 this year vs. 12.1 last year). Most importantly, even though he’s taking all these extra shots, his shooting efficiency has gone up! As a reminder, here’s Kirk Goldsberry’s shot chart for Curry this season (as of last week):
But perhaps my favorite stat in all of this: Curry’s assists per 100 possessions has plummeted (11.6 last year, 8.5 so far this year, his lowest since 7.8 his rookie year). It’s probably fair to infer that Curry is taking more shots that he used to set up for teammates.
As well he should! Curry should only be setting up others’ shots if he is unable to take or get a better shot himself, which is not that often.
Curry’s bad shots are better than others’ good shots
I like to joke that Curry should just take “all the shots” — which is an exaggeration (I think). But there’s strong evidence that the Warriors could be asking Curry to take even more of them.
Let’s get very basic for a second: Some shots are better than others. Sometimes a defense breaks down and leaves a player an open look, and sometimes the clock runs down and a player has to heave up a prayer despite being tightly defended. A good offensive scheme is one that generates a lot of good shots. But of course this is relative to who takes them: An open three is useless if it’s taken by a poor shooter like Shaq, while a pretty well-guarded three can be valuable if it’s taken by a good shooter like Curry.
If the Warriors were to assign Curry even more shots, they would have to come from somewhere. If Curry can steal shots that are as good as or better than those his teammates would have taken, that’s pure gravy. But if we assume that the Warriors are already distributing their shots wisely, giving Curry more shots likely comes with a trade-off: To give Curry more shots would mean taking “better” shots away from his teammates. Moreover, Curry’s new shots are likely to be worse, on average, than the ones he is taking already (if they were better, he would probably already be taking them).
So if our hypothesis — that Curry should be taking more shots — is true, it would suggest that sometimes the Warriors should pass up a good shot for Curry to take a bad shot. So how good is Curry at bad shots?
Very, very good.
One way to measure his skill at bad shots is to look at how he shoots when he’s well-defended. In the shot data, the simplest proxy for this is the distance of the nearest defender. For example, NBA players on the whole made 35 percent of all 3-point attempts last season, but they made 44 percent with the closest defender at least 12 feet away.
Here’s Curry’s 3-point shooting over the past two seasons, broken down by distance to closest defender:
Leave aside the sharp drop on the right of the chart for a moment: Curry has hit 45 percent with a defender between 2 and 4 feet away, 44 percent with a defender between 4 and 6 feet away, and 47 percent with the closest defender more than 6 feet away. Yes, that’s right, Curry shoots threes about as well with a defender 2 to 4 feet away (classified as “tight” by NBA.com) as an average NBA shooter does with the nearest defender 12 feet away.
Sure, Curry has shot poorly when “smothered” with defenders less than 2 feet from him. This is perhaps unsurprising considering that Curry is only 6-foot-3, and this includes blocks by definition. But note that these types of shots are pretty rare: They accounted for only 25 shots in the data, about 3 percent of his 3-point attempts. In any case, Curry seems to be all right at getting himself good looks:
So aside from the rare smothering, Curry seems fairly immune to defense. He hits about 42 percent of the hardest quartile(ish) of his shots (specifically, the 28 percent with the closest defender less than 4 feet away), or about 126 points per 100 attempts. In other words, if Golden State could replace its entire offense with just the bottom quartile of Stephen Curry’s 3-point attempts — without him ever being fouled and with them never collecting an offensive rebound — they would have the best offense in NBA history by a wide margin.
But it gets crazier.
Another proxy for a shot being pressured is how much time is left on the shot clock. As the clock winds down, the expected value of a possession drops as well, since players may be compromising shot quality to get a shot off. With Curry, not so much:
Curry takes a huge portion of his shots early in the shot clock (more than 50 percent) and is deadly on these. His worst time frame is with around 12 to 16 seconds left — where he has still made 42 percent. Then, he somehow shoots better and better as the clock runs down! In addition to being another example of how the traditional ideas of “good” and “bad” shots don’t really apply to Curry, this also has the very practical implication that Curry’s teammates should be willing to pass up reasonably good shots even if it means Curry will have less time to set up his own.
Curry vs. the Warriors
Of course, the Warriors aren’t an average team. So perhaps it’s impractical to think that their great shooters should be passing up good looks. For this, let’s first look at how well and how often the entire Warriors squad shoots. I’ve plotted each Warrior’s true shooting percentage against his field-goal attempts per 36 minutes this season.
We normally expect a flat to negative relationship between these two variables: Players with a small burden are more selective and tend to be “sharpshooters” taking wide-open threes and such, while high-volume shooters have to do the dirty work of taking shots that aren’t open and aren’t easy but are better than nothing. Incidentally, this is one reason why some great players with heavy shooting burdens may appear less valuable than they are: If they’re forced to take all the bad shots, they could be doing better on those than average but still have low efficiency.
With Curry, we have no such problem:
Curry demolishes the trend by taking an absurd number of shots efficiently. Here’s Curry’s true shooting percentage over the past four years compared with that of the other Warriors:
This already has a big impact on the Warriors’ bottom line. But the huge gap between him and the rest of the club — his “perfectly balanced” supporting cast — again makes it likely that a subpar shot for him may be well above average for his team.
The Curry stratagem
One way to get Curry more shots is to have players pass up shots so that Curry can take them. But another angle is for the offense to set up and have Curry take certain shots as quickly as possible. A shot like the pull-up 3-point jumper, say.
The pull-up three is not normally a great shot in the NBA. The league on the whole converts about 28 percent on average (corresponding to 84 points per 100 possessions) — well below the 35 percent that players convert on all 3-pointers. But since the start of last season, Curry has converted 42 percent of his. Here’s a plot of every player with at least 100 pull-up 3-point attempts in the same period:
So say Curry was instructed to take significantly more pull-up 3-point attempts than the large number he already takes. Even assuming that these shots were a little bit worse than the ones the Warriors would be able to get otherwise (highly questionable), getting efficient shots off early in a possession has other ancillary benefits. For one, it allows the Warriors to pack more possessions into a game, which is good because they are gaining ground on their opponents for every possession exchanged (unless they play a better opponent, which these days they don’t). But second, being able to play a very fast-paced offense when necessary (such as Curry taking quick threes early in the clock) allows them to extend the game as much as possible when they’re behind, just as being able to play a slow-paced offense (such as holding the ball unless you have a clear shot and then letting Curry shoot under pressure) is valuable for shortening the game when they’re ahead.
In other words, building your offensive strategy around “Curry as options 1, 2, and 3” has win-maximizing benefits beyond Curry’s shooting efficiency.
No, seriously, Curry is getting better
Every article about every great young athlete ever seems to end with “And he’s just getting better and better” — even though this often isn’t true. So let me end this one with, “No, seriously, he really is getting better and better.”
And, other than the fact that Curry is so good right now that he can’t possibly get better, there’s no evidence of him slowing down. To illustrate, here’s every NBA season during Curry’s seven-year career:
Curry has taken on additional shot-making responsibilities throughout his career, yet his true shooting percentage has been getting better and BETTER.
As I mentioned earlier, for most players, this is a trade-off: The larger the burden placed on them, the less efficient they are. I’ve added a trend line through all of the players other than Curry to show how it’s normally flat. This is because better players tend to get more shots, which counteracts the fact that a given player taking more shots tends to be less efficient. I’ve also colored in LeBron James and Durant, so you can see that the standard relationship basically holds even for MVPs. But Curry has set career highs in both attempts and efficiency — in the same year — four times, including each of the past three seasons. That is, Curry comes only in shades of good, better and best (in that order). Curry is truly the Dennis Rodman of shooting!
Indeed, when considering Curry’s potential, I think Rodman is perhaps an even more important precedent than Chamberlain or Michael Jordan. Rodman came into the league as a reasonably well-rounded player but had an incredible talent for rebounding. As years went by, his teams leaned on this skill more and more. He took on fewer and fewer offensive responsibilities, and he started gathering larger and larger shares of his team’s rebounds. In the 1993-94 season, he gathered nearly 29.7 percent of all available rebounds — at the time, the highest by any other player was Moses Malone, with 23.4 percent in 1976-77. Despite being one of the most one-dimensional players ever, this made Rodman one of the most valuable players in NBA history.
While exceeding 50 points per game sounds crazy — it would require Curry to take on the order of half of his team’s shots — as evidenced by Rodman, fully exploiting a game-breaking skill can lead to unthinkable results.
Do I really think that the Warriors will adopt an all-Curry-all-the-time strategy and knock Wilt out of the record books?
I don’t know. But Curry himself is a microcosm of the revolution that we’ve already seen. Just as the math suggests that good midrange jump shots should often be exchanged for worse 3-pointers if possible, so the math suggests that good non-Curry shots should be exchanged for worse Curry shots. I’m confident in saying that we aren’t there yet. And if that revolution happens as well, look out.
CORRECTION (Dec. 3, 11:30 a.m.): An earlier version of a chart in this story incorrectly gave the source of the data on shooting percentage by time remaining on the shot clock; it was Nylon Calculus, not Basketball-Reference.com.
CORRECTION (Dec. 3, 12:02 p.m.): An earlier version of this article misstated the rate of Curry’s 3-point attempts this year and last year. They were per 100 possessions, not per possession.Code: @thespite · Art advisor: @zafio · Based on "Adorable Sagan" by SirMitchell Music "Paparazzi" by Shugo Tokumaru · Sound samples from freesound
Made with CSS transforms and transitions. Best viewed with Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Opera Next.
I'm sorry, end of the road. ಠ_ಠ
You won't be able to play this with Internet Explorer
because it uses CSS 2D Transforms and Transitions*.
Please consider using other browsers that don't spend
the whole day eating glue and thinking of times past,
and actually support modern** standards (even if prefixed), like:
Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, Firefox for Android,
Chrome for Android, Chrome for iOS, and probably many more...
* I am aware that IE10 might support them,
but I won't bother if it's not even out yet.
I've tested all the rest.
Sue me.Environment/Sustainability Sun Jun 21 2015
Construction equipment on the bed of the future Thornton Reservoir. Trucks on the Tri-State Tollway can be seen above the quarry.
On Saturday, I joined the Southeast Environmental Task Force (SETF) on one of its tours of Chicago's goliath infrastructure. The tour featured the future site of the Thornton Composite Reservoir, the largest such reservoir in the world, and a Deep Tunnel pumping station 350' below ground at the Calumet Water Reclamation Plant. Both are part of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD)'s gargantuan Tunnel and Reservoir Plan, the multi-decade, multi-billion dollar project designed to protect the Chicago region from the flooding and pollution caused by overflowing sewer and stormwater infrastructure.
The bus tour, which was led by the SETF's Tom Shepherd and various staffers from the MWRD, was kicked off at the Chicago Cultural Center by President of the MWRD's Board of Commissioners, Mariyana T. Spyropoulos.
President of the MWRD's Board of Commissioners, Mariyana T. Spyropoulos, greets tour-goers.
After this brief greeting, we drove to the former Thornton Quarry in the south suburban city of Thornton. The quarry, which is one of the largest aggregate quarries in the world, is still being actively mined nearby; however, the MWRD has acquired two significant portions of the area for the Deep Tunnel project. The resulting reservoir will hold 7.9 billion gallons of water, which MWRD Principal Civil Engineer Lou Storino estimated is the equivalent of 36 Soldier Fields. While on site, staff mentioned that we would be one of the last tours to descend to the base of the quarry, which will enter into operation shortly.
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business model involved actively promoting copyright infringement, the company could be held liable for the same.
These are just major cases. In countless other smaller and less-publicized cases, copyright holders have continued to pile up victory after victory over people who have "innocently downloaded even a single.... song." I am not saying this is a good thing. I'm not saying that this is right. I'm just pointing out the facts of the law. The facts of the law are this:
If you download copyrighted media without the authorization of the copyright holder, you are in violation of federal law. Not only are you in violation of federal law, but if you go to the EFF and ask them to take your case, they will politely sit down with you and explain to you why you are in the wrong. And if you go to the ACLU and ask them to take your case they will probably laugh in your face, because the charter of the ACLU is to defend the Constitution, not fight existing copyright laws.
ushdfgakjasgh makes a comment about "'making available' arguments" and suggests that the reader look at them to see the dire legal trouble that copyright holders are in. Presumably he's referring to Elektra v. Barker and others, in which the plaintiffs have argued that those who simply make files available for distribution are violating copyright, whether or not they know they're doing so, or whether or not those files are copied by others. The "making available" argument has been rejected by the courts, giving a brief rest to plaintiffs in file sharing suits, but this is mostly because existing copyright law does not adequately define what distribution is and isn't in the wake of technological advances. Put another way, it's semantics.
That's really all anyone can fight over at this point - definitions of reproduction and distribution as it pertains to a new all-digital, non-tangible model. In all likelihood, the definitions will be restated and redefined and reshaped by continued litigation and jurisprudence. Rest assured that the laws that govern this aren't being written by aging politicians who "sent 'Internets' to their staff" or senators who liken the Internet to a series of tubes. They're written by people who know exactly what they're doing.
The Curve Of Technology
It's fair to assume that the curve of technology will eventually allow an end user to download a full-length high-definition film in just a few seconds. It's not really a question of if this will happen, but when. It's also quite likely that tangible media will become less and less common. Naturally this means that distribution costs will dwindle, as the price for pressing a compact disc and printing artwork and delivering it onto a truck and paying employees to sweep storefronts and print receipts and find things for you in the back will diminish.
The problem with the download-and-distribute model, from the point of view of record companies, is that they have no control over secondary D&R. This has been true for a long time, as ushdfgakjasgh notes with regard to video tapes, but it has been a gradual degradation of control. In the case of cassette tapes, fidelity was lost with subsequent copies, so copies had to be made from the original. This required time, effort, and money. You had to find somebody who had the original. Then you had to arrange for them to make a copy of that blank tape, which, if you were lucky, they could do at 2x or 3x if they had high-speed dubbing. Was it a major pain in the ass? No. But when Joe Nobody bought Van Halen's 1984, he wasn't going to make more than two or three copies of it, unless he was in desperate need of friends. Time, effort, and money - three inhibiting factors.
The advent of the Internet, and specifically, audio compression technology (e.g. MP3) took away all three inhibiting factors. When Joe Nobody buys a copy of the latest Coldplay album, he doesn't have to spend a half hour making a single copy for a friend. He can spend five minutes encoding it and then share it on the Internet where over a billion people have access to it. The recording industry has always known that it's impossible to completely eradicate piracy. The best they can hope for is to make it difficult for the average person. Small-scale piracy was largely ignored, large scale piracy required a significant monetary investment and willful intent. Now the industry is dealing with people who share music like they share Skittles, people who in many cases don't know what they're doing is illegal, and in other cases don't care. One schmuck in Battle Creek, Michigan can be responsible for 10,000 downloads and be barely aware of it.
The frequency with which something takes place is typically proportional to how easy it is to accomplish, and the frequency with which laws are broken is typically proportional to how easy it is to avoid prosecution. It's easy to download copyrighted material from the Internet, and the chances of being prosecuted for it are particularly low. Add those two factors together, and you have the two main reasons why people do it. That doesn't mean it's legal.
Free Media For All = The Communization Of Media
One should be very wary of a world where no one can charge any money for media. On the surface it sounds really cool. "I can watch Deadwood and The Wire and Buffy and the new Batman movie and listen to Pink Floyd and Radiohead and then read the latest Neal Stephenson novel... all free of charge." There's a serious flaw in that argument, and it's one that will be addressed, but first I want to visit a point made by ushdfgakjasgh, and that is what he calls "the democratization of music", which will occur when the industry loses its stranglehold on D&R, and the rise of D.I.Y. musicians allows everyone an equal chance at success.
The democratization of music has already happened, and it happened because of the existing D&R system. Every person who purchases an album votes democratically with his wallet, and every person who chooses not to purchase an album does the same. Britney Spears is mentioned, primarily because it's 2009 and she's a convenient target (in 1993 the target no doubt would have been Vanilla Ice or Milli Vanilli). Since a select group of people control distribution, the argument above reads, they have a "collective ability to decide what music is popular, what music is under demand, and what music is sold." This is just plain wrong.
Here's a painful truth about Britney Spears. Jive Records didn't make Britney Spears popular. Jive Records pushed her - they made a nice music video and peddled her everywhere they could, but it was consumers who decided her music was good enough to make...Baby One More Time a number one album in twenty eight different countries. There's a saying that 50,000,000 Elvis fans can't be wrong, and the same is true with 14,000,000 Britney Spears fans. You can like or not like...Baby One More Time, but you can't argue that it's crap. It's slickly produced, well-engineered, and catchy as fuck. It was one of the best pop music albums of 1999. People typically like pop music... that's why it's called popular music. People liked Britney Spears. People made Britney Spears popular. Music is subjective.
One can argue that even in musical democracy, none of the candidates are worth a vote. There's certainly some guy playing guitar in a bar in Alaska who is phenomenal. There's a rapper in Port-Au-Prince with a flow that would put Public Enemy to shame. There's a troupe of drummers in Kyrgyzstan that have more rhythm than you can fathom. And all of these artists are going to be bypassed by the industry as it exists, because the industry can't find and promote everyone who deserves it. It's the same reason why there's a construction worker in Duluth who would make an excellent President. But it's not for lack of trying. And record companies don't decide what music is popular. Believe it, if the music industry could get 14,000,000 people to buy a Modest Mouse album, they would. It's all the same to them. As long as they get paid.
One can lament the popularity of Britney Spears or whichever other artist they don't particularly like. But the reason why there is such a rich and varied musical landscape to choose from is simple: people can make money from it.
As mentioned above, the Internet has given people unprecedented access to information, from sites about music theory to Craiglist's posts from a girl in Cranston who is trying to get rid of her guitar. It's probably easier than ever to get started with music. The guy who drives to Cranston and gets the free guitar and reads a little bit about music theory and finds a clip on YouTube about how to play chords is off to a good start. But success is not about will. If people could succeed on sheer force of will, the people you see on American Idol who can't carry a tune would eventually be superstars. The fact is that in addition to will, you must have some degree of talent, and you must invest a significant amount of time to ensure success. The third option is impossible without compensation.
As two separate examples, let's take the television series "Firefly" and the novel "The Shining" by Stephen King. Firefly, commercially, was a failure. Blame whoever you want for this (most people choose to blame Fox), but the network wasn't making money with the show, so they pulled the plug on it. The show has gained a cult following in subsequent years, sold quite a few DVD box sets, and that allowed Joss Whedon to film "Serenity". Still, the distributor, FOX, didn't make money from it. But they thought they would. In a world where all media is free, "Firefly" would not exist, nor would any show you have ever seen on television, unless it had been funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which itself wouldn't have existed unless enterprising individuals had seen the profit potential in a broadcast medium known as television. It costs money to make a show like "Firefly", because it requires the time of a good number of people, and people like to be compensated for their time. This is a very simple equation.
"The Shining", unlike "Firefly", was the work of a single individual, Stephen King. In writing it, King moved his entire family to Colorado and lived off the money from previous books while writing the novel. Had King received no money for his previous works, he could not have written "The Shining", and in all likelihood, never would have started writing "The Shining" if there was no money to be made from it.
Let's return to music for a moment, because there's a perception that music is an easier medium to succeed in because it doesn't require the investment that film does, nor the time that literature does. It's also the medium that's currently undergoing the most radical shift in distribution. Radiohead released their seventh studio album, In Rainbows, as a free download on the Internet. Fans were encouraged to pay whatever they felt was an appropriate price for the download, and presumably, many people paid nothing. On the surface, this looks like a bold challenge to the current D&R model. Frontman Thom Yorke himself was quoted as saying, "I like the people at our record company, but the time is at hand when you have to ask why anyone needs one."
Paradigm shift? Hardly.
In an attempt to sound witty and progressive, Yorke ignored a few important details about their bold foray into distribution. First, Radiohead did enough research to determine that people would still buy physical CDs of the release once they were made available. This not only indicates that the desire for tangible product still exists, but since Radiohead's method of distributing CDs was to license the album to record companies, it proved that Radiohead still needed the recording industry for something. Second, Radiohead spent a considerable amount of time and money recording the album, time and money they would not have had if not for the six previous albums that EMI helped them make millions from. Third, while it seems like self-distribution is a great model for bands moving forward, there are only a handful of artists who can accomplish this, and all of them are artists who are in that position because of the existing structure of the industry.
The argument that music theory, home recording equipment, and Internet distribution outlets are readily available invalidates the argument that music should be bought and sold is a fallacy. "It is simply ridiculous to think that you can capture a sound from the air and charge for it." People paying for a song aren't paying for a sound captured from the air, any more than people paying for art are paying for colors strewn on a canvas, or people paying for basketball tickets are playing to watch some people run around and jump for an arbitrary period of time. People are paying for the quality of the song they're buying, the quality of the art, the skill of the basketball player.
What is "simply ridiculous" is the belief that the free dissemination of media will lead to anything but the complete collapse of not only the "media conglomerates", but quality media in general. Without the incentive of a financial reward, the only people who make music and write fiction and film movies will be those who do it solely because they enjoy it, and without the financial backing of a specialized entity, the quality of the material produced by those who do it solely because they love it will suffer. This is true of any venture, not just music. Businesses exist, grow, and thrive because they receive financial backing from investors and because the people who work for those businesses put in hard work with the hope of a substantial financial reward. Maybe someday in the future when capitalism is no longer the dominant economic system on the planet, this will change, but capitalism isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
"Artists who have relied on patronage in any of its forms for a career, regardless of how they may feel about the price charged for their music, will simply have little option but to give it away for free."
Wrong. They have another option. And that's to not make music to begin with.If you've tuned into Dig Music at any stage from 12pm Monday 28 April, you'd have noticed the countdown has begun to the launch of Double J.
On Wednesday afternoon we re-launch as Double J, a new digital radio station that will offer music lovers a fresh new station that relishes the future as much as it embraces the past, a station built on great music and the indescribable joy it brings.
So why play ‘Express Yourself'?
We're glad you asked. triple j was the only radio station on the planet to play the N.W.A song ‘Fuck Tha Police' on its release back in 1989. Politicians and police got wind of the fact this controversial song was being broadcast and forced ABC management to take the song off the air.
After ‘Fuck Tha Police' was banned, triple j's current affair program at the time On The Nose ran a report about how the decision had come about. Station management informed the story's producer Nick Franklin mere seconds before the segment was to go to air that it was not to be broadcast. The segment went to air and Franklin was suspended from the ABC a couple of hours later.
‘Fuck Tha Police' has since featured on triple j hundreds of thousands of times, as the triple j news theme contains a sample of a record scratch from the song. Paul McKercher, the man who made the news theme, explained his process to triple j.
A particularly self-righteous South Australian Liberal senator took umbrage to [‘Fuck Tha Police'] and complained to ABC management who then instructed triple j staff not to play the song, so that was my attempt at oblique irony, I guess.Paul McKercher
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The track's banning, Franklin's suspension and other enormous changes at the station sparked a strike by triple j staff. To protest, they clogged the airwaves with another N.W.A song, ‘Express Yourself', playing it on a loop for 24 hours, 365 times in a row, instead of regular programming.
Double J acknowledges this heritage and wants to tip its hat to a very important moment in the history of triple j, a moment that we're sure plenty of listeners will remember.
We've pulled together a few different versions of ‘Express Yourself', and had a few friends record their own renditions, as we lead up to the launch of Double J this Wednesday afternoon.
Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band – ‘Express Yourself', 1970
‘Express Yourself' is one of a handful of huge hits for this American soul band and a track that has been sampled plenty of times over the years. It is an iconic and empowering song that inspires those dissociated from the mainstream, those willing to step out of line and stand up for what they believe in. It's an anthem for those who don't give a damn what everyone else thinks and it's a wonderful legacy for Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band to leave.
N.W.A – ‘Express Yourself', 1989
This track is one of the few songs from N.W.A's classic 1989 Straight Outta Compton that isn't centred around violence, but one which means a lot in the triple j story. It's arguably the most popular rendition of the song and has certainly been the most influential version among acts that have tried their hand at their own versions ever since.
The Audreys – ‘Express Yourself', 2014
A dark, but very slick version recorded especially for Double J by The Audreys. The groove is straightened out as vocalist Taasha Coates plays around with the melody, offering something rather different to the other renditions.
Wagons – ‘Express Yourself' {Ft. Si The Philanthropist}, 2014
Melbourne country collective Wagons were good enough to record a version of the tune for Double J as well.
This song was an incredible pleasure to make! The very mantra of the song encourages you to be free to screw with it in whatever way that feels right. Intertwined with the generally positive message, we added some subversive bubbling spookiness, to represent the importance of sometimes unleashing your cheeky darker side too.
The hip hop breakdown is a nod to the N.W.A version (for which we all have a sentimental fondness), and is done by our drummer and MC extraordinaire Si the Philanthropist (STP). Henry Wagons
N.W.A & Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Rhythm Band – ‘Express Yourself' {Katalyst Remix}, 2014
Another Double J exclusive, this time thanks to masterful Aussie hip hop DJ and producer Katalyst.
Darren Hanlon – ‘Express Yourself', 2014
Travelling troubadour Darren Hanlon also recorded his own version of ‘Express Yourself' exclusively for Double J. Part of the song was recorded in the regional Victorian town of Ouyen, with a packet of cereal from the local pub used as a percussion instrument.
The Silencers – ‘Express Yourself', 1998
Yes, that is indeed Tim Armstrong from Rancid you hear spitting out the vocals for this great version of ‘Express Yourself' with The Silencers. Honestly, there's not much information about this version we can give you except for the fact it was included on a selection of demos for Rancid's 1998 record Life Won't Wait. It would have been pretty interesting if this had made the cut as a Rancid song...
Stretch Arm Strong – ‘Express Yourself', 2001
Another punk rock rendition, this time from South Carolina's Stretch Arm Strong, and another version that owes more to the N.W.A version than the Charles Wright original.
Statik Selecktah – ‘Express Yourself '08' {Ft. Talib Kweli, Termanology & Consequence}, 2007
Producer/DJ Statik Selecktah got his buddies Talib Kweli, Termanology and Consequence to lend a hand on a rejigged version of the N.W.A song for his second LP Stick 2 The Script.
Jack Johnson – ‘Express Yourself', 2009
Jack Johnson knows that his tune ‘Bubble Toes' sounds quite a lot like the Charles Wright classic and has acknowledged this in his live performances, as captured on this version from his En Concert album.
Labrinth – ‘Express Yourself', 2011
British producer Labrinth had a mega hit with his version of ‘Express Yourself' just a few years ago, proving that the tune still sounds fresh when put into a modern context. Elements of hip hop and modern electro styles have been added to appeal to the kids, but it's the iconic chorus that continues to carry the song.
Idris Muhammad – ‘Express Yourself', 1971
The year after Wright's original, the renowned jazz drummer Idris Muhammad cut a slightly more laidback, instrumental version of the tune. Driven by cool Rhodes keys, trumpet and of course some loose but groovy percussion, it proves you don't need the lyrics for this song to be brilliant.
Hopeton Lewis – ‘Express Yourself', 1973
And two years later, the great Hopeton Lewis decided he would cut a reggae version of the tune. His brutal shrieks and grunts, the winding flute solo midway and the general laidback reggae style of the track make it another great, less-wordy version of the song.
We'll be done with ‘Express Yourself' at midday this Wednesday when Myf Warhurst officially launches Double J.Finch's Beer Company and chef Matthias Merges are partnering to open a brewpub called the Finch Kitchen in the Albany Park space vacated by BreakRoom Brewery.
Merges (Yusho, A10, Billy Sunday) told Crain's this week that his restaurant group, Folkart Restaurant Management, plans to reopen the space at 2925 W. Montrose Ave. under the new name in mid-June.
His wife, architect and designer Rachel Crowl, is amid a four-week renovation of the brewpub, in which she'll “lighten it up a little” and “bring some missing continuity to the space,” said Merges, who spent 14 years at Charlie Trotter's.
The chef is planning a menu inspired by a classic beer hall with international flair—think encased meats from around the world and charcuterie—along with nontraditional snacks like fried pigs' ears.
“Our restaurants are known for craft, attention to detail and whimsy,” Merges said. “We'll bring that here. It's a beer hall idea, but getting away from the typical fare you find most places like this. It's going to be the type of place where you can come by yourself for great beer and food, or with a party of six with plenty of family-style sharing.”
Merges, who's also involved in the forthcoming Old Irving Brewery, a project begun by the late chef Homaro Cantu, hasn't yet settled on a chef for the spot but said he plans to pluck talent from his four other restaurants to assemble an opening team.
Chicago-based Finch's, an early comer to the local craft beer industry, began selling its beer in 2011 and is now distributed in 17 states in 16-oz. cans. It plans to keep most production and packaging of its five year-round beers at its existing brewery at 4565 N. Elston Ave. and use its new Finch's Kitchen space for smaller batches and one-offs.
The brewery eventually intends to move out of the Elston brewery and into the larger space in the rear of the BreakRoom space.
The brewer, which abandoned plans last year for a sprawling brewing complex adjacent to the Chicago River, is no longer controlled by the Finch family, which sold the majority of the business to other investors earlier this year.
Founder Ben Finch is no longer involved in the brewery's day-to-day operations, but remains on its board. His brother, Mike Finch, who was a co-owner and national sales manager, also exited the company earlier this year.
The new ownership group, which was not immediately available for comment, brought in a new brewing team that is “really upping the game on quality,” Merges said. “What's being brewed now is pretty damn tasty.”
BreakRoom shuttered May 8 after just more than a year.Boston was two points out of the Atlantic Division basement six weeks into the season, but Tuukka Rask's recent play, a powerful top line and some standout rookies are making the Bruins look as threatening as they have in years.
In mid-November, roughly a month-and-a-half into the campaign, the Boston Bruins didn’t look like all that much. They sat one game below.500 in a dreadful division, only a couple of points up on the Florida Panthers and Buffalo Sabres, with one of the league’s worst offenses, poor goaltending and more questions than they had answers. And then Anton Khudobin beat the Los Angeles Kings.
That victory, a 27-save performance against one of the Western Conference’s top teams, started a run for Khudobin that saw him start and win four straight contests, three of which were on the road, and two against tough Metropolitan Division clubs, the New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins. Khudobin’s string of victories sent the Bruins up the Atlantic Division standings, putting them in a post-season position following the first day of action after American Thanksgiving and well clear of the bottom of the barrel where they had been little more than one week earlier. And all of a sudden things were starting to look up in Boston.
Since then, the Bruins have been one of the league’s hottest teams. In fact, since Khudobin got Boston back on track, there’s not a team that has been better. In their past 16 games, the Bruins have piled up 12 wins and 25 points, dropping just three contests in regulation since mid-November. And after looking as though they were quite possibly destined for another step backwards after snapping a two-year playoff drought, the Bruins are all of a sudden one of the East’s biggest sleepers.
In many respects, however, the Bruins have gone overlooked despite their recent performance. They’re not as dominant as the high-flying Tampa Bay Lightning, they don’t possess one of the game’s next-generation talents, like the Toronto Maple Leafs do in Auston Matthews, and they haven’t made waves with their futility in the way the Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens or Buffalo Sabres have. No, the Bruins have seemingly sat somewhere in the middle, overlooked because they’re neither atop nor at the bottom of the Atlantic. But the time to continue to ignore Boston’s rise up the standings — which sees them only two points back of Toronto for second spot in the division with three games in hand — is over, and they put yet another stamp on that Thursday when they downed one of the league’s top teams, the Winnipeg Jets, in a shootout.
One of the most significant changes for the Bruins over the past five weeks has come in goal, where Khudobin’s hot hand seemed to light a fire under Tuukka Rask. The longtime starter in Boston, Rask was benched during Khudobin’s run creating a pseudo-goaltending controversy, but since the reins have been handed back to the 30-year-old, he’s taken control of the crease and helped propel Boston up the standings. Consider that since taking the crease back in mid-November, Rask has turned in a marvellous.931 save percentage, 1.88 goals-against average, one shutout and a 7-2-1 record. Prior to the kickstart he got from Khudobin, Rask was mired in a slump that saw him go 3-6-2 with a.901 SP and GAA almost a full goal higher.
While significant, though, it’s hard to call Rask’s performance the most impressive thing about the Bruins’ past five weeks. Rather, that mantle likely goes to the unit of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. Offensively, maybe the line hasn’t put up the gaudy totals of the Nikita Kucherov-Steven Stamkos pairing, the New York Islanders’ top line of John Tavares, Josh Bailey and Anders Lee or even the Jets’ since-broken up combination of Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor. What Boston’s top line has done, though, is contribute a few goals here andthere while dominating play in a way that few other lines have been capable.
According to Corsica’s line statistics, Boston’s top line of Bergeron-Marchand-Pastrnak is one of the 45 units to skate at least 150 minutes together at 5-on-5 this season, and their numbers across that time are almost unfathomable. In terms of possession, the Bruins’ trio has driven play to the tune of a 63.6 Corsi for percentage, all the while generating nine goals at five-a-side while allowing exactly zero against. That’s right: the line has a perfect goals for percentage, sitting at 100 percent at 5-on-5 across nearly 200 minutes of play. No other line can make that claim. Even at all strengths the trio is the best in the league, generating 20 goals for to four against for an 83.3 goals for percentage to go along with a 70.1 Corsi for percentage across 256 minutes.
While the Bruins’ top line is driving play and tilting the scoreboard, Boston has also been getting outstanding contributions from their youth. Rookie defenseman Charlie McAvoy has been rightfully getting his due as a Calder Trophy candidate, and he’s only grown over this second part of his rookie season. Since mid-November when Boston started making their move, no Bruin has averaged more ice time and he’s the top-scoring defender with four goals and 11 points across the past 17 games. Beyond McAvoy, however, Boston is getting production out of other freshmen, as well. Danton Heinen, for example, has six goals and 15 points in his past 17 games. Jake DeBrusk, meanwhile, has been dynamite since sitting on the sidelines as a healthy scratch. Since Nov. 15, DeBrusk has five goals and 12 points in 14 games. Only Heinen, Pastrnak and Marchand have more points.
Best of all, though, with the holiday break approaching, the suddenly dominant Bruins have an opportunity to actually overtake second spot in the Atlantic. Saturday night, Boston will host the Detroit Red Wings on the same night Toronto heads into Madison Square Garden to face the New York Rangers. A Bruins win paired with a Maple Leafs loss would give the two sides equal point totals, giving Boston the edge due to games in hand. And should that come to pass, we might not be able to overlook the Bruins as one of the East’s top teams any longer.
Want more in-depth features and expert analysis on the game you love? Subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.) — Baltimore fuel truck driver Clinton Worrell died in an icy crash earlier in the month. But now, a fellow driver from Illinois, who never knew Worrell, has raised more than $14,000 dollars for the deceased driver’s family.
“You just never know when your time has come,” says Mike Lavelle, a Chicago fuel truck driver who started the online fundraiser.
Like millions of others, Lavelle saw the video of Clinton Worrell Jr.’s tanker careen into the jersey wall on I-95 in southwest Baltimore, then fall over the edge.
“I watched it once, and I just couldn’t watch it again,” says Lavelle.
“It’s one of those things where you know the outcome, and you just don’t want to see it again,” he says.
He’d never met Worrell, but he knew the dangers of the job, driving for almost 20 years himself, four of them hauling fuel. So from his home in Chicago, where he spoke to WJZ over Skype, Mike Lavelle started an online fundraiser hat has brought in tens of thousands of dollars for Worrell’s family, including his seven-year-old daughter.
“It’s a fellow fuel hauler, and it’s a brother and a sisterhood, and we all kind of look out for each other,” says Lavelle.
“For every one negative comment, you have about ten to twenty heartfelt, heart-wrenching posts,” he says.
Transportation Authority Police are still investigating the crash, but according to an AP report, MDTA police say the driver, 31-year-old Clinton Worrell, had the required certification to drive the truck, and had the current medical certification.
Co-workers and so many other truckers nationwide have donated money to his family.
“Not that you could ever bring Clinton back, but I hope that it’s one less thing that they have to worry about,” says Lavelle.
“Just something that they can fall back on, and they can see the support from people around the country,” he says.
Lavelle says in tragedies like these family helps family, and that’s exactly what he’s doing.
Worrell’s employer, Carroll Fuel, has validated the fundraising page.
Lavelle writes on the page:
“HI, my name is Mike Lavelle. I drive a fuel truck in Chicago, IL. Like many of you I watched the video of the accident on December 17, 2017 in Baltimore, MD.
I’ve never met Clinton Worrell. Like many of you know fuel hauling isn’t for everyone. That’s why it’s considered a brotherhood and sisterhood. We are part of the fuel hauling family. To me family helps family. Clinton and I belong to a Facebook group dedicated to fuel haulers. Thru one of the group’s members I got in touch with members of Clinton’s family.
As a member of the fuel hauling family I thought it would be a nice gesture to help out his family. Which includes a 7 year old daughter durning the holiday season.
Every dollar is greatly appreciated. All of the money is going directly to the family. With the hope of it lighting the burden in their time of need. His sister Shannika has access to the money. I have no access to it at all. It’s all for the family.
Thank you for all of your generosity.”
To donate to the page CLICK HERE.
Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on FacebookThe Labour MP for Dewsbury resigned from his post amid suspicions that his rental arrangements over his main home may have breached the Ministerial Code of Conduct.
The Telegraph revealed today that Mr Malik was paying well below the market rate for his constituency home in West Yorkshire, which he rents from a landlord who has a conviction for letting an uninhabitable property.
The Ministerial Code of Conduct states that members of the Government must not use their position to gain any financial advantage.
Gordon Brown has asked Sir Philip Mawer, the independent adviser on the ministerial code, to investigate whether Mr Malik’s arrangement with his landlord, Tahir Zaman, constitutes a breach of the code.
Mr Zaman told the Telegraph that Mr Malik paid him less than £100 per week in rent, saying that he charged more for another nearby property which was half the size.
Mr Malik is the first Government minister to resign in the wake of the Telegraph’s week-long investigation into MPs’ expenses.
Speaking earlier in the day from his home in Dewsbury, West Yorks, he insisted he was "as straight as they come" and blamed the controversy on the system of allowances being "in complete tatters".
Since being elected in 2005, Mr Malik has claimed the maximum amount allowable for a second home, amounting to £66,827 over three years. Last year, he claimed £23,083 from the taxpayer for his London town house, equivalent to £443 per week. The Telegraph disclosed that the “main home” for which Mr Malik pays out of his own pocket - a three-bedroom house in his constituency of Dewsbury - has been secured at a discounted rent from Mr Zaman.
Mr Malik also rents a constituency office from Mr Zaman, who was fined for letting an “uninhabitable” house.
In an interview on Sky News Mr Malik pledged to donate £1,050 he claimed for a television to worthy local causes in his constituency.
"I will not be giving it to the authorities in Parliament because it is legitimately mine," he said. "But as a gesture I am giving that to good causes in my constituency, and I think it will be appreciated by those who receive it."
Asked why he needed to spend £730 on a massage chair, Mr Malik said it was a "legitimate expenditure" that he was allowed to make.
He said he went "one million per cent by the book" when he designated the house he rents in Dewsbury as his main home.
But he added: "The one thing I am clear about is that the rules are in complete tatters. I was a new MP. Everything I did, I asked before I did it because I didn't want to be doing anything that was against the rules."
But Mr Malik admitted that the stories about MPs' expenses have had a negative impact on the UK's democracy and politics.
"With hindsight, I think every MP in this country would have done things differently," he said. "And for that collectively, on behalf of all MPs, of course I apologise."
Mr Malik’s arrangement with his landlord means he pays below market rent for his main home while billing taxpayers thousands for his second home in London. His second home claims have included £2,600 for a home cinema system — which was cut in half by officials — and £65 for a court summons for not paying council tax.
Neither Mr Malik nor Mr Zaman would say last night whether they had signed a formal agreement for the lease of the constituency house, although Mr Zaman said the rent was below the market rate. The landlord’s wife said the house appeared to be occupied by a constituency worker during the week.
The case of Mr Malik’s expenses illustrates the potential problems of an MP being able to nominate what appears to be the family home as his second home, enabling him to claim tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money.
Gordon Brown's spokesman stressed the expectation would be that Mr Malik would return to office if he was cleared and said no replacement was being appointed in the meantime. Sir Philip could report back within days.
Mr Brown's spokesman said: "There have been accusations made in the past 24 hours against Shahid Malik, in particular that he received preferential rent on his main residence.
"Because that allegation would represent a potential financial benefit and that potential and alleged financial benefit was not declared as part of his ministerial declaration, this could represent a breach of the ministerial code.
"In the light of these accusations that have been made against Shahid Malik and the need for them to be properly investigated, the Prime Minister has asked the independent adviser, Sir Philip Mawer, to establish the facts of the matter as a matter of urgency and advise |
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Even if some of your ideas never see the light of day, going through the creative process is still valuable. As Eminem says in an interview with the New York Times, “I have a thinking job. I write a lot of things down, and sometimes I never use them. It’s just the exercise.”
Some creatives deliberately leverage quantity. Noel Gallagher says in an interview with Rolling Stone:
I still think tomorrow might be the day that I write the greatest song of all time. It’s like going fishing. The guitar is your fishing rod, and if I’m not fishing for that song, fucking Bono will get it, and if he’s not, Chris Martin will. And fuck those two guys, because they’ve got enough. We’re all fishing in the same river, and it’s cutthroat, baby.
Similarly, John Legend says in a Reddit AMA:
When I’m writing the album, I like to schedule writing sessions rather than just hope inspiration randomly comes to me. I like to schedule my creativity so that I’m more proactive about searching for inspiration. It makes me more productive and prolific. Every song won’t be great, but I create 50–80 songs every album, in the hopes that a significant portion will be great.
Even when Kanye says in this VICE clip that he would rather spend more time focusing on 14 tracks rather than spreading them across 40, there’s still a lot of effort that goes into early unused versions or drafts of each song.
Robert McKee writes in Story, “But if you know the craft, you know how to cure clichés: Sketch a list of five, ten, fifteen different “East Side lovers meet” scenes. Why? Because experienced writers never trust so-called inspiration.”
Creatives produce high amounts of work. There’s an unbelievable amount of work that the world never sees. Some people deliberately hide their brushstrokes.
Broadening the gap between your workload and your limit means you have time and energy to produce more than you expected. It also enables you to take a break and renew yourself for the day after.We all know that Kendrick Lamar has been killing it for years, but every once in a while something pops up that reminds us just how long his talent went under-appreciated. A recently-resurfaced video of Kendrick freestyling over the beat to Kanye West’s “So Appalled” in 2009 is a perfect example.
Kendrick titled the freestyle “A Little Appalled,” and he kicked things off by dropping a reference to Eminem—an artist he would later work with on The Marshall Mathers LP 2 track “Love Game”:
I might spit some intricate shit for retards not to get
But really I’m just as rude as Marshall Mathers
Is that a contradiction? He contradicting himself again?
Of course that’s a contradiction, the fuck you think life is?
We not like Christ is
We all want ices and devices to make the bitches say I like this
He also touched on issues of police brutality and the influence rappers have on young people:
I used to want a champagne two door Tahoe
Until I seen that same truck shot by five-o
Dead with his eyes closed, y'all should’ve seen him
Off a gallon of cough syrup, but rifles had leaned him
That’s why these tough rappers man I don’t believe ‘em
Y'all wanna be 'em, I wanna grab bats and beat 'em
The video was recorded before Kendrick dropped The Kendrick Lamar EP in December 2009. This project—along with his 2010 mixtape O.verly D.edicated—was one of the first breakout moments of his career. Clearly he’d been honing his rap skills for a while.
Kanye West’s version of “So Appalled” actually didn’t drop until Sept. 24, 2010 as part of his G.O.O.D. Fridays series. However a version of the song leaked in early November 2009. Since Kendrick talks about The Kendrick Lamar EP—which came out on Dec. 31, 2009— in the future tense, it’s likely that he’s rapping over the leaked version of the “So Appalled” beat sometime in November or December 2009. This means Kendrick’s version of “So Appalled” actually dropped almost a year before Kanye West’s did.
You can check out the freestyle above and read all the lyrics to Kendrick Lamar’s “A Little Appalled” on Genius now.It seems like we finally received a confirmation that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and PES 2016 will run at 1080p/60FPS on Xbox One. The details comes from our friend at Gamekyo, who went hands-on to test both MGS V: The Phantom Pain and PES 2016 at E3 2015 on Xbox One, and received a confirmation on 1080p/60FPS from Julien Merceron, Technical Director on Konami's Fox Engine. According to details posted on Gamekyo, development teams behind both these games were able to achieve 1080p/60FPS mark thanks to the new Xbox One SDK.
Here is what Gamekyo wrote on their website (translated):
"The great info is that both games on Xbox One will be in 1080p/60fps. We heard that by Julien Merceron, involved in the development of Konami's Fox Engine. Thanks to the new SDK, developers were able to upgrade low resolution textures to high definition ones. Ground Zeroes and Pes 2015 were both 720p resolution on Xbox One."
We have contacted Konami and Hideo Kojima for a official and final confirmation on this. So stay tuned, we will update this post as soon as we get to hear something from them.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will launch on September 1 and PES 2016 will launch on September 17.The Home Affairs Select Committee have announced that unlike people accused of any other crime, those accused of sex crimes (including rape) deserve anonymity until charged. It’s a decision that has been made without consulting rape victims or rape support charities, instead appearing to be motivated by sympathy for the DJ Paul Gambacinni, kept on bail for 12 months over an allegation that was eventually dropped. According to Committee chairman Keith Vaz “we have seen how destructive [releasing names] can be to a person’s livelihood, causing irreparable reputational damage and enormous financial burden.” We have also, one would think, seen how damaging rape – which happens to an estimated one in five women – can be, but apparently that’s less measurable (or less important?). In any case, the belief that a “special stigma” attaches to rape, making those accused more in need of protection from publicity, persists.
Personally I find it strange to think that we live in a world so appalled and outraged by rape that those accused of it are social pariahs. If that were the case, surely we wouldn’t be surrounded by men telling women that forced penetration and sexual coercion are perfectly fine. A world in which great stigma is attached to rape itself is not a world in which …
This is not a world in which rape is seen as a truly abhorrent act of violence. It is joked about. It is excused. It is filmed and shared between friends. It is committed time and again, by men who believe it is normal (just don’t say the “r” word, at least not outside your own circle of friends).
The stigma, if there is one, has nothing to do with rape itself. It’s to do with naming it. It’s to do with being accused. An accusation breaks all the rules. You haven’t properly overpowered a victim if she then complains. Her complaint makes you a Rapist with a capital “R,” as opposed to someone who merely “coerces” (every man coerces, doesn’t he? Coercion’s when you get away with it and that’s just fine).
I don’t believe for a minute that the tiny number of men falsely accused of rape suffer more than the tens of thousands of women raped every year who see no justice at all. Only someone who believes men are more human than women – or that forced penetration is no big deal since that’s what women are there for – could dare to think otherwise. If a false accusation of rape is more traumatic than one of, say, burglary or murder, this isn’t because we think rape is more abhorrent. We don’t. Perhaps men feel pressured put on a show of distancing their behaviour and beliefs from those of someone who’s been “officially” labelled a rapist. Or maybe there’s a particular shame – a form of emasculation – associated in having your socially approved right to take penetrate more vulnerable bodies legally questioned. Whatever it is, it’s not that we think rape is worse than other crimes. We just don’t like having to think of it as a crime at all.
The current call for those accused of sex crimes to remain anonymous until charged harms victims several times over. It suggests rape is less acceptable than other forms of criminal behaviour (the opposite is true). It suggests accusers are more likely to lie (false accusation rates are no different than for other crimes). It suggests the chance that publicity could help other victims to come forward isn’t important (it is). It blurs the lines between “not charged” and “falsely accused” (not charging men accused of rape is common; charges and convictions for making false accusations are rare). Above all, it suggests being raped isn’t as bad as being accused of rape, making the convictions of serial rapists such as John Worboys much less likely in order to spare a handful of men the pain of being accused of a crime they didn’t commit (meanwhile any one of us could get accused of a crime we didn’t commit, but clearly only some of us matter).
Rape accusations are socially disruptive, but only because we live in a world that is perfectly fine with rape itself. That is the problem. Anyone who cared about victims and about the handful of men falsely accused would work on changing this.
(For help emailing your MP on this issue, click here.)
AdvertisementsThe purpose of this blog is to further explain the human population growth issue. In this blog I will present to you two different views: Cornucopian and Cassandra and talk about what each group believes and different members of each group. I will also introduce to you to the IPAT equation and inform you of the different causes and effects of human population growth.
Human population growth is one of the biggest problems the Earth is facing. Not only are we increasing the human population at an exponential rate, but we are also using resources much faster than they can be replenished; therefore, these resources are no longer renewable. Right now, there are approximately 7 billion people on the Earth. This number will continue to grow exponentially if we do not find ways to cut down on births. The Earth does have a carrying capacity, which means there is a certain number of people that the Earth can provide resources for. No one truly knows this number, but I believe that we have passed that number because of how fast we are using resources. It is hard for most people to grasp the number of people that inhabit this planet; J. Withgott and S. Brennan lay it out in a much more understandable way, “Our global population grows by over 80 million people each year. This is the equivalent of adding all the people of California, Texas, and New York to the world annually – and it means that we add 2.6 people to the planet every second(1)” (p. 199). It might also help you to grasp this number by looking at this website.
There are several reasons that our population is increasing at an exponential rate. J. Withgott and S. Brennan say the main reasons for our population growth is, “… from technological innovations, improved sanitation, better medical care, increased agricultural output, and other factors that have brought down death rates and infant mortality rates (2)” (p. 199). Some of the main consequences of our increasing population is that the Earth will not be able to support a certain number of inhabitants, more resource consumption, more fossil fuel use, and war, conflict, and refugees. The chart below better outlines the causes and effects of population growth.
There are two different views on human population growth and the impacts it will have. One of the views is the Cornucopian view, which states that population growth poses no problem if new resources can be found or created to replace ones that have been used up. They believe that there is enough technology out there that will allow us to find new resources so we can compensate for the ones that we are currently using up. This view is strongly supported by many economists because they think that as the price of rare resources rises, people will be tempted to turn to new resources. The other view is known as the Cassandra view, which is strongly supported by scientists and states that resources are finite. The Cassandra’s have run models that show how our economy will fare in the future based on resource consumption and resource availability. The graph below shows one of the model’s of the Cassandra’s. It shows how they think population will start to fall once resources have been depleted. The main point of this graph is to show that resources, population, food, and industrial output will fall once all our resources have been depleted and there is no way of getting them back (4).
Personally, I think there is a population growth issue. I think we have well surpassed the number of people which the Earth can support. I hope that we can find a way to solve our population issue, but I think this will only be achievable if we educate countries who raise a lot of children and do not realize the impact they are having on the Earth.
One of the strongest supporters of the Cassandra view is Paul Ehrlich, who believes that there is a chance our population will grow so fast that we will not be able to produce and supply food. This, he believes, will lead to famine and conflict that would consume the human civilization by the end of the 20th century. Ehrlich developed the IPAT equation, which represents how our total impact on the environment results from the interactions of population, affluence, and technology. This model explains how population increases our impact on the environment because we add more people and use more resources. Affluence adds to the per capita resource consumption. Technology can have positive and negative impacts because we can use it to exploit more minerals, fossil fuels, and destroy forests, but it can be beneficial because we can use it to reduce emissions and create renewable energy sources.
I = P x A x T
The IPAT equation in reference to China shows that they have a negative impact on the Earth. They have one of the largest populations in the world, but they have taken measures to try and solve this issue by only allowing one child per family. They have a very high GDP, which means they use a lot of resources. Their state of technology is very high, so they can be using it in a negative and positive way, but they are using it more in a negative way since they are the leading producers in many products. In reference to the USA, the IPAT equation shows that we are having an even worse impact on the Earth because our population is continuing to grow and we have not done anything to try and fix that issue. Our affluence is only going up, meaning we are consuming and using resources at a very fast rate. However, our technology is being used in very positive and very negative ways as well. We have been finding ways to create renewable energy sources, but we also consume a lot of resources and are using them much faster than they can be replenished. I believe that the country with the worst impact on the Earth with respect to the IPAT equation is India because of their ever-increasing population, which is not being fixed. They are also one of the leading countries in resource consumption and GDP. In addition, they have been using technology in bad ways, not using it in a ways to benefit the Earth.
Hans Rosling is another scientist who has developed a software that can track the changes in certain variables, such as family income and size. Rosling is a supporter of the Cornucopian view because he believes that if goods are distributed in the right way and if technology continues to increase, poverty and hunger will be prevented in a growing world. One of the topics that I liked the most about his talk was when he mentioned students in the university and their view on the world population. He says that they think of the world with respect to two different groups: “we” and “them”, or Western and Eastern. The graph that he shows explains how there were two different groups of people in the 1950’s: the ones with small families and longer lives, and the ones with large families and shorter lives, but as time went on, the larger families with shorter lives are now living longer and longer. I like this view because it shows how the population has been increasing in the developing countries and they are the ones with the most family members; therefore, they are the ones contributing to the population the most.
Below i have used Gapminder to map out the change in the human population from 1940 to 2009 in all the countries of the world. Also, these graphs show the life expectancy of each country. The purpose of these graphs is to show why our population has been increasing at an exponential rate. Because the life expectancy has gone up so much since 1940, more people are living longer and there are not as many infant mortalities. The main reasons for our higher life expectancy is increased medical care, better medicine, higher technology, and more food. A higher life expectancy is definitely a good thing, but the population rising at such a high rate is not a good thing. It is rising at this rate because certain countries, such as India are having several children per family and they do not realize the impact this is having on the Earth. The two leading countries on the graph below for 2009 are india and China. The industrial and agricultural revolutions are the main reason the population has skyrocketed.
In this blog I have further informed you about several different topics relating to the human population growth. I hope to have given you a better grasp on the current population and how it is continuously rising. I have provided you with an in-depth graph showing you the different causes and effects of human population growth and how the relate to one another. I outlined the different beliefs of the Cornucopian’s and Cassandra’s and talked about different scientists who belong to each of the groups. I have also introduced you to the IPAT equation, which can be used to determine a countries impact on the Earth by examining their population, affluence, and technology. In the last section of this blog I used Gapminder to compare and contrast the population in 1940 to the population in 2009 compared to the life expectancy to show how and why the population has been growing at an exponential rate.
REFERENCES
1. Withgott, J. & Brennan, S. (2010). Environment: The science behind the stories. 4th Ed. San Francisco: Pearson Education. 2. Withgott, J. & Brennan, S. (2010). Environment: The science behind the stories. 4th Ed. San Francisco: Pearson Education. 3. Human Population”Consequences of exploding population” Accessed November, 23rd 2012 from http://legacy.owensboro.kctcs.edu/gcaplan/eco/note%20withgott/eco%20note%20l%20%20human%20population.htm 4. Casandra’s Curse: how “the limits to growth” was demonized “State of the World” (March 9th, 2008) Accessed November, 23rd 2012 from http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3551 5. TED ideas worth spreading “Hans Rosling: Let my Dataset change your Mindset” (August 2009) Accessed November, 23rd 2012 from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/hans_rosling_at_state.html
AdvertisementsThe Theme of The Second National Conference For Men And Boys to be held in Brighton & Hove on Friday 2nd November 2012 is “BUILDING THE SECTOR TOGETHER”.
To buy an early bird discounted ticket for this great event simply CLICK HERE NOW!
AGENDA FOR THE DAY
8.00 – 9.30am: Breakfast, networking and registration
9.30 – 10.30am: Opening Debate: How Do We Build A Sector That Works For All Men and Boys?
10.30am –1.00 pm: Best Practice Showcase
A celebration of 15 of the best projects helping to improve the lives of men and boys in the UK presented on the main stage.
10.55am – 13.00pm: Sector Showcase
If you want to find about some of the challenges, trends and emerging good practice in work to support dads, improve men’s health, tackle violence and abuse and help men and boys reach their potential – then this is your chance to spend an hour in the company of the UK’s leading experts to find out what’s happening in your area of interest and get all your questions answered. These sessions take place in three separate breakout areas.
10.55 am – 11.55 noon: Sector Showcase Part One
Breakout Area 1: Fatherhood – helping every dad be the great dad he wants to be.
Breakout Area 2: Men’s Health – helping men and boys live long, happy, healthy lives
Breakout Area 3: Violence & Abuse – making the world safer by keeping men and boys safe
12.00 noon – 1.00pm: Sector Showcase Part Two
Breakout Room 1:Mental Health – helping men and boys get help
Breakout Room 2: Sexual Health – helping men enjoy healthy sex lives
Breakout Room 3: Developing Men & Boys – helping men and boys to reach their potential
1.00– 2.00: Lunch/Activists Soapbox/Sector Marketplace
During lunch we give 10 activists an opportunity to get on their soapbox and speak out on an issue that they are passionate about. There’ll also be a chance to visit the Sector Marketplace
2.00 – 4.30: Ten Top Thinkers
During the afternoon we give you the opportunity to hear from 10 leading experts who have been carefully selected to deliver inspiring talks that everyone working to improve the lives of men and boys in the UK will want to hear.
4.30 – 5.00: Closing Remarks and Final Thoughts from delegatesA few weeks ago, LADOT Bikeways staff grabbed our camera and tripod and took a trip down to Long Beach to get a first hand look at the Vista St. Bicycle Boulevard. As Los Angeles gets ready to implement it’s own version of a Bicycle Boulevard (called a Bicycle Friendly Street – BFS), we wanted to help familiarize everyone with a few of the different treatments. We particularly wanted to stress the significant quality of life and safety improvements that Vista St. residents have seen following the installation of traffic calming devices – particularly roundabouts and bicycle traffic signals. We hope to use this video (and others like it) at future neighborhood meetings to provide information through a more visually appealing medium. Special thanks go out to Long Beach Bicycle Coordinator Allan Crawford, neighborhood residents Kristine Kelly and Lisa Brisky for sharing their first hand thoughts and experiences with the facility. More on the benefits of BFS facilities below the fold.
Let’s make better neighborhoods
Roundabouts can improve safety, reduce noise, and beautify your neighborhoods. They function as a natural traffic calming device by slightly diverting traffic off of a straight path. This forces cars to slow down when entering the intersection. Roundabouts are also more efficient than your typical four way stop intersection (an intersection with four stop signs). They allow multiple vehicles to yield, and proceed through the intersection without having to come to a complete stop. Slower speeds and yielding (as opposed to complete stops) reduces vehicle braking noise, thus contributing to a calmer, less noisy neighborhood.
Safety and health
Slower cars means less accidents (and even the ones that do occur are less severe). According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA),
Traffic calming has proven to reduce traffic speeds and, consequently, reduce the number of pedestrian deaths.
With Bicycle Friendly Streets, you can leave the car at home and allow your kids to walk or bike to school. This allows kids to get some much needed physical activity, thus decreasing their risk of developing chronic illnesses like diabetes and hypertension. As we continue to move forward with Bike Plan implementation, be sure to show your support for these intersection treatments. Feel free to tell us what you think of the video, and be sure to provide suggestions for future videos that you’d like to see.
Advertisements(The Conversation) On April 8, the well-known French television show “Salut les terriens” turned sour when guests discussed the very sensitive topic of the so-called “French Muslim vote.”
One panelist, journalist Sonia Mabrouk, argued that Muslims in France are constantly used by opportunists, from politicians to intellectuals, as a constituency to serve their own purposes.
The incident recalled the final televised debate of France’s 2012 presidential election, when then-candidate François Hollande sparred with incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy over the Muslim vote.”
Hollande was in favour of extending the right to vote in local elections to non-EU citizens living in France, while Sarkozy argued against it. The president claimed that such a move would lead to “identity-based voting practices” and “divisive sectarian demands.”
Women, it’s worth remembering, were once suspected of voting with their sex.
As the French go to the polls on April 23 and May 7 to elect their new president, the question reemerges: is it reasonable to assume that Muslims’ voting behavior is based on their religion and on the Quran?
The impact of religion on votes
Some 93 percent of French Muslims cast their ballots for François Hollande in the second round of the 2012 presidential election, according to a poll by OpinionWay. That’s 41 percent above than the national average, since Hollande was ultimately elected with 52 percent of votes.
Several attempts have been made to explain why French Muslims voted almost unanimously for the left.
In their 2012 book “Français comme les autres?” (As French as everyone else?), political scientists Sylvain Brouard and Vincent Tiberj concluded that the impact of religion on the voting practices of believers should not be overestimated.
Catholics in France and in the United States, for example, vote in ways diametrically opposed to each other. In France, people who identify as Catholic are today markedly in favor of the conservative Républicains, particularly since the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2013.
In the U.S., on the other hand, they tend to vote for the Democrats, a more socially progressive party.
How can this difference be explained? According to Brouard and Tiberj, Catholics in the U.S. vote Democratic for precisely the same reasons that Muslims in France went for Hollande’s Socialist Party: they cast their ballots for candidates who support minority rights.
Both groups are often found among racial and religious minorities – American citizens of Latin American origin and people of Maghrebian or African background in France – who have faced economic and social marginalization in their respective countries.
In France, on the other hand, Catholicism is the main religious faith. Hence the difference in voting orientations (though a bastion of left-wing Catholic voters has also historically existed in France).
In other words, religion is not the be-all, end-all of a believer’s political choices.
Identifying as Muslims
Though the impact of faith must be taken with a grain of salt, it is not entirely irrelevant in the context of elections. Qualitative research I conducted in 2012 and 2013 found that the vote of French Muslim citizens I interviewed was indeed influenced by their religious identity.
Being a Muslim did not predetermine their answer to the question, Who should I vote for? But it did lead people to ask, Who shouldn’t I vote for? The impact was negative, helping them eliminate candidates deemed Islamophobic, rather than positive ([I] choose a candidate who defends my values, including religious values).
French Muslims took into account laws banning the headscarf or niqab, a veil that covers the face, as well as public comments against Islam, for instance, when weighing different candidates and their platforms. Candidates’ positions on foreign policy were also considered, with military interventions in Muslim-majority countries particularly frowned upon.
This is similar to how French citizens who identify as Jewish tend to be especially sensitive to antisemitism and to the position of candidates regarding Israel.
According to my study, being a Muslim can have three different effects on a person’s vote: it can consolidate a choice previously made, based on factors unrelated to religion; it can help select among a few candidates on the basis of the Islamophobia criterion; and when a candidate’s attitude towards Muslims is negatively perceived, it can destabilize and change a person’s political orientation.
Take, for example, Youssouf, a self-made man who in 2007 voted for Nicolas Sarkozy, the Republican party candidate. But in 2012, after what he called “the unashamed Islamophobic discourses and public policies targeting Islam made by him and his government,” Youssouf decided to vote for the left-wing François Hollande. Even though Youssouf didn’t at all like Hollande’s stance on economic and social issues.
Because of their lower socioeconomic status and the marginalization they face, many French Muslims, especially those living in France’s banlieues (suburbs), might simply choose not to vote.
Some of them justify their abstention with religious explanations, claiming that “voting is not halal”, since France is not a Muslim country.
Calls for abstention in 2017
Generally, this position is only held by a minority of highly orthodox Tabligh or Salafist Muslims. But today, several public Muslim intellectuals, including leaders who are not necessarily from those sects are calling for an “active abstention” by Muslims of the 2017 presidential election. The intent is to escape the constant trap of voting for the “lesser of two evils.”
Nizarr Bourchada, leader of the Français et Musulmans (French and Muslim) party, advocates a similar approach. His is one of the first French political parties to claim a strong attachment to both Islamic and French Republican values.
This echoes French author Michel Houellebecq’s prescient 2015 novel “Soumission” (Submission). Set in 2022, the book imagines the rise to power in France of a Muslim political party that imposes polygamy and prohibits women from wearing clothes that make them “desirable.”
Within a few weeks of publication, “Soumission” had become a bestseller in France, Italy and Germany. It bolsters the idea that a collective vote of French Muslims, or at least their federation into a political party, would be a threat for French society.
The reality is quite different. But whatever the outcome of this election season, it seems that the fantasy of a “Muslim vote” will continue to haunt Europe’s imagination for years to come.
(Fatima Khemilat is a PhD. student at Sciences Po Aix. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article)Fixes looks at solutions to social problems and why they work.
Have you thought of a clever product to mitigate climate change? Did you invent an ingenious gadget to light African villages at night? Have you come up with a new kind of school, or new ideas for lowering the rate of urban shootings?
Thanks, but we have lots of those.
Whatever problem possesses you, we already have plenty of ways to solve it. Many have been rigorously tested and have a lot of evidence behind them — and yet they’re sitting on a shelf.
So don’t invent something new. If you want to make a contribution, choose one of those ideas — and spread it.
Spreading an idea can mean two different things. One is to take something that’s working in one place and introduce it somewhere else. If you want to reduce infant mortality in Cleveland, why not try what’s working in Baltimore?
Well, you might not know about what’s working because there’s no quick system for finding it.
Even when a few people do search out the answer, innovative ideas don’t spread by themselves. To become well known, they require effort from their originators. For example, a Bogotá, Colombia, maternity hospital invented Kangaroo Care — a method of keeping premature babies warm by strapping them 24/7 to Mom’s chest. It saved a lot of lives in Bogotá. But what allowed it to save lives around the world was a campaign to spread it to other countries.
The Colombians established Fundación Canguro and got grants from wealthy countries to bring groups of doctors and nurses from all over to visit Bogotá for two or three weeks. Once the visitors had gone back and set up a program in their hospital, the foundation loaned them a doctor and nurse to help get them started. Save the Children now leads a global partnership to spread Kangaroo Care, with the goal of reaching half the world.
In short, this work requires dedicated organizations, a smart program and lots of money.
The other meaning of spreading an idea is creating ways to get new inventions out to people who need them.
“When I talk to college students or anyone who’s thinking about entrepreneurship or targeting global poverty, the gadget is where 99 percent of people start thinking,” said Nicholas Fusso, the director of D-Prize (its slogan: “Distribution is development”). “That’s important — but the biggest problems in the poverty world aren’t a lack of gadgets or new products. It’s figuring out how people can have access to them.” So D-Prize gives seed money, in chunks of $10,000 to $20,000, to tiny new organizations that have good ideas for how to distribute useful things.
This analysis may be familiar to regular readers of Fixes. Indeed, the first Fixes column, more than five years ago, focused on distribution: getting health care to people in rural Africa by putting health care workers on motorcycles and keeping the bikes running.
Fusso likes to use the example of malaria. The modern insecticide-treated bed net was invented in 1980, when one million people a year — the vast majority small children — were dying. What impact did the invention itself have? None at all, at first. Deaths each year rose gradually, and then rose sharply — to a peak of 1.8 million in 2004, when they began to fall.
What happened then? The world finally started putting money into fighting malaria, including distributing bed nets. Today, deaths from malaria are one third of what they were in 2004.
The invention was crucial, of course — but it was distribution that gave it impact.
Also in 2004, a French researcher named Pascaline Dupas, working in Kenya, was talking to a Kenyan colleague who was running to give some money to her high school-age sister. “These girls have no money, and I don’t want her to end up with a sugar daddy,” the colleague said.
“But that’s crazy!” Dupas replied. “Doesn’t she know she could get H.I.V.?”
Perhaps she did know, but the vast majority of girls in Kenya did not. The assumption was widespread that someone relatively wealthy and established was unlikely to have the virus. Three quarters of 15-year-old Kenyans surveyed thought teenage boys were more likely to be infected than men over 25.
This was very wrong. H.I.V. rates were six times higher in men aged 20-24 than they were in boys 15-19, and the rates rose with each additional year of sexual activity.
Across the world, but especially in high-poverty countries, many high school girls look for boyfriends who are five to 10 years older, because those men have sophistication, stability and money. These sugar daddies give the girls gifts, pick them up from school in nice cars, pay their school fees and even help their families.
Moreover, girls are much more likely to have unprotected sex with a sugar daddy than with boys their own age. The power imbalance in the relationship makes it difficult to insist on condom use. And avoiding pregnancy is less important to them, as wealthier and more stable men make better husbands and are more likely to marry them than teen boys are.
Sugar daddies were one big reason that the H.I.V. rate for teenage girls in Kenya was five times higher than for teenage boys. Dupas wondered if simply providing the girls with correct information about the relative risks could change things.
She designed a 40-minute lesson to help girls in eighth grade (average age: 15) to understand the H.I.V. risks associated with sugar daddies. It started with a 10-minute video. Then a facilitator from a local civic group showed statistics about actual infection rates by age and gender. The class discussed the reasons for these patterns, and gradually came around to talking about sugar daddies.
This training was tested in 328 schools in western Kenya against the country’s standard school anti-AIDS curriculum, which promoted abstinence. Dupas’s message was very different: “Your risks are far less if you choose a partner your own age.”
“It made us very popular with the young boys in the class,” she said.
The next year, Dupas counted how many girls had become pregnant, and recorded the fathers’ ages. The group that heard Dupas’s lesson had a pregnancy rate 28 percent lower than those who received the standard abstinence-based curriculum. And their rate of child bearing with men five years or more their senior was 61 percent less.
Dupas didn’t have money to do H.I.V. testing, so she didn’t study the effects on H.I.V. incidence. But pregnancy is likely a good stand-in for unprotected sex, and therefore H.I.V. infections.
For a 40-minute single intervention at negligible cost, it was a stunning impact.
And then — nothing happened. One organization tried to replicate the study in Cameroon, but didn’t collect the right data. Dupas submitted the paper to various journals, finally publishing it in the American Economic Journal in 2011. Still, nothing happened — perhaps because people who design anti-AIDS programs don’t usually read economics journals, she said.
Related More From Fixes Read previous contributions to this series.
Finally, someone ran with it. But it was only because a young American, Noam Angrist, had studied at M.I.T. with Esther Duflo, a professor who was Dupas’s mentor. Angrist had also worked at J-PAL, a laboratory Duflo helped to establish to carry out scientific studies of anti-poverty programs.
In 2013 Angrist was living in Botswana, which has the second-highest H.I.V prevalence of any nation — 45 percent of 40-year-old men. With some friends, he did some small experiments to see whether the same misconceptions about sugar daddies existed in Botswana as in Kenya. They did. “When we showed them the actual graph, they would physically gasp,” he said. Young1ove was in |
compile and link all *_test.go files in the package, even when there are no Test functions in them. It previously ignored such files.
subcommand will compile and link all files in the package, even when there are no functions in them. It previously ignored such files. The behavior of the go build subcommand's -a flag has been changed for non-development installations. For installations running a released distribution, the -a flag will no longer rebuild the standard library and commands, to avoid overwriting the installation's files.
Changes to package source layout
In the main Go source repository, the source code for the packages was kept in the directory src/pkg, which made sense but differed from other repositories, including the Go subrepositories. In Go 1.4, the pkg level of the source tree is now gone, so for example the fmt package's source, once kept in directory src/pkg/fmt, now lives one level higher in src/fmt.
Updating: Tools like godoc that discover source code need to know about the new location. All tools and services maintained by the Go team have been updated.
SWIG
Due to runtime changes in this release, Go 1.4 requires SWIG 3.0.3.
Miscellany
The standard repository's top-level misc directory used to contain Go support for editors and IDEs: plugins, initialization scripts and so on. Maintaining these was becoming time-consuming and needed external help because many of the editors listed were not used by members of the core team. It also required us to make decisions about which plugin was best for a given editor, even for editors we do not use.
The Go community at large is much better suited to managing this information. In Go 1.4, therefore, this support has been removed from the repository. Instead, there is a curated, informative list of what's available on a wiki page.
Performance
Most programs will run about the same speed or slightly faster in 1.4 than in 1.3; some will be slightly slower. There are many changes, making it hard to be precise about what to expect.
As mentioned above, much of the runtime was translated to Go from C, which led to some reduction in heap sizes. It also improved performance slightly because the Go compiler is better at optimization, due to things like inlining, than the C compiler used to build the runtime.
The garbage collector was sped up, leading to measurable improvements for garbage-heavy programs. On the other hand, the new write barriers slow things down again, typically by about the same amount but, depending on their behavior, some programs may be somewhat slower or faster.
Library changes that affect performance are documented below.
Changes to the standard library
New packages
There are no new packages in this release.
Major changes to the library
bufio.Scanner
The Scanner type in the bufio package has had a bug fixed that may require changes to custom split functions. The bug made it impossible to generate an empty token at EOF; the fix changes the end conditions seen by the split function. Previously, scanning stopped at EOF if there was no more data. As of 1.4, the split function will be called once at EOF after input is exhausted, so the split function can generate a final empty token as the documentation already promised.
Updating: Custom split functions may need to be modified to handle empty tokens at EOF as desired.
syscall
The syscall package is now frozen except for changes needed to maintain the core repository. In particular, it will no longer be extended to support new or different system calls that are not used by the core. The reasons are described at length in a separate document.
A new subrepository, golang.org/x/sys, has been created to serve as the location for new developments to support system calls on all kernels. It has a nicer structure, with three packages that each hold the implementation of system calls for one of Unix, Windows and Plan 9. These packages will be curated more generously, accepting all reasonable changes that reflect kernel interfaces in those operating systems. See the documentation and the article mentioned above for more information.
Updating: Existing programs are not affected as the syscall package is largely unchanged from the 1.3 release. Future development that requires system calls not in the syscall package should build on golang.org/x/sys instead.
Minor changes to the library
The following list summarizes a number of minor changes to the library, mostly additions. See the relevant package documentation for more information about each change.Dean Elgar had lost his contract recently, before the second Test against Australia © Getty Images
Dean Elgar has been awarded a national contract, in place of the retired Test captain Graeme Smith. The list remains at 17 players, with seven signed on for two years and the remaining 10 on one-year deals. CSA also announced 12 players who received high performance contract, which includes Kyle Abbott, who played in the Newlands Test, and Under-19 World Cup winner Kagiso Rabada.
Elgar lost his contract when the most recent list was announced two days before the second Test against Australia in Port Elizabeth. On the same day, Elgar was informed he was going to play in that match, because South Africa were returning to a seven specialist batsmen strategy.
Illness to regular opener Alviro Petersen the night before the game meant Elgar would also bat in his preferred position at the top of the order rather than at No. 6. He survived Mitchell Johnson and scored a gutsy 83, helping South Afrcia set up a match-winning first-innings total. With his part-time left-arm spin, Elgar also took the wicket that gave South Africa victory when he trapped Nathan Lyon lbw and it was given out despite the edge.
His performance in that match meant Elgar could not be dropped for the deciding Test at Newlands even though Petersen had recovered from his upset stomach. To accommodate both Petersen and Elgar, South Africa shuffled their batting order and allowed Elgar to bat at No. 3 and Hashim Amla at No. 4.
Given South Africa's showing, it is too early to say whether it was a good tactical decision and it may not even be necessary to do so. With Smith's retirement, Elgar has been tipped to move back into the opening berth, where he will partner Petersen, thus replacing Smith in more ways than one.
"Dean is the obvious replacement and must be excited by the opportunity to emulate the greatness achieved by his recently retired national captain," Haroon Lorgat, CSA CEO said. "He has all the attributes and qualifies as the next player eligible to be awarded a contract."
In addition to identifying Elgar as part of the succession plans, CSA has also earmarked a dozen franchise players. Among them are three spinners, Simon Harmer, Eddie Leie and Aaron Phangiso and four other top-order batsmen. Rilee Rossouw, Reeza Hendricks, Temba Bavuma and Stiaan van Zyl have all been suggested as replacements for the likes of Smith and Jacques Kallis in the long term and this is a nod to that theory.
"This is investment in our future," Andrew Hudson, CSA's convener of selectors said. "Close monitoring of these exciting young players so that we can provide the best chance of developing their careers to the full potential."
Players on two-year contracts: AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn
Players on one-year contracts: Quinton de Kock, Dean Elgar, Rory Kleinveldt, Ryan McLaren, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Alviro Petersen, Robin Peterson, Imran Tahir, Lonwabo Tsotsobe
High Performance contracts: Kyle Abbott, Temba Bavuma, Simon Harmer, Beuran Hendricks, Reeza Hendricks, Eddie Leie, Mangaliso Mosehle, Aaron Phangiso, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Stiaan van Zyl, Khaya Zondo
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo's South Africa correspondent
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.The first step toward recovery is admitting that you have a problem. That goes for political movements as well as individuals. So I have some advice for so-called reform conservatives trying to rebuild the intellectual vitality of the right: You need to start by facing up to the fact that your movement is in the grip of some uncontrollable urges. In particular, it’s addicted to inflation — not the thing itself, but the claim that runaway inflation is either happening or about to happen.
To see what I’m talking about, consider a scene that played out the other day on CNBC.
Rick Santelli, one of the network’s stars, is best known for a rant against debt relief that arguably gave birth to the Tea Party. On this occasion, however, he was ranting about another of his favorite subjects, the allegedly inflationary policies of the Federal Reserve. And his colleague Steve Liesman had had enough. “It’s impossible for you to have been more wrong,” Mr. Liesman declared, and he went on to detail the wrong predictions: “The higher interest rates never came, the inability of the U.S. to sell bonds never happened, the dollar never crashed, Rick. There isn’t a single one that’s worked for you.”
You could say the same thing about many people. I’ve had conversations with investors bemused by the failure of the dollar to crash and inflation to soar, because “all the experts” said that was going to happen. And that is indeed what you might have imagined if your notion of expertise was what you saw on CNBC, on The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, or in Forbes.
And this has been going on for a long time — at least since early 2009. Yet despite being consistently wrong for more than five years, these “experts” never consider the possibility that there might be something amiss with their economic framework, let alone that Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen or, for that matter, yours truly might have been right to dismiss their warnings.Kena Krutsinger/Getty Images
CHICAGO — I want Moritz Boehringer to succeed. I don't think he will, but I want him to. I want him to succeed because he's the coolest story in the draft. I want him to succeed because I like the idea of a player emerging from outside the homogenized, overhyped, overprocessed, overanalyzed NFL draft system.
I love the idea of a player like that becoming a star. It won't happen, but I am crossing my fingers.
Watch tape of Boehringer, and you see some remarkable athleticism and ability. It's in Germany, yes. And that's the problem. This is the list of great NFL players who made their bones playing in Germany:
Calculating...
Calculating...
Yep, got nothing.
There are good basketball players from Germany. Hockey players, too. There is, of course, gorgeous soccer played there.
But football?
Boehringer played for the Schwabisch Hall Unicorns of the German Football League.
The Unicorns. I kinda like it.
I've heard a great deal about Boehringer from NFL scouts. In the personnel community, I'm told, there is a great deal of division about him. It's either love or hate. Nothing in between.
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His detractors say the German league is a joke. One scout described it as "not even Division III-level football." Another said the league was actually not bad. The Vikings, who drafted Boehringer in the sixth round Saturday, obviously fall in the latter camp.
He had 59 receptions for 1,232 yards and 13 touchdowns in 16 games with the Unicorns last year. When he worked out at Florida Atlantic's pro day, he ran a 4.43-second 40-yard dash and had a 39" vertical leap. Those numbers would have put him right near the top of the receiver class at the combine had he attended.
There is a great deal of professionalism when it comes to the NFL's scouting process. There is also a great deal of elitism. Even as I was writing this, one scout texted me and said it was a joke I was wasting time writing on Boehringer.
Yeah, I want him to make it. Badly.
I'm just not sure he can.
2. "Dumbest pick in the history of the draft"
Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports
The Buccaneers took a kicker, Roberto Aguayo, in the second round. Wait. Check that. They traded up to take a kicker in the second round. The Bucs traded third- and fourth-round selections to move into the second round and get a kicker. A kicker.
The Buccaneers have won 23 games in the past five years. They have been putrid. It seems a kicker is the least of their needs, to be kind. One general manager told me the selection was "the dumbest pick in the history of the draft."
That seems to be the consensus in the league. There are, however, outliers.
One scout told me he considered the move to actually be fairly smart. The reason? The rule changes have made kickers extremely valuable. This scout believes that in the next few years, they could become as valuable as running backs. That seems a little extreme, but I get what he's saying.
Extra points are now far from automatic, and a miss can be catastrophic in a game.
The Buccaneers aren't an explosive offense. They play a lot of close games (10 last year within 10 points); there's a good chance Aguayo could win a lot of contests for the team.
Yet as good as Aguayo is, and he might be the best kicker in college history, this selection is easily one of the biggest gambles in draft history.
And maybe the dumbest.
3. Panthers take player accused of battery of woman
Darron Cummings/Associated Press
One of the more interesting picks you may not have closely followed was Daryl Worley, who faced a battery charge stemming from a nightclub incident involving a woman in 2014.
The pick in itself would be controversial. But the Panthers made the selection. The Panthers. Who had Greg Hardy.
You remember Greg Hardy.
The Panthers anticipated that drafting someone accused of putting his hands on a woman would raise questions. They were ready for them. One of the main points made by general manager Dave Gettleman to the media was that the team had not only done its due diligence, but Worley also had met with owner Jerry Richardson.
"It was a simple situation where it was wrong place at the wrong time. There were nothing malicious about the incident," Worley said during a conference call with the Charlotte media. "All 32 teams have seen the videotape. They have the official court documents, which I gave to them, where there was nothing malicious about it.
"I did my due diligence as far as the court required me, and honestly, it is just behind me in the past. It is expunged from my record, and I am looking to move forward. Nothing like that is ever going to be a problem heading forward."
The Panthers may be right. Maybe what happened in that bar, on that night, was more misunderstanding that a football player putting his hands on a woman. No, he's not Greg Hardy. That's for certain.
But if Worley gets in that kind of trouble again, the pick will only remind of Hardy. Not a good memory to have.
4. Jaguars and Raiders have best drafts
Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press/Associated Press
The Jaguars are building quite a team. They already have a solid offense. Now they are building an excellent defense. The key picks were from the first two days. They got Jalen Ramsey in the first round, followed by Myles Jack in the second. Then they landed Yannick Ngakoue in the third. Ngakoue had 21 sacks in three years at Maryland.
If Jack is and stays healthy—and that is a big if—the Jaguars defense could be as fun to watch as its offense. This is why I think Jacksonville wins 11 games next year.
The Raiders took a similar approach. Again, the key parts are from Days 1 and 2. They went heavy on defense with safety Karl Joseph out of West Virginia, defensive end Jihad Ward from Illinois and defensive end Shilique Calhoun from Michigan State. Calhoun might actually be the best selection. The Raiders are already stacked with pass-rushers, and I agree with their apparent philosophy: You can't have enough.
Al Goldis/Associated Press
The only pick I question was Oakland drafting quarterback Connor Cook. They don't need him. They need a running back. They can develop him and use him as trade bait, but I'm still not crazy about the pick.
Overall, still a nice draft.
I think the Jaguars and Raiders (especially the Jaguars) are the best options to replace the Patriots as the next great franchise.
Yes, sure, I know. Getting ahead of myself, but I do think we're watching The Revenge of the Dregs.
5. Biggest draft misstep: Roger Goodell's comment
Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press
After the drama of Laremy Tunsil unfolded, Goodell went on ESPN's Mike & Mike and said this when asked about Tunsil: "I think it’s all part of what makes the draft so exciting. Clubs make decisions. Sometimes they take risks. Sometimes they do the right things. Sometimes they don’t, and we’ll see. Hopefully he is going to turn out to be a great young player."
Now, I don't want to be a hypocrite. That was the most interesting part of the draft. But if you have a heart, and said heart isn't made of granite, you had to feel bad for Tunsil. You also wouldn't call it "exciting."
It was brutal to watch, and Goodell's comments play into the notion some players have that he doesn't truly care about the players, that he sees them as products to be marketed and to make money.
That's definitely part of being a player in the NFL, but it's far from the only thing. Goodell—whom I like—needs to fully understand this.
6. Scout: Best value pick in draft was Charles Tapper
Joe Skipper/Associated Press
The Cowboys selected Oklahoma's Charles Tapper in the fourth round. One NFC scout told me he believes that pick was one of the best in the draft.
Why? He's 6'3" and 271 pounds and runs a 4.59 40-yard dash.
What scared some teams, this scout explained, was that Tapper has the sickle cell trait. It's considered relatively minor, presenting a problem mostly in conditions such as high altitudes. The Cowboys don't play in Denver this season, and the NFL hasn't placed a franchise on Mount Kilimanjaro, so he'll be just fine.
7. Scout: One of riskier picks was Tyler Higbee
Michael Noble Jr./Associated Press
Our last scout of the day, this one speaking on tight end Tyler Higbee, selected by the Rams in the fourth round: "He is a major partier. That was his big problem, despite the arrests. He has a lot of maturing to do, and I'm not sure he can mature fast enough."
Oh boy.
Higbee has a series of pending charges. So, there's that.
This was a pick better made in the sixth, or possibly not at all.
8. Pats will still go deep into playoffs
Joe Mahoney/Associated Press
One thing I heard constantly—and I mean, over and over—is how many teams believe the four-game suspension of Tom Brady means little for the Patriots.
There's almost a leaguewide resolution that, at worst, the Patriots would go 2-2 during Brady's suspension. Many of the personnel men I spoke with think they will go 3-1, with the loss coming at Arizona in the opener. The next three games are at home against the Dolphins, Texans and Bills.
Then they predict Brady will come back, full of fire and lust for revenge, and wreck the league. (Not wreck the league from the club, like Johnny Manziel, but for real.)
I tend to agree.
9. Draft pick I'm obsessed with
His name is Andrew Billings, and he's a defensive lineman picked by the Bengals. ESPN Stats & Info reported this about him:
He did...that...in...high school.
10. How did Ohio State not win every game last season 40-0?
David J. Phillip/Associated Press
The Buckeyes set a record with 10 players drafted in the first three rounds and tied a record with seven in the first two. That's an incredible amount of talent picked.
What NFL teams say they like most about Urban Meyer's players is that they are almost always extremely well-coached.
There is one question: How did the Buckeyes not win a national title last year with all that well-coached talent?
Mike Freeman covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter at @mikefreemanNFL.(First published October 29 2014 on HuffPo, then erased)
I’m afraid you’ll have to forgive a bulky word count in this post as I introduce a subject I’ll be writing a lot about in the future. I promise future instalments will be shorter, but I’m afraid a considerable amount of ‘scene setting’ and defensive waffle seemed necessary, lest I be lynched or chased out of the village by feminists, armed with pitchforks and torches burning with Hell’s fire. You’ll have to think of this post as a double episode whammy that you get with great new TV series. It’s not that long, really, for intelligent folk like yourselves, so grab a cuppa and a couple of biscuits and get yourselves comfy.
Tackling feminism in today’s world is -I’m told- rather a stupid idea. It’s not that I’d be labelled a chauvinist pig and accused of wanting to keep women chained to chores and childcare, which I don’t. It’s not even that tackling a global movement as one person (which is how it feels, despite a mass of men and women attempting the same) is like standing against a tsunami wearing speedos and a snorkel; I’m aware that every word will be pulled apart, angered messages will fill my inbox and I’ll be accused of ignorance and sexism. I’ve already, during initial research, acquired my first troll on my new Twitter account; I’m a “simple manbaby” apparently. The reason it’s stupid for me to speak against feminism is simply because I have a penis…and the feminist does not accept a boy negatively commenting on the relevance or alleged prejudice of the feminist movement.
I know this. Had I, as a male, pitched articles in support of feminism, perhaps I’d have been commissioned alongside the published pro-feminism male writers. But time and again, as I approached relevant sections of publications that boast a feminist voice, I was informed by the female, feminist editors that my views were ‘not suitable’. I know that’s like a satanist asking to put an advert for a willing, virginal sacrifice on the local church’s noticeboard, but that’s exactly the problem. If the media belongs to feminism like the noticeboard belongs to the church, where can you make another argument? I won’t say who the guardian of feminism is, because I’d very much like to write articles for them and don’t want to be blacklisted for publicly calling them sexist. But I feel I’m correct in seeing that bias.
Also, polite conversation about feminism, with feminists, has invariably turned into my being ranted at. Apparently, the very fact I’m questioning feminism is because I’m a typical white male with all the privilege, no understanding of what it’s like to be the victim in a sexist society and, therefore, have no right to question or challenge it. Even Emma Watson’s speech at the UN saw feminists react in comment threads, saying that men should not have a say, despite her invitation.
Yet, here I am; I have my speedos and my snorkel. First, I’m sorry feminism had to exist in the first place. I’m sorry about the past where women, as capable and wonderful as my own mother, my sister and as capable and strong as I know my daughters will be, were made to feel inferior, robbed of choices and treated as objects to be used and abused. I applaud the achievements of those who fought to bring about change and know there are still issues to resolve.
But…yes, ‘but’…this has gone far enough. The reason I stand here in my speedos is because there is a need. Women have faced and still face prejudice and inequality. Here’s a fact, though: men do too. That men are not allowed to speak about the prejudice and inequality they face simply because they are men (and men, in generalised and historic terms, are not the victims of sexism) is just one ludicrous contradiction from feminists. That feminism apparently stands for ‘equality’ in order to be recognised as legitimate and politically correct, but does nothing to fight for the rights of separated fathers as equal parents, while advocating the social assumption that women are more emotionally bonded with their children based on gender stereotype, is just one transparent flaw, in the light of its own mission statement of equal rights.
In one post, I cannot scratch the surface of all the issues: the false propaganda, the resulting angered cry of women, the politically correct expectation upon men to pay their penance for misogyny with unchallenged acceptance of feminist values in their homes, ironically leaving them silenced and without a vote. But follow me, converse with me and read my future posts.
But here and now I’m not going to speak only on behalf of the men that I know are negatively affected by feminism. Indeed, the whole reason for my writing on the subject is because I actually care about gender equality, which is something I do not credit to feminism, or at least, what feminism has become. Women are feeling the sting too; women I care about.
A recent study by Netmums found the majority of women felt feminism was too aggressive, de-valued the stay at home mum and applied too much pressure on women to do and be everything. 17% even stated it is oppressive to men.
Women, actually, get a rough ride from feminism’s soapbox rantings. There are standards to live up to, much like a Christian having to obey the 10 commandments or feel like a sinner. I have spoken to feminists and witnessed their despair as they defend their own life choices against what their feminist values dictate they should be or do. One, who prioritised her children over work, felt she let down her values as a feminist and felt pressured to work full-time. She spent ten minutes justifying her reasons for not doing so…not that I had challenged her.
Another became exacerbated when stating she didn’t “believe in high heels” because they symbolised the oppression of male objectification and her feminist values dictated she shouldn’t wear them simply because a ‘man’ would like her to or because she should rely on a pair of high heels to make her attractive. She continued, taking both sides of conversation, making it clear she likes to wear them occasionally because it makes her feel good, for her, not for anyone else, it’s not for a ‘man’, she has a right to wear them and shouldn’t have to dress down simply to avoid being objectified…it went on. Bizarrely, all she was trying to do was feel justified in wearing something she liked and escape the judgement from feminists who would say she gave in by wearing them and the other feminists who would say she gave in by wearing flats. The ‘man’ was actually absent in this argument, apart from serving as the silent ‘accused’ and ‘guilty’.
Women: go out and work, put up your own shelves, make him look after the children, you don’t have to cook. Be strong, be capable, make your own decisions and be autonomous. Feminism is dogmatic. It sets rules. Like a religion it praises particular behaviour, but there are too many denominations, with no central scripture. Under the umbrella label of feminism the message is mixed, destructive and confusing. The result is that wearing one flat shoe and one heel, feminism simply walks in circles.
Feminism casts out the old gender roles of both men and women as outdated and primitive, promoting the working, confident, strong woman as ‘progressive’ and the stay at home mother and wife as a woman who is ‘socialised’ into an inferior lifestyle of old. Women are free, only, to choose feminism’s idea of the ‘equal woman’ in this new world; it has sculpted its own idea of the perfect gender roles and is socialising both sexes into playing these ‘acceptable’ roles in society. The odd result is that women have more choice, but only feel allowed to choose that which is deemed acceptable, according to the stereotype of the all new and improved modern woman.
Going back to the current plight of the male, it’s easy to see that feminism pushes women toward choosing and living a particular role in society, whether they like it or not. Women are to choose to work, choose a reversed gender role in parenting. Choose, choose, choose. After all those years of oppression, women have the right to choose and should do so!
Two questions:
If the woman in a relationship has the power of choice awarded to her by feminism, what power does the man, her partner, have?
Is this equality?
Simply acknowledging that if women have the authority to choose, then men don’t, is a step forward because it becomes glaringly obvious that the feminist agenda will not bring about equality. Men are now having to fight for their own power, even to speak. There are issues of inequality on either side and they will not be resolved if men are fighting for men and women are fighting for women. A tug of war is not over until one team has fallen into the muddy ditch in the middle. That’s not equality. HeForShe? That’s about men fighting for women on the assumption -and outdated notion- that women are the only ones suffering gender inequality, which isn’t even a stab in the right direction.
Perhaps we all need to grow up and realise that within our society, we can collectively, as united men and women, set a standard that is fair for all. I know feminism doesn’t speak for all women. I know feminism actually makes it difficult for many women. I know feminism does not allow men to voice their opinions.
So, to the women and men in our society who actually want equality, I would like to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality, prejudice and crime against anyone of any gender, is your issue too.
We need to end the tug of war, put down the rope and come to the table as equals and tackle prejudice and crime together. That is the campaign where men and women stand side by side and decide what type of society we can make, acknowledging each other’s flaws, faults, strengths and where we each feel we suffer prejudice from the other. Such a campaign does not begin with one side ‘allowing’ the other to join. Neither does its name imply one side should fight only for the rights of the other. “HeForShe”? I’d call it “AllForEquality”.What are your ambitions in Europe?
Our overall goal is to accelerate the transition to sustainable transportation. We obviously want to be present in Europe. There are many different countries and rules to comply with, so we are putting in place the right infrastructure in every country to help with our growth. We are happy with the status quo of some countries where we are present, especially in Norway. In other countries we still have some things to put into place. This includes dealerships, service centers, superchargers to enable long-distance driving and also the right partnerships for financial products and insurance.
Which European countries are leaders in creating an EV infrastructure and which ones still have work to do?
We are a small company so we haven’t had a chance to develop a presence in all countries in the same way. We gave preference [to countries] where we already had the most demand. Norway was a good starting point. The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden are also countries where we’re doing extremely well. We already have the infrastructure in place in those countries thanks to our superchargers. In some markets we are putting the infrastructure in place so that people can try the car and then adopt it.
How crucial is a test drive to convincing a potential customer that your models are as viable as car with an internal combustion engine?
That’s the key factor. We can describe what it is like to have an electric car, but at the end of the day the best way is to really experience it for yourself. You need to see how smooth it is to drive, how quiet it is and how there is really no trouble with charging or range. People are nervous about it, which I understand, but there is no reason for it.
How important is the availability of public charging stations to the growth of EVs in Europe?
I think that 98 percent of all charging is done at home so we need to realize that people tend to drive or to travel near their homes. The beauty of electric vehicles is that you charge them at night, so that when you get up you’re electric vehicle is already charged. It’s much better than a gasoline-powered car in this respect. For those long-distance trips, there are many parking areas in countries in Europe where there are charging stations. Additionally, to further facilitate long-distance driving, Tesla is developing a network of superchargers, which are faster than anything else out there. We’ve built about 70 of those stations around Europe. They let you charge [enough to travel] 300km in 20 to 30 minutes, depending on how full the battery is when you start charging. But while you do not need the supercharger to travel long distances, it just makes it that much easier.Germany deports 50,000 immigrants a year
By Elizabeth Zimmerman
2 October 2003
The current policy in Germany of widespread detention of those awaiting deportation was introduced when the right of asylum, originally guaranteed in the German constitution of 1949, was largely abolished in 1993. The imprisonment of asylum-seekers is based on paragraph 57 of the Aliens Act, a paragraph with a long and terrible tradition. Its forerunner was paragraph 7 of the Aliens Police Regulation, which goes back to the days of Nazi rule, and was in force from 1938 to 1965, enabling the forcible deportation of foreigners who refused to leave the country voluntarily. Detention pending deportation served to prepare and effect this measure.
Today, any foreigner residing in Germany without legal immigration status can be arrested and placed in detention pending deportation. This includes refugees who are refused asylum, civil war refugees whose right to remain has not been extended, and immigrants in the broadest sense, who either entered Germany without a valid visa or whose residence permit has expired.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, the law has allowed the detention of such people, in order to procure passports or travel documents before deporting them. Those affected are in a desperate situation lacking any recourse. The reason for their arrest is not any criminal offence they have committed, but restrictive German laws that turn them into “illegal immigrants.” Moreover, deportation detention can drag on for up to 18 months. During this time, people threatened with deportation are almost completely cut off of from the external world and can neither seek legal advice nor—if they prefer to leave the country “voluntarily”—even obtain their departure papers.
The Berlin Initiative Against Deportations has recently documented how many people are affected and, citing individual examples, has shown the desperate situation of many of those arrested.
According to the Initiative, over 50,000 migrants and asylum-seekers are deported from Germany each year, most of them by plane. Each day, 130 to 140 are returned to the conditions from which they fled—civil war, political persecution, dire economic hardship and regimes that suppress ethnic minorities and women.
Deportees are frequently accompanied by the paramilitary German Border Police or private security agents, who are prepared to use force. Those who resist are beaten, restrained and injected with drugs. A number have already been killed, but the culprits and the authorities responsible have so far escaped prosecution. The dead and abused refugees and immigrants are consciously accepted as the price of a brutal deportation practice.
Since 1993, 99 people have taken their own lives or died trying to avoid deportation, 45 while in detention.
In 2000, more than 7,000 were taken into detention in Berlin; at any one time there were about 50 women and 250 men being held. In 2001, there were over 5,000 in detention in the city. Those arrested are between 16 and 65 years old. Pregnant woman are detained in hospital six weeks before they are due to give birth. German objections to the UN Rights of the Child Convention mean that minors can also be detained and deported without an accompanying adult. Those aged 16 years and over count as refugees and are subject to the restrictive asylum law. They are also prohibited from seeking training and work.
The massive introduction of deportation detention is a part of the dismantling of democratic rights and the almost complete abolition of the right of asylum in Germany. It is part of a system of state deterrence and intimidation.
For 10 years, detention facilities in North Rhine-Westphalia have been used to hold those facing deportation. According to official figures, in 2002 the biggest detention facility in Bueren held on average 599 detainees at any one time, most of them for many months. On one day in April, seven young people under 18 years old were being held in detention in Bueren, and four at another facility in Moers.
Deportation detainees frequently resort to desperate acts to protest their imprisonment. On July 31, Hueseyin Dikic set himself on fire when faced with deportation to Turkey. He died recently as a result of his injuries.
It is no wonder that those taken into detention |
growth and meditation. I was 16 when I discovered them and since they followed me through my learnings. Many artists inspire my writings, especially the ones that lived some centuries ago like; Leonardo da Vinci, Lao Tzu, Giordanno Bruno…
I am deeply attracted to the insights a mix of different cultures offer. My kids are from Ethiopia, they speak Serbian (my mother tongue) fluently and consider themselves to be Serbian-Maltese Ethiopians. Ama, the protagonist of my historical fiction novel, comes from Kenia and lives in Macao (China) during the 17th century. Her father is a Portuguese Alchemist, her mum a Kenyan Queen and her friends are from all around the planet, finding themselves in the midst of this complex blend of Chinese, Portuguese and Africans that live together on this little peninsula during the 17th century. Ama as an African Goddess living in China, came to my worlds before I had an idea to adopt children from Addis Abeba.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The one released this year is Conscious Creativity: Mindfulness Meditations (Alchemy of Love Mindfulness Training Book #7). Within the book I explore various creativity tools to better deal with life’s issues, competition oriented culture, stressful work environment and parenting problems. All of the Alchemy of Love Mindfulness Training books are based on the practical, day-to-day spiritual and well-being exercises. The personal and self-development tools within this book include activities that improve creativity, mindfulness, awareness and ultimately, we hope, enhance one’s quality of life.
My fiction book “A-Ma Alchemy of Love” lived with me for about 10 years and non-fiction books were inspired by my endless search and fascination with meditation, prayer, music, dance, singing, within questions: Where do we come from? What is our purpose on Earth? What is consciousness? How to live our highest potential? How to stay healthy and happy? All the non-fiction books: Mindful Eating, Mindful Being and Conscious Parenting were born during this search. Alchemy, Love and Mindfulness found their merge within this mission: Alchemy of Love Mindfulness Training.
Since March 2014, Artof4Elements developed and with 7 Authors published the Alchemy of Love Mindfulness Training Series of 9 fiction and non-fiction books focusing on spiritual growth, creativity and mindfulness.
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles
Nataša Nuit Pantović’s Website
Nataša Nuit Pantović Facebook Page
Nataša Nuit Pantović Twitter AccountPresident Trump early Thursday pushed back on a report that the special counsel leading the Russia probe is now looking into whether Trump obstructed justice.
"They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice," Trump tweeted Thursday.
They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017
The president has in the past decried the investigation into the Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential race and pushed backed against reports of collusion.
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On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported the special counsel named to investigate the Russian election meddling is looking into whether Trump sought to obstruct justice.
The Department of Justice appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to oversee the Russia probe shortly after Trump's decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey.
Trump claimed — and Comey later affirmed — that Comey assured him he was not personally under FBI investigation. But investigators began probing Trump for obstruction of justice soon after Comey’s termination.
After Comey's testimony last week, further questions were raised about whether Trump tried to obstruct justice.
The Thursday morning tweet was Trump's first about the investigation since the shooting Wednesday at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Va., in which House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) was critically injured.
Trump after the shooting called for unity in a statement delivered at the White House.
“We may have our differences, but we do well in times like these to remember everyone who serves in our nation’s capital is here because, above all, they love our country,” Trump said.
“We can all agree that we are blessed to be Americans, that our children deserve to grow up in a nation of safety and peace and we are strongest when we are unified and when we work together for the common good."When we hear Supercomputer, first thing comes to our mind is its super speed and performance related to normal ones. But with impressive performance every supercomputer comes at a price – size and energy consumption. Now some scientists developed a model of biological supercomputer that have much faster problem solving feature by using very little energy.
Also Read : Google Says its Quantum Computer is More Than 100 Million Times Faster Than a Conventional PC
Biological Supercomputer – Faster & Power Efficient
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have utilised nanotechnology to create a biological supercomputer that can solve certain mathematical problems far faster and more energy-efficiently than conventional electrical computers.
Conventional computers can only do one thing at a time. The more arithmetic operations a problem requires, the longer it takes to perform the calculations. This means that electronic computers are not efficient in dealing with combinatorial problems, for example in cryptography and mathematical optimisation, which require the computer to test a large number of different solutions.
Also Read : Researchers Developed First Light-Based Microprocessor Chip to Create More Powerful Computers & Ultrafast Communications
So unlike a traditional computer, biological supercomputer don’t work in sequence, they operate in parallel — leading to much faster problem solving and using energy efficiently.
Biological supercomputer use a strategy similar to that of so-called quantum computers. Quantum mechanics uses qubits – ones and zeroes – whereas biocomputers use molecules that work in parallel.
And next advantage of biological supercomputer is its energy efficiency. Lund’s Heiner Linke says – “Biocomputer requires less than one per cent of the energy an electronic transistor needs to carry out one calculation step”.
And also CBC reports that the model biocomputer used in the experiment is only about the size of a book.
Also Read : Li-Fi Is Here, 100 Times Faster Than Wi-FiHoward Homan Buffett (August 13, 1903 – April 30, 1964) was an American businessman, investor, and politician. He was a four-term Republican United States Representative for the state of Nebraska. He was the father of Warren Buffett, the famed American billionaire businessman and investor.
Early life [ edit ]
Howard Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska to Henrietta Duvall Buffett and Ernest P. Buffett, owners of a grocery business. Ernest P. Buffett's paternal ancestors hail from northern Scandinavia.[1] Buffett attended public schools and graduated from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1925. While a student, Buffett was a brother of the Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity. He married Leila Stahl on December 27, 1925. The Buffetts were active members of Dundee Presbyterian Church.[2] After failing to secure a job in the family grocery business, he started a small stock brokerage firm.[3]
Career [ edit ]
Entering the investment business, Buffett also served on the Omaha board of education from 1939 to 1942. In 1942 he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Nebraska district in which Omaha was located. In that election, Buffett was seen as "a Republican sacrificial lamb in Nebraska's second district when FDR was a popular wartime leader."[4] Nevertheless, he went on to win the Republican nomination in the primary and then the subsequent general election.
He was reelected twice. In 1948 he again was the Republican nominee for another term, but was defeated for reelection; however, he was the Republican nominee for the office again in 1950 and won the office back. In 1952 Buffett decided against seeking another term and returned to his investment business in Omaha, Buffett-Falk & Co., in which he worked until shortly before his death.[5] He also served as the campaign manager for conservative Senator Robert A. Taft in Taft's 1952 presidential campaign.[6]
According to Warren Buffett biographer Roger Lowenstein:
'Unshakably ethical, Howard refused offers of junkets and even turned down a part of his pay. During his first term, when congressional salary was raised from $10,000 to $12,500, Howard left the extra money in the Capitol disbursement office, insisting that he had been elected at the lower salary.' His wife said he considered only one issue when deciding whether or not to vote for a bill: 'Will this add to, or subtract from, human liberty?'[4]
Political philosophy [ edit ]
Howard Buffett is remembered for his highly libertarian Old Right stance, having maintained a friendship with Murray Rothbard for a number of years.[7] He "would invariably draw 'zero' ratings from the Americans for Democratic Action and other leftist groups."[8]
Buffett was a vocal critic of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan.[4] Of the Truman Doctrine, he said: "Our Christian ideals cannot be exported to other lands by dollars and guns."[9] Buffett was also "one of the major voices in Congress opposed to the Korean adventure,"[8] and "was convinced that the United States was largely responsible for the eruption of conflict in Korea; for the rest of his life he tried unsuccessfully to get the Senate Armed Services Committee to declassify the testimony of CIA head Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, which Buffett told [Rothbard] established American responsibility for the Korean outbreak."[10]
Speaking on the floor of Congress, he said of military interventionism that,
Even if it were desirable, America is not strong enough to police the world by military force. If that attempt is made, the blessings of liberty will be replaced by coercion and tyranny at home. Our Christian ideals cannot be exported to other lands by dollars and guns. Persuasion and example are the methods taught by the Carpenter of Nazareth, and if we believe in Christianity we should try to advance our ideals by his methods. We cannot practice might and force abroad and retain freedom at home. We cannot talk world cooperation and practice power politics.[10][11]
In the summer of 1962, he wrote "an impassioned plea... for the abolition of the draft" in the New Individualist Review.[6] Buffett wrote:
When the American government conscripts a boy to go 10,000 miles to the jungles of Asia without a declaration of war by Congress (as required by the Constitution) what freedom is safe at home? Surely, profits of U.S. Steel or your private property are not more sacred than a young man's right to life.[6]
In addition to non-interventionism overseas,[12] Howard Buffett strongly supported the gold standard because he believed it would limit the ability of government to inflate the money supply and spend beyond its means.[13] His son Warren Buffett is not an advocate of the gold standard.[14][15]
Personal life [ edit ]
Buffett married Leila Stahl Buffett (d.1996), who was a descendant of the Stahl family from Estonia; they had three children:
Publications [ edit ]
Buffett, Howard Homan. Human Freedom Rests on Gold Redeemable Money, Financial Chronicle 5/6/48
Buffett, Howard Homan. The Evil Men in the Kremlin Must Be Chortling as Militarism Runs Wild in America. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1952.[16]NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced last week that the NFL is forming a special committee to review the catch rule with the goal of simplifying how officials rule what is and isn't a catch.
Goodell told reporters that he enlisted a group of current and former general managers, former players and former officials to make recommendations to the league's competition committee about changes to the catch rule.
Add at least one current player who is enthusiastically volunteering to help with the effort:
“That’s cool!” Bryant told USA TODAY Sports, when told about the committee. “They need to invite me. Tell them they need to call me, so I can have my input.”
As Cowboys fans are well aware, the issue with the current rule is that there is an obvious disconnect between what those watching the games are seeing and what those officiating the games are calling. In many instances, what is clearly a catch turns out to be - by rule - not a catch.
In the wake Dez Bryant's controversial non-catch against the Packers in last year's playoffs, the NFL Competition Committee tweaked the wording of the rule, but didn't change the meaning of the rule.
The problem with the tweaked wording is that Bryant's catch in the Packers game would still not be ruled a catch under the modified catch rule.
“There are a lot of factors to consider,” Goodell said. “How it’s officiated, how it’s played, how it’s coached, how the fans react. We want clarity to that. We want to find a better solution if it’s out there.”
Given that the NFL's own experts in the NFL Competition Committee failed to address the issues the rule still has, it's actually a good idea by the NFL to bring in former GMs, former officials, and former players to help fix the rule. It might be an even better idea to bring in current GMs, current officials and current players to help find a better solution.
And having Dez Bryant involved in that solution, and later maybe even endorsing it?
The NFL could do a lot worse.Image copyright AFP Image caption President Putin faced a frosty reception from Western leaders at the G20 meeting
Russia has been rebuked by Western leaders about its role in the Ukraine crisis, at a G20 summit in Australia.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he needed to "get out of Ukraine".
US President Barack Obama said Moscow's "aggression" in Ukraine was a "threat to the world", while the UK threatened more sanctions unless Russia stopped "destabilising" its neighbour.
The two-day summit in Brisbane is focusing on promoting economic growth.
World leaders are expected to elaborate on plans agreed by G20 finance ministers in February to boost global growth by 2% in five years.
Frosty handshake
However, Saturday - the first of the two-day summit - was dominated by Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists have been fighting government forces in eastern regions.
Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Russia of sending military forces across the border, something the Kremlin denies.
The EU imposed sanctions when Russia annexed Crimea in March and has added further measures since.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Germany's Angela Merkel and President Obama both expressed concern about Ukraine
Before the G20 summit began, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said there would "have to be a very different relationship" between Europe and Russia if "we continue to see Russian troops" inside Ukraine, adding that there was "the potential for further sanctions".
Mr Cameron later held a private meeting with Mr Putin. The two discussed "rebuilding relations", Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The Russian president faced a frosty reception from Canada's Mr Harper.
"I'll shake your hand, but I only have one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine," Mr Harper told him, the Canadian leader's spokesman said.
President Obama said the US was at the forefront of "opposing Russia's aggression against Ukraine, which is a threat to the world".
Analysis: Gary O'Donoghue, BBC News
If President Putin expected a warm diplomatic welcome at the G20 under the blazing Brisbane sun, he was disappointed; he was in fact subjected to something more akin to a severe Siberian winter.
The West believes Russia is behind the escalation of tension in eastern Ukraine - a conflict that has already cost 4,000 lives. Tensions have also been increased by Russian military activity around Nato's borders, with several instances of fighter planes being scrambled to intercept Russian aircraft.
On Monday, EU foreign ministers will consider whether to extend sanctions against Russia - there are already restrictions on the energy, defence and finance sectors as well as travel bans and asset freezes on individuals.
President Putin denies he is directly involved in Ukraine, and dismisses sanctions as pointless. It all amounts to a standoff between the West and Russia - and little sign of any thaw in prospect.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What is the point of the G20 summit? In 90 seconds
The BBC's Jon Donnison in Brisbane says President Putin cut something of an isolated figure among the world's powerbrokers.
Reports quoted Russian officials as saying Mr Putin was planning to leave the summit ahead of schedule on Sunday, but gave no reasons for the move.
However, the president's spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied this, saying that Mr Putin would only leave "when all the work is completed."
Meeting on the margins of the summit on Saturday, Mr Putin urged his French counterpart Francois Hollande to join him to defuse tensions between the two countries over Ukraine.
France has withheld the delivery of two warships to the Russian navy over its actions in Ukraine.
'Message of hope'
Meanwhile, President Obama said Asia's security must not be based on intimidation of small nations by big ones, but on mutual alliances.
He did not mention China explicitly but he warned of the dangers posed by territorial disputes in the South China Sea, where Beijing's actions have raised concern among its neighbours.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption US President Obama: "Choices are conflict or co-operation, oppression or liberty"
Mr Obama said there was "no question" over his commitment to Asia-Pacific allies, referring to US efforts to strengthen strategic ties with the region.
Opening the summit, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he wanted to use the event to reassure people about the direction of the world's economy, with a "message of hope and optimism".
He said job creation, identifying tax cheats and strengthening the global economy would all be discussed.
His government had tried to keep climate change off the agenda, despite calls from campaigners.
In other developments, G20 leaders released a statement in which they vowed to do all they could to "extinguish" the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
It said that members state were committed to do what was necessary "to ensure the international effort can extinguish the outbreak and address its medium-term economic and humanitarian costs".
Koala diplomacy
Image copyright G20 Image caption Koala diplomacy? Australia's Tony Abbot and President Putin had this photo op, despite tensions
Image copyright EPA/AFP Image caption Some of the leaders' spouses cuddled up to koalas at a sanctuary in Brisbane
World leaders and their spouses were given koalas to hold on the fringes of the summit - the animals are native to Australia
First protected by law in the 1930s after being hunted to near extinction by fur traders in parts of Australia; declared a threatened species in 2012
Species recently severely affected by chlamydia, which can cause blindness, infertility and death among the animals
Began being used as a diplomatic tool in early 1980s, after government lifts export ban - they are often given to foreign zoos as gifts
They are not bears, but are marsupials
Why kayaks aren't allowed at the G20Crime will rise if gay couples are allowed to marry, says the head of the country's victim lobby group.
Sensible Sentencing Trust leader Garth McVicar has submitted to Parliament that changing the law to allow same-sex marriage will be yet another erosion of basic morals and values in society which have led to an escalation of child abuse, domestic violence, and an ever-increasing prison population.
"The marriage amendment bill will not benefit society at all and will ultimately have detremetal (sic) effect on crime at all levels," the submission read.
Labour MP Louisa Wall's Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill is currently before a select committee, which will report to Parliament on February 28. If passed, it could see gay marriage legal by May next year.
The committee has received over 20,000 submissions on the bill.
Green MP Kevin Hague, who sits on the select committee, said after reading the vast majority of submissions, McVicar's was the only one linking crime to gay marriage.
"Although it echoes a number of submissions that say marriage has been the same way for a long time and that if you tamper with it there will be lots of unforeseen circumstances," Hague said.
He said he had not read any evidence to suggest that allowing gay people to marry would create a dysfunctional society or increase crime. "I suspect that underlying this submission is a prejudice against gay people. If you break the argument down, it is manifestly nonsensical."
McVicar's statement said that he considered the bill would be a further erosion of what he considered to be essential basic values and morals that have "stood the test of time for centuries".
"Furthermore, the bill represents a further decay and erosion of the traditional family that society has been founded on."
He said while much good work has been done recently to reduce crime and ensure better treatment of victims, the bill had the ability to destroy that good work.
Criminologist Dr James Oleson, from Auckland University, an expert in deviance, said he was not familiar with any research that would suggest homosexuals would be responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime.
For McVicar's argument to be plausible, he said, it would have to be proved that allowing homosexuals to marry degraded morality, and that this produced more crime. "But I'm not sure that's true." The more common drivers of crime were economic issues, alcohol, drugs, education and employment and family dysfunction, Oleson said.
McVicar did not respond to requests for comment.Jessicka Addams of the riot grrrl band Jack Off Jill has accused her former boyfriend, Twiggy Ramirez, of rape as well as physical and psychological abuse. Ramirez is best known for playing in Marilyn Manson’s band, as well as touring with Nine Inch Nails and performing in A Perfect Circle, and his given name is Jeordie White.
Addams and White dated in the 1990s, and in a statement Addams shared via Facebook, she characterizes their relationship as being exceedingly volatile. Addams describes White’s allegedly violent and jealous behavior, claiming that he would hit her, and once slashed the tires of her car after she gave a male friend a ride home.
Toward the end of her statement, Addams describes an encounter in which White allegedly raped her at their former apartment while he was on a break from touring with Nine Inch Nails. Addams writes:
He forced me on to the floor with his hand around my neck. I said NO. I said NO. I said it so loud enough, that [my friend] Pete came rushing in from the other room to get him off of me. But I had been raped. I had been raped by somebody I thought I loved. That night I slept in Pete’s bed and cried myself to sleep. Neither of us discussed it until years later as we both had our own shame about not reporting it.
Addams also describes an encounter she had with Trent Reznor that allegedly sent White into a rage:
Trent Reznor was in South Florida around this time and we all went out on night. Trent and I struck up a conversation and Jeordie became so enraged he demanded we leave immediately. He began driving my car erratically on the highway, all the while punching me the chest several times,knocking the air out of my lungs. He proceeded to rip off the rear view mirror and threw it out the open window. Throughout the madness, this was a rather poignant moment. He just couldn’t bear to face himself in that mirror. So he proceeded to destroy it. Perhaps after everything he had done to somebody he claimed he loved was the sick reason he needed to become somebody else.
Though these alleged events unfolded more than 20 years ago, Addams writes that she chose to share the statement in solidarity with women who have come forward over the past few weeks with stories of their abusers in various industries. She alluded to White’s alleged behavior in a 2015 interview with Alternative Press, and says that afterward, many women reached out to her to share similar stories, some of which involved White. Addams writes that she did not go public with the story until now out of shame and fear the allegations would put Jack Off Jill in jeopardy.
In 1997, I was warned by my band’s record company that if I revealed my story publicly, there would be a very good chance that my band Jack Off Jill would be black balled by concert promoters, radio programmers, and other bands and their managers. Jack Off Jill was also warned of running the risk of losing our coveted record deal (which they gave us!!,) as they were certain no one would ever take a rape victim in this male dominated music business seriously, nevermind a ferocious, disenfranchised, outspoken overweight front woman such as myself! The label blatantly feared the big machine behind Marilyn Manson would use their power to destroy not only Jack Off Jill, but my name, Jessicka, as well. The pressure and guilt of the inevitable repercussions of my rape story affecting my band’s livelihood, happiness and success kept me silent for years.
Read the statement in full here.
This post originally appeared on Stereogum.Florida Atlantic University has found a new way to soil itself and to once again prove that it will not give up in its perpetual quest to be the worst place in America to go to college.
This time, school officials at the public, taxpayer-funded university summoned Dylan Bouscher, the editor-in-chief of FAU’s University Press student newspaper, on disciplinary charges for having the audacity to practice routine journalism.
The charges were related to Bouscher’s alleged refusal to obey a police order to leave a crime scene.
Bouscher and another unnamed student had driven the newspaper’s golf cart to the site of a suicide on FAU’s Boca Raton campus in August. He wanted to get information and take pictures. He said he remained well away from the area where there were indications of official police business.
At some point, a police officer, Robert Vickens, told him to leave. In a police report concerning the incident, Vickens stated that he ran off Bouscher and his colleague because they were “within the boundaries of the crime scene.”
“Vickens yelled my name,” he told The Daily Caller. “‘Dylan, you need to go away right now,’ he said. So I left.”
“I don’t believe I was near a crime scene or on a crime scene,” Bouscher later told the Student Press Law Center.
Bouscher then sought out another angle to view the police investigation. He settled on a public walkway “about four hundred feet away.” But that location wasn’t good enough, either. Another cop shooed him off. After some harsh words with the second cop, Bouscher left.
The result of this exchange was the four disciplinary charges including a charge of noncompliance.
Bouscher called the noncompliance charge in particular “absurd” and “completely fabricated.”
At a subsequent hearing, he said, the presiding dean threatened him “with more punishment” if he failed to cooperate by naming the student who went with him to the suicide scene.
He didn’t name the student.
In September, Bouscher acquiesced to two charges in order to have another two dismissed. He said he was worried that the charges could escalate into a criminal matter. He also wanted to protect the University Press from further administrative hassles.
“I accepted the charges because it just wasn’t worth it,” Bouscher told TheDC. “That wasn’t the hill I was going to die on, but I do believe my rights were violated.”
The dean’s kangaroo court slapped Bouscher with a year of probation. He has to perform 25 hours of community service. He also has to take something called an ethical decision-making class, which will cost him $100.
He said that he “wouldn’t do a thing differently” because, he argued, “police should have to tell students what’s happening on campus.”
“They just don’t like us asking questions,” he added. “It’s not the first time this has happened to an FAU reporter.”
Alicia Calzada, an attorney with the National Press Photographers Association, argued that FAU and the police acted illegally.
“They can ask you to leave if your presence is interfering with their investigation,” Calzada told the Student Press Law Center. “Just the fact they’re annoyed with you is not a reason for them to ask you to leave.”
School officials had no comment on the case, citing student privacy concerns.
This incident is the latest in a series of humiliations for FAU.
Among the biggest sources of embarrassment for the school is wackadoodle communications professor James Tracy.
In September, Tracy speculated on his personal blog, Memory Hole that the mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard in September could have been an elaborate hoax. (RELATED: Bizarro professor spouts Navy Yard conspiracy theory)
After the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings, the nutty professor took to his blog question official accounts of the terror attack, arguing that play could actors could have been involved. (RELATED: Professor calls Boston Bombings ‘mass casualty drill’)
Back in December, Tracy advocated conspiracy theories about the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. (RELATED: Public university professors join ranks of Sandy Hook conspiracy theorists)
Over the summer, Florida Atlantic adopted a draconian “Free Speech and Campus Civility” policy which insists “that everyone in the FAU community behave and speak to and about one another in ways that are not racist, religiously intolerant or otherwise degrading.” (RELATED: Florida Atlantic University is still the worst place in America to attend college)
In March, the the academic laughingstock tried to punish a student who expressed discomfort with a professor’s assignment to stomp on a piece of paper bearing the word “Jesus.” (RELATED: Florida Atlantic issues new groveling apology over Jesus-stomping)
Also last year, Mary Jane Saunders, FAU’s then-president, hit a student protester with the side mirror of her Lexus. The protesters were objecting to an agreement to name the school’s football stadium after a for-profit prison company.
Follow Eric on Twitter and send education-related story tips to erico@dailycaller.com.Expensive transport projects such as Dart Underground and Metro North have “not been shelved” but were “postponed” during the financial crisis, Minister for Transport Shane Ross has said.
Mr Ross said these and other major capital, transport projects “are all going ahead”.
Outlining his department’s “long-term vision”, Mr Ross said in the short term the State would spend €595 million on transport this year.
In the long term the priorities for Government were projects such as Dart Underground and Metro North – “all those projects which have not been shelved but which have been postponed because of the economic crisis”.
“They are all going ahead, they are all part of the vision which we have” Mr Ross told the Oireachtas Committee on Transport.
He told Fianna Fáil’s Robert Troy that such projects required a “huge contribution of long term capital” and invited Mr Troy to “come to me with proposals about how they will be funded”.
“That long term vision is there but let’s be honest about it, it is not going to be achieved over night”, he said.
In relation to rural transport, he said a “sustainable” transport network was the priority. He told the committee there was “no plan” and “no conversations” about privatising Bus Éireann.
He said the company made a presentation on its future plans of which he expressed neither approval or disapproval. He said he had “absolutely no intention” of interfering between the company and the unions at the company on future plans.
Mr Ross also said he had received a review of the State’s railways, carried out by Iarnród Éireann and the National Transport Authority.
He will shortly be announcing his priorities for the railways based on this report, he said.
The wide ranging review of rail operations is understood to have considered the future of little-used lines such as the Limerick to Waterford line and the Ballybrophy branch line, as well as Iarnród Éireann operational matters.I keep saying that there is no way LB Anthony Barr falls to 22, but there are some who believe he could be in for a slide like that. Why would he slide? Is he really that good of a player? Some of you are excited by him possibly falling, while others want to know if he’s a guy the Eagles should still be interested in.
I like Anthony Barr. A lot. Let’s start with the numbers.
6-5, 255
arm – 33 1/2
hand – 9 3/8
40 – 4.66
BP – 15 reps
VJ – 34.5
BJ – 119 inches
3-cone – 6.82
SS – 4.19
2012 – 21.5 TFLs (13.5 sacks)…5 pass deflections…4 FFs…1 blocked kick
2013 – 20 TFLs (10 sacks)…1 pass deflection…5 FFs…
As you can see, Barr is a gifted athlete and a productive player on the field.
Barr played RB for his first couple of seasons at UCLA. He is the son of former Eagles RB Tony Brooks. While Brooks didn’t have much of an NFL career, those are still good bloodlines to come from. I’m sure Barr wanted to be a RB like his dad. Coach Jim Mora had the wisdom to move Barr to OLB in 2012 and the rest is history.
One concern with Barr is his offensive background. Does he have the right mentality for defense? People watch his game tape and don’t see a player that tries to physically dominate on every snap. That turns off some coaches and scouts. Barr isn’t the kind of player who will just take over a game. If you watch Khalil Mack vs Ohio State, you see a guy who put his team on his back and did everything he could in that game. Barr isn’t that same kind of guy.
I do wonder if coaching and scheme isn’t partially a factor. Watch Barr play and you’ll see him play under control most of the time. Watch Dee Ford for contrast. On most snaps, Ford flies off the edge, semi-out of control. Barr picks and chooses the spots where he’s going to really fly off the edge. You wonder if some of this was by design. With the read option and mobile QBs being so prevalent these days, Barr might have been told to slow down, read plays and keep things to the inside.
When you do see Barr fly off the edge, he is really hard to block. He gave OTs fits with his speed and explosion. You would think he could do this play after play if he wanted or the coaches told him to.
One of the reasons I like Barr so much is that he can bend and turn. Many DEs/LBs have a quick first step. They can get off the ball and up the field in a hurry. Special players can get low to get under the block of the OT and then turn to the inside to get to the QB. Even though Barr is 6-5, he does this well. That translates to the NFL.
I also love the fact that he has 9 FFs in 2 years. Strip-sacks are impact plays. Getting to the QB is one thing. Getting there and knocking the ball out is ideal. That generally means the rusher is catching the QB by surprise and the ball is still exposed. This is another part of Barr’s game that bodes well for NFL success.
Barr isn’t a great run defender. He needs to learn to use his hands better. Barr tends to do things with his shoulder. That’s the natural instinct, but it has to be coached out of him. You want defenders to engage blockers with their hands. You don’t want blockers getting into the defender’s body. There needs to be separation so that the defender can disengage from the block and get in on the play.
People who don’t like Barr will see him as a finesse player. I see a guy who needs coaching. I don’t see a player who avoids contact. Barr simply needs to work on how to take on blockers and then shed them.
Barr would be an ideal fit for the Eagles. He has the size that Chip Kelly covets. Barr would be perfect to slide in at ROLB. He has the kind of explosive athleticism that would help him to beat LTs on a consistent basis. If something happened to Connor Barwin, the Eagles could slide Barr to LOLB and play him opposite of Trent Cole. Barr is big enough and athletic enough for the left side.
The Eagles could move him around if they wanted. Barr can line up over a slot receiver. He can line up as an ILB and rush up the middle or twist to the outside. He can drop back into coverage. Barr is a gifted pass rusher, but he’s athletic enough to play in space and do a solid job on those plays when you want to mix things up to confuse the opposing offense.
You can bet that Jerry Azzinaro and Bill McGovern would have a lot of work to do. They would have Barr hitting the sled every day and working on his hand use. They would drill into him how they wanted him to take on blocks. The raw potential is there, Barr simply needs work.
I will be shocked if Barr slides to 22. I just can’t see that happening. I sure hope it does. The Eagles better run to the podium in record time if he’s there. Barr is the kind of LB who can make plays in the NFL. The Eagles need an impact rusher and Barr could be that guy.
You see impact plays vs Oregon.
Here he is against Stanford. This isn’t an ideal matchup for Barr because he’s more pass rusher than run defender, but he still impacts the game.
I would be ecstatic if the Eagles could get Barr at 22.
_KINSHASA (Reuters) - Political rivals in Democratic Republic of Congo neared a deal on Saturday for President Joseph Kabila to leave power in 2017 after dozens of people were killed during protests this week at the end of his mandate.
FILE PHOTO - Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila attends the signing ceremony of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Great Lakes, at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia February 24, 2013. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri/File Photo
Under the agreement, elections would be held next year and Kabila, who took power in Africa’s fourth most populous country after his father was assassinated in 2001, would agree not to change the constitution to run for a third term.
Roman Catholic bishops who have mediated during weeks of talks were upbeat about reaching a deal in time for a planned signing ceremony on Friday, but Congo’s main opposition bloc warned that several “significant” differences remained.
“We have finished practically 95 percent of the work,” Catholic Bishops Conference president Marcel Utembi told |
was no minor feat, and it would be understandable that some would respond by trying to move on to more comfortable issues. The night the white nationalist demonstrators arrived, my wife and I were at a community prayer service intended to denounce white supremacy. They gathered across the street from the church, carrying torches and yelling “Hail Victory!,” the English translation of the German Nazis party’s Sieg Heil. We could not see them, but as we sang with the assembled people of Charlottesville, I was sure I could hear them through the walls of the church sanctuary chanting “White Lives Matter.”
The next day Aida and I went with many members of our meeting to a worship vigil in Justice Park, about a five‐minute walk from the so‐called alt‐right rally in Charlottesville’s Emancipation Park (the “alt‐right” is an offshoot of conservatism mixing racism, white nationalism, anti‐Semitism, and populism). We hoped our vigil would give public expression to the nonviolence that our peace testimony demands and provide a witness against intolerance. The meeting had made signs that declared “Quakers for Peace and Justice” and “Quakers think Black Lives Matter.” We settled down to worship as overhead police helicopters made noise that filled our silence (later that day one of them would crash outside town, killing the two officers aboard). Various counter‐protest groups passed by, one with musical instruments and another with a banner and a smattering of shields that made it look like a ramshackle medieval army. Some people in the park took photos of us, and a few stopped to join our worship. After about 45 minutes, we ended worship. When Aida and I left, carrying signs back to the meetinghouse, we barely avoided an approaching fascist mob waving Confederate flags and shields emblazoned with Crusaders’ crosses.
I felt afraid the entire time, afraid in the same streets where I go shopping with friends or walk with my wife after a satisfying dinner. As a Quaker of Jewish descent, I found the anti‐Semitism of the new white nationalism particularly threatening. Their shouts demanded Jews leave the country; they threatened to burn down the synagogue in town and derided one of my friends who happened to walk nearby for having a Jewish appearance. Aida is Latina, and as we walked past gaggles of white nationalists armed with clubs, I was concerned for her safety as well.
I still don’t know what to think about the events of August 12. Did we do enough? Could we have done more? As a Quaker, I know we try to conduct ourselves in peace even as we condemn hatred. Still, the events remain too wrapped in apprehensiveness and anxiety for me to disentangle.
I am sure that the need for Quakers to speak on issues of justice became clearer to me than ever before. Seeing the white nationalists here, arrayed in battle gear as if they were going to fight a war and venting unrepeatable hatred at almost every imaginable group of people, showed that we face those who discount the very basis of our beliefs. Often the differences Quakers have with others are issues of methods; we assume a more peaceful and equal world is a goal for everyone and hence we are used to arguing about how, and not whether, to achieve it. As a consequence, it is easy to be lulled into slow or no action because of the complexities of the issues we face. Those who identify themselves as part of the alt‐right unarguably do not agree with our principles. Their goal is white supremacy, and they have no qualms about provoking or using violence. They remind us that our convictions are not banal, and that to search for “that of God in everyone” has never ceased to be a provocative message since George Fox delivered it to the seekers gathered around Firbank Fell.
I n that spirit, the Charlottesville Meeting passed a minute supporting DACA and the planned vigil at the White House. We expressed our approval for DACA by invoking the words of John Woolman: “To consider mankind otherwise than brethren, to think favors are peculiar to one nation and exclude others, plainly supposes a darkness in the understanding.” We also took steps to become a sanctuary congregation, committing to stand with immigrants and those in need. Churches participating in the New Sanctuary Movement across the nation have offered shelter to undocumented immigrants because Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) currently does not raid houses of worship.
I do not pretend that passing minutes in a Quaker meeting for business is revolutionary or that it offers a solution to the threat of the resurgent white nationalism. I do believe that there is hope in the fact that events as horrific as August 12 can be a rallying cry for Quakers to do more, to be braver and more outspoken. Lucretia Mott once asked an audience of abolitionists, “if our principles be right, why should we be cowards?” It’s a sentiment that Quakers today are still trying to live out.65 SHARES Facebook Twitter If you feel like contributing, please send a message to: join@sensanostra.com
If you’ve ever had the urge to punch someone in the face because they were chewing with their mouth open, you may be surprised to find yourself suffering from misophonia. This little-known anxiety-related disorder causes the brain to be triggered by certain sounds, immediately eliciting a fight or flight response, and causing the sufferer to either flee the situation or be overcome with rage.
Unfortunately, nobody really knows how or why misophonia arises and so far no research has been done to better understand the causes, symptoms and potential cures for this disorder. Living with misophonia and struggling against a world of misinformation, or lack of information entirely, is common amongst sufferers and with no guidance, some have had to pursue their own treatment. Sensa Nostra speaks with one misophonic who, after fifteen years of wondering why he experienced this intense response to trigger sounds, has recognised the disorder and successfully alleviated his misophonia symptoms through meditation and mindfulness techniques.
It took me a long time to realise that my irrational anger towards certain innocuous noises actually had a name. Looking back, I probably developed misophonia at around ten years old when my parents would point out to me annoying sounds that I was making – like eating loudly or gulping my drinks. I learned quickly to pick up on these sounds, initially in myself to avoid chastisement, but eventually in other people too. And, following the well-intentioned guidance of my parents, I learned to develop the same feelings towards these sounds that they had expressed to me. This is where the cycle started.
After years and years of reinforcing unhealthy fight or flight responses to these noises, misophonia began to consume me. At that point I’d never heard of the disorder and assumed I was alone in my sound-induced anxiety. I was at my worst just before I found my psychologist. A new colleague had just started at work and very quickly my lunch break became the hardest part of the day. Peter sat right next to me and was completely lacking in self-awareness. His favourite snacks were wheat biscuits and he’d crunch loudly at them throughout the day. For some reason, my threshold with him was particularly low. When he started eating his lunch I’d put my earphones in, or I’d wait patiently for him to start eating so I could take the opportunity to leave the office and have my lunch somewhere else. As soon as I heard that first bite, I was on edge and defensive. I couldn’t focus on anything else. Every extra bite would make me angrier and angrier, waiting for him to stop and fantasising about smashing my computer monitor into his head. I wrote scripts in my mind about how to confront him. I thought about slapping him just to make it stop. If I didn’t have my headphones and I couldn’t leave the office, I’d block my ears with my hands. I was completely enraged, every day.
It was at that point I started to research my symptoms and discovered the term ‘misophonia’ for the first time. I found that there were other people that experienced similar responses towards certain sounds, but I assumed it was just hypersensitivity. Even when I came across a misophonia forum, I didn’t want to believe it was an actual disorder. On the surface it still looked like a group of overly sensitive people complaining. What eventually legitimised it was coming across a few research papers that mentioned, as a peripheral note, that misophonia had been encountered during their undertakings and that it should be investigated further. As yet, nobody has, but there are at least people that recognise that it might be a genuine disorder and, luckily, my psychologist was one of them.
Without any real research, it’s difficult to understand why misophonia exists in the first place. My psychologist has a theory that it’s a leftover evolutionary mechanism – a mechanism that used to be beneficial if, say, we were approached by a predator and needed the fight or flight response to kick in with a surge of adrenalin and, as a consequence, anxiety. In the modern world, we no longer have any real dangers, but we still have the mechanisms once used to deal with them. So her theory is that these can be triggered by ordinary stimuli because our brains’ rewarding structure is still in place to encourage these behavioural responses that once determined our survival. This repeated cycle of reacting to trigger sounds, releasing adrenaline and reinforcing the disorder builds up behavioural patterns very quickly.
After fifteen years of reinforcing these thought patterns, I was trapped. Every time I encountered the trigger sounds I would go through the same process of waiting for the sounds to stop while building up anger, and eventually rewarding myself with a wave of relief when it did. With this sort of reinforcement I couldn’t have any response but the one I’d trained myself to follow. Eventually my threshold had decreased further and further and, around the time Peter started working with me, I was being triggered more easily than I used to be.
Initially, after learning about misophonia, legitimising the phenomenon made it harder to deal with. Suddenly I felt like I had an excuse for feeling the way I did. But it still sounded so stupid – even if it’s a legitimate disorder you can’t go around telling people you have misophonia and you don’t like the sound of eating, because they’ll think you’re an idiot. Even though I now had a name for what I was experiencing, there still wasn’t anything to do about it. There still wasn’t a cure.
I knew though, that I wanted to find a way to do something about it and now that I knew it existed, it was easier to find information. For a long while I just spent my time watching that misophonia forum where people discussed their symptoms and triggers. But none of them were getting anywhere with it. Many of them were using the same unhealthy coping mechanisms that I was – fleeing the situation, blocking out the sounds, or even mimicking and mocking whoever was making the trigger noises. Others had sought help from psychologists, only to be dismissed as over-sensitive and told to chill out. I was afraid I would face the same issues. By accident, I was lucky enough to see a psychologist who, although she hadn’t heard the term before, recognised it as an anxiety-related disorder and had some ideas about how to approach it. Having somebody else take it seriously meant that there was hope, and I practised, diligently, the exercises she’d given me to begin breaking down the thought patterns I’d built up over so many years.
Rather than avoiding the triggers, I was taught to confront them with a mixture of exposure therapy and simple mindfulness techniques. I was taught to meditate and focus on all the senses, rather than just one specific sense, or even one input into that sense. When misophonics are triggered by a sound, they don’t hear anything else – they are incapable of paying attention to anything other than this one stimulus. By meditating on all my senses at once, I learned to broaden my intake, experiencing other sounds, sights, feelings, smells, alongside the trigger sound that had previously taken my full attention. The purpose is to experience a range of different inputs simultaneously, diluting the trigger sound amongst the other senses to reduce the anxiety related to it.
I wanted to use these exercises to understand my symptoms, to understand what my brain was actually doing. When you see how it works, it’s easier to deal with. I know now that the more respect I have for somebody, the higher my threshold will be. I know when I’m tired or stressed, my senses are heightened and my threshold is lowered – it’s much easier to be triggered in a tired state to the point of severe anxiety. And knowing how it works makes it much easier to monitor and dismiss the feelings that arise in times like that.
It was also comforting to know that I never had to jump right into the exposure therapy. There’s no expectation to suddenly be okay with trigger sounds. One of the exercises I was encouraged to practise was to set a timer and expose myself to the trigger for a period that I knew I could handle. The goal was to notice how I was feeling or what my thoughts were doing during the time of exposure. Starting with one minute timers, I would listen to Peter eat his lunch and try to recognise the thoughts and emotions that were being brought up. The intention was never to suppress my rage, but to observe it. At the end of the minute I could go back to my headphones or leave the office if I wanted to. I’d exposed myself to Peter’s munching for a short, manageable period of time and recognised that I hadn’t died. Nothing terrible had happened. Doing this slowly cemented the idea that there was no real reason for feelings of anxiety in that situation. I was changing my brain’s rewarding patterns by discouraging anxiety and encouraging tolerance.
Every day I would do a few one minute periods of trigger exposure and within the first week I was doing a couple of minutes back to back, encouraged by my successes. I was beginning to rewrite my thought patterns and reward myself in healthy ways instead of unhealthy ones. After a few weeks I could last through an entire lunch break. I knew I was overcoming misophonia when Peter would finish his lunch and I was disappointed that I couldn’t keep challenging myself to more minutes.
These days, I’m still aware of the possibility of the disorder coming back. While the symptoms are almost entirely gone, I can see them occasionally creeping back on days when I’m really tired or stressed. But I notice them and can immediately deal with them, which was the entire goal. The exercises were never designed to ignore the symptoms but to notice them and become comfortable with them. Now I’ll hear trigger sounds and recognised that they once would have enraged me, but the feelings of anxiety are completely gone. It’s become second nature now and should I ever find myself revisiting those symptoms, I can stop the patterns from forming again.
The key to dealing with misophonia is taking responsibility for it. While legitimising it as a real disorder is helpful in knowing how to deal with it, it’s easy to begin expecting people to accommodate you because of what’s going on in your own head. I would hate for misophonia to become accepted as a disability – that line of reasoning discourages people from trying to fix it. A cure is possible, in a matter of weeks in my case, so long as misophonia sufferers are willing to try. If anything, it’s more important that mental health professionals educate themselves firstly on the existence of misophonia, and secondly, on the techniques necessary to deal with it.
When asked, I say I’m cured, but misophonia is an anxiety related disorder and, like other disorders of the same nature, it’s unpredictable. I know that struggling with anxiety is part of my personality – I’m susceptible to that sort of thinking. But now that I’ve become aware of misophonia, and conquered it, I know what to look for should it come up again. The techniques I’ve learned to deal with this particular disorder have helped with other anxiety issues and unless something drastic happens, I’ll continue to say that I’m cured. I guess I owe my thanks to Peter.CES 2013 USB 3.0 – aka SuperSpeed USB – is set to become more super-speedy, with a new specification scheduled for a mid-2013 release that will provide a one-two punch intended to greatly improve its theoretical throughput.
"The USB 3.0 Promoter Group that defined and wrote the USB 3.0 spec is doing an amendment to the spec to increase the data-throughput performance of USB 3.0 to a 10 gigabit-per-second data rate," USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) president and COO Jeff Ravencraft told The Reg.
That doubled clock rate isn't the only improvement in the amended spec, however. "The other key point," Ravencraft said, "is we've impoved the data-encoding capability that really drives this more-efficient data transfer that gives us the higher throughput and the improved I/O power efficiency."
USB 3.0 Promoter Group chairman Brad Saunders elaborated on that point. "We are truly doubling the clock rate and we're improving the data efficiency," he said, "so when we say that it's twice as much bandwidth or twice the throughput, that's conservative."
With both a doubled clock rate and improved data encoding, Saunders emphasized, "This is not an arbitrary statement that it's twice the speed so it's twice as much data, this is actually twice the speed plus improved encoding to effectively guarantee that we'll get more than twice as much," he said. "We are, y'know, padding it."
The new encoding scheme, Saunders told us, is fully independent of the data type, so it will benefit file transfers, video streaming, whatever. As Ravencraft explained, the ability for the new encoding to support all data types will enable what he identified as "new and improved usage models" for such data-throughput needs as reading and writing to higher-capacity storage more quickly, creating more-efficient higher-capacity hubs and other devices, and enabling heavy data-use applications such as audio and video editing.
More speed for more efficient performance for more usage models is all well and good, but don't automatically expect your current USB cables to handle the new data rates – possibly not even that 10-foot AudioQuest Coffee you just bought for five-hundred bucks.
Saunder explained, however, that it's not that current cables won't automatically work on equipment employing the new and fully backward-compatible spec. It's just that they're not certified to work – after all, you can't expect any organization to go back and recertify the approximately eleventy-squillion USB cables already in the wild.
"We're not saying those cables are crap, throw them away," Saunders said. "We're saying they haven't met the higher bar" of official certification – so perhaps that AudioQuest Coffee will work just fine on equipment employing the new 10Gbps spec.
Speaking of certification, Ravencraft also told us that the number of USB 3.0 products certified by the USB-IF and now on the market has topped 700 – a 90 per cent increase over last year.
And speaking of that market, the USB folks have painted themselves into a bit of a corner as to how they're going to brand the new 10Gbps-and-over specification. When the first 1.5Mbps Universal Serial Bus spec was formally released in January 1996, it was called – logically enough – USB. When it bumped up to the 480Mbps version 2.0 in April of 2000, it was renamed Hi-Speed USB. Then the 5Gbps USB 3.0 arrived in November 2008, dubbed SuperSpeed.
When we asked Ravencraft and Saunders what this next amended version of USB 3.0 would be called, they demurred. "Developing the brand is something we have to do in parallel with developing the spec update," Saunders told us.
May we respectfully suggest that it not be called UltraSpeed USB? Ultra has such a endgame connotation to it, and we'd like to see further improvements in the future.
ÜberSpeed? MegaSpeed? MuchoSpeed? Of such decisions are branding careers made. ®A new video from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula appears to undercut the Obama administration's claim that Anwar al-Awlaki was the "head of external operations" for AQAP. The 39-minute video was posted to the internet on Saturday, just two days before the Second Circuit Court released a legal memo justifying Awlaki's killing by a CIA drone in September 2011.
Despite its release date, the video doesn't appear to be an attempt to pre-empt the Obama administration's memo. In fact, the video has little to do with Anwar al-Awlaki. Instead it focuses on the life of Said al-Shihri, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who rose to become the deputy commander in AQAP before dying as a result of wounds suffered in a U.S. drone strike in late 2012.
The video says that it was Shihri — not Awlaki — who was "responsible for external operations against America." For years, the Obama administration has argued the opposite, claiming that Awlaki was directing AQAP's efforts against the U.S., including the failed underwear bomb on an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.
On the day Awlaki was killed, Obama called him "the leader of external operations for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula" and said he "directed" the 2009 attack. The video appears to refute both claims, giving credit to Shihri, the former Guantanamo Bay detainee.
Halfway through the video there is a clip of AQAP leader Nasir al-Wihayshi embracing Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the underwear bomber in the Christmas Day attack, and whispering in his ear as a narrator reads that the attack was conducted "under the direct supervision of (Shihri) and a number of his brothers in the section in charge of external operations."(tip if you want to draw in cinematic style)
Been listening to War Horse soundtrack whilst drawing this, particularly this one: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CH4J1… Hence the title choice.So this was more or less an experiment. I thinned my line art even more, took my time with the sketch and the lines, made sure I got the shading right (because I don't normally do that I just tend to shade where I please lol which is not good to do, kids!!)But ye. I'm quite happy with this. I'm going to get back to working on commissions tomorrow after an important blood test o mine. And then I will definately experiment more with...taking my time with my art, haha...Yeah, I've had weird insecurities about my art lately and seeing better artists really really encourages me to try harder and improve, because I KNOW I can do better, I just need to be more patient with my art.Anyway I hope you like!This is indeed a print which you can purchase at my Etsy store!Other prints are back in stock now too!I'll also be uploading the full sized version on my Patreon too!The next Mazda MX-5 will have a more ‘extreme’ look that takes it further away from the outgoing third-generation model, according to a senior company source.
Click here to read all we know about the new Mazda MX-5, including first drive impressions
The fourth generation of the iconic roadster is due to go on sale next year, more than 25 years after the first edition was introduced. Mazda has already shown its chassis and engine, but the car’s appearance has remained under wraps. It has been expected to follow the styling that’s been used on the CX-5, 3 and 6 models over the past two years.
However, a senior source with the project has told What Car? that the MX-5 is being treated to a more radical approach. ‘It’s definitely more extreme,’ the insider said. ‘The step from third generation to fourth generation is the biggest one that the MX-5 has made – a bigger gap, for example, than the move that we made from Mk2 to Mk3.’Click to Upload Your Image or Browse Our Collection and Get Inspired
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Spark Your Imagination with Stunning Pieces of Art or that Perfect Photo of Your Dream Destination. Every Art Canvas Captures a Story and Becomes a Part of You and Your Journey wherever it takes you.OpenSSH 6.9p1 Authentication Bypass / Use-After-Free 2015-08-15 / 2015-08-17 Credit: Blue Frost Risk: High Local: No Remote: Yes CVE: N/A CWE: N/A Blue Frost Security GmbH https://www.bluefrostsecurity.de/ research(at)bluefrostsecurity.de BFS-SA-2015-002 13-August-2015 ________________________________________________________________________________ Affected Product: OpenSSH (http://www.openssh.com) Affected Version: Portable versions <= 6.9p1 Vulnerability: Vulnerabilities in PAM Privilege Separation Code ________________________________________________________________________________ I. Impact Two vulnerabilities were identified in the PAM privilege separation code. One of them (III) allows remote attackers who previously achieved remote code execution within the unprivileged pre-auth sandbox process to perform a successful authentication as an arbitrary user (e.g. root) and thus impersonate other users. The only additional prerequisite is any valid (possibly low-privileged) user account which can be used to login into the system via SSH. ________________________________________________________________________________ II. Background OpenSSH implements privilege separation which was introduced with version 5.9. Privilege separation is a generic approach which splits the code into two processes: An unprivileged child process and a privileged monitor process. The unprivileged child does most of the work and in particular processes all the network data. The monitor process communicates with the unprivileged child process and performs all the operations which require higher privileges. The idea of this design is to prevent programming errors in the unprivileged parts from compromising the whole application and thus prevent a full system compromise. A good technical overview can be found in the paper "Preventing Privilege Escalation" by Niels Provos et al. (http://www.peter.honeyman.org/u/provos/papers/privsep.pdf). The unprivileged child process and privileged monitor process communicate via a socketpair. Several different monitor request and answer types are defined which can be used to exchange messages between the two processes. The complete list can be found in the mon_dispatch_proto{15,20} and mon_dispatch_postauth{15,20} structures defined in monitor.c. Monitor requests have certain flags assigned which can restrict when and how requests are accepted by the monitor. E.g. the flag MON_ONCE determines that a request can only be sent once and is disabled after it was received for the first time in the monitor. The MON_AUTH flag determines that a request is related to the authentication process. The complete list of flags can be found in the monitor.c file as well. Not all defined requests are permitted in every state of the SSH protocol. In order to control which requests are permitted, the functions monitor_permit() and monitor_permit_authentications() are used. The function monitor_permit() can be used to enable or disable a certain message while the function monitor_permit_authentications() enables or disables all authentication related messages which have the MON_AUTH flag set. When a request is received by the monitor which is currently not allowed the monitor process terminates by calling the fatal() function. ________________________________________________________________________________ III. PAM Authentication Bypass in Privilege Separation When PAM support is enabled in the portable version of OpenSSH, a few additonal monitor requests are enabled which can be found in the monitor.c file: #ifdef USE_PAM {MONITOR_REQ_PAM_START, MON_ONCE, mm_answer_pam_start}, {MONITOR_REQ_PAM_ACCOUNT, 0, mm_answer_pam_account}, {MONITOR_REQ_PAM_INIT_CTX, MON_ISAUTH, mm_answer_pam_init_ctx}, {MONITOR_REQ_PAM_QUERY, MON_ISAUTH, mm_answer_pam_query}, {MONITOR_REQ_PAM_RESPOND, MON_ISAUTH, mm_answer_pam_respond}, {MONITOR_REQ_PAM_FREE_CTX, MON_ONCE|MON_AUTHDECIDE, mm_answer_pam_free_ctx}, #endif Before any PAM-related monitor requests are sent, the unprivileged child process sends the MONITOR_REQ_PWNAM request to verify that the username received from the network represents a valid user. The monitor responds with the corresponding passwd struct entry if the user exists and additionally caches the username and passwd struct entry in the current monitor authentication context (struct Authctxt *authctxt). PAM authentication then starts with the unprivileged child process sending the MONITOR_REQ_PAM_START request which tells the monitor to open a new authentication transaction for the current user by calling the PAM API function pam_start(). The next PAM-related monitor request sent by the child process is MONITOR_REQ_PAM_INIT_CTX which initializes [2] the current PAM authentication context in the monitor. int mm_answer_pam_init_ctx(int sock, Buffer *m) { debug3("%s", __func__); authctxt->user = buffer_get_string(m, NULL); [1] sshpam_ctxt = (sshpam_device.init_ctx)(authctxt); [2] sshpam_authok = NULL; buffer_clear(m); [...] Interestingly the child process sends the current username as part of this request once again to the monitor and the monitor overwrites the previously stored username in the monitor authentication context with the received username [1]. During a normal PAM authentication the same username is sent, so this doesn't represent a problem. However an attacker who already compromised the unprivileged pre-auth child process could send a different username in this case. This could lead to a situation where the username stored in the monitor authentication context would not match the stored passwd struct entry. The remaining PAM authentication only relies on the stored username. The user which is actually logged in after a successful authentication is on the contrary only identified by the stored passwd struct entry. This allows an attacker who compromised the unprivileged child process to first send any desired username (e.g. root) with the MONITOR_REQ_PWNAM request which would store the corresponding passwd struct entry in the authentication context. Subsequently he would send a different username for whom he's in posession of the password and perform a valid PAM authentication with that user. Once the authentication was successful, the attacker is not logged in with the user he used for the authentication, but with the username he specified in the initial MONITOR_REQ_PWNAM request. ________________________________________________________________________________ IV. Use-After-Free in PAM Privilege Separation The monitor requests for PAM authentication which can be send by the unprivileged child process represent additional attack surface. But not only implementation flaws in the handlers have to be considered. Also the order in which requests are send could result in unexpected program states and thus lead to interesting vulnerabilities. One such vulnerability can be found in the handler for the MONITOR_REQ_PAM_FREE_CTX request: int mm_answer_pam_free_ctx(int sock, Buffer *m) { debug3("%s", __func__); (sshpam_device.free_ctx)(sshpam_ctxt); [3] buffer_clear(m); mm_request_send(sock, MONITOR_ANS_PAM_FREE_CTX, m); auth_method = "keyboard-interactive"; auth_submethod = "pam"; return (sshpam_authok == sshpam_ctxt); } At [3] the free_ctx function pointer of the KbdintDevice structure is called which is set to sshpam_free_ctx(). That function can be found in auth-pam.c: static void sshpam_free_ctx(void *ctxtp) { struct pam_ctxt *ctxt = ctxtp; debug3("PAM: %s entering", __func__); sshpam_thread_cleanup(); free(ctxt); [4] /* * We don't call sshpam_cleanup() here because we may need the PAM * handle at a later stage, e.g. when setting up a session. It's * still on the cleanup list, so pam_end() *will* be called before * the server process terminates. */ } As can be seen this frees the current PAM context memory pointed to by the passed sshpam_ctxt pointer [4]. The flag MON_ONCE is set for the MONITOR_REQ_PAM_FREE_CTX monitor request which prevents a malicious child process from calling it multiple times which would otherwise lead to an obvious double free vulnerability. However it is still possible for a compromised child process to first send the MONITOR_REQ_PAM_FREE_CTX request which will free the PAM context and then use any of the other PAM monitor requests which leads to a use-after-free condition. The freed structure is defined in auth-pam.c as follows: struct pam_ctxt { sp_pthread_t pam_thread; int pam_psock; int pam_csock; int pam_done; }; As can be seen the structure does not contain any pointers or length fields which would be ideal candidates for the exploitation of this use-after-free bug. However it stores two other interesting values, which are the pam_psock and pam_csock file descriptors. These file descriptors identify the receiving and sending socket to the PAM authentication system respectively. In order to exploit the use-after-free condition, you could try to replace the freed memory in the monitor process with a fake structure which would have pam_psocks and pam_csock being set to the file descriptors used for the communication with the unprivileged child process. This way the monitor would send all PAM authentication requests directly to the unprivileged child process which could then impersonate the PAM subsystem and e.g. allow authentication for any user without a password. The problem which most probably prevents the described way of exploitation is that only monitor requests which have the MON_AUTHDECIDE flag set are allowed to make an authentication decision: if (!(ent->flags & MON_AUTHDECIDE)) fatal("%s: unexpected authentication from %d", __func__, ent->type); For PAM only the MONITOR_REQ_PAM_FREE_CTX request has this flag set. Additionally the request has the MON_ONCE flag set which means we can send it to the monitor only a single time. Since we initially need to send this request to trigger the freeing of the PAM context, followed by other monitor requests for the actual authentication, we are running into the described MON_AUTHDECIDE check which prevents a successful authentication. We didn't find a way to successfully exploit this use-after-free condition for anything interesting. But a creative mind might eventually find a useful scenario. ________________________________________________________________________________ V. Mitigation Both vulnerabilities were fixed in OpenSSH 7.0 which should be installed to resolve the issues. ________________________________________________________________________________ VI. Disclosure Timeline - 2015-08-10 Vulnerabilities reported to openssh@openssh.com - 2015-08-11 OpenSSH 7.0 is released which fixes the issues ________________________________________________________________________________ Credit: Bugs found by Moritz Jodeit of Blue Frost Security GmbH. ________________________________________________________________________________ Unaltered electronic reproduction of this advisory is permitted. For all other reproduction or publication, in printing or otherwise, contact research@bluefrostsecurity.de for permission. Use of the advisory constitutes acceptance for use in an "as is" condition. All warranties are excluded. In no event shall Blue Frost Security be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of business profits or special damages, even if Blue Frost Security has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Copyright 2015 Blue Frost Security GmbH. All rights reserved. Terms of use apply.
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Senate Republicans picked Paul Gazelka as their new majority leader last week after winning a narrow one-seat advantage (34-33) over Democrats.
This week, Gazelka and his GOP colleagues were busy setting up a new leadership team, designing a new committee structure and packing up to move into the office space across the street where Senate Democrats currently reside.
• Last week: Republicans take full control of Minnesota Legislature
"Well, about a week ago this was not anywhere near my radar," Gazelka said.
Gazelka's rapid ascension was the result of a key loss for Republicans in last week's election. Senate Minority Leader David Hann was defeated in his Eden Prairie district even as Republicans won enough seats statewide to take over the majority, pending two recounts. Gazelka praised Hann as an effective and honorable caucus leader, and said he was grateful to be chosen as his successor.
"My leadership style may be slightly different from his," he said. "I don't want to try to fill his shoes. I want to simply use the talents I have."
Gazelka is pro-gun, anti-abortion and supports traditional marriage. Last session, he introduced a bill to allow businesses and organizations, based on religious views, to deny marriage-related services to same-sex couples.
But those aren't necessarily the issues he intends to press during next year's session Gazelka said the approach will be different from the last time Republicans were in charge of the Senate, in 2011 and 2012, when they passed two constitutional amendments voters ultimately rejected to ban same-sex marriage and require a photo ID to vote.
"I think there was an exuberance about we can change everything," Gazelka said. "Those of us that are still here realize that you can't get everything done right away. It doesn't work as well that way. So, we really are interested in building consensus and moving toward the things that we know we need to accomplish."
Gazelka says health care reform, transportation funding and tax relief are the top priorities. He said other issues, including the social issues that he's champion |
outfit. The winner would walk away with the coveted World’s Worst Coffee Championship spoon. “Our goal,” says Ben Hantoot, “was to create an event that brought the local coffee community together for a night of pure fun.”
Aside from a barely averted late-round walkout from judges too disgusted to continue, the goal of fun, or some form of it, was certainly achieved. Christopher “Nicely” Alameda, the head barista at Menotti’s, poured a full tin of Chock Full ‘o’ Nuts into a French press before finishing it off with heaping spoonfuls of creamy, white lard. Tayler Mehit, a trainer at Four Barrel in San Francisco, dressed in a full-on Prince costume, made a concoction out of 18-month old, mud-dried Robusta green coffee, and what she described as “dove’s tears.” Hantoot admits it tasted “truly horrible.”
What sticks out the most in Hantoot’s mind as the “most memorable moment” of the inaugural WWCC was Devin Chapman of Verve LA, who brewed his coffee with a cheese made with “literally” the same bacteria that crops up when one doesn’t properly wash their nether-regions. The resulting flavor was so horrible, so putrid, the assorted judges gagged and attempted to flee in disgust. In Hantoot’s words, “We passed the cheese around for everyone to smell, and oh, my God.”
In the end, prizes were awarded. Tayler Mehit and her Purple Rain-tastic beverage took home the lauded spoon—the bowl of it reading “I’m just the worst”—and a handmade dunce cap. Erik Staack, the competition’s runner-up, walked away with a $10 gift certificate to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Next year, the Hantoots hope to encourage competitors to bring enough coffee for each and every member of the audience to “enjoy” a cup. As the competition fades, the scent of genitalia cheese still ripe in the air, it would be remiss for anyone to say that the first ever World’s Worst Coffee Competition was anything but a success.
Noah Sanders helms Sprudge.com’s Bay Area desk, and is a contributor to SF Weekly, and The Bold Italic. Read more Noah Sanders on Sprudge.MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Gunmen killed 23 people in northern Nigeria in attacks that appeared to target gamblers and people selling ‘forbidden’ meat that Islamist militants disapprove of, officials and locals said on Tuesday.
In the deadliest attack, late on Monday, gunmen opened fire at a market in the town of Damboa, targeting local hunters who sell bush meat from animals such as monkeys and pigs, which strict Muslims are forbidden to eat, a local official said.
“Gunmen suspected to be members of BH (Islamist sect Boko Haram) came to the town market and shot dead 13 local hunters on the spot while five others died from their injuries at the hospital,” Alhaji Abba Ahmed said. “They came to the market in a Volkswagen Golf car, carried out the operation and left.”
In a separate attack in the north’s biggest city of Kano, some 500 km (310 miles) west of Damboa, on Tuesday, suspected Boko Haram members riding on motorbikes shot dead five people playing an outdoor board game, witnesses and a hospital source who received the bodies said. Two others were wounded.
Damboa is in the remote northeast, the sect’s heartland near the borders with Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
Boko Haram wants to carve an Islamic state out of Nigeria, a country of 170 million people split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims. The insurgency is seen as the top security threat to Africa’s leading oil and gas producer.
Nigeria plans to deploy around 1,200 troops as part of a West African intervention force to combat Islamist militants occupying the north of Mali, and officials fear Nigeria’s involvement could further inflame its own insurgency.
President Goodluck Jonathan told Reuters in Geneva on Tuesday that tackling global jihadists is in Nigeria’s interest because of the links between its Islamists and those in the desert states to the north, like Mali. An Islamist group known as Ansaru, which has been blamed for abducting and killing Westerners, claimed responsibility for an attack on Nigerian troops heading to Mali on Sunday that killed two officers.
Boko Haram’s long-bearded members practice a strict Wahhabist version of Islam that regards anyone who disagrees with it as infidels. They frequently target bars and other forms of entertainment.
Related Coverage Suspected Islamist gunmen kill 5 in north Nigeria's Kano
Militants have killed several hundred people in the past three years in a campaign to impose sharia, Islamic law, on Nigeria. Their targets include the security forces and churches, although they have killed more Muslims than Christians.
Gunmen fired on the convoy of one of Nigeria’s most senior Islamic leaders in Kano on Saturday, killing at least four people.Asus held a press conference in Taiwan earlier today, announcing the availability and pricing of its phone-cum-tablet Padfone. Pre-orders for the handset start tomorrow, with units expected to ship on April 20th. To buy into the system won't come cheap, though — the phone alone is priced at NT$17,990 (around $610 US), while the package of PadFone, the tablet-style dock, and combination bluetooth earpiece and stylus will set you back NT$24,980 (roughly $850 US). If you want to take things a step further, then the Transformer-style keyboard dock adds another NT$3,921 (roughly US$130), bringing the total price to a hefty US$980.
This meets Asus' promise of an April launch, as announced at the end of February. Back at MWC we had a chance to try out the unusual concept, and found the system snappy with smooth switching between the phone and tablet interfaces. Germany, Hong Kong and Singapore have been announced as the next launch regions, though there's no date given just yet. However, with prices that high, will anyone be willing to buy?Here at VICE, we would never advocate for drug use, breaking the law, and especially not doing either of those things intentionally in the presence of a police officer. But some of us are getting a bit sick of waiting for the weed legalization that Daddy Canada promised is coming next year as we watch pot dispensaries get raided over and over and people continue to be charged for pot-related offences, in what seems like a complete waste of time and resources.
That, my friends, is why this 25-year-old man who blew pot smoke in a police officer's face is a Canadian hero. (Editor's note: We reserve the right to withdraw this "hero" status if we find out he's actually a susbag.)
The so-far unnamed hero was stopped by cops when he came upon an impaired driving checkpoint in Brantford, Ontario, a small city that seems to be known primarily for being the birthplace of another acclaimed national hero, NHL legend Wayne Gretzky.
At about 8:20 PM on August 24, police stopped the driver and asked him some routine questions about if he'd been drinking alcohol, according to CBC. The cops had already become aware of a "green leafy substance" (AKA weed) on the console in the car and the unmistakable smell of dank-ass chronic, though the man had only partially rolled down his window.
OK, admittedly, smoking and driving may not be the best idea. But aren't all heroes flawed?
Instead of responding to the officer's uninspired line of questioning, the driver, probably knowing he was already well and fucked, further rolled down his window and blew a (presumably) impressive cloud of smoke right in the officer's face. Instead of being thankful for a potential contact high, the cop promptly arrested him for possession of a controlled substance.
We do not know the fate of this unsung hero just yet, but for a brief moment on that fateful Wednesday evening in Brantford, this unnamed driver became the embodiment of our feelings about the pace of legalizing weed in our country.
Photo via Flickr user Martin Alonso
Follow Allison Tierney on Twitter.President-elect Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE on Wednesday hit pharmaceutical companies in the early minutes of his press conference and seemed to call for Medicare to negotiate drug prices, a longtime Democratic priority.
"The other thing we have to do is create new bidding procedures for the drug industry, because they’re getting away with murder," Trump said.
"PhRMA, PhRMA has a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power and there’s very little bidding on drugs," he added, calling out the drug companies.
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Trump called for Medicare to negotiate drug prices during the presidential campaign as well, but it was unclear if he would continue the push for that after the election. The issue could create a divide with congressional Republicans, who, with some exceptions, oppose the idea.Abstract
Importance The increasing cost of prescription drugs in the United States has become a source of concern for patients, prescribers, payers, and policy makers.
Objectives To review the origins and effects of high drug prices in the US market and to consider policy options that could contain the cost of prescription drugs.
Evidence We reviewed the peer-reviewed medical and health policy literature from January 2005 to July 2016 for articles addressing the sources of drug prices in the United States, the justifications and consequences of high prices, and possible solutions.
Findings Per capita prescription drug spending in the United States exceeds that in all other countries, largely driven by brand-name drug prices that have been increasing in recent years at rates far beyond the consumer price index. In 2013, per capita spending on prescription drugs was $858 compared with an average of $400 for 19 other industrialized nations. In the United States, prescription medications now comprise an estimated 17% of overall personal health care services. The most important factor that allows manufacturers to set high drug prices is market exclusivity, protected by monopoly rights awarded upon Food and Drug Administration approval and by patents. The availability of generic drugs after this exclusivity period is the main means of reducing prices in the United States, but access to them may be delayed by numerous business and legal strategies. The primary counterweight against excessive pricing during market exclusivity is the negotiating power of the payer, which is currently constrained by several factors, including the requirement that most government drug payment plans cover nearly all products. Another key contributor to drug spending is physician prescribing choices when comparable alternatives are available at different costs. Although prices are often justified by the high cost of drug development, there is no evidence of an association between research and development costs and prices; rather, prescription drugs are priced in the United States primarily on the basis of what the market will bear.
Conclusions and Relevance High drug prices are the result of the approach the United States has taken to granting government-protected monopolies to drug manufacturers, combined with coverage requirements imposed on government-funded drug benefits. The most realistic short-term strategies to address high prices include enforcing more stringent requirements for the award and extension of exclusivity rights; enhancing competition by ensuring timely generic drug availability; providing greater opportunities for meaningful price negotiation by governmental payers; generating more evidence about comparative cost-effectiveness of therapeutic alternatives; and more effectively educating patients, prescribers, payers, and policy makers about these choices.
Introduction
Quiz Ref IDThe increasing cost of prescription drugs in the United States has become a source of growing concern for patients, prescribers, payers, and policy makers. After relatively modest growth after the expiration of patents on many widely used medications from 2010 to 2012, medication expenditures have begun to increase again, punctuated by several high-profile examples of very costly new agents and sharp increases in the prices of some older ones.1 Between 2013 and 2015, net spending on prescription drugs increased approximately 20% in the United States,2 outpacing a forecast 11% increase in aggregate health care expenditures.3 Prescription medications now comprise an estimated 17% of total health care costs,4 and prescription medication coverage constitutes 19% of employer-based insurance benefits.5 Since the advent of the Medicare drug benefit in 2006, government entities have paid for approximately 40% of the nation’s total retail prescription drug expenditure.6 Certain expensive drug products are important clinical breakthroughs and may even be relatively cost-effective; others are merely costly, with prices that are difficult to justify in relation to their actual contributions to patient outcomes.
The United States has long spent more on prescription medications than other countries.7 In 2013, per capita spending on prescription drugs was $858 compared with an average of $400 for 19 advanced industrialized nations (Figure 1).8 List prices for the top 20 highest-revenue-grossing drugs were on average 3 times greater in the United States than the United Kingdom.9 These disparities are reduced but remain substantial even after accounting for undisclosed discounts (“rebates”) that manufacturers offer to US payers. In 2010, estimated average postrebate prices for medications were 10% to 15% higher in the United States than in Canada, France, and Germany (Table 1).11
Quiz Ref IDIn addition to their contribution to health care spending, increasing drug costs have important clinical implications. Because cost-containment efforts require patients to pay higher co-payments for their medications, such increases can reduce the affordability of prescribed regimens and thus patient adherence, leading to negative health outcomes.12 However, some costly drugs may offer reasonable value. For example, sofosbuvir (Sovaldi) was found to be a cost-effective treatment of hepatitis C infection even at its 2013 launch price of $84 000 per 12-week course in certain patient populations when viewed from a patient’s lifetime horizon and a societal perspective.13 Payers must pay for this treatment upfront, though, with health care benefits often accruing decades later to a different payer. In 2014, state Medicaid programs spent an estimated $1.1 billion (after discounts) on sofosbuvir,14 usually with no additions to their budgets.
It is therefore important to understand what factors have contributed to recent medication price increases to lay the foundation for considering options to ensure that prescription drug expenditures are commensurate with their value, affordable within health budgets, and equitable for all parties involved in these complex transactions. We examined the origins and effect of drug prices in the US market and considered available policy options related to these payments. To do so, we reviewed literature published in peer-reviewed medical and health policy journals from January 2005 to July 2016, searching for rigorous empirical articles addressing the determinants of drug prices in the United States, the justifications and consequences of these prices, and possible policy options.
Brand-Name vs Generic Drugs
The primary reason for increasing drug spending is the high price of branded products protected by market exclusivity provisions granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (Table 2). Although brand-name drugs comprise only 10% of all dispensed prescriptions in the United States, they account for 72% of drug spending.15 Between 2008 and 2015, prices for the most commonly used brand-name drugs increased 164%, far in excess of the consumer price index (12%).16,17 The annual cost of a growing number of “specialty drugs”—high-cost, often injectable biologic medications such as eculizumab (Soliris), pralatrexate (Folotyn), and elosulfase alfa (Vimizim)—exceeds $250 000 per patient.
Such high prices have historically been limited to brand-name drugs that treat rare conditions. For example, the price of alglucerase (Cerezyme), a treatment for Gaucher disease, was $150 000 per patient per year when the drug was launched in 1991 (it is now $300 000)18,19; the price of ivacaftor (Kalydeco), indicated for a small subset of patients with cystic fibrosis, is likewise currently approximately $300 000 per patient per year. Both drugs are generally received for life. However, drugs that treat conditions affecting millions of individuals in the United States also now have high costs. For example, many new oncology drugs enter the market at a price exceeding $100 000 per course of therapy.20 Even the average price of insulin has increased 300% from 2002 to 2013.21
Quiz Ref IDAlthough brand-name drugs account for the greatest increase in prescription drug expenditures, another area that has captured the attention of the public and of policy makers has been the sharp increase in the costs of some older generic drugs. In 2015, Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of pyrimethamine (Daraprim), a 63-year-old treatment for toxoplasmosis, by 5500%, from $13.50 to $750 a pill.22 The company was able to set the high price despite the absence of any patent protection because no other competing manufacturer was licensed to market the drug in the United States. Significant increases in the prices of other older drugs include isoproterenol (2500%), nitroprusside (1700%), and digoxin (637%). Even though the prices of most generic drug products have remained stable between 2008 and 2015, those of almost 400 (approximately 2% of the sample investigated) increased by more than 1000%.23
Sources of High Drug Prices in the United States
Drug prices are higher in the United States than in the rest of the industrialized world because, unlike that in nearly every other advanced nation, the US health care system allows manufacturers to set their own price for a given product.11 In contrast, in countries with national health insurance systems, a delegated body negotiates drug prices or rejects coverage of products if the price demanded by the manufacturer is excessive in light of the benefit provided (Table 3); manufacturers may then decide to offer the drug at a lower price.24 In England and Wales, for example, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence considers whether a new drug passes a cost-utility threshold—usually between £20 000 and £30 000 ($25 000-$40 000) per quality-adjusted life-year added—before recommending it for coverage by the National Health Service.25 Although prices can vary widely around the world26 and have also increased faster than member states’ gross domestic products in recent years in Europe,27 US drug prices per capita still substantially outpace those in other settings.10
Drug companies’ ability to maintain high prices in the United States is based on 2 market forces: protection from competition and negotiating power.
Competition in the Pharmaceutical Marketplace
The most important factor that allows manufacturers to set high drug prices for brand-name drugs is market exclusivity,28 which arises from 2 forms of legal protection against competition. Together, these factors generate government-granted monopoly rights for a defined period. Initial regulatory exclusivity is awarded at FDA approval. New small-molecule drug products automatically earn a guaranteed period of 5 to 7 years before a generic competitor can be sold,29 and new biologic drugs are protected from competition for 12 years.30 The second type of market protection is patent-related exclusivity because manufacturers can receive patents lasting 20 years or more for their inventions.31 The US Patent and Trademark Office issues this intellectual property right—originally written into the US Constitution to encourage innovation—for inventions that are “novel,” “useful,” and “non-obvious.”32
Although regulatory exclusivities often set a lower-bound duration for market exclusivity, the actual length of such exclusivity is most commonly dictated by patent time. Because initial patents protecting the active ingredient are usually obtained when a drug is first synthesized, and the clinical trial and FDA review process usually takes on average 6 to 8 years, only half of the patent period may be left by the drug approval date.33 However, a company can apply to have this period extended by up to 5 years to account for the time spent during regulatory review and half the time in clinical trials (“patent term restoration”), to a maximum of 14 years.34 In addition, sponsors can also earn 6 more months of market exclusivity by testing their products in children,35 an incentive earned by more than 200 drugs since legislation created the pediatric exclusivity program in 1997.36 Overall, the median length of postapproval market exclusivity is 12.5 years for widely used drugs (interquartile range, 8.5-14.8 years) and 14.5 years for highly innovative, first-in-class drugs (interquartile range, 13.3-15.8 years).37,38
During that exclusivity period, the availability of treatment alternatives might be expected to exert pressure to reduce the price of a drug.39 For example, approximately a year after Gilead introduced sofosbuvir, AbbVie received approval for a 4-drug, direct-acting, antiviral regimen that achieved similar clinical response rates against the hepatitis C virus, leading some payers to negotiate sofosbuvir discounts of more than 40%.40
In practice, however, competition between 2 or more brand-name manufacturers selling drugs in the same class does not usually result in substantial price reductions.41 For example, of the 8 cholesterol-lowering statins that the FDA has approved, 2 have until recently remained patented: rosuvastatin (Crestor) and pitavastatin (Livalo). Despite the similar performance of these drugs in decreasing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol to other off-patent statins,42 the price of rosuvastatin increased 91% between 2007 and 2012, from $112 to $214 per prescription.43 During the same time, the price of the comparably effective atorvastatin decreased from $127 to $26 per prescription owing to the expiration of its patent protection in 2011.44 Similar effects have been observed for other drug classes.45
One factor that undermines competition among treatment alternatives is the separate roles of patients, prescribers, and payers: physicians write prescriptions, pharmacists sell medications, and patients or their insurers pay for them.46 This separation has traditionally insulated physicians from knowing about drug prices or considering those prices in their clinical decision making47 and can similarly remove many patients with good drug coverage from considering the price of the medications they “purchase.”
The only form of competition that consistently and substantially decreases prescription drug prices occurs with the availability of generic drugs, which emerge after the monopoly period ends. With FDA approval, these products can be substituted for bioequivalent brand-name drugs by the pharmacist under state drug product selection laws. In states with less restrictive drug product selection laws, generic products comprise up to 90% of a drug’s sales within a year after full generic entry.48 Drug prices decline to approximately 55% of brand-name drug prices with 2 generic manufacturers making the product, 33% with 5 manufacturers, and 13% with 15 manufacturers.49 In 2012, the US Government Accountability Office estimated that generic drugs accounted for approximately 86% of all filled prescriptions and saved the US health care system $1 trillion during the previous decade.50
Entry of generic drugs into the market, however, is often delayed. For pharmaceutical manufacturers, “product life-cycle management” involves preventing generic competition and maintaining high prices by extending a drug’s market exclusivity. This can be achieved by obtaining additional patents on other aspects of a drug, including its coating, salt moiety, formulation,51 and method of administration.52,53 In an example of this strategy, the manufacturer of the proton-pump inhibitor omeprazole (Prilosec) received an additional patent on the drug’s s-isomer, despite the absence of any compelling pharmacologic difference. This led to the creation of esomeprazole (Nexium) as a newly branded product that was sold for $4 a pill, a 600% markup over the over-the-counter version of omeprazole.54
Because permissive US Patent and Trademark Office standards for novelty or usefulness make it relatively easy to patent many nontherapeutic aspects of a drug, companies can strategically patent small changes and try to influence prescribers and patients to transition from one linked product to the next, sometimes discontinuing production of older versions of the drug. For their part, generic manufacturers have engaged in litigation with brand-name manufacturers that could lead to the patents being invalidated, but these suits are frequently settled.55 Historically, brand-name manufacturers have offered substantial financial inducements as part of these settlements to generic manufacturers to delay or even abort generic introduction.48 Settlements involving large cash transfers are called “pay for delay”; for example, in a patent challenge case related to the antibiotic ciprofloxacin (Cipro), the potential generic manufacturer received upfront and quarterly payments totaling $398 million as part of the settlement and agreed to wait until patent expiration to market its product.56
Other factors affect the availability of generic versions of brand-name products.57 Application backlogs at the FDA Office of Generic Drugs have meant delays of 3-4 years before a generic manufacturer can receive approval to make a drug not protected by any patents. After the 2012 FDA Safety and Innovation Act required user fees to be paid by generic drug manufacturers for such review, the FDA now reports being able to provide an initial response in approximately 15 months.58 Some innovator companies have refused to provide the samples of their products needed for the potential generic manufacturers to conduct bioequivalence studies, slowing or blocking the process.59 Direct competition among biologic drugs has been rare because no pathway existed to facilitate entry of competing products. In 2010, the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act created the framework for such an expedited pathway for so-called follow-on biologics, versions of originator biologic drugs made by different manufacturers,60 but has led to only 2 follow-on biologic approvals in the last 5 years.
Once generic access to the market has been achieved, the number of generic manufacturers for a particular small-molecule (nonbiologic) product depends on a variety of factors, including the availability of raw ingredients, mergers in the industry, and the relative attractiveness of a particular market. In the case of pyrimethamine, the small number of patients with toxoplasmosis in the United States did not attract other potential generic competitors, leaving Turing with a monopoly that it was able to exploit with a 50-fold price increase.
Notwithstanding high generic drug use rates, problems at the state level can diminish the capacity of generic drugs to help contain costs. Thirty states have drug product selection laws that allow but do not require pharmacists to perform generic substitution; in 26 states, pharmacists must secure patient consent before substituting a generic version of the same molecule.61 The latter obligation was estimated to have cost Medicaid $19.8 million in 2006 for simvastatin (Zocor) alone.62 In addition, all states allow physicians to issue dispense-as-written prescriptions that pharmacists cannot substitute with a generic product, further contributing to hundreds of millions of dollars in spending on branded drugs for which generic versions are available.63
Even well-intentioned government policies can inadvertently reduce generic competition. In attempting to require formal approval of drugs predating the modern new drug review process initiated in the 1960s, the FDA made it possible for some companies to assert market exclusivity and demand high prices for once-inexpensive old drugs, including colchicine, which underwent a 5000% price increase.64 Similarly, a government-mandated switch to chlorofluorocarbon-free inhalers for patients with asthma led to new, far costlier patented chlorofluorocarbon-free spray formulations, even though the constituent medications had been off patent for a long time.65,66
The Role of Public and Private Payers
During a drug’s market exclusivity period, the primary counterweight against excessive pricing is the negotiating power of the payer. Among public payers, Medicare covers approximately 40 million adults, most aged 65 years and older, for outpatient (Part D) and inpatient (Part B) drug costs.67 Medicaid, the federal- and state-funded health insurance program for low-income individuals, covers prescription drug costs for another 72 million Americans.68 Other public payers include the Veterans Health Administration, the Department of Defense health care system, state prison systems, and the federal employee health benefits program. In contrast, private payers provide insurance coverage to 177 million persons in the United States.69 This is often accomplished through 3 large pharmaceutical benefits management companies: Express Scripts, Caremark, and UnitedHealthcare.70 Approximately 29 million Americans have no public or private prescription drug coverage—a rate far higher than in nearly all other industrialized countries.71
Quiz Ref IDSeveral features of the US marketplace constrain the ability of public and private payers to negotiate lower drug prices. Medicare, for example, accounts for 29% of the nation’s prescription drug expenditure,72 but federal law prevents it from leveraging its considerable purchasing power to secure lower drug prices while requiring it to provide broad coverage, including all products in some therapeutic categories, such as oncology. Based in part on considerable lobbying and arguments that government negotiating power could decrease revenues for the pharmaceutical industry,73 Congress included a provision in the law that created the Medicare drug benefit program, prohibiting the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from negotiating drug prices or from interfering with negotiations between individual Part D vendors and drug companies.74 This made prescription drugs under Part D one of the few aspects of health care for which Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services does not negotiate or set prices.
Similarly, state Medicaid programs are generally required by law to cover all FDA-approved drugs, even if a particular medication has alternatives that are safer, are more effective, or offer greater economic value. However, Medicaid is also entitled to receive a rebate of at least 23.1% of the average manufacturer price for most branded medications and is protected from price increases exceeding inflation.75,76 In contrast, the Veterans Health Administration, which provides health care for veterans and their dependents,77 is entitled to a rebate of at least 24% of the average price and also has broad authority to exclude products from its formulary. As a result, particularly for drugs for which formulary alternatives are available, it achieves additional discounts below what the Medicare drug program and state Medicaid plans pay.78-81
Similar issues affect the private sector. In the 1990s, prescription benefit management companies became prominent intermediaries whose role would be to help employers or insurers promote appropriate prescription drug use and decrease its cost. There have been some recent isolated examples in which pharmacy benefit managers have done so for specific drugs (most prominently for drugs treating hepatitis C or the pro-protein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 inhibitors to reduce cholesterol levels).82 However, aggressive price negotiation is not the norm. This is not surprising because part of pharmacy benefit managers’ annual fees are based on a given payer’s spending on drugs. Although the details of such payments are rarely disclosed, when one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers became a publicly traded entity, it was obliged to disclose its business model, much of which depended on payments from drug makers for shifting market share to their products from others in its class.83
Even large, self-insured employers have avoided aggressive attempts to negotiate prices directly with drug suppliers or to curtail their formularies to avoid paying for prescriptions that are less cost-effective. A common reason for this reluctance is that because pharmacy benefits have traditionally comprised less than 15% of health care budgets, the organizational concern that could be caused by denying payment to an employee or retiree for a particular drug was seen as overwhelming the modest savings that could be realized. This may change as drug prices increase, particularly for widely used products, and as drug spending consumes a greater share of health budgets. As illustrated in Figure 2, the beginnings of such a trend appear present for retail spending on drugs (excluding hospital- or physician-administered products) for all major payers except the Veterans Health Administration.
Justifications for High Drug Prices
The pharmaceutical industry has maintained that high drug prices reflect the research and development costs a company incurred to develop the drug, are necessary to pay for future research costs to develop new drugs, or both. It is true that industry often makes expensive investments in drug development and commercialization, particularly through late-stage clinical trials, which can be costly.84 These assertions have been used to justify high prices on the grounds that if drug prices are constrained, the pipeline of new medications will be adversely affected. Some economic analyses favored by the pharmaceutical industry contend that it costs $2.6 billion to develop a new drug that makes it to market.85 However, the rigor of this widely cited number has been disputed.86,87
A number of factors weigh against these rationales for high drug prices. First, important innovation that leads to new drug products is often performed in academic institutions and supported by investment from public sources such as the National Institutes of Health. A recent analysis of the most transformative drugs of the last 25 years found that more than half of the 26 products or product classes identified had their origins in publicly funded research in such nonprofit centers.88 Other analyses have highlighted the importance of small companies, many funded by venture capital.89,90 These biotech startups frequently take early-stage drug development research that may have its origins in academic laboratories and continue it until the product and the company can be acquired by a large manufacturer, as occurred with sofosbuvir.
Arguments in defense of maintaining high drug prices to protect the strength of the drug industry misstate its vulnerability. The biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors have for years been among the very best-performing sectors in the US economy. The proportion of revenue of large pharmaceutical companies that is invested in research and development is just 10% to 20% (Table 4); if only innovative product development is considered, that proportion is considerably lower.91 The contention that high prescription drug spending in the United States is required to spur domestic innovation has not been borne out in several analyses.92 A more relevant policy opportunity would be to address the stringency of congressional funding for the National Institutes of Health, such that its budget has barely kept up with inflation for most of the last decade. Given the evidence of the central role played by publicly funded research in generating discoveries that lead to new therapeutic approaches, this is one obvious area of potential intervention to address concerns about threats to innovation in drug discovery.
Thus, there is little evidence of an association between research and development costs and drug prices93; rather, prescription drugs are priced in the United States primarily on the basis of what the market will bear. This explanation also helps to account for several high-profile case studies, including high-priced new branded products94 and exorbitantly priced generic drugs described above.95 In preparation for recent hearings on this topic, the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoenaed internal correspondence from Turing and Valeant Pharmaceuticals, which had sharply increased the prices of older drugs the companies had acquired. The investigation revealed, for example, that Turing received “no pushback from payors” when it increased “Chenodal price 5x... [Thiola] price 21x... [and Daraprim] price 43x.”96 Similarly, Gilead spent $11 billion to purchase sofosbuvir from Pharmasset, a small biotechnology firm that developed the drug, based in part on federally funded research led by an investigator at Emory University.97 Gilead recouped almost all of this cost in the first year that sofosbuvir was on the market, recording sales of $10.3 billion in 2014.98 In December 2015, the US Senate Committee on Finance released a detailed report based on its access to internal company documents on Gilead’s strategies to maximize the prices it could charge for both that drug and its planned successor, which the company also owned.99 In the current system for drug payment in the United States, few options exist to counter this approach.
Companies should of course be rewarded fairly for the research innovations they make that help generate new drug products and for their costly trial work that facilitates the assessment and availability of new medications. But providing them with large incentives to do the opposite is counterproductive.
Clinical Consequences of High Drug Prices
Quiz Ref IDThe high cost of prescription drugs in the United States has clinical as well as economic consequences.100,101 Even though more Americans have drug coverage as a result of the Medicare drug benefit plan and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, cost-containment strategies in recent years have shifted an increasing share of drug expenses to patients.102 Private insurers have increased deductibles103 and most co-payments, and added a new payment tier for certain specialty drugs in which patients must pay coinsurance—often between 20% and 33% of the total drug price—rather than a simple co-payment.104 Although such cost-shifting measures have helped “bend the cost curve” for employers and payers, they can reduce use of effective medications.105,106 Almost a quarter of 648 respondents to a 2015 poll reported that they or another family member did not fill a prescription in the last year because of cost.107 In other studies, patients who were prescribed a costly branded product rather than a more affordable generic alternative were found to adhere to their regimen less well than those receiving a similar generic drug12 and to have worse health outcomes.108 Nonadherence due to all causes has been estimated to contribute to $105 billion in avoidable health care costs annually.109
In some cases, manufacturers have attempted to circumvent higher co-payments by providing patients with coupons that reimburse their out-of-pocket expenses.110 Coupons can be useful for patients with no other option, but they leave the insurer obliged to pay the much larger amount of each prescription’s costs, thereby increasing health care spending. This approach has become common for branded drugs that have comparable but much less expensive alternatives.111
Faced with fixed health care budgets, states with higher drug costs for their Medicaid programs have had to reduce other services or increase health care eligibility requirements.112 Several state Medicaid programs, for example, have imposed nonevidence-based policies to restrict sofosbuvir, including denying coverage to users of alcohol or other drugs.113,114
Possible Solutions
Various approaches have been proposed to mitigate the effects of increasing drug prices in the United States while still providing an adequate return on investment and maintaining incentives for meaningful innovation by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies (Box).115,116 These approaches include improving the competitiveness of the marketplace, enhancing government involvement in negotiating pharmaceutical prices, and providing more guidance for physicians and consumers in making medication use decisions.
Box Section Ref ID
Box. Possible Strategies to Limit the Effects of High Drug Prices Federal Patenting: Limit secondary patents for trivial changes of a patented molecule (eg, heightening patenting standards to require showing enhanced safety or effectiveness over previously patented version of the molecule)
Anticompetitive strategies: Aggressively police anticompetitive business practices (eg, pay for delay, product hopping)
Price negotiation: Enable Medicare to negotiate drug prices for individual Part D plans and to exclude coverage for expensive products that |
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